Desireless’ Voyage Voyage was stuck in my head while I was looking for my Voyage 200 yesterday (actually I do like a lot the recent versions of this 80’s hit by La Maison du Malheur and Soap&Skin). Mission accomplished! I can’t believe that this is almost a vintage pocket computer. I remember buying it in 2002 à la FNAC. While its predecessor, the TI-92+ became a rarity, the Voyage 200 can still be bought today – and is still as pricy as it was then. Besides some additional storage capability, the two machines are equivalent. The software is what I call the classic TI’s load and is pretty good and well done (this is a compliment coming from an HP guy). The user had access to a trimmed version of the Derive CAS software to do some basic symbolic math. What I found really remarkable in this machine was the hardware.
I surprised myself dreaming of an HP-48’s software load running in the body of a Voyage 200. What a dream… I was even ready to give up the HP keyboard feel for this improbable chimera in a blink. OK, the sacrifice would have been small since the 48’s keyboard had this very bad tendency to crunch over time (derived from the crunchy sound the membrane under the keyboard was making when it was slightly misaligned). Everything in the hardware was superior to the 48. The MC68000 @ 12MHz, ~200 KB of RAM, ~2.5 MB of flash storage, the high-res LCD display (240 x 128 pixels), the keyboards (QWERTY and numerical, plus physical function keys), etc. Who knows, a Joseph Curwen may attempt the mind transfer in the future. While I was looking for the V200, I found my TI-74 I was referring to in my last week’s post about the CC-40. Malediction, it is dead… If I can revive it on time – a-la Charles Dexter Ward –, I may surprise you with a cool feature of the machine next time. For now, enjoy the pics.
