Introducing Myself - One of the 3 recent approvals

[Fraser N64]

My Name is James, I live in Renton, I grew up in the 8-bit era. My machine from that era is the Tomy Computer (very similar hardware to the TI 99 but not compatible). 

In the past few years I've been collecting SGI Workstations and Servers, these were the price of a house in the 80's but now are very reasonable and have some very cool features for their time. The O2 is my favorite, because it uses off the shelf keyboard and mouse and the graphics don't require obscure upgrades to be usable, it's not the best performer but is well rounded. 

Not a spammer! Thank you for allowing me to "join". 

James

[Alex Smith (K4RNT)]

Would love to chat about SGI some time! While living in Tennessee while at university, I picked up some surplus SGI systems, including an Indy, an Octane, an Indigo2 IMPACT and an O2. Too bad I lost all of those when I moved away... so sad...

Miss it!

Alex

" 'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.' Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged." - Jean-Luc Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie, Star Trek: TNG episode "The Drumhead"

- Alex Smith (K4RNT)

- Lacey, Washington (Olympia, WA metropolitan area)

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[gsteemso]

You haven't offered duct cleaning services even once!  If we were interviewing you as a spammer you'd be terrible at it!

Seriously, though, welcome in, and we're glad to have you, I'm sure.

I'm a bit intrigued by your description of the Tomy.  I'm not as familiar with those as I probably ought to be, but I wasn't previously aware of any such similarities to the TI99 - could you expand on that?

Gordon S.

(will admit to being the current admin, but just posting as myself)

On Oct 29, 2025, at 5:03 PM, Fraser N64 <jkwal...@gmail.com> wrote:

My Name is James, I live in Renton, I grew up in the 8-bit era. My machine from that era is the Tomy Computer (very similar hardware to the TI 99 but not compatible). 

In the past few years I've been collecting SGI Workstations and Servers, these were the price of a house in the 80's but now are very reasonable and have some very cool features for their time. The O2 is my favorite, because it uses off the shelf keyboard and mouse and the graphics don't require obscure upgrades to be usable, it's not the best performer but is well rounded. 

Not a spammer! Thank you for allowing me to "join". 

James

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[Fraser N64]

I’m not as familiar with the TII/99 and I wasn’t as technical at 10 years old as I am now. So lots of wiki research …the Tomy Tutor Computer (not the toy)  used the TMS9995 CPU vs TMS9900 (TI/99) shared the same graphics chip TMS9918. The Tomy also used cartridges and had BASIC not identical to TI/99 but most BASIC was close enough, it also had a built-in keyboard. They also shared the graphics RAM is system RAM “feature”. I’m guessing there are more technical differences in the memory map. 

My memory of it is mixed. It was my first experience programming and I’m now a professional programmer, but storing programs on cassette and using the remote control style soft keyboard buttons probably set back my career by 10 years (almost became an auto mechanic). If the right offer came along I’d pick it up again, but it isn’t very common.

I did have the Cave Crawler game cartridge which is the 8-bit FPS for the system, I played a lot of that. 

Fraser

[Jeff Phillips]

Hey, Fellow Rentonite,

Although I no longer have any retro computer systems, I sure enjoyed that era of tech expansion.

Arctic Fox on dual sided 3.5,floppy's  anyone ?

On Wed, Oct 29, 2025 at 5:03 PM Fraser N64 <jkwal...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Jeff Phillips
clow...@gmail.com

[J.P. McGlinn]

Mmm, SGI. Might you be planning to visit the meeting in Kirkland? I’m hoping to have bandwidth to get there with a SGI workstation or server in November.

On Oct 29, 2025, at 5:03 PM, Fraser N64 <jkwal...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Alex Smith (K4RNT)]

I know what you mean, but trying to wrap my head around the possibility of flipping a 3.5" disk. (I know, no worries about the mistake)

I think I had Arctic Fox on C64... :)

" 'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.' Those words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie as wisdom and warning... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we’re all damaged." - Jean-Luc Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie, Star Trek: TNG episode "The Drumhead"

- Alex Smith (K4RNT)

- Lacey, Washington (Olympia, WA metropolitan area)

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/seattle-retrocomp/F36E67FB-B10D-424C-9BE7-521C07EE9020%40speakeasy.net.

[Erik Anderson]

I have complete copies of Artic Fox for the IBM PC (original purchase) and Apple II (second-hand). :)

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/seattle-retrocomp/CAMaOCTL7sfGcYGM7Lmdqi95mLRP9Q8Cr%3D0ViLR8vcPoohez5PA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Luca Cappa]

I have the Amiga version of Arcticfox in an unusual plastic box (Italian distribution).

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From: seattle-...@googlegroups.com <seattle-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Erik Anderson <erik.w....@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2025 3:43 PM
To: Alex Smith (K4RNT) <shadow...@gmail.com>
Cc: J.P. McGlinn <jmcg...@speakeasy.net>; Fraser N64 <jkwal...@gmail.com>; seattle-retrocomp Society <seattle-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [SRCS] Introducing Myself - One of the 3 recent approvals

 

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[gjd.link]

I also have Arctic Fox for the Amiga, but in the standard folio package.

George

On Oct 30, 2025, at 3:59 PM, Luca Cappa <uc...@outlook.com> wrote:



I have the Amiga version of Arcticfox in an unusual plastic box (Italian distribution).

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From: seattle-...@googlegroups.com <seattle-...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Erik Anderson <erik.w....@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2025 3:43 PM
To: Alex Smith (K4RNT) <shadow...@gmail.com>
Cc: J.P. McGlinn <jmcg...@speakeasy.net>; Fraser N64 <jkwal...@gmail.com>; seattle-retrocomp Society <seattle-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [SRCS] Introducing Myself - One of the 3 recent approvals

 

I have complete copies of Artic Fox for the IBM PC (original purchase) and Apple II (second-hand). :)

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To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/seattle-retrocomp/AS8PR03MB7768F0FC904B8BE43C222FB0D3FBA%40AS8PR03MB7768.eurprd03.prod.outlook.com.

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