Teach ChatGPT to Reliably Code BASIC on the TI-99/4A (works for other retro system/language)

In this video I show how I taught ChatGPT to reliably write TI-99/4A Extended BASIC code—by uploading the TI BASIC & Extended BASIC manuals and keeping all TI chats inside a dedicated project. Details on the struggle to use AI without providing the proper guardrails of what I was trying to accomplish, and after, the success of porting over some existing code. The first run worked, and we later optimized it to a fixed-screen UI (no slow scrolling). The same “teach it the manual” approach works for other retro platforms too—(or any language).

What made it work
• Upload the exact manual(s) for your platform/language in OCR form
• Keep prompts in a single project so context persists
• State constraints: “no scrolling,” "no word wrap", “line numbers by 10s,” etc.
• Test on real hardware

#TI99 #TI994A #ExtendedBASIC #BASIC #RetroComputing #VintageComputing #8bit #basicprogramming