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Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
Posted by Chris on 18 November 1999, 00:10 GMT

Euro-Asia GameBoy, an ign.com affiliate, has posted an article written by our very own Nick Disabato on the subject of calculator games. It discusses the history of calculator-based assembly programming and how gaming came to be so popular on the TIs. The piece also briefly compares the TI with the Game Boy handheld gaming device. Hopefully exposure like this is the start of a trend toward increased mainstream attention to calculator gaming in the future.

 


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Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
Alasun9  Account Info

At least Game Boy games don't crash the Game Boy...

     18 November 1999, 00:25 GMT

Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
Matthew Hernandez  Account Info
(Web Page)

I actually laughed when I read that! But, that is because professional, paid programmers write those things. (professional meaning that they went to college to learn how! And paid meaning it is their occupation/career) Those two things *tend* to make a difference on quality and how good the program is (not that TI games aren't good--because they are!!!!! They just tend to crash the calculator) The latter is probably due to the instability of the calculator, though.

Matt H.

     18 November 1999, 02:51 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
David Phillips  Account Info
(Web Page)

Heh, not quite. You don't learn how to program Game Boy in college. Heck, my college (as far as I know) does not even offer a course in assembly language! Most of college is theoretical. You learn anything like that at your job, or on your own, and then get a job. College just gives a base to learn it off of, so that when you download doc that gives rough specs on the Game Boy, you aren't totally lost.

It is very possible to crash the Game Boy while coding it. And Game Boy games DO have bugs. I haven't played very many, but Zelda comes to mind as having bugs (for specifics, read the walk-through that some guy on the internet wrote).

There are several reasons why you don't get Game Boy games that crash. The first part is that they are heavily tested. You don't burn 50,000 ROMs and then find out it has a bug that crashes on the final level. That just doesn't happen (too often). It's unfortunate that computer software manufacturers don't think of it that way. I think the original unpatched Tomb Raider was unbeatable, for example, due to bugs. "Who cares if it doesn't work, they can download the patch." Burned ROM chips can't be patched, so it better be perfect the first time around.

Another part, as was mentioned above, is that more time end money is invested into games. Programmers have the luxury of testing teams, and have the entire day to work on a game, not just a few hours after school.

The final reason is that the Game Boy is designed to play games. Everytime you put a new cartridge in your Game Boy, you are complete replacing the software. Everytime you turn it off, everything is restarted (except for battery-backed SRAM). You don't have to worry about a calculator OS getting corrupted, other progams trashing memory locations, flags, etc. All code is contained entirely in the cart. There are no ROM calls, libraries, etc., to go wrong. It's all your code running.

Wow, this post is long. I hope it clears some stuff for people. As a closing note, I like my CGB better than my TI-86 and TI-89 :)

(though it isn't much help in Calculus or Physics...)

     18 November 1999, 03:58 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
pcflyer1  Account Info
(Web Page)

Maybe TI should make calculators with with cartridges :)

     18 November 1999, 17:56 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
David Phillips  Account Info
(Web Page)

They have those. They're called HP's :)

     19 November 1999, 03:51 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
L_Kishyak  Account Info
(Web Page)

where could I find an HP??
guitarguy@rescueteam.com

     19 November 1999, 13:59 GMT


HP on a TI website - what next
jamin  Account Info

go to www.hpcalc.org and download the free emulator for the new hp49g

     19 November 1999, 15:15 GMT


Re: HP on a TI website - what next
L_Kishyak  Account Info
(Web Page)

didn't see a link, and that is for HP calcs! I was thinking cartridges for TIs!

     22 November 1999, 17:08 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
Chris Fazio  Account Info

true!
and also, the peoples at nintendo test these games OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER till all the bugs are fixed.
CALCULATOR games, on the other hand, are released without any special permission.

     19 November 1999, 01:07 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
David Phillips  Account Info
(Web Page)

That is very true. Games must also pass the big N's lot tests before they can be released. They are very strict on what games can be released. Things like obscure sound bugs that would only happen on very old DMG's will cause a game to be rejected.

     19 November 1999, 03:54 GMT


Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
Matt Landry  Account Info
(Web Page)

*sigh*

     18 November 1999, 02:51 GMT

Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
da86guy Account Info
(Web Page)

Hey, I got first comment!

Anyway, its cool that there's a trend towards TI-Gaming
But, lets hope the prison...err sch**l wont ban calcs like they banned GBs and any variants of it(like the MGB - the Messed up Game Boy my friend has - he dropped it from his table.

     18 November 1999, 00:30 GMT


Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
iG3 Account Info

banning calcs? you nuts... calcs are school tools, most people don't have games even. I doubt they can BAN something WE need, and they are too cheap to supply.

My school already, resets your memory if they catch you playing games:P

     18 November 1999, 00:40 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
Gatorball7  Account Info

Banning calcutors would serve no point to anything. Most of the people at my school dont even know the first thing to do with there new TI-83 plus. all they know how to do is add, subtract, mulitply, and divide.

Also if ur going to play games just dont get caught. I dont see how hard that is to do. If a teacher is coming turn the calc off. If you get caught playing a game u r just to lazy or way to into the game and need syceatric help from a councaler (you know they have those kinds of people now)

     18 November 1999, 01:33 GMT

Games on the 83+
Nathan Minor  Account Info

Well, at least the 83+ is better for *keeping* games on it. By this, I mean ION's archive capibility. Put all ion games in archive, along with the ION 1.1 installation files group. If your ram gets cleared, the programs are still there... just ungroup ION.

N

     18 November 1999, 20:12 GMT

Oh yeah...
da86guy Account Info

My teacher has an 83+
She resets ARCHIVE+RAM+APPS+GROUPS
So, 83+ games have been totally eliminated.
I have an 86
I use the utility "chmasc" to recover my RAM.
It is WAAAAY COOL

     19 November 1999, 00:24 GMT


Re: Oh yeah...
The_Professor  Account Info
(Web Page)

Your teacher rests the APPS! - You can't have games that are apps (well, until just a few weeks ago, that is). What about the CBL/CBR APP? That one (even though it comes with the calc it can be deleted) can be important. (I know, I accidently deleted it on my friend's TI-83+ when I was putting games on it - I own only an 86)

Also, where do you go about getting the "chmasc" utility?

     19 November 1999, 00:54 GMT


Duh!!!!!!
The_Professor  Account Info
(Web Page)

Never mind, I found it. (Duh!!!! - I never looked for it before so I didn't know)

The one thing wrong with Game Boys is that you can't use them at school. (and you have to pay for the games)

     19 November 1999, 01:58 GMT


Re: Duh!!!!!!
David Phillips  Account Info
(Web Page)

You have to pay for games because they are of significantly higher quality. Though, the new Sonic game for the 89/92+ is _very_ impressive for a calculator. Most Game Boy games do not have parallax scrolling (due to the fact it only has one background).

Now, what would be cool, is if Nintendo made a portable that would run Super NES games (though as an attachment...being built in would make it way too big). You could have some sweet games that way. Hehe. It could even support the Super Gameboy :)

     19 November 1999, 03:50 GMT


Re: Re: Duh!!!!!!
Matthew Andersen  Account Info
(Web Page)

For all who care (even though I'm posting this months after the origanal posting) Sega has actually made a device that plays full size Genesis games. I think its called the Nomad. Now if only I could hook my SegaCD & Sega 32x to it. Hmmm... How about TI with 32-bit graphics... nah...

     2 March 2000, 04:57 GMT


Re: Games on the 83+
David Phillips  Account Info
(Web Page)

Counselor

     19 November 1999, 03:57 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
Patrick Wilson  Account Info
(Web Page)

Psychiatric

     19 November 1999, 00:07 GMT

Re: Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
AlienCow  Account Info
(Web Page)

"their" and "you're"

-Just thought I'd get into the spirit of things. :)

     19 November 1999, 15:03 GMT


Re: Re: Re: Re: Euro-Asia GameBoy Looks at Calculator Gaming
Disco_Stu  Account Info

...too lazy...

     19 November 1999, 22:08 GMT

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