Welcome to Cemetech! Since 2000, Cemetech (pronounced /'kʰɛməˌtɛk/ 🔊︎) has been teaching programming and electronics and developing software and hardware. Among Cemetech's specialties are TI, HP, and Casio graphing calculators like the TI-84 Plus, TI-Nspire, HP Prime, and Casio Prizm, embedded and DIY electronics, and computer and web programming. Cemetech provides a safe, friendly space for people to learn, show off projects, and share knowledge and expertise. Our staff of friendly volunteers hang out on our forum and IRC and SAX chatrooms, and are happy to help.
Cemetech Minecraft 1.21+ Server Launching
Published by KermMartian 3 days, 17 hours ago (2024-10-11T14:00:08+00:00) | Discuss this article

The next iteration of Cemetech's survival Minecraft server will be launching tomorrow, Saturday, October 12th, 2024, at noon EDT: mc.cemetech.net. Although discussions were held about returning to mandatory or optional PvP in the style of older Cemetech servers, we decided to stick with the survival/PvE mode that we have used for the last several servers. The server's staff has built a simple spawn area on a circular island, and from there you can set out into the world, build a base, a town, or a civilization. Towny and currency are not in use, but as in previous servers, players are welcome to build together with other players. The cardinal rules remain the same; in brief:

  1. No griefing
  2. No stealing
  3. No hacked clients
  4. No duping

Be sure to check out #rules-and-guidelines on the Cemetech Minecraft Discord server for other rules. To slightly level the playing field for players with busy work/school/home schedules, we'll be rolling out the dimensions in stages:

  • October 19th: the Nether and the Abba World (our resource world) will open
  • November 12th: the End will open

Finally, we've had a few (hopefully solved) issues with the current server hosting hardware and software, so please be patient if we encounter some teething pains.



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Projects of the Month: September 2024
Published by TIny_Hacker 1 week, 4 days ago (2024-10-03T15:43:03+00:00) | Discuss this article

With September over, it’s time for another recap of what our members have been working on. Make sure to check out any projects that catch your attention, and vote for your favorite project completed this month in the poll when you’re done! Since IC0NPRO was missed from last month’s poll, it will also be up for voting this month along with the others.

  • BOS (OS+ROM) for CEmu: Last month beckadamtheinventor continued to work on their OS, adding an image viewer, background image button, copy and paste, and some tweaks to the multitasking system. Copy and paste are built into the text input system routine, so anything that utilizes it will also have access to the new feature.
  • Calc-Kill Extreme: linkjt9 has announced a French translation of their fighting game, which they will be working on in the coming weeks.
  • CEaShell: A Shell for the TI-84+ CE: RoccoLox Programs and TIny_Hacker released version 2.0.1 of their shell for the TI-84 Plus CE, with a number of bug fixes and an indicator in the OS programs menu for program types. The program type indicator is shown on files without a description.
  • [PRIZM] Cookie Clicker: Despite only intending to fix some bugs, Spenceboy98 published the first update to their cookie clicker game in 10 years, with a new font, more buildings, graphical changes, saving, and more! The game also works properly on fx-CG50 calculators now, so it’s certainly worth checking out.
  • Designer: Frederik has published the final version to their TI-84 Plus CE spriting program. With the recent update, it is now compatible with the latest C libraries, along with improvements to custom color palettes, font editing, and a sprite to PNG converter. Designer is one of the most impressive on-calc sprite editors available, so it’s certainly worth trying out if you’re looking to design some custom graphics for a project.
  • ETHDRVCE | Ethernet on the TI-84+ CE: ACagliano has been working on separating the dependencies from his lwIP app, and in the process has created a standalone library for Ethernet driver functions. The library will soon be made to work with libload for the CE C toolchain, but he invites anyone with the ability to test it now to report any bugs or issues they may encounter.
  • eZ80 Studio - An on-calc eZ80 ASM IDE: RoccoLox Programs and TIny_Hacker announced an on-calculator eZ80 assembly editor and assembler for the TI’s eZ80 calculator models such as the TI-84 Plus CE and TI-83 Premium CE. The project isn’t complete yet, but they are welcoming suggestions and feedback as they work on it.
  • First Fantasy: Mana Force (xLIB CSE & CE Textlib RPG): DJ Omnimaga updated his RPG in September, fixing some issues and adding fade transitions to some extra places throughout the game.
  • High Score Protector: Cars and Ice Cream fixed a bug with their High Score Protector program, which they believe was caused by an oversight when adding a custom icon. All known issues have been fixed now so if you’re looking to preserve any high scores you’re in luck!
  • IC0NPRO - Icon Creator for TI84+ CE: Cars and Ice Cream has been working on an update to their icon creator, which features a color palette viewer on the right side of the editor. They’ve also fixed a few minor issues that they encountered when working on version 2.0 of the program.
  • Icon editor for the TI-84+CE: pi644721 also worked on an icon editor last month, written in pure TI-BASIC and featuring a pen tool and two flood fill tools, a nice addition not present in many TI-BASIC sprite or icon editors.
  • lwIP Library with CDC-Ethernet for the TI-84+ CE: ACagliano provided a progress update on the TLS implementation for his lwIP project. SHA-256, HMAC wrappers, AES GBC and GCM, Base64, and ASN.1 have been ported. TLS rand() is also ported, with a new algorithm to produce more entropy with 100.2 bits of entropy per u64.
  • My Cemetech User Styles Colection: PaulGamerBoy360 has made a website which provides links to a number of Cemetech userstyles, including four which they have designed. These userstyles can be used to give Cemetech a fresh look if you’re interested in trying something new.
  • Nix Flake for the CE C toolchain: clevor has built the CE C toolchain as a Nix flake which can be used with NixOS. He has also been working on a repository with a collection of calculator programs.
  • OCaml on the TI 84+ CE: squishy has provided a way for OCaml programs to be run on the TI-84+ CE, by compiling them to an ANSI C file which can be built for the calculator. It’s currently in a proof-of-concept state, but certainly worth checking out!
  • Pac-Man Museum CE: A collection of Pac-Man ports for the 84+ CE: grubbycoder’s Pac-Man port collection saw a number of new features and additions in September, with a brand new port of Pac-Man for the ColecoVision and an upgraded launcher. This brings the total number of ports included to five, with three more on the way. It’s a very impressive project, so be sure to show grubbycoder your support!
  • Shards of Grandeur PC RPG: 123outerme has been hard at work improving their RPG. This month they showcased a new title, animations, and an improved stats menu. An earlier demo of the game is already available on GitHub for free, and they’ve emphasized keeping the final version of the game free to play as well, so make sure to check it out.
  • Sonic 2 CE: A port of 8-bit Sonic 2 for the TI-84+ CE: grubbycoder, who was clearly hard at work this September, has also announced version 1.10 of their Sonic 2 CE port. This version will feature improved framerate, a French translation, and more!
  • TicoIn: linkjt9 has been working on a calculator-based cryptocurrency, which they have dubbed TicoIn. The mining program, which is still in development, is written in C.
  • (WIP) Uno game for TI-84 Plus CE written in TI-BASIC.: HydrideGS is making an Uno game for both TI-84 Plus CE and CSE calculators, written in pure TI-BASIC. They are currently working on designing the play interface to be able to fit the necessary gameplay information on screen.
  • WiFi Module for TI-84+ CE using Raspberry Pi Pico W: synthium is planning a Raspberry Pi based device which can be plugged into the TI-84 Plus CE’s USB port, allowing for internet-capable programs. They’ve also suggested a few ideas for programs making use of this, including an IRC client, FTP server, and program marketplace, along with a C/C++ library to allow other programs to make use of it.
  • Working on a Cookie Clicker port for the TI-84 CE: slimefolf published a beta version of their Cookie Clicker game, with clickable cookies and a simple upgrade store.
  • [PRIZM] Zombie Chase: In addition to Cookie Clicker, Spenceboy98 returned to the forums to publish a polished version of their Zombie Chase program during September. The graphics have been updated to match the TI-84 Plus CE version, and the menu icon has been improved as well.
  • ZX7Load for stock TI83s: Targz announced their first project on the forums last month, an assembly loader for the TI-83 which supports ZX7 compression. With a way to run compressed programs, they were able to test it out on another project, bringing that program’s size from 9.9KB to only 5.6KB!

That wraps up September’s projects! Why not take some inspiration from the many impressive and promising projects and make something of your own to be featured in next month's article?



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Casio Announces fx-CG100 Graphing Calculator
Published by KermMartian 2 weeks, 2 days ago (2024-09-28T14:10:17+00:00) | Discuss this article

Casio has unveiled its new fx-CG100 graphing calculator at a mathematics education conference in Chicago. The fx-CG100, now classified as part of its ClassWiz line of products, is the successor to the fx-CG10, fx-CG20, and fx-CG50 (or Casio Prizm) calculators.

In early 2011, Casio released the fx-CG10/fx-CG20, or Casio Prizm, graphing calculator. It was the first graphing calculator with a full-color screen, narrowly beating out TI announcing a color-screen refresh of its TI-Nspire calculator in February 2011. In fact, the announcement of those two calculators led to an impassioned article entitled "Casio Prizm: Why TI Calc Coders Should Abandon the Nspire CX" here on Cemetech, and over the following few years, Cemetech's hobbyists and programmers embraced the calculator for its easy programmability in C. In a rapid answer to the clichéd question "can it run Doom?", developer MPoupe announced a Doom port called CGDoom for the Casio Prizm in mid-2012.

The fx-CG50 was a faster version of the fx-CG10/fx-CG20, released in 2017, with a sleeker case but otherwise retaining the same operating system, AAA batteries for power, LCD, and user interface. We reviewed it here when it came out. Python arrived for the fx-CG50 in 2018, after TI announced Python support for its TI-84 Plus CE color-screen graphing calculator, but seemingly before the first TI-84 Plus CE Python Edition was available for purchase. Since then, the Casio Prizm remains a very popular calculator, especially among European students.

Casio has now announced the fx-CG100 (which will be known in France as the Graph Math+ Lycée) at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) conference in Chicago. They describe the new calculator:

Quote:
Among the highlights is the fx-CG100, a new addition to the ClassWiz family, designed to standardize keypad layouts across Casio calculators, making it easier for students to transition between models. While the new generation calculator was primarily developed for the French market as the GRAPH MATH+ Lycée, its introduction in the U.S. is planned for back-to-school 2025.

From the photos that Casio has provided, including in a tweet, the calculator has a markedly different keyboard layout than its predecessors, round keys that remind us of prototypes of Zero Calculators' new calculator, and its manual shows that it still uses AAA batteries rather than a rechargeable Li-Poly pack (under an unusual round battery cover), and still has a USB port and a 2.5mm I/O port. Adriweb and Critor of TI-Planet have compiled the known technical and software specs of the calculator, as the Graph Math+ Lycée is already available for purchase. Spec-wise, it's very similar to the fx-CG50, but the software no longer permits Casio Basic programming or the addition of C addins. If true for the US market as well, this will render the calculator essentially irrelevant to the graphing calculator hobbyist community, and one fewer of a shrinking set of calculators that allow the curious STEM student to explore programming beyond a simple language like Python or TI-BASIC.

We look forward to bringing you an in-depth review as soon as we can get our hands on one of these calculators!

More Information
Casio fx-CG100 / Graph Math+ Lycée Product Page and Manuals (French)



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Projects of the Month: August 2024
Published by KermMartian 1 month, 1 week ago (2024-09-01T17:26:50+00:00) | Discuss this article

As Summer 2024 draws to a close and people return from vacations or get ready to go back to school, we look back on the calculator and computer software and hardware projects that Cemetech's members worked on in August. As is often the case, we fielded an influx of new users who either recently got a new calculator or who picked their calculator up after the summer break, and we've seen some impressive projects started by these newcomers. Of course, the existing vanguard of users hasn't slacked on their usual passion and productivity, and we have a host of exciting project introductions and updates to share. Without further ado:

  • Based - A Base Converter for the TI-84 Plus CE: New Cemetech member Voodoo1455 wrote a base converter for the TI-84 Plus CE, for positive bases between 2 and 32. Although it's not the first flexible base converter we've seen, it may be the one with the best interface: instead of navigating menus or answering a series of prompts to chose the from and to base and the value to convert, you enter your arguments at a command line separated by colons. It also handles decimals, not just integers, so if you need to convert plenty of numbers between different bases quickly, give Voodoo1455's converter a try!
  • Basic Basic Revolution: The Graphical: StephenM announced that they're rewriting the graphics for this DDR-style rhythm game in Celtic CE, making it simultaneously faster and more beautiful. The process is still in progress, so if you have encouragement or opinions about the pre-Celtic CE version, be sure to share them in the thread.
  • BBR Chart Editor: Relatedly, StephenM completed and uploaded a "chart" or song editor for Basic Basic Revolution, compatible with the original text-based version and the more recent graphical version. If you play BBR and want to create and edit songs, this is the tool you'll need.
  • Cahute, a toolset for protocols and file formats used with CASIO calculators: Although Cakeisalie5's post count is low, their contributions to the community are not, embodying our mantra of "quality over quantity". Around 2016-2017, they created a variety of tools for Casio calculators, including transfering files to and from many different models' main and storage memories, recording Casio calculators' screens, and flashing the operaating system. If you're a Casio power user, this suite of tools may make your life a lot easier.
  • Calc-Kill Extreme: linkjt9 finished and released this arcade-style fighting game for the TI-84 Plus CE, including some rebalancing from player feedback. It's written in ICE and makes great use of the language's graphics features; if you're a fan of fighting games, you owe it to yourself to check it out.
  • CEaShell: A Shell for the TI-84+ CE: TIny_Hacker and Roccolox Programs have been diligently tracking down bugs in this increasingly popular TI-84 Plus CE shell, including a downright obscure one that interfered with the Probability Simulator app working correctly. They have also been adding some quality-of-life fixes: if you haven't tried this attractive and simple choice in TI-84 Plus CE shells, why not do so now?
  • Celtic CE Catalog: Voodoo1455 added a few updates on their ongoing progress, including their challenges in word-wrapping long explanatory text to fit on the screen.
  • Citadel: A TI-84+CE Roguelike [C]: kilo reassures us that this project is far from abandoned, even though their last update was seven months ago. Mobs can now damage the player, there's a new menu system that drives an inventory, and like all good programmers, they've been refactoring their code as they go. The screenshots show a lot of progress, so if roguelikes are your cup of tea (or even if not), go encourage kilo to maintain their momentum!
  • CosmoCE: A Cosmodread-based roguelike for the TI-84CE: Speaking of roguelikes, DaniNyaaa showed off a graphics mock-up on emulator, on-calc, and then began fleshing out the main and new game menus in actual code. DaniNyaaa's been thinking aloud about aspects of game design in the thread, so feel free to chime in with your thoughts and feedback!
  • DecBot4: merthsoft brought DecBot4 online on the first of the month, and Cemetechians have wasted no time resuming distributing karma like candy. Don't know what I'm on about? Check out our Discord server, linked to IRC on EfNet in the #cemetech channel, or via the SAX chat app built-into this page for logged-in users at the side (desktop) or bottom (mobile).
  • Elite for the TI-84 Plus CE: euphory shared that they have uploaded some updates to this project's Github and that it continues. There are no new screenshots at this time, but the ones in the topic's first post show a very promising project, so don't hesitate to give euphory your encouragement and feedback.
  • IC0NPRO - Icon Creator for TI84+ CE: Cars and Ice Cream was inspired by TIny_Hacker's Spriter program to create a tool that is focused specifically on program icons. Like many recent graphical TI-BASIC programs, it takes advantage of Celtic CE, and the author is now working on making it able to import and replace programs' existing icons.
  • Katib Text Editor: StephenM wrote a tiny command-line text editor in Lua, tested with Lua for Linux but possibly functional on other platforms that support Lua as well. We don't see as many computer projects here on Cemetech as I would like, so be sure to check out StephenM's work (and maybe post your own computer projects).
  • lwIP Library with CDC-Ethernet for the TI-84+ CE: ACagliano posted an update on this networking stack for TI calculators, a port of the open-source lwIP project started by commandblockguy. Many of the improvements are to the API, but it now also supports up to 8 interfaces and has better error handling, and TLS support continues to improve. ACagliano has been working tirelessly on this project despite juggling an internship at the same time, and he has a request for help with two math functions, so check out the topic and lend your assistance if you can!
  • My new ti-basic game: Early in the month, guywithathing shared their progress on a new project, a puzzle game with aspects of Cell Machine by Sam Hogan and Laser Mayhem. The author is currently looking for ideas for the game's name: if you have any inspiration, post in the topic.
  • Psilocybe, a mushroom themed deckbuilding RTS: Arcturex77 posted updates about this GameMaker-powered, Supreme Commander-inspired, mycelium-themed game. Mycelium now spreads, your mushroom "towers" can spawn units, you can place these "towers" via cards from your deck, and dynamic recoloring of the game's major components is supported. If you have feedback, suggestions, or compliments, be sure to post in the thread.
  • QIXBALL: HydrideGS announced a TI-BASIC game for the TI-84 Plus CE, a port of what in my Windows 95 days was known as Jezzball. It's an impressive effort for TI-BASIC, and if you have any encouragement or optimization tips, don't hesitate to share them.
  • Theory to fixing TI-84 Plus CEs that won't charge.: TheLastMillennial has been investigating this annoying issue, where TI-84 Plus CEs new or old have batteries depleted so far that they can't charge. Most TI customers stuck with such batteries need to send them in for replacement, but TheLastMillennial has been trying to come up with easier alternatives. There are some tests you can run yourself in the topic, so lend your aid, adventurer!
  • TI-84 Plus CE / CSE Low Battery Screen Generator: HydrideGS became enchanted by the low battery screen on the TI-84 Plus CE/TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, and built a meme-generator-style tool that lets you generate your own low battery screen. If you're a calculator-themed memelord, here's your chance to diversify your portfolio.
  • TI-Planet's "Project Builder" with online CE C/C++: Adriweb announced a new addition to this web-based TI program editor, wherein you can drag-and-drop .8xp files to view their contents directly in the tool. It's a useful addition, especially if you're curious how any existing program works.
  • TI-Toolkit bot on Discord: Adriweb created a Discord bot to provide information on TI-8x-family tokens, including their history, byte equivalents, and how they're generally represented in computer-side TI-BASIC editors. This is quite a useful tool, especially for TI-BASIC editor developers, so don't forget that it's available if you frequent our Discord server, and be sure to check out the TI-Toolkit information from which it draws.
  • TI Toolkit Token Sheets: Speaking of TI Toolkit, its developers have taken TokenIDE's token lists, one of the community's most authoritative set of token lists that is used in places like SourceCoder 3, and added lots of extra information. For example, they now include the history of the token and more of the ways that tokens are typically rendered on computer and calculators. If you're building a next-gen calculator program editor or viewer, they encourage you to draw from this comprehensive source.
  • Train Simulator Controller: KermMartian has been sharing regular updates on his project to build a physical train console to control Train Simulator, philosophically akin to the realistic flight decks that flight simulator enthusiasts have been known to create. This month, he showed off how he disassembled and shipped a power/brake controller (a combination of the main controls that make a train go and stop), then how he reassembled it and tested a prototype controller to integrate it into Train Simulator. If like Kerm, you've always dreamed of driving trains, check out the detailed blog posts and videos.

Seven projects were finished this month, so get you're vote in for the one you think is the best project of August 2024. We don't expect September to be any less busy around here: don't forget to post new projects and project updates in the Your Projects subforum, and you'll see your project in this space next month!



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