- #DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER MOVIE#
- #DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER SERIAL#
- #DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER UPDATE#
- #DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER SOFTWARE#
- #DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER CODE#
#DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER CODE#
There are also several methods of running native code or otherwise “jailbreaking” these devices to run arbitrary code. There’s plenty to catch up on here, too, from custom TI games that trick the two-tone display into grayscale to Game Boy emulators that can play Zelda since the TI and Game Boy share the same processors. While this isn’t great for getting value for money, it does mean that generations of students have been able to hack on these calculators to do all kinds of interesting things as outlines.Įven before the creation of these graphing calculators, the z80 processor behind them was first produced over four decades ago and was ubiquitous in the computer scene at the time, which also lends to its hackability. Also because of standardized testing, these calculators have remained essentially unchanged for decades. Some black sheep may have other types, but largely due to standardized testing these calculators dominate the market.
The gold standard for graphing calculators, at least in the US, are the Texas Instruments TI-84 series.
#DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER SOFTWARE#
It would also offer a nice change of pace from writing Snake in TiBASIC, a BASIC dialect in which incidentally has also written a ray tracer.Ĭontinue reading “Ray Tracing On A Modern TI Graphing Calculator” → Posted in Misc Hacks, Software Development Tagged graphic calculator, ti-84
#DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER MOVIE#
Even if using a TI-84 Plus CE to render the next Pixar-level movie isn’t the most productive use imaginable for these devices, this project and the CE toolchain make it all too easy to tinker with these $150 devices. Perhaps the most interesting part about this project is its use of the Clang-based C & C++ toolchain for the TI-84 Plus CE which gives easy access to the calculator’s hardware and related, including graphics, file I/O, fonts, keypad input and more. Although the eZ80-based CPU in the calculator is significantly more efficient than a Z80 as found in many 1980s home computers, the demo scene at standard resolution takes about 12 minutes to render, as also noted on the GitHub project page. This is excellent news for anyone who has one of these calculators, along with a lot of time, perhaps during boring classes, to spare.Īs demonstrates in a video, also embedded after the break, it’s not quite the real-time experience one would expect from an NVidia RTX 30-series GPU. For the same reason there obviously is a way to do ray tracing of 3D scenes on a modern-day TI-84 Plus CE graphical calculator.
Something being impractical isn’t any reason not to do it, which is why just about anything with a CPU in it can run Doom by now. We’ve already seen some TI-84s that have been modified to connect to the Internet, for example.Ĭontinue reading “Talking To A Texas Instruments Calculator” → Posted in Teardown Tagged arm, CE, port, programming, python, test, texas instruments, ti-84, z80 Perhaps this is the starting point for someone else to figure out something more useful to put these machines to work with beyond the classroom too. While there are probably limited use cases for 1980s calculators to run Python programs, we can at least commend TI for attempting to modernize within its self-built standardized testing prison. Jankiness aside, eventually was able to wire up a port to the side of the calculator which lets him use his computer to send Python commands to the device when it is in its Python programming mode.
#DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER SERIAL#
After some investigation of test points, found that the Z80 and ARM chips are communicating with each other over twin serial lines using a very “janky” interface. The immediately noticeable difference is the ARM coprocessor that is not present in other graphing calculators.
While he’s not sure exactly what implementation of Python the calculator is running, he did tear it apart to try and figure out as much as he could about what this machine is doing.
They still run their code on a Z80 microcontroller, but found himself in possession of one which has a modern ARM coprocessor in it and thus can run Python.
#DOOM FOR TI 84 PLUS C SILVER UPDATE#
These testing standards are so entrenched, in fact, that TI has not had to update the hardware in these calculators since the early 90s. Texas Instruments is a world-class semiconductors company, but unfortunately what they are best known for among the general public is dated consumer-grade calculators thanks to entrenched standardized testing.