my parents bought me an 83+ because it was recommended for geometry but i loved programming so much i bought an 84+SE with my own money and it rocks...it is crazy what u can do with these....music??? that is crazy... now i can play hard mario lvls i made and listen to the techno sounding mario theme song lol.

(everyone get the game Phantom... im not sure if its on this site...)

I got the calculator for 7th grade math. It was required, but then I was "What? $100 calculator? What the heck?" I didn't know what i was missing back then. Thank You

I got my TI-86 a long time ago, pre-highschool. I did some light Basic programming on it, although it never caught on. I spent a lot of time playing the wonderful games that this community was so kind to provide me with: Mario, Megaman, Phoenix, Slayer 1 & 2 are all names that will forever stay in my memory (pun intended :])

I bought my TI-89T purely for C programming and homebrew software (read: games). I was sold on the idea that you can code software for it in C with ASM-like qualities. Before doing any real C programming I did some Basic, which was so much fun that I ended up getting the TI-Keyboard just for it. After more than a year of Basic89 I moved on to C, and have been enjoying it ever since. I started out with simple experiments and moved on to funner games.

I plan to release five grayscale games for the TI-89 on January 1st, 2007. The event's name is Day5, and you can find out more about it on my website (check link).

Those are really nice graphics. You're making me wish I had an 89. ;-D

I got my first 86 for free (long before I needed it), but it was old, the link port didn't work. Can't have that. I got my second on Ebay for about $40. When I broke that one (oops), I got my 89T brand new on Ebay for 82 dollars.

for 82 dollars, you lucked out. the cheapest (new) one I saw on eBay was $110

>>Yes, but I don't use it outside of class or work
I seem to be the only one who selected that option...

I was wondering who had picked that option...

I have the money, but I doubt that my parents will let me buy 1.

Well, I sort of got it as a requirement. I got mine this year because we do a lot of graphing in Algebra 1 and even though we can use the TI-73s in class (bleh), it's still nice to have one for next year when i'll require one.

I actually fall under three categories. I got my calculators as a gift because I asked for them, and I asked for them because I wanted them, not because they're required, and I don't currently go to school or have a job at the moment.

My favorite feature about them is their programmability--they're more like handheld computers to me than calculators because I can program them to do almost anything (hardware limitations permitting). They can be really handy for many purposes.

You can program so much more with a PSP or DS, or even a GBA.

Eaxctly, they're handheld computers, 'old-school' if you will, comparable, if not surpassing the classic Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The only thing I wish was that we could code C directly on-calc (68k's), but that's a pipe dream that's just not going to happen. :(

- Alex

I got my ti89t because my 49g+ started to break apart. I won't risk to buy another 49g+, so I decided to change to Ti =] I'm very impressive by the number of games it has! My calc became my new timekiller for boring events.

Playing Phoenix on my ti-89 kills a lot of time during school. especially english

Yeah, I carry mine in my pockets, and when I'm sitting in a waiting room or something I'll pull out my 83+ and play Bubble Bobble for a while.

Is the 49g+ the HP counterpart to the 68K calcs?