Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (1981-1984)

 ✅ TI-99/4a 

The TI-99/4A, released in June 1981, was Texas Instruments’ highly successful attempt to fix their earlier computer models. Most notably, they replaced an incredibly unpopular, cheap rubber keyboard with a high-quality, typewriter-style keyboard. Armed with a powerful 16-bit processor, it could display complex, colorful moving graphics and digital objects that easily outmatched its rivals. The computer became a household name thanks to a massive television ad campaign and a brutal price war that saw its price plummet from $525 down to a dirt-cheap $99. To upgrade the machine, users had to plug accessories directly into the right side of the unit one after another, which quickly created a long, cluttered chain of plastic blocks that kids affectionately nicknamed "the train."

Texas Instruments TI-99 Peripheral Expansion Box 

The TI Peripheral Expansion Box (or PEB) was released in January 1982 to clean up the messy chain of side-plug accessories originally required to upgrade the TI-99/4A computer. When it first launched, this massive, heavy-duty metal upgrade box was incredibly expensive and highly sought after. To buy a fully loaded system with this expansion box, you had to drop a whopping $1,500! The giant box sat on a desk and allowed users to neatly slide internal upgrade cards and floppy disk drives straight into slots, much like a modern desktop PC tower. It was a massive hit among power users, and it is estimated that one expansion box was sold for every ten TI-99/4A computers that left store shelves before the entire product lineup was retired in 1984.

TI-99 Acoustic Phone Modem

The TI Phone Modem was an acoustic coupler modem that ran at 300 baud. 

Donated by: Joseph Rodomista