NEW FOR 2018: Some long lost programs on this latest disk, five of them previously offered on sale by Stainless Software! Maple Leaf's DEVIL CRAZE, Martin Hobb's SPLODGE, Norton 3-D Star Trek (anyone have documentation?), Mr D by SP Software, and Paul Triffit's WORMCHASE. Added is a Roland Trueman delight, Reindeers Revenge, plus Powerball, Snowtrek from Pewterware. plus Maketracks. (I found a disk with Cutoff, SSPD5, but it was corrupted!)
A Windows program called TiDir (v5.2) is available here (right click to save - 332kb) which can read both PC99 and Mess (0.97) TI emulated DSK formats, show TI Artist pictures, list basic programs and read DV80 text files, convert between the formats and allow file transfers between TI emulated disks. It will run in Linux using Wine. As Fred's web sites disappeared for a while, I have added the file here. Fred released it for free - many thanks.
Fred had some problems with his web site, currently (2015) it is at Fred's TI Dir page with Vn 6.2a, now called TI99DIR. Older copies are available from whtech.com.
The programs for download below are in the disk format used by PC99 unless otherwise indicated. PC99 is a commercial program for DOS which emulates the TI99/4a hardware. PC99 is a COMMERCIAL program from CaDD. pc99w for windows is a work in progress but is sufficiently advanced to say most classic TI programs run fine.
In 2015 youtube had a video of Mike Wright demonstrating version 5 of pc99.
Several thousand programs for PC99 can be found on The Cyc from CaDD Electronics, look at The Cyc which has programs plus huge amounts of documentation, many books and manuals - all legally copied and reformatted in searchable form, (NOT badly scanned or worse, badly OCRd) - much considerable effort. Includes legal copies of all TI modules in PC99 format, including the much sought Tunnels of Doom module.
Might look costly but a huge amount of work has gone into it- an immense organised fully searchable library (the index alone runs to 1800 pages) plus TI programs and modules. Look at the quality of Cyc content here.
General comments
The TI-99/4A had two independant clocks, one for the CPU and one for the VDP which controlled sprite speed. As these were not tied to each other in any way, normal variation meant that you could not assume a sprite would move a constant distance whilst a program command was executed
on two different consoles. There was a significant variation between US and UK consoles. Thankfully PC99 allows you to fine tune sprite speed to perfection.
If you use the MESS TI99/4A emulation, here in one handy dandy zip file (a mere 340k or so) are the disks from and including "Conways Game of Life", reading this page downwards from Life (read down this page). I make that 10 disks. I use the Linux plf version of xmess-sdl and xmess-base number 0.97 which uses 90k and 180k .dsk files. Mess 0.97 is still available on the Internet. Many users will prefer to avoid Mess after Vn .106 due to graphics mode changes.
Octal and Sir Prance-a-lot has two programs for TI
Extended Basic and a joystick using PC99. Unzip and tell PC99 the
resulting file is a disk. The zip is under 18k. The .dsk file
contains two TI programs which require both Extended Basic and a
joystick.
OCTAL by Mark Sumner, a very good American programmer (of PS Software)
who was not too well known. The central gun is rotated by moving the
joystick left or right and press fire to fire the bidirectional laser
and destroy the enemy- and most important, destroy the enemy mines!
You may need to run this at a slower speed than most Basic programs.
Sir Prance-a-lot (TI filename=Sirprance) is by Neil Lawson, well known to
UK TI owners. Neil moved from Leeds to Devon to work for Parco and wrote
in their magazine. Move from the opening screen by holding a key, and then
start the game by holding a key down.
Avoid the obstacles. (Make it harder or easier by adjusting z).
Woodstock a zipped PC99 .dsk file of Ray Kazmer's
famous 1987 program in Extended Basic. Unzip and it becomes KAZMER.DSK
ready to use in PC99. The zip file is under 12k. You may need to adjust the emulator speed / sprite delay
to get this just right. It wasn't easy to make the US written program run correctly on a UK console either... but it is fun.
Extended Basic programs to run on PC99- file is 115k in size and is in ZIP format.
The programs are:
Ant Wars from Not Polyoptics- the original documentation
is included as a separate (dos) text file.
Blackbox- the first Waddingtons game to be officially licensed.
Bowls by A McMath.
Bullrun. This is a strategic war campaign. Place your forces then watch as the computer places his, and battle commences. You may need to
amend the keyboard reaction time for this one.
Challenge Poker from Pewterware. Original docs in a separate text file.
Diablo - not the recent PC game but an older TI game from
Australia.
Dominoes
Golfp by A McMath, a very popular commercial TI Basic program which
sold well in its day. Amended to run in Extended Basic.
Penpig
Pokersol
Quintus
Reaction by
Malcolm Adams. Excellent
strategy game for one player.
Sheepdog
Testcard- this was comissioned by an engineer then working
for Yorkshire Television in Leeds.
TXB by Tony McGovern - you will need to adjust the sprite
speed in PC99. The exact value will depend on your system but
on my 266Mhz PC I need to increase the value from 2200 to 3000 - use
the debug command z 3000
Walls - Walls and Bridges from TIMagination with original docs
Wargame- from TX Software- original docs in a separate text file
Yahtzee (or Roll 5) by Tom Krohn, Pewterware. Original docs as a
separate text file supplied.
Drop me a line or e mail if you need help with any of these.
Please use subject line "pc99 help". Send me an email