
CEmu – TI-84 Plus/TI-83 Premium Calculator Emulator - zdw
https://github.com/MateoConLechuga/CEmu
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mistermcgruff
Can it play "drugwars"?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drugwars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drugwars)

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acchow
Can it run linux?

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pavel_lishin
Can it play Doom?

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j45
Doom existed for TI-85

[http://www.ticalc.org/pub/85/basic/games/](http://www.ticalc.org/pub/85/basic/games/)

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analog31
Granted, this looks cool, and I'll show it to my kids, both of whom have TI
graphing calculators (required for school). But from an educational
standpoint, would we be better off saying goodbye to graphing calculators, and
hello to something like jupyter? There are still some issues to deal with -- I
would not try to use jupyter without a keyboard, and it doesn't run on Android
or iOS right now. Surmounting these issues would be pretty cool.

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j45
I don't think we'd be better off. Other devices require the ability to manage
distractions and interruptions, which is largely something society is still
developing.

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toxican
You still get some of that with existing graphing calculators though. There's
a reason the #1 comment is about a TI-83+ game :)

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j45
Haha. Fair. I saw that a ti-83+ game 20 years ago was more than a novelty than
it is today. It often was the only reasonably priced device like it that was
completely portable.

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jrlocke
It is almost insane that we still use TI-84's when we have all the power of
smart phones in our pockets. I would love to see an app that can function as
the calculator but also notify the teacher if it is backgrounded (to prevent
illicit notes/internet access).

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ageofwant
I just got a secondhand TI-84 on ebay for $20, the plan is to leave it in the
woodshop for quick woodshoppy calcs. I never played with one before and was
really impressed with what I got for $20.

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PascLeRasc
For $20 it is impressive - the problem is when it's $120 and "required" for
13-14 year olds of all income levels.

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jandrese
Yeah, spending $90 for a TI-85 back in 1994 was pretty bad, but at least
somewhat justifiable given the time. Paying the same today can only be the
result of an abject market failure.

Related: [http://xkcd.com/768/](http://xkcd.com/768/)

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wyldfire
Similar stuff exists for HP48G (et al) for all you RPN fans.

[http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/](http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/pc/emulators/)

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JadeNB
Oh, that's great! I miss my old HP-48, although I don't remember what flavour
(S or G or whatever) it was. I also like very much that HP simply provides (or
just links to, I guess) the software, rather than TI's approach of selling it.

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a_e_k
If you have an Android device, the Droid48 app listed there (also at [1]) is
worth a plug. A touch screen on a phone can't compete with the awesome tactile
keypad those old calculators had, but at least the layout and operation are
familiar and I've always got it with me.

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ab.x48](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ab.x48)

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JadeNB
Great, thanks! Indeed, I meant to ask if, among the welter of options, there
were any particular recommendations.

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condescendence
This is pretty neat. Just built using qmake on Windows, works smoothly.

The build folder on his personal site, what's up with that? There's no file
extensions to the builds.
[http://pimathbrainiac.me/CEmu/](http://pimathbrainiac.me/CEmu/)

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taylorwc
Ahhh this is just awesome. I spent the vast majority of high school chemistry
class dinking around on my 83-Plus with whatever that flavor of BASIC was
called. I would bet that if I were able to accurately measure 'minutes spent'
in a variety of programming languages that this would make BASIC in my top 3.

Edit: Huh. Apparently that flavor was called TI-BASIC.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-BASIC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-
BASIC)

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j45
These devices were the equivalent of a smartphone in the 90's in a lot of
ways.

I had a TI-85 in High School. Was the first calc to have a link cable to
connect 2 calculators. Also had assembly programming capability thanks to an
oversight that couldn't be taken away. This opened the door for things like
doom, tetris and other games.

Got to build a serial port cable interface by cutting my wire in half,
external storage devices for it, custom software.

Highlight for me was the programmability of it to write software for my high
school courses, including math and chemistry formula sheet software. Calculus
had to be done by hand but I had an app for testing various elements.

This type of development gave me a much deeper insight and grasp of math,
formulas and how things worked and could be manipulated.

Surprisingly, teachers let me use my school apps on the tests because I built
them myself and it needed an understanding of the concepts to build the
software, and if I was going to risk my high school graduation on it, it was
up to me.

It's kind of sad how much we could get done with constraints of limited
hardware, and today's smart devices are making people less empowered by
chasing novelty and distraction instead of solving their own problems.

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JadeNB
As someone who wants to use this in my classes: should I be worried about TI's
legal department swooping in to shut this down? I don't know any of the
legalities surrounding emulators in general, or TI's friendliness to outsiders
doing this sort of work in particular.

The reason that I even think to worry about this is because TI sells their own
emulator:
[https://education.ti.com/en/us/products/computer_software/ti...](https://education.ti.com/en/us/products/computer_software/ti-
smartview-software/ti-smartview-ce-emulator-software-for-the-ti-84-plus-
family/tabs/overview) . From literally just glancing at the screenshot, CEmu's
interface looks not dissimilar.

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JonathonW
While IANAL, TI has not objected to emulators in the past; there are third-
party freeware emulators available for all of their calculators (including the
older 83/84 series, the 68K calculators, and the Nspire).

TI's legal department has tended to draw the line at two points: they don't
like illegal copying of their ROMs (so, while they haven't objected to tools
which pull a ROM off a real calculator you have in your physical possession,
they will send takedown notices if you post those results publicly), and
they've become pretty aggressive in working against anything that compromises
the integrity of the OS on a physical calculator (because they don't want
push-to-test features compromised). Just about anything else goes (and is
occasionally encouraged).

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ocdtrekkie
Yup, TI's dealt with Android apps which emulate their calculators before, the
rule of thumb is: You cannot provide the OS ROM, but you can offer the
emulator if it requires their OS ROM to run. Theoretically, yes, so people
have to get it from their own calculator.

The open secret though, is that TI offers the ROMs for their OS on their
website for free download...

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jacquesm
That's well within their rights so I really don't see the problem. Copyright
basically means you get to have a say in who offers the stuff you built and TI
requiring people to go through them for their ROMs makes perfect sense.

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sea6ear
I was just looking at TI-83 / 84 calculators today because I saw that they
used a Zilog Z80 chip and I wanted to try building the Z80 Forth from
"Threaded Interpretive Languages" . I'll have to take a look at this and see
if it would work for that.

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ashark
Feature request: make this a Retroarch core so I can play Drug Wars on my TV.
Only sort-of joking.

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scottm01
Fond memories... I tell people I started programming by typing BASIC apps out
of magazines, but really it was probably much later writing a "casino app" (I
remember having roulette and blackjack) and my own version of drugwars instead
of paying attention in math class.

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bane
See [http://fms.komkon.org/ATI85/](http://fms.komkon.org/ATI85/) for more.

Andie Graph is also a multi-TI emulator for Android Devices and Graph 89 for
Android emulates the Motorola 68000 calculators.

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Kwpolska
Is an emulator really that useful if you need a physical calculator to get a
ROM off in the first place?

