Toward the end of the of last month’s RetroChallenge I started looking at TurboForth. I was impressed with the TurboForth game Dark Star. I thought it would be fun to make my own game. I used Dark Star as example code to get my game started. I borrowed the rock tiles and the routines to draw them.

So it is done! I got my TI99/4A controlling my FPGA based ClusterFight entry just in time for the 3/30/2019 Fight Night.

Now that I have a disk storage solution, with TIPI, for my TI99/4a, I am excited to try TurboForth. I bought a TurboForth cartridge. When it boots up it says it is V1.2.3.

An order that I placed with ArcadeShopper arrived. The item that I’m most excited about is the TIPI-Sidecar. This provides an interface between the TI99/4a and the Raspberry Pi. The basic features it provides are:

• Memory mapped I/O to Raspberry PI for tinkering
• A disk based filesystem that the TI can access, hosted on the PI.
• Network abstractions (TCP/UDP/HTTP) to the TI.

So I finally got around to trying the TI99/4a FinalGROM99 cartridge. Here it is:

I have decided that I am going to attempt to build an RS232 sidecar for my TI994a. I can’t seem to get my hands on an existing RS232 solution. It will be fun to learn how to build a custom piece of hardware for my TI.

RetroChallenge 2019/03 has officially started! The first item of business was to get my TI stuff out of storage and set it up. I’m pretty sure that this is the same machine that I had in my room as a child. Here is what the setup looks like now.

I’ve submitted an entry for the RetroChallenge 2019/03!