While there was some disappoint.ment when a new TI compatible com.puter failed to be introduced, most of the 1,700 visitors at the third annual Chicago TI Home Computer Faire got more than their money’s worth by the end of the seven-hour session.
Held Nov. 2 on the campus of Triton College in River Orove, a western suburb of Chicago, the Faire featured 27 vendors in the exhibition hall. Hundreds attended product-oriented ses.sions held by Craig Miller, Lou Phillips and John Clulow. Richard Mitchell, of Bytemaster Computer Services, hosted a seminar on using Extended BASIC to access and create files for Microsoft Multiplan.
The biggest news of the day turned out to be something that didn’t happen: there was no new working com.puter to replace the T199/4A. The hun.dreds who packed the meeting room where Phillips, president of Myarc Inc., was expected to unveil the new computer were somewhat dismayed when Phillips started his mid- afternoon session by discussing the history of his company.
However, though a working computer was not available, Phillips described the console the company is working on and displayed an empty console and a motherboard that he said will be turned into a new computer by the January Consumer Electronics Show. Cost of the machine is expected to be in the $450 range.
Myarc also failed to demonstrate its ballyhooed Extended BASIC upgrade because one of 10 disks containing segments of the program had been left behind at the company’s headquarters in New Jersey. The company maintains that distribution of the Extended BASIC upgrade will begin this month.
The most fully realized product demonstrated at the show was Miller Graphics’ GRAM Kracker. Miller cap.tivated an audience of well over a hundred for more than an hour during a morning session.
The demonstration of the working GRAM Kracker was nothing short of amazing. The device, which fits into the cartridge slot of the TI, allows users to dump the contents of cartridges into memory and then save them to disk, RAM disk, hard disk or cassette. About 15 cartridges can be saved to a double-sided, double-density disk. These pro.grams may then be called up at any time for use. The device also allows users to manipulate these programs. For
example, Miller said, users may decide to change the default colors of Extend.ed BASIC. Using the GRAM Kracker, this would be easy. Cartridge-based programs such as Tax Investment Record Keeping, which allow only out.put to serial printers, may be modified by the user to allow output to parallel printers.
The most fully realized product demonstrated at the show was Miller Graphics’ GRAM Kracker. Miller cap.tivated an audience of several hundred for more than an hour during a morning session.
The demonstration of the working GRAM Kracker was nothing short of amazing. The device, which fits into the cartridge slot of the TI, allows users to dump the contents of cartridges into memory and then save them to disk, RAM disk, hard disk or cassette. About 15 cartridges can be saved to a double-sided, double- density disk. These programs may then be called up at any time for use. The device also allows users to manipulate these programs. For example, Miller said, users may decide to change the default colors of Extended BASIC. Using the GRAM Kracker, this would be easy. Cartridge-based programs such as Tax Investment Record Keeping, which allow only output to serial printers, may be modified by the user to allow output to parallel printers.
To dump a cartridge’s memory contents into the GRAM Kracker, the user simply inserts the cartridge into a socket on the top of the device and follows very simple instructions to carry out the task.
Miller notes that the device opens up an entirely new area of memory for programming and modification and allows programming in Ti’s proprietary Graphics Programming Language (GPL).
The device contains 16 kilobytes of battery-backed cartridge RAM and 40K of battery-backed GRAM. The system is user-expandable to 80K.
System software is stored in an 8K ROM/GROM.
The device costs $174.95 plus shipping and handling. Contact Millers Graphics at 1475 W. Cypress Ave., San Dimas, CA 91773, (714) 599-1431.
A number of other products were being marketed or displayed in the ex.hibition hall, including a RAM disk by the New Horizons Computer User Group, a replacement keyboard for $25 by a Chicago company—Hunter Electronics, 604 5. Fairview, Elmhurst, IL 60126—that included a second FCTN key on the left side to facilitate typing, and a portable T199/4A design.ed and built by an Ohio man that in.cludes two half-height disk drives, a four-inch monochrome monitor, ex.pansion memory, 115232 and parallel ports and, of course, the keyboard.
Most booths were devoted to sales and represented a variety of products,
ranging from telecommunications (CompuServe) to inventories of TI software and hardware. One booth that attracted many Faire-goers was stocked with third-party software and gadgets and a selection of hard-to-get p-code cards.
The Horizon RAMdisk, developed by John Clulow, Ron Cries and David Romer, starts at 104K and is expan.dable to 192K, the equivalent of a double-sided floppy. The user group says the card is compatible with all T199/4A software. The UG says it is the only battery-backed RAMdisk for the TI, using a Ni-cad battery that charges while the computer is running. Other features allow the user to deter.mine the RAMdisk drive number, the maximum number of sectors, write protection, turn on CRU for direct device service routine (DSR) access and execute machine code from BASIC.
The card comes with complete DSR
source code and manual and a schematic diagram. It is available as a ready-to-run card, as a bare printed circuit board with parts list and instructions and as a schematic diagram with parts list. All packages include th operating system and source code, documentation and development software. For price and order information, write to Romer at Box 554, Walbridge, OH 43465.
The Chicago TI Users Group has already scheduled a fourth Faire, for the first week of November next year. The sponsors note that this year’s Faire set records for spectator attendaswt and vendor participation.
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