My First Computer

Ride way back into the mid 80’s on the TI-99/4a

Sometime in the past year during a team call @work we got onto the topic of our first computer. This brought back fond memories of my first computer given to me by my grandfather sometime between 1984 and 1986. A discontinued TI-99/4a made by Texas Instruments until 1984, when the personal computer price wars of the 80’s had nearly killed the home pc market. I had no idea then or until many years later that this first computer would ignite a passion for programming and technology in general.

I went searching for the image above of a TI-99/4a and much to my surprise found an active a thriving community of TI-99/4a enthusiasts. I will come back here and update with more details, but for now here is the TI-99/4a community over on AtariAge along with a ‘hello world’ for old time sake.

• TI-BASIC

100 PRINT "HELLO, WORLD!"
110 END