Survey posted 2007-02-15 06:55 by Michael.

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I could almost say "No, my present calculator is already my true love!" (I have a HW2 TI-89) but that TI-89 Titanium has been quite tempting for a while now, especially with the extra Flash ROM. I think I may buy myself one in a month or two. Why not, it's been about six years since the last time I got a new calculator. ;-)

If you do get a new 89Ti, be sure to get GhostBuster (see the url field). It patches ASM programs that only work on the 89 so that they work on the 89Ti as well. (You should probably try running the program in question without GhostBuster before you make the changes, though.)

And make sure you remember that sometimes you have to run GhostBuster on the ppg files. That program is a godsend!

Thanks. I'll keep that in mind if I run into any problems. I'm actually wondering about the state of ASM (including TSRs), BASIC, and Flash App compatibility on the TI-89 Titanium. That's pretty important for me since I use all three types of programs.

Another thing it MUST be able to do is work with the Silverlink cable connected to the standard I/O port in Linux, since the direct USB support isn't working on that OS yet AFAIK. My current TI-89 works fine with the Silverlink cable, so if the Titanium's I/O port protocol isn't much different, I would think it should work just as well, right?

It'll work. I used to have the black link cable that came with the calculator. Then it quit, so I had to use the silver link that I had bought for linking in to my TI-83+. It worked fine.

BASIC and Flash Apps work fine, I've never had any trouble. A few ASM programs need to be patched by GhostBuster, and even fewer work work even then (*very* few) Some of the more advanced (3d stuff) programs don't work with grayscale for me, though there arn't that many. TSR's you might have some trouble with, depending what they are. I suggest you consult Kevin Kofler on that issue.

I haven't gotten around to getting my silver link or my serial link working with Linux yet (Ubuntu 6.10 *gack*), so I can't tell you how that works, but I imagine it's fine.

Speaking of ghosts, I have a program that can only be described as a ghost in my TI-83+. A long time ago, I downloaded and linked in "Chu Chu Rocket", a puzzle game. Now, after a long time lying idle, I come back to the calculator, link in CrunchyOS, *and it shows up in CrunchyOS*! (Understand that this program *does not* show up in MirageOS, TI-OS, or in TI Device Explorer.)

That alone might be kind of odd, but I tried a little experiment: I tried running the "ghost" of the game, AND IT RAN WITHOUT A HITCH! All 4 world files were intact (though they didn't have prognames) and the game worked perfectly. If anybody has any idea what I should do, up to and including REALLY calling the GhostBusters, please reply... because I am flabbergasted!

Chu Chu Rocket is compiled into CrunchyOS. Just try erasing EVERYTHING on your calc, and then sending over CrunchyOS. Chu Chu Rocket is there :-P

Oh. :f

I gotta love my 3 83+s, my 83+SE, and my [ coming in the mail ] 84+SE... and my CASIO CFX-9800g!!!! MWAHAHAHA COLOUR SCREEN ;)

Color is for communists. Monochrome is just fine for regular calculator tasks and grayscale is fine for gaming. Granted, it is still a nice calculator.

Aw, come on. You know everybody would want color if it were available and wasn't as expensive. :-)

I think at least hardware grayscale support would be nice. It would make the OS look nicer (at least on 68K calcs) and could come in handy for graphs. And it would mean less overhead for ASM programs using it.

I don't think that's it's cost that's keeping color screens out of ti calcs, just the concept. You can get a cell phone for practically nothing that has a color screen with a far greater resolution than the 89 (granted the screen is smaller). And truthfully, I think grayscale would hurt my eyes after a while and could be hard to read in certain lighting conditions.

Now if they used an e-ink display...

I had a feeling color LCDs actually didn't cost that much. What you say is probably true about grayscale, though. The shades of gray would have to be limited to shading things, I guess.

I have an old Game Boy Color, though--it has about the best non-backlit LCD I've ever seen. The contrast is perfect, everything is razor-sharp, there's no "shadowing" or ghosting problems at all, response time is instant, it doesn't need as much light to see as other non-self-lit LCDs... now if only the screen weren't so shiny (glare). It's also a little flickery in some lighting conditions since only every other row is turned on at a time (it's interlaced!). But anyway, that would definitely be overkill for a calculator. It sure is easy on the eyes, though.

Well, then I guess the TI-83+ (blue lines) & TI-86 (vertical color bars) must be for socialists, then. :)

Bloody socialist... Luckily my 89Ti is very capitalist.

I was just trying to make a joke. I hate socialism. That, & the TI-92+ (& therefore presumably the TI-89Ti) is susceptible to the same color hack as the TI-86.

If you want pure capitalism I say the TI-80 & TI-81 are the only safe ones, since they cannot run user machine language (yet). :)

Don't worry, took no offense ;) I don't really have a problem with asm color hacks, aside from the possible hardware damage.

I have a video of my calculator, an 89Ti, displaying a blue screen (by sheer bad luck) before it reset and cleared my RAM. Ouuch!

Have you uploaded it anywhere? That would be interesting.

you seem to be crzy about color screens
how more new the ti's come how more
they start lokin like an computer and thats
d-i-r-t-y-
sorry but it is
goodby
colorfreak