Best of.... Fantasy and Dungeon Crawlers for TI-99/4A

Best of.... Fantasy and Dungeon Crawlers for TI-99/4A

Dungeons of Asgard



Single player game. This is a *great* game once you get to know all the keystrokes to play.  This game requires expanded memory, 128K of RAM 

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Tunnels of Doom


The original Dungeon Crawler for the TI-99.  A classic. Released in 1982.  Control one to four characters, choosing from Fighter, Wizard, and Rogue classes. You can also play as a combined "Hero" class.  Features randomly generated dungeons, tactical turn-based combat on a grid, and an early auto-mapping system.  Base 16K RAM

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Realms of Antiquity


Features a party of up to four characters with nine different classes and 16 experience levels. Content includes 8 schools of magic, 60 spells, over 250 items, tactical combat, scrolling maps, and over 200 monster types. Requires a disk system or TIPI with multiple drives, and a SAMS card with at least 1024k of bank-switched RAM.

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Hell's Halls

A single player dungeon crawler where you explore randomized rooms behind hidden doors, collect gold, fight enemies like bats and imps, and manage health. Features a strict time limit per floor, adding intense pressure while managing wounds and traps. Just need the base 16K of RAM

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Wizard's Doom

Wizard's Doom is a Dungeon crawl role-playing game requiring a 32K memory expansion and a disk system. The game features roughly six dozen different items to find—including weapons, armor, scrolls, potions, and rings—alongside a functional save and load game feature. The plot consists of an evil wizard returns to torment the realm and summon strange creatures into a dungeon world that the player must explore and conquer.

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Hero

Created by pixelpedant, the same developer of Hell's Hall.  Requires Extended BASIC XB256.

Baseball Card Database for TI-99/4A

I now have a release version 1.2 for my Baseball Card Database for TI-99/4A.

There are a lot of improvements, functional, but not perfect.  Made changes in data so that the cards grade can be added.  Still works with the old format of version 1.0.  Now can change working disk that you wish to use.  Defaults to Disk 1.  Also added an easier to read font and cleaned up display detail to make all easier to read.

w-view

 I have added a ton of new code to my w-view project.  That said, I have a ton of testing to do.  What is new?  A lot of sub modules.  A GUI interface that I originally was making a web interface, but not an X11 interface.  Tie-ins to SIP and XMPP.   And much more.  

The interface, like much of what I do, is programmed in the X11 GDX widget.

First weekend in June

"First weekend in June", is the same thing as me saying "I went to the Illinois Game Con". I had other alternatives this weekend I entertained. One, I could have gone to Chicago for a TI-99/4A user group meeting. Or two, I could have gone to Marion Kentucky for their big annual rock and mineral show. But my Son and my oldest daughter wanted me to join them at the Illinois Game Con, so I spent time with them there like I do almost every year since it first started. As previous years, I had a goal, and I achieved it. My goal was to see if I could again find an old computer system that I did not own. Particularly I was looking for an old Atari computer like the 400, 800, 600XL, 800XL, or the 130XE. And I was looking for it to be a $100 or less. I checked that box also. I found a box laying on the floor under a table. In it was an Atari 800XL with a 1080 disk drive, 3 Atari 8bit cartridges, 4 joysticks, 4 paddles, and a bunch of manuals. I asked how much and they said $100. I asked if it worked and they replied they had no idea. I asked if they would go to $90 and they said $95... Felt it was way worth the risk. Did not need the paddles or joysticks. I have SOOOO many as it is. But the manuals themselves intrigued me.

I also found a table selling almost nothing but dice, so I ended up making a purchase there too - of special DM dice set.

Drive and 800XL

The RF modulator does not work, but the cool thing about the Atari 800XL is that the computer comes with both an RF modulation video output and an S-video output.  I just happen to also have a S-video setup for my TI-99/4As so I hooked that up and the display worked!  Not a loss there for me as I 100% prefer S-Video and wished I had that option for my Tandy CoCo.  For the CoCo, I had to purchase the RF to HDMI modules that is in this photo above.  But to my surprise, my working video is welcomed by an unpleasant RAM failure.

I reached out to Facebook.  If the memory is socketed, this could be an easy fix. So I opened the 800xl up to see if the memory was socketed.  They are not.

A couple of people suggested to me that a bad power supply could cause this issue.  So I'm going to try purchasing a USB to Atari computer power supply first and see if that fixes the issue.  Crossing my fingers.  If the new power supply works, I got a heck of a great deal this weekend.  If it does not, not such a good deal. 

Oh, by the way, the dice I picked up.

More thoughts on UNIX99

UNIX99 for the TI-99/4A may be my favorite software/OS for 2026 so far. The OS has continued to be updated. As of writing this, April 9th, 2026 was the last update. I'm quite impressed with it. Enough, that I'm going to start helping by porting apps to the OS. For example, SED is not bundled with it. That tool is must for me. A real world work tool for me... at least in my career.

Purchased a PPEB

I just purchased an 8M PPEB with case and the activity led installed. Has a preloaded microsd card included.

A "8MB PPEB" for the TI-99/4A refers to a modern, compact, all-in-one expansion device built around a Raspberry Pi Pico W, designed to emulate the massive, original 1980s Peripheral Expansion Box (PEB). "PPEB" stands for [Pi Pico[W] Peripheral Expansion Box].



It is designed to fit in a small case. Mine in a 3D-printed enclosure or sometimes a repurposed original speech synthesizer case and plugs directly into the TI-99/4A's side expansion port, rather than needing a large external unit.

Key Features and Capabilities:
- 8MB RAM Expansion: This specifically provides massive memory expansion, often utilizing SAMS (software-activated memory system) memory management to support 1MB or 8MB configurations, far exceeding the original 32K limit.  There are configurations that support 16MB.

- Virtual Disk Storage: The device emulates floppy drives and hard drives using a MicroSD card or the Pico's internal storage, allowing you to run games and software without physical disk drives.
Sidecar Form Factor: It replaces the massive, 30 lb original PEB box and its many expansion cards with one small module that sits on the side of the computer.

- Modern Connectivity: It often provides USB or Wi-Fi capabilities for file transfers.

New hardware project - my computer desk

I have 5 to 7 computers on my desk at any given time. With literal, physical desktop space being sparse, I have decided to do something that I think most would find odd. I'm going to take my Atari and my C64 and put them in a tower.


I will need a mechanism that will allow the two boards to share a single keyboard and a way to possibly power each independently.


I'll leave my primary Tandy CoCo2 and TI-99/4A alone of course.

I also need a tape cassette cable for the Tandy Coco so I can backup and restore code to my file server. 

what is the deal with 80s computer keyboards

I hear social media video blogger repeat over and over that there was not a keyboard standard in the 70s and 80s for home computers. This unfortunately is true - kinda. There were really two loose standards. How do I know? First, I own quite a few computers from the 80s. It was IBM PC that broke the simi-standard and then redefined the overall standard by "winning" the PC wars.

So what was the standard layout before IBM changed it all?

First there is What I call Standard I - This was used by majority of the early 70-80s home computers

1) QWERTY keyboard like most type-writters

2) Specific characters associated with SHIFT and numbers

(Photo of a Commodore 64 keyboard)


(Photo of a Tandy CoCo 2 keyboard)

(Photo of an Atari 130XE keyboard)

Above the 1=!, 2=", 3=#, 4=$, 5=%, 6=&, 7=', 8=(, 9=)

Who adhered to this Standard I:
- Amstrad
- Apple I and II
- Atari (400, 800, 800XL, 130XE,  ect) - *Mostly*
- Commodore (PET, Vic 20, C64)

- Dragon (32 and 64 computers)
- Tandy (Model 1, Model 2, Model 3, Model 4, Coco, CoCo2, CoCo3 and others)

Probably others were included.

Anyone that does retro programming on these systems knows it is an adjustment finding the quote above the '2' key.

Atari put a '@' with the 8 and shifted the '(' and ')' over one place.

Where did these companies come up with this format. Many decades of typewriters before them. This was much of their layout.

Standard II
Who did not use Standard I, but the Standard II? 

- Later Apple computers and Macintosh. 

- Later Atari computers (ST line), 

- Later Commodores (Amiga line), 

- all IBM computers and most compatibles like Tandy 1000 line. 

- Coleco Adam

- All Texas Instrument computers.  

IBM came up with this design, which may have influenced later keyboard's such as the Apple IIe's/Macintosh, the Commodore Amigas and Atari STs.

With the Apple IIe, Apple changed some keys around like the 2 key to be associated with @ like the IBM.

Texas Instruments TI-99/4A keyboard

What is the Standard II number line layout?

1=!, 2=@, 3=#, 4=$, 5=%, 6=^, 7=, 8=*, 9=(, 0=)

Somehow people were swayed into believing the IBM PC was superior to the computers of the late 80s.  Really was not true, but perception often wins.   As PC clones became the norm, so did this keyboard layout.

80s BASIC

I'm currently reprogramming a game I did before called Seven/Eleven. The game looked a little dull so I'm remaking all the interfaces. This made me realize how much I enjoy some 80s BASICs over others.

Here is a list of my Favorite 80's BASICs that I use fairly regular, from favorite to least favorite.

1 TI-99 Extended BASIC

2 TI-99 BASIC

3 Tandy Extended Color BASIC 2.0

4 Tandy Extended Color BASIC 1.1

5 Tandy BASIC

6 Commodore BASIC V2

7 Atari BASIC

8 AppleSoft II BASIC

I should note that my first exposure to Tandy BASIC and Apple II BASIC was mostly as a teenager through public schools.

Why TI at the top? Most control in the easiest way. I really think if most companies and found someone better than Microsoft to develop their BASIC language, they could have been much better. What I like about Tandy and Commodore is that what ever they lack in BASIC features, they are quite hackable. It is possible to get to modes the physical computer could do that were not addressed in the BASIC environment.  Really, that is why Microsoft had the PEEK and POKE commands because there was so much they did not know how to translate into BASIC usefully.  And the way Microsoft used their graphics modes were so over complicated and stupid.  Really just limiting.  For the most part, programmers that understood the hardware capabilities and used assembler/machine language were really able to make the most of these computers.

It is not like TI-99 Extended BASIC was perfect as there were feature that were not addressed until the late 80s and early 90s with Super Extended BASIC by third party developers - but by that time most of the world had moved on from TI-99.  TI-99 popularity now is just mainly from people that remember fondly how much they enjoyed using TI-99 in the late 70s and early 80s.

Sadly the two most fun computers  TI and Tandy were the two most physically limiting computers.  TI-only made a 32K memory expansion for their computer that was shipped out with 16k.  TI also made their computers slower than need be by running code in video memory.  Tandy did not provide a dedicated 3 voice or better sound chip and a video processing chip that only handled 9 colors on both the CoCo 1 and 2. 

TI did make up in other areas though.  Best built in sprite capabilities, 16-bit processor, and S-Video output.  Tandy did make up for it with the easiest, but powerful, graphics and music programming commands. With some hacking past Microsoft's made limitations, graphically Tandy could put out some nice graphics with only 9 colors. 

Programming on the Tandy CoCo

I did some programming tonight on the Tandy CoCo.  First opinion is that the BASIC is a much cleaner and easier BASIC to use than other Microsoft BASICS.  I'm not sure why Microsoft didn't do things 

quite the same way with the TANDY CoCo, but I'm kinda glad they didn't.





Formating like this is really easy and straight forward.

820 PRINT D1;" ";D2;" ";D3;" ";D4

Random numbers is super easy and straight forward.

100 X = RND(-TIMER) :REM Seed the generator
..<snip>..
800 D1=RND(6)
802 D2=RND(6)

I should run the computer though the same tests that I have the others and see how it stacks.

Took home two Tandy CoCo 2s

I spent $80 to buy an untested CoCo 2 that was advertised as "Vintage Radio Shack Tandy TRS-80 64K Color Computer 2 Video Game Console"

The photos given:





Granted, I knew very little about the Tandy CoCo computers, but always wanted one. When I went to pick it up, he had two Tandy CoCo 2s and one Tandy CoCo 1 computers. None of the three had been tested. He told me take both CoCo 2s home and test to see if they work. One looked to be in clean and in good shape. The other looked filthy as he had not even tried to clean it up to sell. Which ever I chose, bring back the other.

I got both home and cleaned both externally including the keyboards.

I also looked at the exact model numbers and serial numbers as they can tell alot about the computer.



I could see there was a slight difference in both of the models, but was not sure what that meant for these two computers. The keyboard color looked slightly different, but other than that, they looked very much identical. So I plugged in the model that was 26-3026. That was the one that was filthy. I was welcomed with a green screen and an OK, but nothing else. I turned it on again, and this time I see it is running Extended Color BASIC 1.1. So I do some simple tests.

I'm surprised to see that memory states 24K RAM. I also verify all the keys work.
I plug in the other CoCo2 in and get absolutely nothing on the screen. Like there is not video signal output at all.


So I look up what the Model Numbers mean.

This is when I realize the working computer has been upgraded with more RAM and the Extended BASIC ROM.  So  I wrote him on what I found and set the good one up in the game room. 

CS/A65 computer system with GeckOS

GeckOS/A65, when running on the CS/A65 computer system, can manage up to 1 MB of addressable RAM (specifically, 256 blocks of 4kB via an Memory Management Unit [MMU]). While the base Gecko board provides 32 kB RAM, the system is designed to support much larger, banked memory configurations.

The CS/A65 is a modular, 8-bit computer system based on the 6502 processor, designed as a PET-compatible clone with advanced features. It features a passive backplane for I/O boards, a Memory Management Unit (MMU) allowing up to 1MB of address space, and support for multitasking via the GeckOS/A65 operating system.

Dice Roller for TI-95

 I have published my first version of the TI-95 dice roller:

http://mrgibson.com/dd/dragon-n-dice-ti-95-v1-0.txt

A couple of screenshots:

More on my new spread sheet software

As I continue to tweak the code, I'm realizing there will not be a 16K version. This will require 32K. Although it is possible to have 1M on the TI-99/4A, I don't think this is a reasonable requirement as this is much harder to aquire and not considered standard setup, where-as 32K is. I have sliced some code off, yet memory restaints in an issue.

Menus are done. Now I'm testing and tweaking the code to make it the best I can under the 32k scope.

I'll have more screenshot and code released soon.

99-sss 25.0 spread sheet software

I'm about to release my newest spread sheet software for the TI-99/4A. I'm pretty excited about this one.

99-sss 25.0
But this version is much different than my previous.

First of all, it has heavy requirements for the TI-99/4A :
- Extended BASIC
- 16k or 32K RAM - (16k = 10x10, 32k = 10x30)
- Floppy Disk drive (real or virtual) - data saving.
- Tape drive (real or virtual)

But the capabilities are better, most importantly : - exporting data to other spread sheets
- configuring the spreadsheet as you go
- save to cassette or disk
- printing and plotting

Some of the specs might change as I tweak this version. I'm going to release the application on tape format for maximum user distribution.
I will probably have two versions. One tweaked for 16K of RAM, one tweaked for 32k of RAM. Since it is programmed in Extended BASIC, yes it will be opensource. What Lic? Probably GPL 3. I'm testing this on Virtual and Real Hardware.
Will I release this software for Atari or C64? I don't know yet.

Unix99

It has been a minute since I posted.  A lot I have been wanting to post, but have not.  Been knee deep in coding and Greek studies.  But there is something that really caught my eye. A new Unix for the TI-99/4A called Unix99.

Prerequisites

The Unix99 runtime environment can be used in an emulation environment (Classic99 and MAME) and

on physical hardware.

Unix99 execution requires the following emulated or real hardware at a minimum:

• TI-99 console, providing CPU, graphics, VRAM and sound

• 32KB RAM

• At least one persistent storage device (TIPI, WDSx, IDEx, SCSx, DSK1/Classic99)

• Programmable GROM hardware, such as FinalGROM, that provides a host for the Unix99 ROM

Additional supported TI-99 hardware:

• Speech synthesizer

• PICO9918 and F18A

• SAMS memory card

• RS232 and Parallel I/O

• External USB mouse (TIPI required)

• External USB keyboard (TIPI required)

The development environment requires:

• Linux or MacOS

• Docker Desktop

5

Let's talk C64 Ultimate.

I'm excited about two new computers that are remakes of old.  First of the two is the C64 Ultimate.  If I buy one, it will only be one of them.  So first lets look at Commodore's offering. 

Yes, there is another new C64 on the market, and this time from Commodore themselves.  The Commodore C64 Ultimate.

From the photos, we see it comes with Ethernet, USB, and HDMI video output.  The keyboard looks pretty close to the original.

We also know the new C64 will have GEOS installed. That is awesome, but will the new Commodore C64 come with a web browser like "The Wave"?  From the Commodore website, show geoWrite running. But will the C64 Ultimate come packaged with a word processor like geoWrite?

From the Commodore website:

Play 10,000+ original games with more RAM & 48Mhz Turbo mode! (128MB DDR2 RAM, 16MB NOR flash)(Core: AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA)

Plug in dusty old cartridges, CRT TVs, datasettes, or disk drives - it all works.‡

No disk drive needed: Load games using the File Browser from the supplied cassette-style USB thumbdrive, packed with 50+ titles - full games, licensed classics, music, demos, and Commodore's exclusive new sequel to our first ever game - Jupiter Lander. Or add your own!

Not just reborn but upgraded: More memory & faster speed options, multiple SID sound chips (add 2 original ones or use 8 x virtual SIDs!), keyboard macros, even modern printer support!

Enjoy HDMI clarity, Wi-Fi game transfer, USB convenience.

Hidden inside: the autographs/names of Commodore 64 creators past and present - including Albert 'Father of the Commodore 64' Charpentier - etched forever in the motherboard copper.*

TMS9900 CPU

Studying the TMS9900 processor of the 70s and 80s, I have learned that it was capable of Multi-user preemptive multiprocessing. This is very sad that I'm not aware of this every being utilized with the TI-99/4A computer. This can be done with workplace register pointers that can be handled by the CPU, but stored in memory.





Because we are using pointer, this can be changed on the fly. Because of the interrupt processes, we can go back and forth between tasks.