I finally wrapped up phase 1 of a project that I’ve been playing around with in my spare time.
It’s an emulator for the TI-8X series graphing calculators from Texas Instruments written completely in ActionScript 3. Currently the emulator supports the TI-82, TI-83 and TI-85 with TI-73 and TI-86 coming soon. (TI-89 support is planned, but will not happen any time in the near future as it uses a completely different CPU)
In order to run it you will need your own ROM image from an actual calculator that you wish to emulate. Information on dumping the ROM from your calculator can be found here. Because of the copyright on the ROM image I cannot post one here. (Although I do not condone such practice, if you’re resourceful enough to, say, do a Google search for such an item and, oh, I don’t know, click on the first link, you’ll probably have very few problems rounding one up.) Sorry, guys. I wish there was a way around this one.
Simply select the desired machine from the combo box in the upper-right corner, upload your ROM image and away you go.
I will be posting the entire source for this project in the weeks to come so stay tuned! Also, an Air version will be coming along shortly.
A special thanks goes out to Alan Fischer over at Lightning Toads for his technical insight!
So without further ado: TI8XEmu Project
Screenshots: #1, #2, #3, #4
If your ROM isn’t currently supported for one of the calculator types already in the app, please send an email to: tranceguy [at-symbol] mchsi [dot] com with the MD5 signature of the particular ROM, the version number and the calculator that it’s for and I’ll post a test version of the emulator so that you can try out your ROM. I’d appreciate a “Hey, it works!” or “No such luck.” so that I know whether to roll the changes into the main app.
Note: Certain versions of ROMs (particularly older ones than the emulator was written for) will simply not work in the app in its current state but may be available down the road. Also, ‘Plus’ and ‘Silver’ variations of any of the machines are not currently supported, but I do plan on adding support for them in the future.
This project is 100% for the community, so any feedback you guys can provide, the more successful a project it ends up being for you, me and others.
Update 12/28/08: Added support for several more ROM versions for the TI-82 and TI-83. Thanks, Xavier!
8 Comments
I notice this does not support all ROM versions. Only TI-82 18.0 works for me, others newer and older do not. It is the same for the TI-83 and TI-85. Will this be fixed?
It will be fixed to a certain degree. Newer ones will probably be supported once I can get my hands on them to test them for sure. Older ones, it’s tough to say since it’s not always as easy as just enabling them. Specific code would have to be written to locate specific functions within the ROM code.
Wow, that’s absolutely badass. You should hang out on #tcpa on irc.efnet.org some time
Mac Os X 10.4.11 with TI85ROM.bin (from the google search).
Works fine with Firefox 3.0.5.
Safari just shows a blank white page.
Opera kind of works. Anytime I hit + or – on my keypad, the calc disappears; minimize, then maximize, it shows up again, retaining everything I had already typed in.
Great work so far. Now we need an Nspire emulator (he, he).
Bloody hell, that takes me back more than a few years and then some!
I’m not entirely sure that I’d want to go back there, to be honest
This is pretty awesome…I notice you mention it’s “Phase 1″…I’m wondering if you have any updates on what future phases might be?
Indeed I do. In no particular order:
Finish TI-86 support
Add TI-89 support
Port the application to Adobe Air for desktop support
Add better caching of ROMs (retained between session)
Release the emulator framework used to build this application
Hi,
Just wanted to say thanks! This is awesome. I work at a University and I help professors build online courses, a calc course in this case. The school has a ton of TI calculators that they lend out to people, but that’s a little hard to do when people are all over the place. So I was tasked with finding an emulator to use. I suggested one I had used in the past, but the professor wanted one that worked in OSX as well.
After a little poking around, I found your awesome emulator! Now I don’t have to worry about it working on different OSes, etc. It’s pretty bad ass I must say.
Thanks again!
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[...] early peek at his work in progress. I always enjoy his side experiments! He has a been working on a TI-8X Emulator written in Actionscript 3 lately. Stop by his site for details and to try it out! Brandon Meyer TI-8X Emulator Rate this: 3.0 [...]