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 :-)
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.
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.
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.
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 :-)
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'm so happy to see this pop up here! :)
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.
Algebra 2 : AKA Drugwars and Snake
Luckily I was ahead a year and didn't need to retake that class LOL. Went on to calc and discrete math.
For those unfamiliar, the game started in 1984 on DOS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Wars_(video_game)
First experiences around programming were on an 83, I'll never forget those choose your own adventure games I let friends play in class.
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.
A lot of those old calculators can be had on eBay for less than $30 shipped. I've been building up a small collection - 73, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 89
Ebay? They're about $10!
Interesting. I always knew it as Dopewars.
I remember playing this, but also a puzzle game called “dstar”, which I ported to the web: https://www.moria.us/games/dstar/play
I wish I had a cable to download these games or even a unit to unit cable. I hand typed them into my TI-82.
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.
Same. I didn’t know the cables existed I until college. Though typing it all in was its own form of distracting entertainment.
I did, as well. It was neat learning about programming using those listings.
I also remember being concerned about teachers finding “Drug Wars” on my calculator.
For TI-89, I recently updated the FAT engine to have height mappings. You can read more about it here: https://github.com/dzoba/ti-89-raycasting-with-z
What a throw back damn.
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.
Can someone please compile this to wasm? I'd love to play this again
The amount of classroom time I wasted playing this game…
Damn, that takes me back. I built a cable with my dad's help to download games from the Internet to graphing calculators. Ticalc.org!
block dude was my favorite.
Emulator link?
I asked claude:
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
---
It came up with this in one single shot:
https://drugwars-8od.pages.dev/
coincidentally, a SilverLink cable arrived here today so I can program my 85 and 83 Plus.
Are they valuable? They seem a little rare but findable on eBay. I have one in my closet just gathering dust.
New TI graphing calculators are sold today for the same price as they were in 1999.
(Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/768/)
I spent a lot of time in math class playing this...
Dude. 7th grade like a mug
Jesus. Based.