Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator.

Many emulators also exist, and AFAIK are perfectly legal in this instance as a result of the aforementioned orphaning. Even now, there are very active User Groups dedicated to the '99 - check out for the '99 online community's main mailing list. This extended the market life of the system's software and peripherals for years. In the late 1980's, Myarc (a third party developer for the '99) introduced the Geneve 9640, a significant upgrade to the '99. '99 users, however, did not give up on the computer. (thanks go to kamamer for explanation of the TI 99 loss leader strategy) Unfortunately, this strategy failed, and TI orphaned the 99/4A in 1983. Because of the impending Video Game Crash, however, sales were low, so TI changed its marketing strategy: they sold the system for less than its production costs, hoping to recoup the losses in sales of cartridges, peripherals, and third party licensing deals.

The '99 was marketed for Texas Instruments by comedian Bill Cosby. They are very durable, and most '99's that are still around today will work perfectly, some 20 years after initial production. Because of this quirk, and a convenient empty space on the top of the computer above the processor, 99's are often affectionately referred to as coffee warmers. A floppy drive, Speech Synthesizer, Peripheral Expansion Box, modem, and many other add-ons can be attached through the expansion port.ĭue to oversights in design, '99's generally become very warm after a few hours of usage, although not to the point of overheating. Data input (and output) can come from any standard cassette player with stereo outputs. Visual output for the '99 is generally through a normal television to which the TI has been plugged, or to a monitor specially made for the system. As far as software, the '99 comes equipped with a BASIC interpreter (NOT TI's TI BASIC for calculators!) and not much else. The computer itself has a standard QWERTY keyboard, cartridge port, joystick plug, expansion port, and various other I/O stuff, all housed within a single black and metallic gray (or beige) console.

The TI-99/4A was a home computer introduced by Texas Instruments in 1979.

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