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Comment by nzoschke | Hacker News Reader

That’s me with a TI-85 in 7th grade in ‘95 or so.

It was effectively a portable computer that I was allowed to use and play with in most classes.

Started with TI-BASIC, then discovered ticalc.org and the shell and assembly programming hacks, games, and home brew transfer cables.

It effectively started my electrical engineering and computer science career.

I know I’m not alone.

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Indeed, +1. I was the same though with a TI-83 instead. I had to get good at hiding the calculator under the desk in non-math classes because the English teacher (for example) would press me on "why do you need a calculator for English class?"

I'm kicking myself for not saving the game code I wrote for some of those early games. They weren't very good, but I'd love to see the code, despite the horrifying spaghetti that it was.

Almost identical boat here. Had a borrowed TI-83, freshman year wrote 2048 && 1/2 of chess with only knowing basic variable usage, if, goto, and matrix indexing. Found out about actual loops and the ability to call a basic program from another latter.

Ah I was a few years later on the TI-86. Around 1999.

Between this, and SNES emulation (searching memory for values and adjusting things to see how they'd affect the game), I was destined for computer science.

We had a chat program on the TI-85 over an extended (10m) link cable.

Good times, indeed.

I had a TI-81 (and then an 85 later on). I wrote a blackjack program. There was no link cable for the 81, so other kids had to type it in manually.

Same here! TI-85, and then HP48G series after that!

+1 ti85 7th grade '95

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