I started on a TI-99/4a and learned to program on one. Some of the games you could buy on cartridge were really good for the early 80s, and the TI had great sound. The built in basic was pretty limited, but Extended Basic was great. Extended basic had programmable sprites, and you could write some pretty nice games with it. Everything else required a disk drive... so...
The downside to the TI was to get faster storage than a cassette deck, you had to buy an "peripheral expansion box" that often cost $2000, which was almost 10x more than the computer itself. I remember when my Dad bought the computer, he got it on sale in '82 for $199.
The downside to the TI was to get faster storage than a cassette deck, you had to buy an "peripheral expansion box" that often cost $2000, which was almost 10x more than the computer itself. I remember when my Dad bought the computer, he got it on sale in '82 for $199.