TI-83 Basic was the first programming language I really felt like I had mastered. For a while in my first CS college class I was writing code in TI basic and translating it to C++. Drugwars and Bowling were the two really impressive games written in TI-Basic.
But discovering z80 assembly was like magic. It was incredibly exciting to go to my dad's office at the university where he worked (where computers had 2 T1 internet lines) to download and try assembly games when they first burst on the scene (I was in 8th grade). Bill Nagel blew my mind with Turbo Breakout and Snake, and later AShell, Penguins, and grayscale Mario... but the best executed and most replayable games I think were Sqrxz and ZTetris on the TI-86 by Jimmy Mardell. Honorable mention to Galaxian and Falldown. I once downloaded the z80 assembly source for a game, printed it to about an inch of paper, and carried it around for weeks trying to understand it...
It was also really cool for some reason (and would often brick the calculator until you took the batteries out) to type random hex pairs into a program and execute it as assembly. "C063" run as assembly - syntax was the random looking Send(9PrgmA where PrgmA is where you typed the hex code - on a TI-83 would scroll tons of random text in an infinite loop.
Does anyone remember the TI website wars? TI Files (later TI Philes) was "so much more awesome" than "the lowly weak ticalc.org"... but look which one is still around :-)
I'm amazed ticalc.org is still alive and kicking. So much nostalgia. Joltima was what convinced me to learn assembly. So far ahead of its time on the TI-86. Full featured RPG with turn-based combat on a graphing calc. Glad the history is still accessible online.
This game is a really big deal for me! I was addicted to it in high school and it left a lasting impression. Drugwars directly inspired my passion project, Farmhand: https://www.farmhand.life/
I loved this game. I played this game instead of learning math, unfortunately. It was only by the grace of other apps on my TI-83+ that I was able to pass my exams...
I feel vindicated by the rise of AI. Soon nobody else will know how to do anything without a small computer either.
My "fun fact" that I always tell is that I got my start by reading the manual of my TI-83+
I spent most of my 9th grade making a stick figure clone of Street Fighter, using TI-BASIC and graphing functions.
Eventually I switched to coding with pencil and paper because the calculator screen can only show you 8 lines at a time. No idea how I made something that could support 2 players playing on the same calculator, all with GOTOs and LABELs.
My favorite optimization of all time was turning their heads into hexagons instead of circles since drawing 6 lines was so much faster.
Mine was a TI-81 and a clone of Scorched Earth with multiplayer, realistic physics, wind, random terrain generation, etc. Used all 2.4kb and every single named variable provided by TI-BASIC on the machine.
I had a friend in ninth grade in the late 1900s who was a talented artist. He used his skills to make beautifully expressive pixel-art hardcore pornography on the TI-82.
He crafted a few different scenes, where for each one, he set it to loop back and forth between two frames -- and the implied motion was fantastically realistic for the resolution and fps he was working with...
Oh man, I ported this to the TI-89 back in 7th grade and made it slightly more school appropriate calling it “pop wars”, trading soda from different machines at different schools instead of drugs.
Wow - what a blast from the past!! I remember once in 9th grade when the science teacher called me up to ask me what I was doing on my calculator, and I quickly deleted the game because it could result in a suspension. I had been working on a game similar to Wing Commander Privateer, and I showed him that instead and got away with it.
I still have my GX from the late 90s which managed to outlast my Metakernel equipped, overly rubberized 49G. If I were to dig it out, the serial cable too.
And a printout of the sysrpl guide, it being quite thick of a print.
I LOVED the TI calc forums. I got my hands on enough parts (and went to radio shack to get the rest) to make my own cable from the parallel port to the 2.5mm jack they had back then.
I'm still amazed they cost as much now, as they did 30 years ago, but if you just realize you're buying a license for decent computer algebra system (CAS), at least in the ti-85/89/etc models, it kinda makes sense.
I'm a little older so I missed these models of TI calculator.
I loved programming my TI-81 my freshman year of high school. Having a programmable computer on my person-- even one as weak as the '81-- was so cool. I made a bunch of crappy games and graphical "demos", but being that the '81 didn't have a link cable I couldn't pass them around.
I got my '85 my freshman year of college but, by that time, I had a laptop and was much less interested in programming a calculator. I ended up misplacing my '85 in a move. Now that my daughter is old enough to appreciate it I wish I still had it.
Man I loved programming TI-82s. So many fun ways to build things. I really didn't learn much math that year - I was too enthralled with writing programs to answer the problems for me.
But discovering z80 assembly was like magic. It was incredibly exciting to go to my dad's office at the university where he worked (where computers had 2 T1 internet lines) to download and try assembly games when they first burst on the scene (I was in 8th grade). Bill Nagel blew my mind with Turbo Breakout and Snake, and later AShell, Penguins, and grayscale Mario... but the best executed and most replayable games I think were Sqrxz and ZTetris on the TI-86 by Jimmy Mardell. Honorable mention to Galaxian and Falldown. I once downloaded the z80 assembly source for a game, printed it to about an inch of paper, and carried it around for weeks trying to understand it...
It was also really cool for some reason (and would often brick the calculator until you took the batteries out) to type random hex pairs into a program and execute it as assembly. "C063" run as assembly - syntax was the random looking Send(9PrgmA where PrgmA is where you typed the hex code - on a TI-83 would scroll tons of random text in an infinite loop.
Does anyone remember the TI website wars? TI Files (later TI Philes) was "so much more awesome" than "the lowly weak ticalc.org"... but look which one is still around :-)
now there's a name that inspired awe in my 12 year old mind.
i didn't know at first how he was able to make those incredible games, only understanding TI Basic myself. mindblowing stuff.
I'm so happy to see this pop up here! :)
I feel vindicated by the rise of AI. Soon nobody else will know how to do anything without a small computer either.
Luckily I was ahead a year and didn't need to retake that class LOL. Went on to calc and discrete math.
I spent most of my 9th grade making a stick figure clone of Street Fighter, using TI-BASIC and graphing functions.
Eventually I switched to coding with pencil and paper because the calculator screen can only show you 8 lines at a time. No idea how I made something that could support 2 players playing on the same calculator, all with GOTOs and LABELs.
My favorite optimization of all time was turning their heads into hexagons instead of circles since drawing 6 lines was so much faster.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s93KC4AGKnY
He crafted a few different scenes, where for each one, he set it to loop back and forth between two frames -- and the implied motion was fantastically realistic for the resolution and fps he was working with...
https://ascii.textfiles.com/archives/899
https://www.hpcalc.org/details/911
All hail RPN!
MirageOS was the iPhone Home Screen of that time.
https://detachedsolutions.com/main/
And a printout of the sysrpl guide, it being quite thick of a print.
this was such an amazing way to learn programming
I'm still amazed they cost as much now, as they did 30 years ago, but if you just realize you're buying a license for decent computer algebra system (CAS), at least in the ti-85/89/etc models, it kinda makes sense.
I also remember being concerned about teachers finding “Drug Wars” on my calculator.
I loved programming my TI-81 my freshman year of high school. Having a programmable computer on my person-- even one as weak as the '81-- was so cool. I made a bunch of crappy games and graphical "demos", but being that the '81 didn't have a link cable I couldn't pass them around.
I got my '85 my freshman year of college but, by that time, I had a laptop and was much less interested in programming a calculator. I ended up misplacing my '85 in a move. Now that my daughter is old enough to appreciate it I wish I still had it.
I didn't have a Ti-83 so had to ask my friend for his once he got bored with the game.
There was a moment in 2011 I started writing it in "pure" SQL (MySQL) as a joke, but gave up, I'll have to find my DrugQL repo.
(Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/768/)
take this game for ti-89: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/mattmanning/1002653/raw/b... 10eaae3bd5298b8b2c86e16fb4404/drugwars.txt
and make a single page web app in one single html/css/js file where it draws the ti-89 on the screen and you play the game in that calculator
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It came up with this in one single shot:
https://drugwars-8od.pages.dev/