Starting the New Year with a New-to-me Retro Computer

 Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you've all had some time off and some rest.  I was able to get alot of small projects done during the break, and I've tried to "clear the decks" a bit to start 2023 on a good footing.

One of the opportunities that came my way in December was finding a couple of people who were purging TI 99 4/A Computers.  I also have not had alot of interest in these machines until I started watching a YouTube Channel called Usagi Electric.  The TI-99 scratches a couple of itches for me.  One of them is my interest in engineering / business failures, or the "Might have beens" of technology development, and the others is my interest in Mini Computers.  I didn't realize it until Usagi mentioned the history that the TI Microprocessor used in this machine was based on their minicomputer architecture.  The rise and fall of TI and their battles with Commodore are one of the more interesting chapters in the early history of the home computer.

Anyway, I was able to get a couple of bundles of unwanted TI-99/4As, four machines in total.  One was working and three were not.  Having a working machine is always a big help and I started watching videos and swapping parts.  Noel's Retro Lab and Adrian's Digital Basement both have helpful series on this machine, although I must confess that I haven't done any board-level troubleshooting yet. I was able to get three of the four systems working and the fourth one has so many things wrong with it that I'm not sure it will be worth repair, I may just keep this as a parts machine for the others.

One of the running machines has an Alps keyboard, so even though it's not the most pristine of the cases I am a bit of keyboard snob and so likely this one will become my favorite TI-99 4A...

I've paired it with a small RCA color TV, model XL100 from 1987.  The image isn't great, perhaps because the tube in this TV is getting tired or because the image is going through an RF modulator.  One of my next steps for this machine is to built a Composite video cable for it so I can use it with a more modern display, I have the parts on order for that from Digikey.  Thanks to Adrian I now know that it's the same cable as the one for a C64 or Vic-20, so I will build a couple of these.

Leave a comment or send me an email if you have any interesting memories of the TI-99/4A!