Life in 8-bits

[LoadWB]

Programmed BASIC games on my TI-99/4A.  Moved to programming on the C64 in BASIC and 6502.  Went back and learned some TMS-9900 on the TI.  Then went on to program in just about any high-level language I could get my damned hands on.  Never programmed on the Amiga, though I really want to -- just need time.

I loved my 1351 mouse.  Had one before I got GEOS, and even wrote some programs to use it.  Tried to make it work with my TI with limited success in joystick mode.  Although today I find I can get a lot more done and more quickly in a CLI or shell, provided the right commands exist.

Keyboard shortcuts?  Just about every punctuation on the TI was a FCTN key.  Not sure if that counts.  Then there are all the C= key shortcuts in GEOS, Amiga key shortcuts, and so on.

[LoadWB]

Oh we also had a Mattel Intellivision.  Maybe it is off topic because technically it was 16 bit!  Well the CPU was anyway.  It was a General Instrument CP1610.  But the graphics and sound had 8-bit souls.

The TI-99/4 and 4A are also driven by a 16-bit CPU (TMS-9900,) but Texas Instruments crippled the system.  Only the 256 bytes of "scratch pad" CPU RAM is 16-bit, the rest of the system is 8-bit with a decoding which inserts wait-states and has a deleterious effect on the performance of a machine with a 3.3MHz CPU.  Coulda been a contender...  thought it's pretty amazing what's been and is being done with this old cripple.

[LoadWB]

For those of you who lament the mis-use of the TMS 9918A and compatriot VDPs used in the TI-99/4A, you should check out the F18A, which is an FPGA replacement of the 9918A with new capabilities and even its own GPU.  (Yes, the TI is now capable of multi-processing.)  Check out the TI-99/4A Programming forum at Atari Age.

@Zordar:  I've been doing some reading on the Microbee as an emulator for it has popped up on AmiNet.  Interesting piece of kit.