Category Archives: TI-99

As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly

Posted on November 19, 2018 by Blake Patterson

When it comes to the holidays, I get rather sentimental as well as nostalgic, these days. Holidays as a kid are some of the best memories any of us have, really. And having been an avid computer geek during the … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Atari, Holidays, TI-99 | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Putting the Atari ST and TI out Front for “Modern Touch Week” at r/Retrobattlestations

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Blake Patterson

Just a quick post here to share a bit of what I was up to this past weekend. It was “Modern Touch Week” over at Reddit’s r/Retrobattlestations which was a competition to show a vintage system using recent / modern … Continue reading →

Posted in Atari, r/Retrobattlestations, TI-99 | 1 Comment

A Program from a 35 Year Old Magazine for “BASIC Month” and a Chat with Its Author

Posted on October 3, 2017 by Blake Patterson

July was BASIC Month over at r/Retrobattlestations and for that competition I decided to reach for my TI-99/4A and type in a TI Extended BASIC game called Pearl Harbor from the 1983 issue of Electronic Fun with Computers & Games…for … Continue reading →

Posted in r/Retrobattlestations, TI-99 | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

33 Year Old Roll of Film Offers a Glimpse of My Vintage Computing Beginnings

Posted on July 3, 2016 by Blake Patterson

I got my first home computer on Christmas morning in 1982. It was a TI-99/4A with 16K of RAM. My parents purchased it from a sewing machine retailer. In the years that followed, I moved on fairly frequently to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple II, Atari, Down Memory Lane, Just Rambling, TI-99 | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

As My Daughter Turns Ten, A Look at the Technology Then and Now

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Blake Patterson

On May 3rd, my daughter turned 10 years old. This is something that is nearly impossible for me to actually believe, given how rapidly the decade has flown by. It really does feel like she was born yesterday. (Or last week, anyway.) … Continue reading →

Posted in Just Rambling, Other Platform, TI-99 | 6 Comments

Hey Look, It’s ‘Flappy Bird’ for the TI-99/4A!

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Blake Patterson

You’ve probably heard of the game Flappy Bird, which has had a controversial life in the iOS App Store. Well, here it is ported to the TI-99/4A, my very first computer. (Pardon the video quality; I had a camera in … Continue reading →

Posted in TI-99 | 2 Comments

My First Computer Thought It Was a Sewing Machine

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Blake Patterson

I’ve shared many stories of my early adventures in computing on this blog over the past nine years, but it recently occurred to me that one of the most bizarre details of all, I’ve never mentioned. While I have spoken of … Continue reading →

Posted in TI-99 | 14 Comments

A Phone Call I’ve Remembered These 28 Long Years…

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Blake Patterson

My first home computer was the TI-99/4A from Texas Instruments. I wanted to get a “real computer” (I had an Atari 2600 at the time), I bugged my parents, and I got to choose from what was on the (1982) … Continue reading →

Posted in Down Memory Lane, TI-99 | 9 Comments

Can A Computer Make You Cry?

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Blake Patterson

I started life on a TI-99/4A. After a year or so I sold it and got what I considered my first “real” computer, the just-released Apple //c in the first half of 1984. (No offense to TI-99 aficionados intended.) In … Continue reading →

Posted in Gaming, TI-99 | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments