ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN LIMA NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 1994 CONVERTING TI DISKS SO THEY RUN ON A PC WITH ED SWARTZ'S "TI EMULATOR!" SOFTWARE by Charles Good Lima Ohio User Group You need an IBM compatible 286 or higher PC computer with a cable running from a COM port of the PC to the RS232 port of a 99/4A. Such cables can be custom made by L.L. Conner Enterprise. On the 99/4A you will run the transfer software you get in the mail after sending in your registration fee for the TI Emulator! On the PC you will need the Windows "Terminal" accessory program that comes bundled with Windows. On the PC: Launch Windows. Open the "Accessories" window. Double click on the "Terminal" icon to start the terminal program. Move the pointer to "Settings" at the top of the screen and click to pull down a menu. Click on "Communications" from the "Settings" menu. From the "Communications" window select COM1 or COM2 (whichever com port your TI-to-PC cable is connected to) and Baud 1200. You can use Baud 9600, but I sometimes get errors at this speed. Click on Data bits 7, Parity None, and then click on OK. Move the pointer to "Transfers" at the top of the screen and click to pull down the "Transfers" menu. Click on "Receive Text File" Select a file name and directory. I use c:-windows-bootlog.txt for my file name and directory. Click on OK. Answer YES to the "Do you want to replace existing file?" prompt. On the 99/4A: Insert the EA module and the transfer software disk in DSK1. Put the disk of software you want to transfer to the PC in DSK2. Start the 99/4A, select 2- editor/assembler, and 5- Run Program File. Use DSK1.TRANSA0 as the file name. The destination name is RS232.PA=N.BA=1200 The source drive is 2. Press to transfer all the files on the disk and watch the data scroll across the PC screen. At 1200 baud, an almost full DSSD TI disk takes about 20 minutes to transfer. On the PC: When new data ceases appearing on the PC screen and when the TI screen indicates transfer is completed click on STOP at bottom left of PC screen. Close Terminal window. Exit Windows. CD to the directory where your TI Emulator! files reside. I use c:-994A as my directory name. Run ASC2BIN using the format ASC2BIN (destination subdirectory) (source file). For example, type "ASC2BIN c:-99/4A-games1 c:-windows-bootlog.txt" and press to convert all the files on the disk you just transfered temporarily to bootlog.txt into a group of files in the subdirectory "games1". These files can new be run usin TI Emulator! just as if they were TI files on a TI disk being run with a 99/4A. TWO SPECIAL OFFERS TO MEMBERS OF THE LIMA USER GROUP ONE: Send me a 3.5 inch high density disk and a paid return mailer. I will return your disk with the sharware version of TI EMULATOR! v5.1 installed in such a way that you can run the whole thing directly off the disk without having to install it on your IBM compatible computer's hard drive. TWO: If you have paid your sharware donation for Ed Swartz's TI EMULATOR!, I will do the conversion process described above for you. I can convert any TI disk, including disks of module gram files into TI EMULATOR! format. Send me your TI disks and a paid return mailer and I will return your software on the same disks in 360K IBM compatible TI EMULATOR! format. Please note that not all TI software and particularly not all TI modules will work with TI EMULATOR! I can convert the software to TI EMULATOR! format, but this doesn't guarantee that the converted software will actually work on your PC. To prove that you paid your sharware donation, put the TI-to-PC conversion program TRANSA0 on one of the TI disks. Ed sends you this program after you send him your shareware money. Only registered TI EMULATOR! users are supposed to have TRANSA0. Send your disks and paid return mailer to Charles Good at P.O. Box 647, Venedocia OH 45894. .PL 1