THE 1979 TI-99/4 PERIPHERALS &
ACCESSORIES Listed
below are all the peripherals and accessories that were available for
the TI-99/4 in 1979. Note
that these are all items that were manufactured in 1979 and not
1980/1981 (the two other years of production for the TI-99/4). Even
though some of the materials here might look the same as their
1980/1981 counterparts (such as the 13" Color Monitor), they all
carry 1979 print/manufacture dates and/or
1979
copyrights.
Many times
TI would make corrections/updates to their items and in turn update the
copyright which helps make it easier to tell if something was really
made in 1979. Click here to see a
table of the
1979 manufactured items that I have in my collection along with their
production dates
1979 13" Color Monitor Box
I
am not so sure on this one, so you can mark this entry as temporary
until I find out for certain. All I know is that the TI-99/4 13"
Monitor would have
came in a cardboard box of some kind, and I am assuming that it
would have looked something like the TI-99/4 Console box except with a
drawing of a monitor. Keep in mind that this box could
very well be just a plain cardboard box with only a stamp of some sort
indicating that it is for the monitor.
Considering that the monitor came bundled with the 99/4 system, I can
only assume it did come in a more collectable picture box like that of
the 99/4. If you
can shed any light on what the original monitor box looked like, shoot
me an
e-mail. If it does turn out to be simply a plain cardboard box, then it
would not be very collectable and in turn this entry would be removed.
1979 13" Color Monitor
This
is the original Zenith-made monitor that came packaged with the 99/4 in
1979. This monitor only had a limited run, as it was replaced in
January 1981 with a smaller 10" monitor made by Panasonic. Therefore,
this version of the monitor is pretty rare as it had an even smaller
life span than the TI-99/4 console.
One other thing to note here is that the monitor only came bundled
with 99/4 systems sold in 1979 and the first few months of 1980, before
TI got a waiver from the FCC for their RF Modulator. Each monitor came
with a production sticker on the back, showing the month and year
of production (such as "August 1979"). This monitor carries product
number PHA 4000.
1979 13" Color Monitor Manual
This
is another
one of those elusive TI-99/4 manuals which you never seem to see.
Actually, you never seem to run across a Color Monitor manual for even
the TI-99/4A! So this must be a pretty rare item. This manual looks
different from the 99/4A color monitor manual, which sports a picture
of the unit on the front cover with a slightly different design (but it
does retain the blue/white color scheme). The inside pages of the 1979
manual show diagrams
for the Control Panel
of the 99/4-branded Zenith Monitor, which is clearly not the
99/4A-branded
Panasonic monitor. The manual pictured here carries part number 1037165-1,
which means that it is the first version of the manual released.
1979 13" Color Monitor Cable
With
so many 3rd party and homemade monitor cables out there for the TI-99/4
and TI-99/4A, it's going to be hard to identify the original cable that
was sold with the 13" Color Monitor in 1979 unless it's in the original
packing envelope from TI. All I know about
this official cable which carries part number PHA 2010 is that it is 5
feet in length and should have that microphone-like plug for the Audio
connector (as TI's monitors did not use the traditional connector for
the audio port, which does help make it
somewhat identifiable). In addition, there is a drawing of the 1979
TI-99/4 monitor cable inside the Read This First! manual (pictured on
the left) which gives
some clues on what to look for. This cable would have came packaged
inside of the 13" Color Monitor box.
1979 Joysticks Box
Unlike the TI-99/4A joysticks which came
packaged in either a plain brown cardboard box or a fully illustrated
one with nicely drawn images, the 1979 box looks kind of similar to
that of the 99/4 console packaging. Not too much to talk about here,
except that this box is pretty rare and I've only seen one once in the
wild. The box itself carries a 1979 copyright.
1979 Joysticks
The
original TI-99/4 joysticks sold back in 1979 were
different than the ones released for the 99/4A, despite carrying the
same product number of PHP 1100. Overall the size of these controllers
was smaller than the familiar ones released later and had the fire
buttons located on the sides. The lever of the joysticks also had a
small ball on the top, apparently to make it more comfortable to hold.
These sticks came two to a set just like their 99/4A counterparts. As
with all TI hardware devices there is a manufacture date located on
the bottom, so If you have a pair of joysticks with an LTA date that
ends with 79 then the controllers were made in 1979.
1979 Joysticks Manual
The
manual for the 1979 TI-99/4 joysticks not only looks the same as the
later TI-99/4A version, but also carries the same copyright date of
1979. The question you are probably wondering is how one can tell if
the manual they have is for the 99/4 or the 99/4A sticks. Well,
as far as I can determine there are only two ways. The first, and
easiest, is to look at the part number on the back cover. If it ends
with a "-1" then it is the manual for the 99/4 joysticks, if it ends
with "-2" then it is for the 99/4A. The second way of telling is by
looking
at the illustration of the joysticks inside of the manual. If the
illustrations in the manual look like the 99/4
joysticks above, then you have the original version. However, if they
look different (have the fire buttons on the top instead of the side)
then they are for the 99/4A. The part number for this manual is 1039061-1, and carries a 1979
copyright date.
1979 Dual Cassette Cable
Back
in 1979 this right here was your only option to save/record data on the
99/4. TI did not release their disk drive system until 1980, making
people have to buy this cable and a 3rd party tape recorder instead (TI
did not manufacture a recorder themselves until 1982). The first
cassette cables released in 1979 were made to hook up to 2 tape
recorders, even though you could use it with just one. The dual
cassette cable came packaged in a plain brown envelope which stated the
part numbers of both the cassette cable and packet (yes, the
packet had its own product number believe it or not!). I decided not to
give the retail packet its own separate entry since it is more generic
than the boxes TI sold their other items in. This 1979 dual cassette
cable
carries part number PHA 2000 and the original packet carries part
number 1037196-1.
1979 Dual Cassette Cable Manual
This
is the manual that came packaged with the dual cassette cable. It
was included inside the cassette cable's retail packet just
to provide the user with some simple steps on getting a tape recorder
connected to the TI-99/4. The instructions come on a small single-sheet
slip
and carry part
number 1037175-1 along with a 1979 copyright.
Back to
Main
Page
