Review by Gary W. Cox
November 12, 1994
This year's Chicago TI Faire fair was not quite like the previous faires as attendance was not as heavy and very little new products were presented. However, many of the vendors at the fair had a variety of used equipment at bargain basement prices and at least a few new products were presented...
One interesting item which caught my eye was the improvements in PC99 (a program which emulates the TI99/4a on a PC compatible) which among the improvements was PC99's speed! One example shown at the fair was the TI "Demonstration Module" running on a 486 50hmz at speeds faster than what the TI99/4a can produce. PC99 also has an improvement to sound emulation for those who have Sound Blaster cards in their PC's where PC99 will now emulate the three voices of the TI Sound chip. PC99 can also now make use the the "Review Module Library" feature built into a TI99/4a where up to 16 modules can be online ready for use. Also added was compatibility with Plato disks which can now be used and run as well as the addition of TI P-CODE card emulation. PC99 also now emulates the TI RS232 where programs which use the TI RS232 can now operate through PC99. Finally a very neat debugger program has been added where the TI screen is shown in a small window on the PC display where access to all the debugging and editing features are available and updates are applied immediately to the running application. While this particular version of PC99 was not ready for release Mike Wright of Cadd Electronics said the release of this version will be coming soon as some more debugging has yet to be preformed.
Mike Wright - PC99 Demo
New from Tim Tesch (S&T Software) and available from Cecure Electronics is CYA which is a MDOS configuration program which allows the user to customize their MDOS operating system without resorting to a sector editor.
As for the SCSI controller project, a beta version of the DSR software for the Geneve has been distributed by Mike Maksimik to those on the beta test team with an official release hoped for real soon. In talking to Mike he stated that the object of the first official release of the SCSI DSR is to simply to get a SCSI hard drive to function followed by the addition of a DSR for a SCSI CD ROM, a SCSI Tape Backup and to eventually go with all SCSI devices in the system. David Nieters and Brad Snyder are continuing the work on the DSR for the TI99/4a.
Mike Maksimik's Geneve in a PC box!
New from Beery Miller of 9640 News was MDOS version 2.20 which fixes some minor bugs such as RS232 problems and now adds support for "odball" keyboards as well as support for PFM devices. Beery was also pushing his involvement on Genie (an online service) with the TI Round Table!
Elsewhere Bud Mills of Bud Mills Services had his usual variety of Ramdisks, PGRAM cards and other products which were available in both in kit form and fully assembled form. Bud also had a variety of used TI equipment available.
Don Walden of Cecure Electronics was also present at the fair stating that Cecure Electronics has a variety of new projects in the works for the TI99/4a and Geneve. Among Cecure's recent service additions is that they are now the only Texas Instruments authorized repair center for TI99/4a and CC40 equipment (they are also the authorized Myarc repair center). Some of the special projects which are in the works is the possibility of remanufacturing (producing new) Myarc floppy and hard drive controller cards. Don stated though that the major problem in such a project is locating the chips needed to make the cards... Furthermore, another project in the works is the possibility of manufacturing HEXBUS based equipment for the TI99/4a as Texas Instruments had intended to do a long time ago.
Dave Nieters of Western Horizon Technologies demonstrated the installation of the AT-Keyboard and ROM upgrade kit whereby a standard AT keyboard can be used with the TI plus not only can you use the AT keyboard but the TI keyboard also remains active at the same time. Other products available from Western Horizon Technologies include the Horizon Mouse, Turbo video for the Geneve, DIgi-Port, monitors, PC based equipment as well as repair services...
Elsewhere Larry Conner of L.L Conner had his usual assortment of hard to find hardware, software and parts. Ted Kieper of Competition Computer had quite an extensive array of equipment and software for sale not to mention a hard to find TI99/4 (not 4a) which I purchased myself. Ricky Bottoms of RBD Enterprizes had quite an assortment of hardware and software for sale. Rob Markus of Ramcharged Computers had his usual array of hardware and software available including some hard to find software. Others having a variety of software and equipment include Programm Innovators, The Chicago TI Users Group, Hoosier Users Group, Milwaukee Users Group, Mid-South (Memphis) TI Users Group, Will County Users Group, Computers & Crafts (Kevin Keller) and Aaron Busch
from St. Louis...
One very interesting item which caught my eye was from Berry Harmsen of the Dutch TI Users Group who brought over an interesting 80 column card made my Michael Becker in Germany. The 80 column card which is called the EVPC (Enhanced Video Processor Card) incorporated not only a video port but a mouse port as well. In looking at the card it looked very well built and of extremely good quality!
This years John Birdwell's Award for outstanding commitment to the TI community was given to Tim Tesch for his outstanding involvement in the in supporting the TI community! Congratulations are in order for Tim!
Finally Charles Good of the Lima Ohio TI Users Group (P.O. Box 647, Venedocia, OH 45894) was present promoting their next Multi User Group conference to be held April 28th and 29th 1994 in Lima Ohio.
I hope that I have not left anyone out as if so please let me know but hopefully this is a good summary of the events of the Chicago TI Faire. I am sure more details of the products presented at the fair will be forthcoming in future issues of Micropendium. O yea, did I mention John Koloen of Micropendium was also there? John was the one wearing the sweat shirt which said "Eat right, Exercise, Die Anyway".
VENDOR LIST:
9640 News, c/o Beery Miller, P.O. Box 752465, Memphis, TN 38175-2465, (901) 368-1169, BBS (901) 368-0112
Aaron Busch, 3629 Boswell Ave., St. Louis, MO 63114
Bud Mills Services, 166 Dartmouth Dr., Toledo OH 43614, (419) 385-5946, BBS: (419) 385-7484
CaDD Electronics, Mark Van Coppenolle, 81 Prescott Road, Raymond, NH 03077 (603) 895-0119
Cecure Electronics Inc. c/o Don Walden, P.O. Box 222, Muskego, WI 53150 1-800-959-9640, (414) 679-4343, BBS: (414) 679-3736
Chicago TI Users Group, P.O. Box 7009, Evanston, IL 60204-7009
Competition Computer Products, 2219 S. Muskego Ave., Milwaukee, WIS. 53215 (414) 672-1600 or 1-800-471-1600
Computers & Crafts, Kevin Keller, 1418 Biscayne Dr., Little Chute, WI 54140, (414) 788-6656
Hoosier TI User Group, P.O. Box 2222, Indianapolis, IN 46206-2222
L.L. Conner Enterprise, 1521 Ferry St., Lafayette, IN 47901 (317) 742- 8146
Micropendium, P.O. Box 1343, Round Rock, TX 78680, (512) 255-1512
Midsouth (Memphis) TI99/4a User Group, P.O. Box 38522. Germantown, TN 38183-0522
Milwaukee TI Users Group, 4122 N. Glenway, Wauwatosa, WI 53222
Program Innovators - Arcade Action Software, 4122 glenway, Wauwatosa, WI 53222
Ramcharged Computers, 6467 E. Vancy Dr. Brook Park, OH 1-800-669-1214 or (216) 243-1244
RBD Enterprises, C/O Ricky Bottoms, 643 Fair Ave., Shelbyville, IN 46176 1-800-464-8851
S&T Software (Tim Tesch), 3804 North 75th st., Milwaukee, WI 53216
Western Horizon Technologies, 3297 Woody Lane, San Jose, CA 95132 (408) 934-0352
Will County TI Users Group, 1400 Caton Ave., Joliet, IL 60435
