was there or is there a "multicart" for the TI 99 4A?

[Tupin]

Wow, that's pretty weird looking. Do the insides rattle around? I couldn't really think of any more simple way to select games, hooking up several switches/buttons would take a lot more time than a wheel.

Didn't the TI-99/4a have one of those things where you could plug in multiple carts at once? I guess this person decided to go all MacGyver to save a couple bucks.

[scooterb23]

That thing is, at the same time, fascinating...and horrifying.

Why do I want it so badly?

[Wookie]

Wow, that's pretty weird looking. Do the insides rattle around? I couldn't really think of any more simple way to select games, hooking up several switches/buttons would take a lot more time than a wheel.

Didn't the TI-99/4a have one of those things where you could plug in multiple carts at once? I guess this person decided to go all MacGyver to save a couple bucks.

I can't open it, but by peeking inside I can see the circuit board just has 5 chips on it plus the wheel. One chip per game, I'd assume. Seems to be solidly made, no rattles. Just ugly as sin.

What I find weirdest about this, is the person who built it must have already owned all 5 games, otherwise where did he get the labels to cut up? So he spent a few hours with a soldering gun, scissors, and glue just to avoid swapping carts.

[Steve W]

Well, the TI's cartridge port wasn't all that great, it had the tendency to wear out after a while. Which really sucked when you're trying to write a program and the machine would freeze because the Extended BASIC cart moved a nanometer.

[Reef-Hunter]

Well, a couple things... The Interface on the TI is only an 8 bit bus--- and it isbobly 16k of RAM, most of which is VDP RAM... It's functionality can and has been pushed--- anything you can achieve on disk you can achieve on a cart as far as graphics--- given you have the ROM space to do it... There has been a multicart made---recently. 128 games or something like that. Jon Guidry built it.. You can find it on YouTube. Jon and Tursi are brilliant guys. Check it out man!

[Reef-Hunter]

That Franken-cart is pretty awesome. =) I like it lots. I just bought a wicked multi-cart from Jon Guidry. Here's the link to the youtube movie of his demonstration. He built 5, sold 3, and is keeping the other two. I doubt we'll ever see more of these made like this. shame.... but still, glad I was able to buy one. =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7kArHD0efA

Owen
**Opry99er.com**

[Eric Bray]

Is there anything worth playing on the TI994A?

Over the years since the birth of the TI 99/4A computer, dedicated and talented programmers have produced a dazzling array of games software for it for the enjoyment of all TI'ers.

http://tigameshelf.net/

TI99/4A Computer along with its Emulators & Simulators*

*Classic99, M.E.S.S., PC99, and Win994a

[Eric Bray]

Really? Your favorite???
What am i missing here?

Its not terrible but i don't think its great...

Read my blog:

http://drbray.blogspot.com/

Now with a PC and an emulator/simulator program you can see how 'great' a computer it was in 1979 when it first came out.

[Eric Bray]

Well, the TI's cartridge port wasn't all that great, it had the tendency to wear out after a while. Which really sucked when you're trying to write a program and the machine would freeze because the Extended BASIC cart moved a nanometer.

You can avoid all of that now with one of the many excellent emulators/simulators now available to run on the PC.

Win99/4A, an EXCELLENT simulator of the TI 99/4A with full speech capabilities, sound capabilities, and very good module compatibility that runs on PCs running "Windows".

The file is located and can be downloaded.

http://www.99er.net/

[Eric Bray]

Reviving this slightly moldy topic, I picked this up for $1 at a garage sale over the weekend:

Obviously homemade, since the labels were cut from authentic carts and are starting to peel. Rotate the thumbwheel to select desired game. There's no onscreen menu for selecting. Guy I bought it from didn't know where it came from, as he'd gotten it at a thrift store years earlier (the 99 cent price tag is still on it).

Merely a curiosity, but I like these weird homebrews.

Another method of having a "Multi-Cart" was with a Super Cartridge:

Basicly a Super Cart is any cartridge that has 32K of Dynamic Ram that can be addressed through the >6000 [hexidecimal] memory location;
The Super Cart cartridge has a battery inside it to keep whatever code that has been put at the >6000 [hexidecimal] memory location there once the TI99/4A has been turned off.

Commercial Super Cartridge:

Super Space II - E/A GROM & 32K of memory with battery backup

Various "homemade" Super Cartridges:

- usually completed as user group projects and contained - E/A GROM & 32K of memory with battery backup

The TI99/4A user can then load any number of programs into the 32K of RAM and access the program from a menu screen when the computer is in start-up mode.
_____________________________________________

The German TI9/4A users went as far as to put an EPROM in a cartridge instead of RAM & battery that had several programs loaded on it and named the cartridge "Multi-Modal"