As I read, I notice how just about all the people that responded sounding like 5 year old punks had an AOL email address.

Just had to say that :P

Cullen Logan's a wuss.

Look
I don't see whats so hard to understand

School sucks
School is boring
so people find something to pass the time

First of all, I don't play games in class because I get B's pretty much and I nede to pay attention in class. However, I have study teachers who won't let me play calc games and I have learned how to get around many problems.

GET MIRAGEOS! It has a memory-protection feature that will completely prevent access to the 2nd+MEM menu. It also allows you to play games from archive, which isn't erased when you reset or take batteries out. Set a password so smart teachers can't just go into Mirage and disable the protection. Also, when you play some games via Mirage, which have the interrupt tasker enabled, On+Mode quits to TI-OS, On+Del shuts off the calc (pausing the game), and On+Clear returns to Mirage. You can also hide games with Mirage but turn on the Show Hidden Files option in options so they don't show in the TI-OS.

If you are anti-gaming, please don't flame me, because I don't play games in real classes!

- Tom

From an educator’s point of view, it is too distractive for many students to have the option to play calculator games in class. If one can not play them, you must take it away from ALL of the students. I have found removing this major distraction forced the students to pay more attention to class and therefore better understand the material which results in a better grade. I did an experiment the last semester. I did not force the students to pay attention in class, if they did, I helped them, if they did not, they either failed the tests or did very poorly. The funny thing was that when I let them do what they wanted, they were upset with me because they got poor grades. Even though they resist it, they expect the teacher to make them pay attention. They did not understand that if they play, they pay. My top student, who decided he liked his calculator games more than trig, half way through that chapter, he was 100% lost, he did not do well on the chapter test.

Ummm, where can I download Galaxian?

Wen I got a TI-92 calculater, I didint use it for scool, and I didint no enybudy els made games on the calculater or that ther was a such web site as this.

I like math, and I did a lot uv difrint things on the calculater, and I made programs on it for games, and adres book, and a program for makeing a calender, and more stuf. I also did calcules and algebra and grafs, and uther stuf on mi calculater, and nobudy has to tel me wat to do. And I think its good that the calculater has a programing langwige that is good.

I think its elegal for the techer to take away the calculater and steel the baterys, uv corse you hav to do work in scool, and if you hav to do work, you hav to put away the calculater enyways. If the techer dus that agen, put them in jale. But uv corse you shud be able to use the calculater for enything you want to wen ther is no work to be done.

OK! Where's his English teacher???

What i dont understand is why this is such a big deal. There is so much anti-teacher, and anti-authority on this discussion list. Your teachers either allow it, or they dont.

It usually depends on how your doing in the class.
i mess around with my calc all the time in history and geography, and make decent grades in them. The teacher knows, and he doesnt care.

i use it in other classes such as science, and math. Actually, all i do in math is play with the thing, and i still managed to make a b in the class.

Hell, the teacher even moved me into fast track math, cause i didnt listen to him. my performace on the tests aint great, (mid - lower 80's).

Ok, the point of all this rambling is this:
if your teacher or school doenst allow it, bite your tongue, and shut the fuck up.

If it does, use discretion and moderation while using it. If you can keep currant, and git good grades, use it. If you cant, dont. Its that simple
.

theres a pretty good chance that calc was paid for from your parents pocket.
The least u can do is show some gratitude by making good grades.

- Vyyk Drago, the semi-infinatly wise.

I have often been caught gaming on the TI-85 and TI-92 during boring math classes, but fortunately my math teacher is a computer geek, who thinks, that calc games are pretty fancy.

Personally, I don't really play calculator games during class. The only time I have is when I'd get a new game and then I'd only be playing it for a few weeks.
With other kids in my school it varies depending on the student and the class. In all my classes it does not appear to be a problem. Though some people play, it is not really a problem. There are only a couple of kids that play constantly. In fact, only in my physics class did there seem to be a problem where nearly a quarter of the students would play games or draw pictures on their calculator. The only reason for this was that nearly the entire class, if not the entire class, was almost always bored and disliked the teacher to some extent. However, beyond that there is no class where there is a problem with kids playing games.
None of my teachers seem to really pay attention to whether kids are playing games or not. If they happen to notice they might confinscate the calculator for a day or two, or tell the kid to stop playing, but the occurs very rarely.

Another thing I noticed is that it seems to be kids with TI's that play the games. A few kids and myself have HP's and none of us play games constantly. Maybe it's due to the number of people that have TI's, or maybe the TI's are better for games, though I don't really think that is the case.

Also as an after thought if anyone knows of sites or books or anything that teaches how to program an HP please send it to me. I've tried rather unsuccessfully to program it and it is very frustrating.

I hate it and it is really stuped

What really annoys me is when someone else takes your calculator and plays it without you knowing. This is why lockdown with password is awsome. The people who don't know about calculators much will just leave it alone.

Games on the TI86 have been scientifically proven to increase your IQ.
This comment came from my physics teacher (who just happens to play on her calculator instead of teaching us). OK, she resets calculators if people refuse to give her copies of all the latest games, but mostly my calculator is reset by people 'spiking' my linkport because I just beat them at BomberBloke.
Anyway, it's my maths teacher's fault - she reccomended buying the calculators.

This happens to me, but NOT because of the games...

I'm one of those freaks who are either designing a word processor or a 3D wireframe editor on my ti83+. In my junior year of HS (2 years ago), I had this teacher who would get pisssed if they even saw it on my desk, because I was in the middle of my wire3D program. She was pissed because she thought I was always playing games, but I would explain that I was making this really complex program...as far as she can tell, it's a dumb calculator, and I would have to be making something really stupid like a dumb math program or something. This always pissed me off because she has no idea; she would even get upset when I used it while she wasn't talking.

This is one of those really good tachers who will develope an absolute hatred of you if you do not do as well as you should in the course or if you piss her off.

As a grade 10 student in Calgary, Alberta Canada, I must agree with the article. Yes, some students abuse the responsiblity of having a calculator that has the capibilities for games. Myself, I get the second highest mark in the class in Math, so when I'm finished 20 minutes before everybody else, and there's nothing else to do, why shouldn't I have the right to play the games? As long as it is not interfeering with my learning, I see no problems with it

I know that because of all the wankers in my class, every teacher now thinks that all me do with the calculator is play games. This simply is not true. You have no idea how often I've been in math class and the teacher has yelled "Jon! Quite playing Tetris and put the damn thing away!" The teacher will come over to see exactly what I'm doing. They'll find me making a program to do the last thing we learned in math class. I love looking up at him and saying "When was the last time YOUR calculator solved an eight variable equation. (Note: in reality, it would take me four hours to solve a system like that. I, however, wrote a program to do it in a second or so.)

Why do people use their calculators to play games on them? I know it might be fun for them, and I've played games myself, but I couldn't find one worth keeping on my calculator and I got tired of the games, so I don't play them anymore. ????? Why would they use their calculators to play games instead of doing something useful?

You play games to have fun in boring classes that you were forced to take, or you are done with your work and are bored, so you need something to do, and what better to play than on your calculator, jeex, get a brain

I think it should be a choice to play games or not. If you don't pay attention in class, it's your fault and you
will pay for it when tests come along. The teacher causes more of a disruption when she says "Put it away." than you do playing the game. (this has happened to me countless times)