Reminiscence... Playing games in school on your TI calculator...

[BlueBMW]

The year... 1998 or so...  location... Littleton, Colorado:
  Here I was, a nerdy kid just starting high school.  I had my fancy TI-85 calculator.  We didn't have internet at home so what we did was use a 56k modem to dial up network to my dad's office.  This netted me an actual connection speed about about 10k or so.  It was dreadfully slow but it was enough to access sites such as ticalc.org to download games for my calculator.  After spending some $80 or so on a TI Graph Link cable, my calculator gaming career began.

I took my fancy TI-85 and downloaded a "system backup" image to it which contained Usgard, an assembly "shell" that would allow me to run assembly programs.  After that I could download as many games as that little z80 based glory device could hold (which wasnt many).  So while the math teacher was rattling on about pythagorean theorums and area formulas for various polygons, I was striving to beat my high school in Ztetris or saving the galaxy in Zmercury.  Yeah sure I could have played game boy color or game gear for some portable fun, but I couldnt do that IN CLASS...

As time went on, I eventually picked up a TI-82 at a pawn shop and later a TI86 and TI89.  At one point I had four graphing calculators in my backpack.  Each had different games on them (well the TI82 had just one huge RPG on it that took all its memory)  Even at lunch I'd play games.  You have to remember, we werent exactly allowed to bring portable games to school and this was before cell phones had anything more than maybe Snake. (crazy I know!)

Here's a few screen shots of some of my favorites:

BomberBloke for the TI86.. excellent Bomberman clone:


Super Mario 86 for the TI86..  very good mario game that featured GRAYSCALE. I cant remember for sure, but it may have also been this game that had SOUND.  You had to get a 3.5 to 2.5mm headphones adapter and connect headphones to the link port.  Sound was very basic, but it was there!


Sqrxz for multiple.. a good mario clone


Ztetris for multiple.. a perfect Tetris game.  This one was available on pretty much all the TI calculators and supported two player via a calculator link cable!


Boulderdash for the TI-89..  I loved boulderdash on my Atari 800, so playing it on the go was great!




And now looking up some stuff on ticalc.org (which I might add looks the same as it did when I browsed there as a kid!)  some people have made some pretty awesome stuff in the last 10 years!

Even better mario games..

Zelda!!

Metroid!?

FZERO!!


And I also just learned that someone made a full out game boy emulator for the TI-89/92/92+ series.

GAMING DEVICE:




ANYWAYS,  any of you goons play any of this stuff while you were in school?

[Arkhan Asylum]

DRUG WARS MOTHER FUCKER.

[BlueBMW]

DRUG WARS MOTHER FUCKER.

I was waiting for someone to mention that one!!   Yeah before I could download assembly games, I was stuck with whatever I could grab off of friend's calculators... things like Drug Wars were your typical BASIC fare

[OldMan]

I remember building link cables for that thing, so my newphew could install some ML montor program....
And Drug Wars.

[esteban]

You and your fancy calculator skills. I didn't own one in high school (89-93), I borrowed one from school. But I wasn't captivated by the calculator: I was obsessed with making demos/simple games on Apple IIgs (computer lab in school). I was in that lab whenever I had free time (no computer at home).

Sorry calculator, I dreamed of computer.

[jeffhlewis]

Yup, Drug Wars was it back in the day because nobody owned a damn link cable except for a few nerds.

We had a version of tetris, some raycasting demo and a bunch of your standard BASIC-type programs. I remember we used to draw out notes with the pixel-drawing tool (forgot what it was called - you could save screenshots of what you drew/wrote and you could fill the page with a ton of information) - our teacher would check for "MEM CLEAR" before each test so I just wrote a basic program that would display MEM CLEAR and then flip over to my pixel notes after putting in a code.

Kind of miss those calculators but even back then I could never understand why the damn things cost $150+ when they were running a 1980's TI processor and a screen that was worse than the Gameboy's.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

DRUG WARS MOTHER FUCKER.

lol, I got Drug Lords on my Linux lappy!

[Arkhan Asylum]

My TI came with a link cable.

Sucks to be you old fogies.



I had a pretty cool skate or die game too.

[NecroPhile]

I had a Casio, so no fancy games. 

Kind of miss those calculators but even back then I could never understand why the damn things cost $150+ when they were running a 1980's TI processor and a screen that was worse than the Gameboy's.

It's no better now: $100+ for a screen, cpu, and memory that's lightyears behind any comparably priced smart phone.

[xcrement5x]

DRUG WARS MOTHER FUCKER.

Yup, Drug Wars here too.  Buy/Sell mofos!

[csgx1]

This brings back a lot of memories.  I had a TI-85 and TI-86.  I remember playing a lot of ztetris, bomberbloke and drug wars in calculus class.  Some of the other games I remember playing were zkart, plane jumper, othello, space invaders and a slow Mega Man game.

[turbokon]

Damn I feel old. While you were staring high school, I just starting college. I had a TI-85 and had Tetris, super Mario land and blackjack loaded.

[BlueBMW]

Damn I feel old. While you were staring high school, I just starting college. I had a TI-85 and had Tetris, super Mario land and blackjack loaded.

And I'm in college now with all these 18 somethings....  Im feeling particularly old!

[turboswimbz]

Damn I feel old. While you were staring high school, I just starting college. I had a TI-85 and had Tetris, super Mario land and blackjack loaded.

And I'm in college now with all these 18 somethings....  Im feeling particularly old!

Blue have you gotten - "You were born in the 80's damn your old" yet?  I got this for the first time recently thanks to those 18 somethings.  All I could think was Shit I'm 26 - when did 26 become old?

[SignOfZeta]

I was a dumb kid. Never took the classes that required such gear.

I don't think anyone I know that did take those classes actually remembers any of that shit 20 years later now though so in the end we're all on the same page.

[BlueBMW]

I was a dumb kid. Never took the classes that required such gear.

I don't think anyone I know that did take those classes actually remembers any of that shit 20 years later now though so in the end we're all on the same page.

So true... I took Calculus in high school and ended up in developmental math when I went back to college a mere 6 years later...

Blue have you gotten - "You were born in the 80's damn your old" yet?  I got this for the first time recently thanks to those 18 somethings.  All I could think was Shit I'm 26 - when did 26 become old?

I havent got that yet, but its strange talking to kids born after 2000...

[Arkhan Asylum]

26, old?

da fuck.

[TheClash603]

I didn't know that you could do this shit!  I would've loved playing some games on my calculator back in the day.

I actually programmed my own game over the course of a few weeks of boredom in class.  It was a text choose your own adventure game, where it would just give a sentence and then a few choices.  I remember a few people would ask to borrow my calculator in class so they could play my gem.

I don't remember much about the game other than you were a man who woke up with amnesia and you had to find your identity.  In the twist ending, you find out you are actually Hitler and you lose anyway.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I didn't know that you could do this shit!  I would've loved playing some games on my calculator back in the day.

man, that is crazy talk.

[RoyVegas]

Had I known you could play games at school, I just might have actually shown up a few more days...

[tggodfrey]

i could never figure how loading games was done. I still have my TI81 and TI86.

[CGQuarterly]

I'm disappointed in you, Beamer.  $80 for a link cable?  I made my own.  First thing I ever soldered together, actually.

Chris

[BlueBMW]

I'm disappointed in you, Beamer.  $80 for a link cable?  I made my own.  First thing I ever soldered together, actually.

Chris

I know... i had even looked up how to do it.  At that age though, my access to the right tools and supplies was somewhat limited.

[CGQuarterly]

I'm disappointed in you, Beamer.  $80 for a link cable?  I made my own.  First thing I ever soldered together, actually.

Chris

I know... i had even looked up how to do it.  At that age though, my access to the right tools and supplies was somewhat limited.

Oh.  I made mine back in 1998 when I was 21 and in community college.  I bought a TI-89 right when it came out.  At that time you couldn't just buy the link cable in stores - you had to send away for it.  Well I was way too impatient for that so I found some plans online for making a link cable that plugged into your parallel (not serial) port.  Went down to Radio Shack and bought the cheapest soldering iron that they had, plus the parts to make the cable.  I wish I still had it, just for fun.  Of course I have a USB model now.  Still have the same TI-89, though, along with an 83 and a couple of HP 48's (one G and one GX.)  those HPs are cool for games because they have sound.  VERY rudimentary though.

Chris

[Arkhan Asylum]

Mine came with my calculator!

BWAJHHAHAHfhsghahahahahaahahHWHAHahahaha



I still have my TI-83 also, and it's sitting doing nothing.

Did you know the ## in TI-## has nothing to do with the calculator itself.    Supposedly the number is the graduating year of the lead calculator-warlord who made the thing.

So whoever made the 89 graduated in 89. 

At least, that's what I've been told.

So eventually we are going to have a TI-00 and people will shit their pants.