Why did this FAIL? The TI-99/4A Story

Little Car August 29, 2025
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Little Car

@littlecar

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This is a secondary channel to my main channel - Big Car (https://www.youtube.com/bigcar2) that focuses on car videos. This channel has videos on other topics that interest me, but also companion videos to the Big Car channel. I hope you find it interesting! If you need to contact me, e-mail is probably best as I don't check social media very often, but I don't do paid promotions or endorsements, so please don't ask.

Video Description

Before the TI-99/4 launched the US computer press was talking like Texas Instruments had already won the personal computer battle. Yet, 4 years after it launched, the $1,150 TI-99 was being sold in bargain bins for $50 and Texas Instruments were taking a $330M write-off. Was the TI-99 really that bad? And why was it such a flop? Adrian Digital Basement TI-99 repair video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqp3-MMHvBI If you'd like to support what I do please consider supporting me below: PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/bigcartv Big Car merch: https://teespring.com/stores/bigcartv Link to my other channel - Big Car: https://https://www.youtube.com/bigcar2 Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-inside-story-of-texas-instruments-biggest-blunder-the-tms9900-microprocessor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_2600 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-990 https://web.archive.org/web/20170721222804/https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/history/the-texas-instruments-994-worlds-first-16bit-computer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Invaders_(Atari_2600_video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak_%26_Spell_(toy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI_BASIC_(TI_99/4A) https://archive.org/details/personal-computing-today-1982-09-ocr-uee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMS9918 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Color_Computer TI promotional material https://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n3/30_Texas_Instruments.php https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Computer_40 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_Professional_Portable_Computer https://99er.net/992.html https://99er.net/998.html https://www.techmonitor.ai/technology/ti_throws_in_towel_on_travelmate_sells_out_to_acer https://books.google.it/books?id=vi4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA59 https://books.google.com/books?id=wy4EAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA63 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Sinclair_1000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMS9900 www.icinsights.com/news/bulletins/tracking-the-top-10-semiconductor-sales-leaders-over-26-years/ https://qz.com/top-chip-producers-revenue-share-fab-tsmc-samsung-1851758309/slides/7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Chang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSMC

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