Texas Instruments TI99/4A
The TI-99/4A is the successor of the 1979 released TI-99/4. This is a pretty special machine, since it’s the first 16 bit machine thanks to the Texas Instruments’s own TMS 9900 chip.
Texas Instruments TI99/4A
The TI-99/4A is the successor of the 1979 released TI-99/4. This is a pretty special machine, since it’s the first 16 bit machine thanks to the Texas Instruments’s own TMS 9900 chip.
The machine supported hardware sprite support and multichannel sound thanks to dedicated chips from TI. Together with the Atari 400/800 it was the first use of custom chips.
The biggest difference between the TI-99/4 and 4A is the keyboard and a slightly improved videochip. However, it didn’t matter, and the machine never had big sales.
This was caused by architectural issues and lack of support from third-party developers. The nail in the coffin came from Commodore when they started to drop the price for the VIC-20, outpricing the TI-99/4A which was being sold for lower price than production costs.
By 1984, Texas Instruments stopped selling and producing the machine, with no successor.
