Survey posted 2005-08-17 04:22 by Jon.

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I enjoy playing and coding classic games for the TI 68K series calcs.

I also enjoy playing classic games on my GP32 (see URL). The GP32 is an open source handheld.

My PDA!

Actually, I spend more time developing games than playing them. I can't remember the last time I spent a serious amount of time gaming!

Well, if you're developing games, you would no doubt want to playtest them as much as possible to find and fix bugs, which can amount to quite a serious amount of game playing for complex games. ;-)

Well... i have to say my calc... cos i never had a portable game system... or even a TV console... but my first mobile was a true beast... i had around 1000 games on it... and around 20h of music... a SL45i (quite old now) XD ... unfortunatly it was stolen... :( ... and now only my calc is a portable game system... my laptop is not quite portable... 4,5Kg... 2:30h battery....

In the end i stick to my old calcs... my TI-89 and my TI-83+ ... but i still program more than play...

(I want a PSP, anyone want to throw it away?)

(woo... big post..)

I use a nentendo DS

if you think calc games are more fun than handheld games something is seriously wrong with you. calc games are ok but you only play them in school where you'd get in trouble with a psp.

It all depends on the game...with a calc game, you can just download it for free and try it out, and if you don't like it, you've only wasted a few minutes. On the other hand, if you end up not liking a Gameboy game, you've wasted $40 (or whatever each game cartridge costs).

Also, calculators aren't only for playing in school. I frequently find myself playing Bomberman on my 86 in waiting rooms, movie theaters, airport terminals, on long car/plane trips, etc.

Yeah, dude. Especially when you've got an 89, games for that are awesome. Of course, I probably program more than play 2, so pretty much I've said what some of u guys have said...

89 games are "awesome" when compared to other calc games, not when compared to the psp or ds. And you CAN play calc games anywhere, but why would u want to if you have something better?

But think about the price of a Gameboy or something...as I said in an earlier comment, I'd rather play games (and do even more assembly programming) on my calc, and spend the money on Motorhead CDs instead (to listen to while coding!). So unless you have more money than you know what to do with, or don't program for calcs, then a calculator is probably the best compromise.

Well, just to be honest, the whole DS and PSP stuff bores me lol, and I don't want to spend my money on that kind of thing at all

Mee, too. My brother and I have an old beige original Gameboy, a clear original gameboy, and two GB colors between us. Neither of us has played them in years.

Dedicated gaming handhelds may beat the calculators hands down as far as sound and video go, but a well-designed game (whether it's for a gaming handheld or console or a calculator) doesn't rely on graphics and sound to be fun to play.

Also, another cool thing is that with the calculators you can make your own games if you're into that kind of thing, and all you need is a computer-calc cable, some software (much of which is open-source and freely available), and time. For that matter, you can write just about any kind of software you want, not just games.

The GamePark GP32 is another alternative for people that enjoy coding. It is an open source handheld (see my previous post) with a few free development kits and libraries. It looks similar to a GBA... but far more powerful! It uses standard FLASH memory cards for data storage and connects to a PC via USB cable.

alright, i'll admit that graphics and sound arent everything. But i have never seen even one calc game that compares to even the worst gameboy game. And being able to program in a calc is a plus, but i guarantee you that less than 10% of people that own a graphing calc know the first thing about even basic programming.

I would argue that ZTetris (at least, on the TI-92+) is better than Tetris Worlds if one likes classic Tetris (TW allows you to cheat to some extent & has a weird scoring system), & is probably on par with the original Gameboy Tetris.

I use my calcs like PDAs. I write, program, play games, teach myself Quenya, etc., anywhere I am. And they're cheaper than a Palm.

Exactly. Same here.

I third that. :) I only use my PDA for drawing, mainly because it is much more convenient than a cursor pad (or mouse, for that matter) & is more portable than a digitizing tablet.

Bomberman? Or Bomberbloke... hehe!

Actually I carry my 86 with me in the car frequently when we go on loong trips :) Now I take it in turn with my 89ti :)