Lots of small things have been happening in April to make my daily life a bit easier.
My ODSP caseworker finally approved for me to have an emergency toilet thingy and with donations to my GoFundMe allow me to get a mini-fridge.
For more gossip, check out my blog post
garyopa.blog/post/8142127...
March is just flying by, soon it will be April showers that bring May flowers.
Finally, this month in the progress of making my daily life easier, I was able to have grab bars installed, along with an new shower bench in my bathroom.
Thanks everyone for your prayers & thoughts!
Bowser Wishes Everyone A Happy Mar10 Day!
Its been a while since my last post, I can't believe we are already into 3rd month of 2026 so on this warm Mario day, I like to give everyone a progress update on my overall health, you can read all about it below on my blog:
www.tumblr.com/bowser-garyo...
It's time for progress report on the 838-FDC
Currently getting back into the flow of some major coding to finalize things up as many of you know I had some health issues last month but I am back on track and getting to regular schedule of daily coding and testing now.
garyopa.blog/post/8089273...
Slowly... One Step At A Time... Another Health Update...
Read my full blog update here: garyopa.blog/post/8078247...
Thanks as well, to all those that supported me last month, your kind wishes and donations really helped!
For more info, and to see the AI output, see my AtariAge Thread about it: forums.atariage.com/topic/387960...
Being Groundhog day, I decided to ask Gemini 3 to write me a program to fit the theme that would run on a Texas Instruments TI-99/4a Home Computer in Extended Basic.
It didn't do too bad of a job, it make a couple of minor mistakes, once those errors were fixed, the program ran perfectly.
Finally, got the red LED original Texas Instruments TI Programmer calculator.
But what kind of battery is this? It has a 9 volt type connector and 2 pin plug on the side? Can I recharge it? What do I use as a replacement?
Can't wait to do some hexadecimal and binary math on it!
Health Update after my painful & long visit to the Scarberia Emergency Hospital last Friday.
My upper part of my left leg, where I torn my hamstrings from too much stress and such on my bad leg, looks still horrible, but it is slowly healing.
For more info please see: garyopa.blog/post/8065736...
It's not going to be an easy month for me, not a great way to start 2026 at all. 🙏
Starting Monday, 3 times a week I am going to have PSW come to my house to help me with things like showers, while I wait out this new problem to heal and hopefully get seen by the specialists sooner than later to see what more can be done for my leg to regain it's at least mobility I had before.
But it seems for now I basically torn my hamstrings in my left leg, so now my upper thigh is bruised and hurts like hell when I try doing simple things like lifting my leg onto the bed or moving in my wheelchair.
The last couple of days I had too much pain in my left leg more so than normal, so yesterday I went to the Scarberia emergency, and after 10 hours I was basically given a shot of morphine and sent home, with now upcoming referrals to see specialists on what can be done.
Jump™ Presents: GaryOPA - How I Got To Today!
Jump™ decided this weekend to sit down and do a nice interview with me! So sit back now and enjoy:
"Gary Bowser (aka) GaryOPA: How I Go To Today!"
Afterwards show your support via my #gofundme gofund.me/5c51b291
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX2L...
2025: GaryOPA's Year of Retro Revival and Resilience
Amazing enough I made it to 2026. I couldn't have done it without your support. I am looking forward to making more progress during 2026. Looking back to 2025 it was so busy, you need to see garyopa.blog for the full text of my year-in-review! :)
Today, while I enjoy our Boxing Day Scarberia Snowstorm.🌨️
I upgraded ti99ers.com to v16 release of JS99'er by Rasmus.
It has been useful in debugging my new 838FDC DSR code, since it emulates the original Myarc FDC + WD177x and the live debugger tab is handy to have.
Happy Holidays To All The Retro Hobbyists Out There!
Can't believe 2025 is almost over. I hope Santa was kind to everyone I know and you are enjoying the holiday with your loved ones, as for me I am just relaxing and decided to play "St. Nick by Funware" on my #TI99
🎅🎄🎁☃️🕹️⌨️
There was so much interest in fact from Canadians, that I decided to order up another batch of 5 units.
Happy Holidays!
They will come fully-assembled, tested, and sample 16gb sdcard as well included, and if you wish an optional 3d printed case as well.
I recently, did another batch of 5 boards, and so far 2 are spoken for, so I have 3 units available for Canadian TI99 users, and I am willing to mail them within Canada.
Please contact me by PM regarding it, if you are interested in grabbing one.
! FOR CANADIANS TI99'ers ONLY !
! The wonderful Pi-Pico W (PPEB) for the TI-99/4a Console !
Last month I did a run of 5 boards, and gave them out to local TI99 users here in my area for the total bare cost of the boards, parts, etc. (no-profit, as per the designer wishes)
My TI99 Retro XMAS2025 Present Arrived Today!
youtu.be/_mAsQse2gKA
See the YouTube Video Description for all the details!
Can't Believe Its Almost Time for 12 Days of Xmas🎄
Getting Ready For My 3rd 🇨🇦 Canadian Freedom Winter
Jingle Bells🌨️Dashing Thru The Snow With My TI99
Whom wants to help build me an Snowman?☃️
Looking forward to having a great Christmas this year!
Thanks for all your support!🥰
Got my second locomotive working the old CN rail one, which is slower and heavy...
GaryOPA is now restarting his love for the HO Model Railroad scene!
youtu.be/sWv3oKSwOyg
Back in the early 70's, before I got into the world of Texas Instruments computers, as many of you know I was heavily involved in the HO model railroad hobby.
Many super thanks to one of my steady clients, they sent me an early Xmas gift, a nice brand-new ASUS TUF Gaming A18 Gaming laptop.
This will greatly help me to be more productive throughout the workday, plus help with my on-going retro computer projects for the TI99, Adam, Nabu, MSX systems.
838FDC SMT Prototype testing..
Project Status November Update
1 - FPGA replacement for WD1772/Ajax is working.
2 - In-circuit flashing of the DSR is working.
3 - 838FDC reworked to use SMT to reduce the cost.
4 - Testing underway for 1.44mb HD working at 36 sectors for both physical 3.5" and Gotek.
Happy November!
The first snowstorm in Scarberia...
Winter in Canada is early this year...
Time to put up the Xmas tree...
Thanks again everyone for your kind messages, and support, and your donations to my #GoFundMe gofund.me/80da3c59e which allows me to make investments like this which help me improve my overall health, and allow me to work longer hours, enjoying my retro Texas Instruments projects, and coding away!
So this weekend, I replaced with one of my cushions with bigger, soft, but still firm, and I added back piece, with lumber support upside-down with neck pillow, and now my back feels better, and i can lend back and have my head supported.
