The PEB: The Ultimate TI-99/4A Expansion Tech
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- My in-depth look at the Peripheral Expansion Box. TI's final answer to expansion on the TI-99/4A. Featuring eight slots (seven available to expansion cards), classic TI aesthetics, and a ridiculous 30lbs of big-bodied heavy-duty construction.
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I love your channel, Keep up the good work.
Best TI channel ever. When Craigslist was brand new (and before computer scalpers got online), I got a PEB for free. Guy just wanted to get rid of it. I've since upgraded it with 1 MiB SAMS card, RS-232, disk controller and disk drive. Beast of a box.
Thanks! And great you were able to get onboard the PEB bandwagon when they were still the kind of thing people were just giving away!
Thanks. I look forward to your videos more than I want to admit!!
Kind of you to say, and I'm delighted to hear it!
A great video, once again! Thank you :)
Man this is great. The PEB and additional hardware was always too expensive for me as a 12 year old. Now at 50, I’m on the hunt. Ebay here I come lol.
Same here. I'm 54 finally got it.
As a die-hard C64 user at the time, I never really warmed up to my friend's TI-99/4A. However, every time I'd flip through computer magazines and see a PEB, I'd stop and think about how cool that would look attached to my C64. Sadly, Commodore never came out with anything quite like a PEB.
Great video...this really takes me down memory lane. My brother and I spent so much time on the TI-994A and PEB back in the 80's.
Cut back alot, used to have SCSI, PGRAM, Myarc Floppy Controller, and several RAMDISK cards (Horizon, CorComp).
This brings back so many memories I use to get the Ti99 magazine 😂 I always wanted the PEB and the actual TI monitor.
Just got the ultimate TI-99/4A score today: Brand new silver unit w/cables, Rocker switched PEB with RS-232/Disk controller/32k memory/floppy drive, 2 joysticks, joystick adapter for other brands, voice synthesizer, 21 carts including assembler and extended basic and manuals for EVERTTHING. Original owner just gave it to me. :) Setting it up tonight. Can't believe how heavy the PEB is!
Awesome. Sometimes, you just get lucky. Seems like you're pretty much set, presuming it all works (which is always a little uncertain, four decades on). Hoping for the best!
@@PixelPedant Curses! Doesn't work. Had video issues and reseated chips, that worked. But no keys work. Switched keyboard and ONE key worked. So, 2 bad keyboards, man am I lucky! Tore into it and see I need to repair traces so ordered a conductive pen. I've done it before many years ago on an Amiga.
I was hoping that you would have mentioned the use of a Gotek floppy emulator. I have one in my Expansion box. This allows me to put anything loaded in the TI onto a USB disk (like in my case), or SD cards. You simply buy which ever Gotek you want to use. It fits into a half height floppy drive slot.
Well with a TIPI and 128Gig SD card this makes the Gotek look pretty silly. Just no way to fill it up. Most I have ever saved is only 16Gig for all TI stuff. Way to many duplications.
@@CarbonicHolyPally I was just trying to let people know that there are more options people they might be interested in. I used the Gotek to transfer my old TI Disks, using my old TI994a console, to a format that could then be transferred to the Internet. I have a lot of programs that I wrote and wanted to get them off of the TI994a floppies. I now mostly use the Class99 Emulator as I can do things faster, which does include writing programs.
@@rickibaron4816 Yea I use WIFI from my PC or MAC to TIPI SD card using mapped network drive shared on my PC or Mac.
Same as I use Classic99 but have TI99/4A behind me for testing RXB.
I'm also using a gotek, just in Case that expensive floppy drive starts to error, plus I'd just like to have that floppy for visual experience these days. 😂
2:17 As I understand, Texas Instruments driving concept by the mid/late 70s was to use basically only one microprocessor with variants in packaging and computing power levels across its entire product line; thus TI had the TI-990 for its low-end minicomputers and the TMS9900 was a variant of that one destined to the "coming" concept of "home computing".
In fact, there were several engineering teams inside TI competing to build a prototipe home console (mainly for game use) and another for home computing; these two were merged and also received influence from the minicomputer team, thus giving the PEB that impressive design as if it were a piece of mainframe from the 70s.From the size, heavy metal usage, bulky expansion cards (which look more like cartridges) and even the blinking rectangular leds at the front, you can tell right away that this accesory was *NOT* the kind of hardware the competition had, which mostly consisted of "garage-based boys" small ventures that started in homebrew clubs reunion.
Congratulations on a very detailed video covering all the aspects, from cosmetics to hardware to software capabilities of the PEB.
To me, the full TI-99/4A console + accesories sets it apart in another category no other home computer from the early 80s could fit in; yes it was underpowered/overpriced (and I know Commodore put the 99/4A final nail in its coffin) but what is shown here is more like a minicomputer than a home computer (part of it you can call "terminal" with the console and the monitor, and the other part, the accesories coming from the enterprise product line of minicomputers from Texas Instruments).
Ah yeah. I had the 32k memory expansion. I loved the entire setup. The voice module and all sorts of other stuffs. 1:12 Yeah that pretty much looked like my desk at one time. The Milton Bradley MBX gaming system was so much fun. The baseball is mostly the one game I played on it. I wish PC cases and peripherals kept it simple like that. I miss those blinking lights in front and wish again PCs came like that. Pity TI didn't come out with an updated graphics card for the expansion box. 13:57 Always the metallic. Nothing beats it. In fact, my new oven I had bought is the same color scheme. Stainless steel and black enamel. 16:46 Mine expansion box had the rocker switch which I do prefer as well.
The rocker switch is simply satisfying. 👍
Mine was push button but I could have replaced it with a rocker switch but that's all history I gave my box away trying to clean out unused stuff. Well the only thing I got left is the console, the mpx system is all dry rotted at least the joy stick someone should come out with new boots and foam for the mic. I also wish I would have left the original keyboard on my TI. I have a silver console with beige keys. Oh well I should have bought more TI parts when radio shack sold them. Maybe I can find parts on ebay. 73
I'm just learning how to use the PEB as I just got my hands on one yesterday. Always wanted one and it only took 40+ years to get it
Thanks for the interesting narration! I am new to TI-99/4A, just recently bought the beige-case version. Have no PEB, but was delighted to watch a video about it.
Someone gave me one of these years ago. I have it in a box somewhere. It has the serial, 32k memory and drive controller in it. I can confirm it is big and heavy!
Your channel is very underrated! Great episode... :)
Thanks for saying! It's always nice to hear people appreciate this stuff. :)
I do have a PEB, with all the cards yours has, but I don't use it for a couple reasons. First, since the application software I can run with it is a novelty at this point, and Extended Basic is more or less required, it just does not have a lot of modern application. Second, TI has a great cartridge library, and the PEB gets in the way of using the TI as essentially a gaming console, which is how I used it back in the day. But thirdly, and most importantly, the real reason I got the PEB was to try to find the TI Unicorn, the Geneve 9640. I wish someone would emulate that card. I would still like to see a TI99 bare metal running GEM before a die.
I’m gonna need to see a video about what you did with RS232! I recently got a PEB back in my life, and am in the process of trying to hook up my old video game systems all at once. I do building automation for a living and something like this on old hardware would blow the boss’s mind!
Edit: I see you did one!
I just picked one of these up! Still need to learn it though.
Excellent video! I have a PEB, though rarely used (too loud). When I bring out the TI for some nostalgic fun, I usually use the SS TIPI. It's amazing to think we have all of these options. Great job on your video and like+sub from me.
Thanks! Your own videos were some of the first times I recall encountering the TI-99 being taken seriously and remembered fondly on TH-cam. So thanks for those!
I miss the sounds of the TI system, from the startup tone and beeps to the warm sound of fan and moving air in the PEB.
Nice video!!!
I had a PEB. By then my console had been modified with the additional 32K using memory chips twice as quick as standard so no need for the memory card. I had the TI disk controller and SSSD drive at first, then upgraded to a Myarc/Teac DSDD. Then finally DSQD with some other controller. But that storage was still slow, so I built a large ram card (I think it was 512K - full of battery backed static ram chips). Of course a RS232 to first hop on GEnie, and then run a BBS over PCPursuit.
I used the TI for K&R C code (sadly the 2nd ed book) in TinyC for my college class instead of using a line editor on a Prime mini. I loved TMS9900 assembly with the memory based registers, yes sort of slow, but it made subroutines SO easy. Of course protected floppies were a pain to copy, so I then found a manual on the disk controller chip and wrote Track Hack. No more problems with "protected" floppies, except the ones with the laser holed disks.
Sadly sold off everything but the console to club members in Springfield Mo to help fund more Atari ST hardware at the time. But it was a solid kit while I had it.
Thanks for sharing your story. Definitely sounds like you had the complete TI-99 experience, before you were done with it.
Got a hole TI-99/A$ setup for free recently, been doing more research on it cause I thought my 32k expansion card wasnt working due to not showing the activity lights at any point.
By the way, keep up the good content!
I keep promising myself that I will replace the fan (mine sounding every one of it's 40 years).
It's not the air noise, it's the earsplittinloudenboomer rattle of blades that have been spinning for multiple decades (although they do add audio-realism to a round of Spad XIII).
I bought the nanoPEB back when they would be released every couple of months, and although it has meant using the PEB far less than I did 40 years ago, I agree that sometimes you just want to insert a disc. So every now and then the PEB still gets fired up.
Not even the TIPI will replace it completely, which ofcourse it doesn't have to, since one can also buy a TIPI that slides into a PEB slot (something I should look into, since, with their terminating nature, neither the sidecar nanoPEB or TIPI lets you use them WITH the PEB to dump your SD virtual discs onto a real 5.25" floppy (or visa versa).
I enjoyed the video. Thanks!
I added an MPB 8 bit ADC / Clock board to my PEB . XBasic can sample it at about 10 samples / Sec , Ti Forth , Turbo Forth & FBForth can sample at 5K samples a second ( the limit of the ADC) , Forth can sample about 20K times a second when coded correctly . The PEB desperately needs a truly fast XBasic card . The cartridge slot can then be used with the mini-memory module for more memory or other needs while using XBasic . I missed out on getting the P-Code card and I have regretted it for many years now . The PEB fan gets quieter and quieter each passing year , oops , I forgot to turn on my hearing aids ! Its nice and noisy again !
Cool. My (mostly retired) PEB is the flip switch style. Also instead of a TI RS232 I have a CorComp RS232. No PCode card though sadly :(
I have a stack of these in my warehouse. If someone is in need. :) also expansion cards
I also have dual drive mounting solutions!
How can I order one?
I remember seeing this on the box of our TI and always wondered what it was.
Yeah, it was kind of a cruel tease. Every TI-99/4A user got to see it advertised right there on the back of the box. But so few actually got the benefit of it, in the end.
@@PixelPedantThe Power Glove of the TI world.
The PEB is what separated the casual from the hardcore. They were also built like tanks.
It separated the 12 year olds who couldn’t afford it with people who could. I was hardcore TI at 12 but had no money unfortunately.
I'm a beige 99/4a guy...although I also have an original 4a as well.
You can put the disk controller in any slot when I owned mine I had the memory expansion next to the disk drive then the disk controller. I never had RS 232 or modem. I thought about getting another 32 k expansion but never did. I wish I would have kept my expansion box. The reason I didn't have my disk controller board next to the drive I didn't like the tight fit on the ribbon cable well the expansion .box in reality is just the buss with a good power supply I could probably just buy the connectors and make my own box but why with side car options especially now. I guess now I need to find a TIPI but seems like they are harder to find now . I don't really need the tipi now I have to learn how to use my raspberry pi and get back into using my TI 99/4a. I have floppy disk I need to get the programs off of and put on newer media. I used to have my curser in the shape of the state Texas. I have to find the codes I used. It's been long time I used my TI 99/4a. 73
can the peb actually work stading up like a tower, or will the weight of the cards damage the slots unless they are stacked together
It’s a nice idea, but I’m surprised they didn’t just make the 99/4A like an Apple // with card slots
The Geek in me has so many questions! It would be fun to see a simulation of the computer connected to another computer.
Does anyone know the read speed of the disk drives?
Wow, so much potential for fun! Also, do you need memory expansion to write assembly language stuff?
Thanks!
The Editor/Assembler package was TI's main assembly development solution, and does require the 32K to be used meaningfully. However, the Mini Memory module also allows for more limited assembly development on machines without any upgrades at all. It makes this possible by putting RAM on the cart itself. The RAM is battery backed, so the (40 year old) battery pretty inherently requires (fairly trivial) replacement, if not already replaced.
I recently purchased a PEB at a garage sale and was wondering if it was worth getting a TI-994a and trying it out.
Well given the PEB is relatively uncommon and hard to come by, and the console itself is easy to get and cheap as dirt, I'd say it makes a lot of sense to pick up a console at this point, given you've already managed the *way* harder (and usually much more expensive) part!
Is there a video or instructions on how to replace the full height drive with two half height? Basically securing them in the box and ribbon connection.
I don't believe so. Plates are available with which to affix multiple half-height drives to one another so as to mount them inside the PEB (e.g., ArcadeShopper has them). Then for a cable, you need a straight cable with multiple 34 pin card edge connectors and *no twist*. So that is to say, either an era-appropriate multi-drive straight cable, or a cable that's been "untwisted" (i.e., severed and reconnected straight-through).
@@PixelPedant Thanks
i miss my expansion
Hey Pixel, do you know why there is a flip-lid on the speech synthesizer?
Yes, there was an original intention to permit the use of expansion vocabularies containing additional words and phrases. Early TI-99/4 (1979 and 1980) promotional materials promoted this feature explicitly. These modules would have plugged in via this slot to an expansion connector there. There are some speech synthesizers surviving which made it into production with the expansion connector, but there are no known surviving vocabulary modules. In any case, the idea was rendered unnecessary by two factors: 1) The TI-99 can play custom vocabulary loaded from system or cartridge memory, meaning there is no particular need for a separate module, and 2) The introduction of Text-to-Speech made this more limited model unnecessary, since any common American English speech pattern could now be generated.
I have it all
Crypto mining using TI-99! How long to farm one bitcoin in 2022? :)
What about a module that will allow you to at least 512GB of RAM.
Hi everyone!!!
Is it possible with Classic99 to create virtual HD?
Or how do i open a floppy disk image from windows 10?
Thanks !
Classic99 treats Windows directories as disks by default, and comes with three set up as DSK1, DSK2, and DSK3. You can also mount floppy images if you like, but this is done less often. If you do want to mount a disk image, just go to the "Disk" menu, select the name (e.g., DSK1) of the disk to which you wish to mount an image, then specify the disk image file in the settings panel for that disk. 99% of the time, though, directories do the trick. Only a very few pieces of TI-99 software specifically require sector reads/writes.
@@PixelPedant Thanks a lot!
If a salesman told me the system was augmentable I'd leave the store
I almost forgot to mention that some people even had a hard drive in there Expansion box.
Well they had the controller. The power supply probably couldn't handle an actual hard drive on it. You had to use an external power supply
Let me know when I can use a solid state drive in mine. I would love to upgrade my TI 99/4a. Thumb drives already can be used. A USB port is another I want.73
@@ronb6182 tipi is the current hard disk and you can definitely put a solid state drive on a pi.. though I don't really see the need when an SD card will work just fine
@@arcadeshopper are we on the same page? Yes my pi takes SD cards but the subject is TI 99/4a expansion. Someone put a hard drive in their box I guess just remove the hard drive and put a solid state drive in its place like a Dell or similar computer. A thumb drive will replace the expansion box for storage. But memory and printer cards are also part of expansion. 73
@@ronb6182 Most hard disk controllers for the TI are either MFM or SCSI or IDE. A lot of people just use a IDE-CF adapter on their IDE controller, but they are both expensive and limited in their abilities.. TIPI is cheaper and more functional
The PEB is nice, but it's missing a jack for plugging in my guitar so I can metal out with extreme violence!
Can anything else be added?
Well, in terms of TI-99 expansion tech, there's lots that we use today, that mostly operates outside the auspices of the PEB. I did a rundown of the key upgrades here: th-cam.com/video/KONbXJnnzds/w-d-xo.html
Hello 👋
Too bad the price of the PEB didn't drop when the computer price did.