Hi all,<br>At the CCAG Show in Lorain OH I
displayed several of my computers, including my Tomy Tutor.
For each computer I picked out what I considered to
be the features and weaknesses. This is what I came
up with for the Tomy Tutor:<br>Features:<br>-Fast
TMS9995 16-bit CPU<br>-16K RAM memory for
programs<br>-256 by 192 graphics in 16 colors<br>-Cassette
interface to save programs<br>-Cartridge port for
solid-state software<br>-Easy to learn Tomy BASIC in
ROM<br>-Graphics BASIC for color graphics<br>-Built-in graphic and
sprite editor<br><br>Weaknesses:<br>-Rubber button
keyboard<br>-Poor software selection; mostly games<br>-No file
saving and loading in BASIC<br>-Sprites not accessible
from BASIC<br>-Flimsy power supply
construction<br>-Promised expansions never released<br>-No way to attach a
printer<br>-No way to program in assembly<br><br>Well what do
you think? Agree or disagree? Anything to
add?<br><br>My own personal peeve is the very poor power supply;
I had a power supply short out on my first Tutor
and it ruined it before it blew the fuse...<br><br>I
think the biggest flaw was the short-sightedness of not
including file saving and loading in BASIC. It's difficult
to write a serious program when you can't save a
file.<br><br>Davey B. ;<))

Among the stregnths, list the fact that the
computer was lightweight and compact. The documentation,
while incomplete, was child-friendly.<br><br>Among the
weaknesses, list:<br>Cassette loading was s-l-o-w.<br>No
VPEEK or VPOKE in BASIC (a crime it copied from the
sucky TI BASIC). This gets my vote as the biggest flaw
in TT BASIC.<br><br>===<br><br>There is a way to
attach a printer. Probably in Japan, there was a
dedicated printer; a member of the Tomy Tutor User Club
came up with a way to attach any old "parallel
centronics" printer.<br><br>By the way, you CAN access the
sprites from BASIC using SCELL. You can also customize
characters not customizable with MCELL, and change octet
colors, and crash your computer with a variety of
colorful results.

> No VPEEK or VPOKE in BASIC<br><br>I agree,
and no method of calling ML
subroutines,<br>either.<br><br>I put up a little of my ruminations on this
at<br><br><a href=http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tomy/me.html
target=new>http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tomy/me.html</a><br><br>but it's
not linked to the main site yet.<br><br>I
just wish we could do something useful with all the
power locked up in the 9995. It's really quite a
stellar CPU.

Hello Spectrevishnu. I think you might be someone
I met about a year ago.<br><br>If you are, then I
want to tell you that I've tried working on a Tomy
Tutor emulator about four times in the past
year-and-a-half. Each time, I've failed because I'm not familiar
enough with the system.<br><br>This last time (last
night actually), I got a little farther. The system
starts writing to addresses in the $40xx range before it
crashes and burns. These are probably memory banking
shadow registers. Well, I'm going to go look for more TI
docs.<br><br>Are you going to be at the same place this year? I
think I'm not going (last year, the company I work for
footed the bill for sending me; this year, no dice).

Today I got a wonderful surprise in the mail. 12
rare Japanese Tomy Tutor Carts.. OH BOY!! :) I am
going to do a scan of the labels and post them soon. I
also will be creating some screen shots for Cameron's
Tomy Toots page..... I will post a complete list of my
Japanese Tomy Tutor cartridges real soon.<br><br>Wow..
These are totally awesome!

Hello! In the founders gallery, and in the
Japanese cartridge gallery you will find a screen-shot of
the cartrdige labels of my 12 new Japanese Tomy Tutor
cartridges. I like the fact that each cartridge has a label
that is numbered. I also recieved my boxed Tomy Tutor
Joystick today. Look for screen shots of each side of the
box within the next couple of days...<br><br>Thanks
all!

We have a new member! pager88  Thanks for joining.  We look forward to hearing
from you!<br><br>swap_and_shop<br>founder

> I think you might be someone I met about a
year ago<br><br>If you're talking about a C64
simulation of the Tutor I wrote, you're right
;-)<br><br>> The system starts writing to addresses in the
$40xx range before it crashes and burns<br><br>I agree,
these are undoubtedly mapped to the mysterious logic
array on the board. One consideration is keeping all of
the ROMs in memory and see when it starts to bug out.
There can't be too much ROM swapping going on to free
up RAM (unlike a more complicated banking system
like the C64 or C128) since all the RAM is tied up in
the VDP, so maybe just outright ignoring all those
writes should at least allow it to boot from the
internal ROMs.<br><br>Cartridge ROMs will be another story
...<br><br>Yes, I'm still at the same address.

It never really boots (in booting, I would expect
it to do a lot of writes to the VDP registers). Hey!
Maybe the VDP registers are in the $40xx range. LOL.
I'm flummoxed. Need more info on the Tomy system, and
I need to know 9995 assembly language, and have a
disassembly of the ROM in my left hand.<br><br>Looks like I'm
not going to the west coast VCF this year
:(<br><br>Can you make heads or tails of this??? Am I doing the
word-access correctly?<br><br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$401c<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address $401d<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $401d<br>Attempt to write $00 to
Address $401e<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$401e<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address $401f<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $401f<br>Attempt to write $00 to
Address $4020<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$4020<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address $4021<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $4021<br>Attempt to write $00 to
Address $4022<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$4014<br>Attempt to write $18 to Address $4015<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $4015<br>Attempt to write $03 to
Address $4016<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$401e<br>Attempt to write $f0 to Address $401f<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $401f<br>Attempt to write $c2 to
Address $4020<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$4002<br>Attempt to write $86 to Address $4003<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $4003<br>Attempt to write $d2 to
Address $4004<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$4004<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address $4005<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $4005<br>Attempt to write $f0 to
Address $4006<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$40f0<br>Attempt to write $45 to Address $40f1<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $40f1<br>Attempt to write $50 to
Address $40f2<br>Attempt to read ff from Address
$8a4f<br>Attempt to read ff from Address $8a4e<br>Attempt to read
ff from Address $8a50<br>Attempt to read ff from
Address $8a4f<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$1410<br>Attempt to write $0c to Address $1411<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $1411<br>Attempt to write $40 to
Address $1412<br>Attempt to read ff from Address
$c33d<br>Attempt to read ff from Address $c33c<br>Attempt to read
ff from Address $c33e<br>Attempt to read ff from
Address $c33d<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$4014<br>Attempt to write $18 to Address $4015<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $401c<br>Attempt to write $00 to
Address $401d<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$401d<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address $401e<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $401e<br>Attempt to write $00 to
Address $401f<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$401f<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address $4020<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $4020<br>Attempt to write $00 to
Address $4021<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$4021<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address $4022<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $4014<br>Attempt to write $18 to
Address $4015<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$4015<br>Attempt to write $03 to Address $4016<br>Attempt to write
$00 to Address $401e<br>Attempt to write $f0 to
Address $401f<br>Attempt to write $00 to Address
$401f<br><br>(and more like this)

I recently recieved a boxed Tomy Tutor Joystick.
Unforunately, the picture on the top of the box was torn. So I
have posted a scan of the side of the box.. This may
be found in the Photo Gallery, under joysticks..
Thanks everyone. I am still planning on building an
Online Tomy Tutor Club website soon.
<br><br>Swap_and_Shop<br>Founder

I think we should create a "Chat Time" for the
club. I think that we should make this 8:00 to 11:00 pm
Central Standard Time (USA).. What I am going to do is
try and activate the chat room for around this time.
I think we should make this a daily chat time. If
everyone would prefer a different time, or has a better
idea let me know. Just log on to the Tomy Tutor Club
page and active the chat feature.<br><br> I guess I
will start this tonight... Thanks

Richard is the webmaster of the best TI-99 4/A
page on the web. <a href=http://www.99er.net/ti.shtml
target=new>http://www.99er.net/ti.shtml</a><br>As
probably everyone here knows, the Tomy Tutor is a close
cousin of the TI-99 4/A. Welcome Richard!<br><br>Michael
Anderson/Founder<br><br>P.S. I have added Richards site to the links area, be
sure to check it out!

Hi,<br>I think having chats is a fun idea.
Unfortunately I work from 8 PM to 5 AM EST, so the only time I
could join in would be on Friday or Saturday night. But
I'll try to come in as much as I can.<br><br>Davey B.

Hello!<br>I am very happy to join this Users Group!<br><br>Fabrice<br><br>TI-99
Forever!: <a href=http://www.ti99.com
target=new>http://www.ti99.com</a><br>email : webmaster@... or
binaryside@...

Welcome Fabrice! For those of you who may not
know, Fabrice is the webmaster for <br>TI-99 Forever!:
<a href=http://www.ti99.com target=new>http://www.ti99.com</a> <br><br>He has a
very cool webpage that covers
the TI-99 as well as the Tomy Tutor! His site has a
lot of great pictures showing the inside of the Tomy
Tutor. Site is in French, but you can translate it in
English with Altavista, or Google has an automatic
translation feature as well. <br><br>The club is really
coming together guys! I am extremely pleased with the
membership turn-out, and to think it has only been a little
over a month since we started! <br><br>Michael
Anderson

Hello :) <br> <br>I would like to know where I
can find the complete Tomy tutor cartridges and
accessories list? <br> <br>I tried to get information about
europeen cartridges productions for the Tutor but I found
nothing... Any information about this?<br><br>Fabrice
<br>TI-99 Forever!: <a href=http://www.ti99.com
target=new>http://www.ti99.com</a><br>email :
webmaster@... or binaryside@...

> I would like to know where I can find
the<br>> complete Tomy Tutor cartridges and
accessories<br>> list?<br><br>Normally it would be up
at<br><br><a href=http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tomy/carts.html
target=new>http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tomy/carts.html</a><br><br>At the
moment, Floodgap is down due to some
network<br>trouble with its provider. It should be up within
a<br>day or two (which means my Floodgap e-mail is
also<br>down, blast).<br><br>I got two new cartridges from
Mike, Hyperspace and<br>Jungler, in return for my boxed
Cave Crawlers and<br>I'll update the list when
Floodgap comes back up.<br><br>Cameron Kaiser

Hi all,<br>I actually got on the interent early
enough to come here during the chat time (I got here at
9:40 central time) and no one was here. I hope we can
get more people to come here and chat. I think it'd
be fun. I can only come here on the weekends due to
my job so if anyone wants to talk with me that'd be
the time.<br><br>Davey B.

Normally, I would of been here, but I was on vacation.. I will definately be
here next week.. Thanks for trying though Davey...<br><br><br>Mike

Wow, 11 members.. How about that!    Welcome!!

Welcome to the club!!

Just signed up for the club, glad to see that
someone out there knows what I'm talking about when i
talk about my Tudor. I'm not a tech person, so I don't
know how much help I'd be, I just love the games.
Don't have any duplicates of anything, but if someone
else does, I would like to expand my collection,
thanks all!!!<br><br>-Paul

Some of the rarer items I have documented on
the<br>Little Orphan web page seem to be just that --<br>rare.
Plus, I'd like to see if the items that I<br>have
surmised are common, really are encountered<br>that
often.<br><br>Would people care to post their cartridge
and<br>peripherals lists? Then we can compare notes and<br>figure
out just what seems to exist in this group<br>(which
is probably the largest single meeting<br>place for
Tutor users out there, right, Mike? :-)<br><br>Myself
(boxed unless otherwise noted)<br><br>* Cave
Crawlers<br>* Deep Six<br>* Traffic Jam<br>* Hyperspace
(loose)<br>* Jungler (loose)<br>* Loco-Motion<br>* Car-Azy
Racer<br>* Pooyan<br>* Scramble<br>* Scramble-JA
(loose)<br>* Saurusland (loose)<br>* Night Flight (loose)<br>*
Mission Attack (loose)<br>* Athletic Land (loose)<br>* 2
main units, both boxed<br>* 2 Data Recorders, one
loose<br>* 2 joysticks, one loose<br>* one set of disc
controllers, boxed<br><br>Other people?

You wrote: ---<br><br><br> Can you make heads or
tails of this??? Am I doing the word-access
correctly?<br><br> Attempt to write $00 to Address $401c<br> Attempt
to write $00 to Address $401d<br> Attempt to write
$00 to Address $401d<br> Attempt to write $00 to
Address $401e<br> Attempt to write $00 to Address
$401e<br>---<br><br>I dunno. It looks like the muxing logic
isn't<br>working. I'm sure you already know that the 9995<br>muxes
the 8-bit data bus on each 16-bit word. Since<br>the
data access here seems to be hitting each
byte<br>twice, I don't know if the word alignment is<br>correct.
I wonder if any Geneve programmer gurus<br>are out
there reading this?

Welcome to the club, I am glad you found us here and I hope you enjoy the club. 
<br><br>Mike<br><br><br>founder

One Boxed Tomy Tutor Joystick-white as
snow<br>Three other Tomy Tutor Joysticks<br>Two Tomy Tutor Pad
controllers<br>Four Tomy Tutor computers. I just added a new
one.<br>One Data Recorder-no cable<br>One Tomy Tutor Users
Manual<br>Boxed Scramble<br>Boxed Cave-Crawlers<br>12 Japanese
Tomy Tutor Cartridges: DONPAN, BOMBMAN, TURPIN, MARINE
ADVENTURE, TRAFFICJAM, TRON, JUNGLER, GUTANG GOTONG, MAZE
PATROL, MR. DO, BERMUDA TRIANGLE and FROGGER!! These are
all loose.<br><br>American releases all loose:<br>Two
deep sixes<br>Two Hyperscpaces<br>Two Torpedo
Terror<br>One Cave Crawler<br>Two Jungler<br>Two
Scramble<br>One Loco Motion<br>Two Traffic Jam<br><br>AND MY
LATEST AQUISITION: CARAZY RACER!--very rare, and when I
have time I will tell you all the story of how I found
that!<br><br>This listing is not an invitation to trade or to buy.
However, I like to hear offers......<br><br><br>I will be
posting new pictures to the photo gallery just as soon as
I find the time..

We have had a 2 day period where the club
basically was deleted from Yahoo. It just now has come back
online. But the photo gallery appears to be down now.
This downtime has made me realize that the yahoo clubs
section may not be the best forum for our club... I hope
that yahoo can get the photo-gallery online again. If
I am going to take the time to restore that gallery
its going to be on a secure and stable server, not
here. I hope the gallery comes back up.. the time it
took was about 2 hours, but still.. After all the work
and promotion, and we have 13 members here, I would
really hate to lose the membership list. So tonight I
will be copying everyones email address so that in the
event this happens again we will not lose anyone.<br> I
think it is important to maintain a presence here on
yahoo. My email address is mwa26@... So if this
happens again you can contact me..<br><br>Mike

Well I have 4 Tomy Tutor computers which is
really to many. So starting tonight I will be running a
7 day auction for the Following,<br>Tomy Tutor
Computer<br>Tomy Tutor Joystick<br>Hyperspace Cartridge<br>AND are
you ready for this????<br><br>Japanese Pyuuta release
of TRAFFICJAM!<br><br>Thats right I am parting with
a Japanese Cartridge! This will go up by 7:30
central standard time.<br><br><br>Good luck to all!

Hi folks,<br><br>I would like to trade my Tomy
Tutor (got it from Ianoid) plus the Car-Azy Racer cart
for the Pyuuta Junior since i don't collect computers
but rather game systems. I don't think anyone here
has a Pyuuta Jr. but if i don't ask, how will i know
?<br><br>And no, i won't sell it, just trade it for the Pyuuta
Jr or nothing. Thanks!<br><br>--- Sly DC ---

Has anyone else here noticed that messages that
are supposed to be emailed (if you're signed up that
way) are not getting sent at all since the problems
this week? I've had to check into this club and
several others to read all the postings. Is it just me or
are others noticing it too?<br><br>Davey B.