.IF DSK1.C3 .CE 2 *IMPACT/99* by Jack Sughrue GOOD OLD DAYS PART II: MIDDLE AGES .IF DSK1.C2  Last time we IMPACTed I took you on a personal tour of my early experiences with the 4/A, which were more typical than not. After I had amassed my 100-plus programs on tape (mostly typed in from "99er" Magazine and some early books), I, like so many others, wanted to expand my computer "mastery." My TI appetite was voracious. I bought every TI book available, which, in 1983, was a considerable number. These included such masterpieces as Loreto's THE TI-99/4A IN BITS && BITES, Datamost's ELEMENTARY TI-99/4A, Addison-Wesley's TERRIFIC GAMES FOR THE TI99/4A, Que's TI-99/4A FAVORITE PROGRAMS EXPLAINED, Davis's PROGRAMS FOR THE TI HOME COMPUTER, and the books being published by SAMS and COMPUTE! Of the latter, PROGRAMMER'S REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE TI-99/4A was always at my side. This was written by Regina (Cheryl Whitelaw) who wrote the best programs "99er" magazine published: HOMEWORK HELPER, NAME THAT BONE, TYPING FOR ACCURACY, CIVIL ENGINEERING FUNDAMENTALS, HARRIED HOUSEWIFE, DODGE 'EM, MAZE RACE, SAN FRANCISCO TOURIST and so many others. These were already classics. What astounded most of us Regena groupies was the depth of her knowledge. She seemed to know an incredible amount about computers, obviously (and a lot of different KINDS of computers), but she also knew so much about music and children and electrical engineering and geography and art and just about any topic a staff of college professors would know. That was in 1983. Regena was already in her third year of TI publishing when she moved to COMPUTE! under some mysterious circumstances. So I began a COMPUTE! subscription to continue getting her monthly column. I got lots more out of that magazine, too. Tutorials of all kinds. Programs galore. It was TI's Cloud Nine. In that same year, Regena began writing for ENTHUSIAST 99, too. Boy, what a year! Mark Leyton began his wonderful UNOFFICIAL 99/4[A] magazine. K-POWER and FAMILY COMPUTING (early supporters of the 4A) had also made their debut. I subscribed to them all: 6 TI magazines a month (7 if one includes the non-monthly SMART PROGRAMMER)! [SUPER 99 MONTHLY and MINIMAG 99 wouldn't be out for another year.] I find it hard to believe in 1988 that the final 4A classic book - - THE LAST WHOLE TI99/4A BOOK by Paul Garrison - was published within a year of this creative time. Published by Wiley Press in 1984, this still stands as one of the best books ever written for 4A owners. [Do not confuse it with Linda and Allen Schreiber's THE LAST WORD ON THE TI-99/4A, also published in 1984, which is one of the worst books in my TI library. It's even harder to believe that the magazines mentioned above no longer exist (or no longer carry any TI stuff). As magazines like COMPUTE! and FAMILY COMPUTING dropped TI (which still had the largest home computer ownership of all; more than the Apple, Commodore, and IBM Jr. combined) many of us wrote letters of protest. After all, we were still buying disks and drives and monitors and printers and lots of other advertised things. No good. Even though the ADAM and the PEANUT (Do you remember?) were still curried. I dropped all magazines that dropped the 4A. The only ones left are MICROpendium, the last monthly devoted solely to the TI, which began its life in February of 1984. In that issue (originally called HOME COMPUTER COMPENDIUM) Editor/Publisher John Koloen said this of his new magazine, "It is a conduit, a source of information and a vehicle for the dissemination of information." It has certainly lived up to those criteria. I would find it difficult to be a 4A owner without MICROpendium and user groups. The only other magazines still supporting our community with a very informative monthly column is COMPUTER SHOPPER and a new one I just received this morning called TId BITS and looks pretty good. But it's sad to look through that first COMPENDIUM. All the advertisers except one are gone: Gadget Software (Megaworld), TJ Software (Kandy Kong), THinc (Colors), C.A.Root (On Gaming), Maple Leaf (Sky Diver), Silicon Valley Software (S.A.T. Verbal Section), Machine Shoppe Software (Cassette Indexer), Larry Vision (Quackers), Programs Software (Personal Enrichment), Microworld (Snac Man), Soft Relations (Super Speller), DCH Software (Home Budget), CALLCAR (Emotional Health), Software Programs (Starship Concord), TI Books and Software. The one advertiser in that issue who is still with us is TIGERCUB SOFTWARE, owned and operated as a completly one-man venture by Jim Peterson (Mr.^T.I.). And that brings me back to 1983 (before the orphaning) when we were still high on TI and user-group business was booming. For all the other things that were going on for us (and they were numerous: every big department store and book store and software store carried 4A items on their front shelves, for example) - for all those other things, the year will still be known to me as the year of the TIGERCUB. User-group newsletters articles, for the most part, were not as sophisticated as they are today. The big exception was the "TIPS from the TIGERCUB" monthly columns by Jim. Nobody did what he did. His articles (many old ones as well as new ones are still being published worldwide today) initiated me into the grown-up world of the TI. One was either a techie or a dummy, it seemed. But Jim made us all feel intelligent. He pulled us up. He treated us with dignity. His explanations and his "experiments" and his enthusiasm came out in every article. He always stayed far enough ahead of us to challenge us completely, yet he never talked down to us slow learners. From his very first article: "Are you tired of that blankety blinking black cursor? This won't work in BASIC but if you're in XB try 1 CALL COLOR(0,ll,1)." I did it. Then I tried it in BASIC (just in case mine worked, which it didn't). Then I fiddled with the numbers until I finally understood what happened. This is the way Jim taught, for teaching is what he certainly did (and does). His classroom, though, included thousands and thousands of pupils. He taught me to use Line # and FCTN/X [or E] instead of EDIT and how to use REDO for expanding program lines and how to slash my zero and how to highlight operators. He let me in on lots of secrets: You can type RUN"DSK1.FILE" without any spaces and it'll work; that typing the double colons in XB lines without spaces before or after won't matter, either. Do these sound mundane? Not if you didn't know any of that stuff, and none of us did. His teachings were so natural, so filled with personal experience, that you couldn't wait to try the thing Jim had just found out. Here's another from that first TIPS: "Have you ever been typing in a program, and the computer suddenly jumped back to the title screen, and you were sure that you didn't have a finger anywhere near that infernal QUIT key? But maybe you were drinking coffee with one hand and trying to press FCTN and 1 simultaneously with the other? So, if you don't have anything valuable in the computer right now, try pressing FCTN, Space Bar, H and N all at the same time. Oops! Another useless bit of info - try FCTN, 5, 6 and 7 all together. Break!" My vision of him was a young kid (maybe as old as a college student) doing improvisational computing, the way Art Tatum played the piano; somebody with great knowledge and understanding exploring human/machine potential. I didn't find out until a very long time after that Jim is a grandfather and that he bought the 4A because helikedthe keyboard! It didn't matter. Genius is genius no matter what age. He used to close off those early columns with Happy Hackin' until hackers got a bad reputation by a few pirates and vandals, then he closed it with Memory Almost Full. Too bad, in a way. I think of Jim as the Ultimte Hacker, in the real, "discovery" sense of that word. I don't know anyone who knows more about BASIC (and XB) than Jim. Way back in 1983 he did a lot more than give us little "useless" tips. Most of the tips are the most "useful" things I ever learned for any computer. (There is no Jim Peterson for Apple, Commodore, Tandy, or IBM.) Each article contained at least one original type-in program. While other programmers and writers were making bundles selling their stuff to commercial magazines and software houses, Jim GAVE his monthly column away in exchange for the user-group newsletters. (He probably has the largest library of TI written material in existence.) Whenever any item in his column, large or small, came from any other source, Jim always credited the originator. His generosity is known throughout the entire TI World. His programs for which he charged $3 apiece (along with a discount for future purchases) was during a time when programmers were charging $20 and $30 for programs nowhere nearly as professional. Jim never sold hoopla. He just sold quality. Now his programs are $2 or much less in disked batches. The first batch of four programs I ordered came back with seven programs in the package. Jim always puts "a little extra" in each order. He still does. He has over 3000 Public Domain (not Fairware) programs which he shares by putting them as bonuses on any disk orders. These programs, too, are well done and credited and worth owning. I was surprised by the bonus, as no clue was given by him that I was going to get more than my money's worth. There was not a single program that I ever got from Tigercub (and that is many) that did not exceed my expectations. Many I ordered for my 5th-grade class and are still popular (like BAZOO and MECHANICAL APTITUDE TEST). It would be hard for me to pick a favorite because there are so many varieties of programs: educational, music, utilities, games, and so on. About three hours ago I saved this textfile and loaded up some of Jim's disks. I played the fiendish SQUINCH and the diabolical SCRUM and went through his HANDY DANDYS and SPEEDER READER and - and I noticed it somehow got to be 2:10 AM. I have to go teach tomorrow and Jim Peterson, the fiend, did it to me again! Next day! When I reread the above, I got to thinking about all the other TIGERCUB programs I didn't mention. The most important, for me, are the three "NUTS && BOLTS" disks containing over 300 files. When these started coming out a few years ago, it was a "TIPS" maniac's delight. Here was a discovery collection that every TI learner dreams of. These files can be merged into any XB program (including a file that converts BASIC to XB) to produce remarkable results. Because of incremental line numeration, multiple subs can be called into single programs. They are efficient, neat, incredibly easy, and remarkably creative. And lots more. Send Jim $1 for catalog (worth every penny; refundable with first order): TIGERCUB Software, 156 Collingwood Ave., Columbus, OH, 43213. [This is the 2nd of 3 articles in which the author travels down 4A's Memory Lane.] [Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas MA 01516] If any newsletter editors print these textfiles, please put me on your mailing list. Thanks. JS Հ