Re: TI-85 history
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Re: TI-85 history
The 85 was the second graphing calc made by TI. (The 81 was the first.)
TI then proceeded to make cheaper knock-offs of the 85 that lacked half of
its cool functions, the 82, 83, and even the 92 lacked some of the things
TI introduced years before in the 85. Finally, the 86, 89, and Plus Module
brought things up to date.
The 85 has plenty of advantages over the 82/83, (not to mention the 81 and
80 but none over the 86 save for the alleged speed factor. (Even TI says it
exists, but I sold my 85 to get an 86 and I've not noticed it to be any
slower. I'll bet you need a stopwatch to tell the difference.)
The cosmetic differences? I think the curvy 86 (same case as the 83) looks
nice. The design on the cover is no big deal, either. The smaller rubber
feet work just as well as the old rubber strips but with less danger of
peeling off. The only reason to buy an 85 anymore is if it is a used one
that you can get cheap. Otherwise, anyone looking to buy a new 85 should
spend the extra $20 for an 86. All the true techno-geeks with 85s have
already replaced them with 86s, the extra memory alone is worth it.
No history of the 85 would be complete without mention of ZShell. The
hacking of the CUSTOM menu in a calculator backup opened the way to assembly
and brought open ASM support to the 83, 86, 92+, and 89. ZShell has since
been abandoned for other shells like Usgard, but all retain compatibility
with ZShell programs. The importance of ZShell even spawned TI-86 shells
with ZShell emulation (ASE, Rascall) when the aforementioned techno-geeks
wanted to play existing games on thier new machine. Since that time, ports
of the source code to actual 86 ASM format has lessened the importance of
emulation.
With the coming of the 86, the 85 remains only a memory, much as the NES was
cast aside when the SNES came out, or Windows 3.1 when Win 95 came out.
Sources:
http://www.ti.com/calc/docs/calchist.htm
http://www.ti.com/calc/docs/faq85main.htm
http://www.ticalc.org/home/zshell/index.html
http://www.ticalc.org/features/info/asmshells.html
http://www.ticalc.org/pub/text/misc/ti-bugs.doc
Oh yes, a few more little tidbits: Official support of the CBL and CBR was
added to the 85 with ROM version 9.0. ROM 10.0 remains the final version,
I believe.
The 85 was also the first calculator to be heavily experimented on, besides
being the original ASM breakthrough, "turboing" got its start on the 85,
along with the other more interesting hardware modifications.
The 85 was also the first calc with a link port, a black link cable was made
by TI for this. The black cable could only be used with the 85 and a PC, it
was replaced soon after with the grey cable, which works with any TI calc
and either a PC or Mac.
>I'm trying to create a TI-85 web page. I'm trying to include the history of
>the 85 but am having trouble finding some information on it. If you know
>any history of the 85 or links to TI-85 history please let me know.
>Also, what are the advatages to the TI-85 over other calcs expecially other
>TI grpahing calcs? I would appriciate any ideas and I'll give you credit on
>my page if you help out.