June | 2017 | Owen's Tech

Yet another vintage computer from an Estate Sale! This time it was the not very well-known Texas Instruments (yes, the ones that make calculators) TI-99/4A home computer. If you know anything about this computer you’ll know that the computers themselves are pretty much worthless. For some reason they just aren’t worth more that $20. But, the price of the accessories for the computer are much higher, making a whole lot of Texas Instruments stuff worth quite a bit of money. So when I went to the sale, I found that the sale managers did their research and priced everything for $95 dollars. Not a bad price for the things that came with it, but I wasn’t about to spend that much on this computer. So, for the first time I left the computer behind because tomorrow would be half-price day, meaning I could get the entire setup for a nice $47.50. I was willing to do this because I don’t think there is a very high demand for old computers. So I came back early the next day, and it was still there so I grabbed it, payed the cashier, and left the sale with way more than $47 worth of Texas Instruments computer.

Once I got home, I took everything out to see what I got. The first thing I noticed, is that the computer had no scratches or scuffs on it. It looked brand new. So did the speech synthesizer add-on, which is worth more than $47 by itself. It also came with two hard to use joysticks, a bunch of games, an extended BASIC programming cartridge, a 32k RAM add-on, and some cassette tape programs I can’t use because I would need a “Program Recorder”. And yes, the computer does work.

After using this computer system, I got really into it. I think it’s better than a lot of computers of that age. I like how it has an expansion port were you can plug in upgrades. If you wanted to upgrade the RAM on let’s say a Commodore VIC-20, you would have to use the cartridge port. That mean’t you wouldn’t be able to use any cartridge programs if you had that memory upgrade in place. With the TI-99/4A, you can use cartridges while having 2,3,4 or more expansions connected. I also like the keyboard, which is better that the ever popular Commodore 64. Another good feature is that you don’t need to turn off the computer to insert a cartridge. Lastly, it has a much better picture that my Atari 800 XL, and probably many other computers too. I would recommend it too any vintage computer collector.

P.S. An event called the “Eastmoreland Garage Sale” is coming up. It’s basically a time where a bunch of people trying to sell their stuff. There are literally blocks of garage sales, so expect me to make a blog post about things I found there!

The boxed computer

The other box of stuff

A big mess…

A pile of game cartridges.

The computer’s starting screen

The computer definitely works

The shiny computer

The two add-ons

A game running

the organized game cartridges

The extended basic cartridge

I put the users manual in a binder!

The two hard-to-use joysticks

When I was looking for estate sales to go to this weekend, I found one that looked promising, but what I found there totally exceeded my expectations. Right when I went inside I saw a filthy Macintosh SE sitting in the corner of the garage. I was almost sure that it was broken, but I was pretty confident I could repair it (and it was a Macintosh SE!!! I never thought I’d own one!). It had no keyboard or mouse, but that was okay. Especially when the salesperson said it was $5. Then in a (also dirty) box, was an Atari 800 XL home computer. Not only did it have the computer, but it had 4 cartridge games, a data cassette deck, two manuals, a (kind of bad) joystick, and a TV switch box. The best part was the entire box was $25. I didn’t spend much more time at that sale, even though it had lots of cool stuff. I was way too happy that I had those computers.

When I got home, I put both computers on the front step and used a moist towel to wipe away all the dust and dirt before bringing them inside. The mac cleaned up nicer than I thought it would, which was good.

Later I proceeded to do a “Smoke Test”. A Smoke Test is basically when you just plug it in and hope it works and doesn’t start smoking. I was happy to see that the Atari 800 XL did turn on and worked fine. Sadly, the tape drive for the Atari was not working. It was time for the Macintosh. I was expecting to get some hard drive error on the screen, because usually the computer chips work, but the delicate moving parts of the hard drive are almost always dead (and expect to pay a lot of money for a working hard drive!). But, the unexpected happened. Not only did the Mac turn on, but it successfully booted from the hard drive!

The last thing I did was some more extensive cleaning on the computers (removing marks, scratches, etc.). I purchased a keyboard and mouse for the Mac on eBay, and might buy a new tape drive for the Atari in the future. This was probably the best Estate Sale I’ve gone to yet.