B/W calculators' future

[Deep Thought]

With the color 84s selling for pretty much the same price as the normal 84, is there still much of a point programming the non-color models? I don't have a color model so I can't develop for it yet, but it seems like most of the new calculator purchases who actually intend on using the calculator for what it's meant for (i.e., students buying calculators for class) are going straight for the color edition. Thoughts?

[chickendude]

I think we've been talking about this for years (though with the invasion of smarter-than-you phones replacing calcs as a gaming platform). Some calculators have gotten phased out, but reborn again in other countries (such as the 83 in France). Personally the color calcs are just too slow for my taste and to do the things i wanna do with them. The past couple years in particular (perhaps starting with Spencer's Zelda and calc84's F-Zero) i've been really surprised what the 83+ is capable of, i don't feel like jumping backwards now. Especially since this is a hobby for me and most of us, i just really like the 83+ as a platform. For color, i much prefer the GBA as a platform, there's so much cool stuff you can do with it and ARM assembly is a real treat.

Well, for the time being, I'm programming for both color and non color, though I honestly don't know how many other projects that will go with before that comes to an end. I have ideas for the color to go with, I just need to learn how to program in assembly, first.

[chickendude]

Well you certainly know where to ask if you ever need any help

[NanoWar]

I suck at rbg pixel artwork.

[chickendude]

I suck at pixel art in general, but i really hate working with colors as it's so hard to make anything look nice.

I'm a sucker for "grayscale" art, although I suck at making it.

[chickendude]

I like grayscale on the 68k calcs and on the 85/86, but i don't really care for it on the 82/83/83+ line, i guess i'm a sucker for good ol' black and white

[Madskillz]

Grayscale...is the future ha. It is much better on the 68k calcs

And we have a new color 84+ calculator coming out very soon!

http://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11103

My download stats on ticalc.org for monochrome calculator games have dropped significantly after the TI-84+CSE came out. The trend seems similar for popular ASM games as well, which often gets overshadowed by color BASIC games now. It seems that 83+ stats are now on-par with what TI-83 and 86 games were getting a few years after the 83+ came out. In my case, I think my three color releases get half of my total weekly download stats.

I wish that the HP Prime was more popular, though, because its BASIC-like language is so powerful that screenshots of programs made in it could be mistaken for TI-Nspire ASM games:



But again, with languages this powerful, you lose the old-school factor of working around 15 MHz hardware limitations, so some people might not find it as entertaining. Plus, part of the reasons why HP PPL is so fast is that the calculator runs at 400 MHz with rumored hardware acceleration.

[NanoWar]

My download stats on ticalc.org for monochrome calculator games have dropped significantly after the TI-84+CSE came out. The trend seems similar for popular ASM games as well, which often gets overshadowed by color BASIC games now. It seems that 83+ stats are now on-par with what TI-83 and 86 games were getting a few years after the 83+ came out. In my case, I think my three color releases get half of my total weekly download stats.

Thants an interesting insight you give there. I strongly belive that the new TI84+CE will leverage the overall interest in calculator games again! As a platform that is targetable by C-programmers as well as by ASM guys like myself the new calc must be the next default for our community.

With a new home (I moved today) and new job (first full time commitment) I will easily find money for the new calc, but possibly less time for programming for it in my free time. But I'm eager to discover the potential of the new processor and graphic abilities of the TI84+CE. OMG COLOR CARD GAME

It's hard to tell if the community is dying or not. In 2008, I thought that it was pretty much over, when ticalc.org had zero featured Z80 file, then late 2009 arrived with an upsurge in new files and forum activity. But the bulk of that forum activity happened elsewhere than before (eg Omnimaga and Cemetech instead of United-TI and MaxCoderz) so people who had not kept up with every site still thought that it was over. Now it's going down again but there are still some good programs coming out and getting worked on, but the 2015 POTY is not gonna reflect that because ticalc.org no longer appears to have a news editor.

In any case, when it comes to game development, it seems that the Z80/eZ80 series of calculators are still dominating, though.

[chickendude]

I agree with NanoWar, i'm not sure about the overall state of the community, it seems like it's in a bit of a lull lately, but the CE appears to have a lot of potential. I'm not sure if we'll be able to get smoothscrolling RPGs and such out of it, but i believe we'll be able to do quite a bit with it. MateoConLechuga has done a lot of cool stuff with it already. It's also a much more open platform than the NSpire calcs. And i bet the delay in Zelda is Spencer updating it to be in color

[NanoWar]

And i bet the delay in Zelda is Spencer updating it to be in color

Zelda has been developed in color from the day Spencer introduced the map editor, in case you remember .

...but the 2015 POTY is not gonna reflect that because ticalc.org no longer appears to have a news editor.

Oh man, you are right, there haven't been posts since march. I wish someone would take over.

Yeah, apparently Ryan has been missing for months now, but not much sign of new hiring lately. Ryan did a really impressive job, though. He probably has moved on in life since then since he has been around for years, or he had life issues.

I was contemplating starting my own POTY award a few times in the past, so that people would still have gotten recognition even when ticalc.org goes through a lull, but it would not have been as prestigious as POTY was, since not everyone had an account on Omni, even less so on CW, and hosting the poll on every active site would result into people cross-voting on multiple sites. But notable programs from any site would have been eligible, as opposed to just ones featured on ticalc front page, and HP and Casio calculator programs would have been allowed.

I did have a featured programs page on Omni around 2011, though, although it was lost with the upgrade last year.