Tag: TMS9900

A step-by-step guide to building new games for the TI-99/4A - understand the hardware, pick tools, design within strict limits, and ship a tiny, glorious cartridge of nostalgia.

The TI-99/4A looked like a beige toy. Under the lid it was quietly ambitious: a 16‑bit CPU, a discrete video co‑processor, ROM‑based GROMs and a speech module that made machines talk. This post traces the machine's lesser-known innovations and how they quietly shaped later hardware and the modern retro‑dev renaissance.

A contrarian look at the TI-99/4A: raw specs, architectural quirks, and why - despite being laughably underpowered by modern numbers - it still teaches us something useful about computing and human experience.