ftp.whtech.com/ftp.whtech.com.tar/ftp.whtech.com/articles/Sughrue/nostalga.txt

Text File | 2006-10-19 | 11KB | 328 lines

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     *IMPACT/99*
     by Jack Sughrue

 ^^^^^LAZARUS!
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 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 mean
carefully-
 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 before
Kukla, 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 (and
thathas 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 the
99ermagazines
 from the first.  As I looked through
 these early issues and continued on
 through the orphaning (read Ron
 Albright's
ORPHAN 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 in
COMPUTE!, 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 so
limitedI 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
 called
PLUS! And finished the
 evening with my son Matt playing a
 pre-publication version of an
 exceptional graphic adventure I was
 beta-testing called
LEGENDS. 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
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