.IF DSK1.C3 .CE 2 *IMPACT/99* by Jack Sughrue ^^^^^LAZARUS! .IF DSK1.C2  Some things are fun to live through, though the going may be tough at the time. Like being a TI-99/4A owner. Looking back on my home-computer career, I wonder what I ever did before I had my trustee orphan. What did I do? In 1981 I bought my machine for $475 over the strong objections of everyone I knew; mostly my wife. That was (IS!) a lot of money. LESS than half my monthly take-home pay as a teacher, granted. But still a lot of money. I got the thing home. I carefully - I meancarefully- unpacked it. I actually read the manual BEFORE I plugged the plugs in and turned it on. When the TI screen came up it gave me the same sensation I had when the test pattern came up on our first TV (giant 7-inch screen) just beforeKukla, Fran and Olliecame on in 1950. a watched the TI screen for a long time. Memorized it. And pressed ENTER. That was the start of my new world. A digression: TI had loaned me a 994 for my class for almost a year two years before prior to marketing it. Mostly flashcard stuff. No manual But this was two years later (a thousand dollars less; a greater machine) and it was IN MY HOME! I bought it primarily as a word processor (andthathas remained primary to this day). Though I had to get used to the finger-scrunching keyboard and the weird way to type quotes and similar things, it was such an improvement over the 4 (with the chiclet keys, all upper case, etc.) that I didn't mind. Anyway, I had pressed ENTER and got the PRESS 1 FOR TI BASIC. (The 4 also offered a calculator mode which was really good. I wish the 4A had kept that.) Voila! TI BASIC READY, shouted the screen, and gave me a blinking cursor. I typed, PRINT "THIS IS A MESSAGE" just as the manual suggested. And pressed ENTER. Well, I don't have to tell you what happened next. The world became forever altered. Without my even seeing it happen the words THIS IS A MESSAGE appeared just below PRINT "THIS IS A MESSAGE". I was in control! (At the time all four of my kids were teenagers, so you can imagine the emotional climate here, too.) I was in control. And still am. But that night when I was still playing (that is the ONLY appropriate word) with my TI - that night while the rest of America slept - that night I typed (not created) a program that played music and changed the colors on the screen (though they were only varieties of grey on my black and white TV) and created (not just typed) a program that wrote my wife's name and mine intertwined through all eternity: ELAINEJACKELAINEJACKELAINEJACKELAINEJA CK I wanted to wake up the household to show them what I did. (Wisely, I did not. Having the computer in the houseat allwas precarious, particularly as I felt it was taking food from the mouths my starving children.) I wanted to say, "Okay, for all you disbelievers, all you non-imaginative types who keep saying WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH IT?, now you know the answer: I can intertwine ELAINE and JACK so that it races up the screen forever. Or at least until I BREAK or QUIT!" Somehow, though, I didn't think this would shut these Doubting Thomases up. They probably wanted more for my $600 [counting tape recorder, tapes, TV, etc.]. They probably wanted more. By the time TI bit the dust through the most incredible series of executive stupidities, I had also purchased a TI for my kids (at $300). I bought another within a month for $100 for my classroom. And another a few months later for $49.95 for a backup for any of the above. (I haven't had to use my backup yet. It is still in the box. I picked up another one a year ago [new?] for $39, which I also use in my classroom.) I am typing this article on the original machine which has been used a minimum of 40 hours a week for six years, was lugged back and forth to school, to workshops at our local library, to our user group. I took it all apart and cleaned it twice (thanks to the tutoring of cleaning whiz Bruce Willard of M.U.N.C.H.), surprised that it worked when I put it back together. I first used tape word processors in BASIC. Then I bought Extended BASIC (I almost forget what life was like before XB. Got an excellent WP from Extended Software and finally added MINIMEM (which had a super one). Still in tape. I added the standalone 32K (so I could also support LOGO for school). I still have tape recorders connected at home and school and use them for certain things. [I bought KIDWARE's tape of the classic "Lemonade Stand" last year: far superior to the Apple version.] Then I got my expansion box, 32K card, SSSD disk drive, printer, speech synthesizer, color monitor. Much later another SSSD drive. And eventually, piece by piece, my present system of Myarc Controller and 512, 2 DSDD, etc. And another complete used system to go with my Geneve without losing my TI. But that's another story. What started this nostalgic blast was a cleaning of my computer room. (Yes, an entire spare room! Two of my four children have moved to their own homes.) I have all the99ermagazines from the first. As I looked through these early issues and continued on through the orphaning (read Ron Albright'sORPHAN CHRONICLESfor the full and wonderfully-told story), I was shocked at how unsophisticated our computer was compared to the other computers and software written about inCOMPUTE!, BYTE,etc. at the same time. Lesser machines, like Apple, Commodore, IBM. TI had kept such lock-tight control over the architecture and software development that we were still in primary school when the others were on their way into college. After the ophanage it all changed. The hackers and the geniuses and the game-makers and the practical people all started creating and exploring. And building and selling and sharing. And writing and thinking. The TI started growing toward its potential. Dreams TI never dreamed were realized. A perfect example is the international evolution of the T.I. WRITER created in America. The sophistication of FUNNELWEB (created in Australia by Tony and Will McGovern and housing the incredible DM1000 created by Bruce Caron and members of the Ottawa, Canada, user group) could not have been imagined by the original TIW designers. Last night I used my TIW cartridge just to see if it worked. All the things I have taken for granted since I got FUNNELWEB were gone. No environment. No speed in word wrap. I actually lost whole words. No proper reformation. No automatic mailbox plants. No... - but you know all that FUNNELWEB does. T.I.W. had no nothing, it seemed. I felt solimitedI finally had to take the cartridge out and update myself. I wrote some certificates in Gothic type, made a couple of banners, drew a dinosaur and printed it out, made up a pile of new labels with graphics and borders, played some music pieces Jim Peterson had sent, typed up a few letters. Added to a P.G.Wodehouse data base I made. Added a new template to an environmental companion I created calledPLUS! And finished the evening with my son Matt playing a pre-publication version of an exceptional graphic adventure I was beta-testing calledLEGENDS. This was all in one five-hour session. We (the remarkable, world-wide TI community) now have over 700 companies (most Mom and Pop and/or Junior) making stuff for our machine. Software galore and software wonderful. Lots of it free (Public Domain) or ridiculously low (Fairware), but lots of commercial things, too. There's even an IBM clone that uses (if you can believe it!) the TI keyboard. Then there are IBM-style keyboards for our console. And even an entirely new and wonderfully upgraded computer that is a card and uses a new keyboard without the console. There is software that lets you make voice music, software that takes thousands of photographic quality pictures off satellites in space and drop them onto your printer in your home. There are greater and greater games. Better and better filing systems (Creative Filing System by Mark Beck being one). Graphics programs that really DO go one step beyond: GRAPHX, TI ARTIST, CSGDIII, PRINTIT, PRINTER'S APPRENTICE, FONTWRITER, and, from what I hear, the completed PICASSO. And hard drives and megamemories and RAMdisks. Not a week goes by when I don't learn something new about my computer. Not a week goes by without something new coming out FOR my computer. Not a week goes by when I do not receive at least a dozen letters (I am a compulsive letter writer.) about the TI. I, for one, have made some good friends through the mail. (I don't have a modem. Two of my kids are still at home, so I don't have access to a phone and probably won't until they are all out of college.) But my investment in money, enthusiasm, energy, and time have been rewarded many times over. I have moved with my TI into this brave new world. I still see a real future for our machine. It still operates (only now with much more stuff). Even if everybody suddenly stopped producing new TI things, we still have a very exciting machine with enough software and hardware to satisfy even the most jaded for a long time to come. But that won't happen. A lot of people love this machine. All is not roses, however. We're still losing people, still losing good people to those lesser machines. Try as we might, we will probably still lose them. And we have infighting. Hell, siblings fight. And some animosities and politicking goes on. We ARE human, after all. But we have more dedicated, sharing, enthusiastic, intelligent people than any other computer that I know of. And we have more fun. At lots less expense. Aren't you glad you're a 99er? [Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas MA 01516] If any newsletter editor prints these IMPACT/99 articles, please put me on your mailing list. Thanks - JS Հ