Published by TIny_Hacker 4 days, 2 hours ago (2023-11-28T15:50:13+00:00) | Discuss this article

Here we go again, with another Projects of the Month showcase! [When kg583 wrote this in October,] with September 2022, this almost brings us back to only a year behind. There were an impressive amount of projects worked on this month, so be sure to check out any you feel like you missed back in September. As always, vote for your favorite project completed this month in the poll, and enjoy!

• AnotherWorldCE: Port of the classic 16-bit game to TI84+CE: Making a re-appearance on the forums after almost a year of inactivity, Zaalane has brought us one of the most impressive projects I’ve seen this year! They’ve written a port of the MS-DOS version of the game Another World, originally written by Éric Chahi. It manages to run very smoothly as well, an added bonus!
  
• [84+CE] Block Dude: merthsoft has released his port of the classic TI-83+ and 84+ game, Block Dude! With cute graphics and mind-bending puzzles (some of these levels are really difficult!), it’s the perfect game if you’d like to exercise your brain. If you’ve ever played a past version of the game, you’ll definitely like this new version as well!
  
• Board game for the TI-84+ CE: Privacy_Dragon has updated his BoardsCE game (similar to the board game Chutes and Ladders), reducing the size of the file and improving accessibility by adding colored numbers for tiles with effects.
  
• BShell, a Hybrid BASIC Shell for the 83+/84+/SE: NoahK has created a shell for the TI-83+/84+(SE) written in Hybrid TI-BASIC. While TI-BASIC itself is very limited, it uses the Doors CS 7.2 libraries to make many features you’d expect in a shell possible. While it hasn’t been uploaded to the archives yet, be sure to give NoahK your encouragement!
  
• C8SALT: A CHIP-8 emulator in TI-BASIC for the 83+/84+: Oxiti8 has finally released his TI-BASIC CHIP-8 emulator, which not only works on monochrome 83 and 84+ calculators, but their colored variants as well! He’s also significantly improved it in the release compared to the V0.8.1 Alpha version, with a custom font, multiple bug fixes, and more! Now that it’s been officially released, you’ll find a link to download it and try it for yourself in its forum topic.
  
• Calculator Street Racing II: Evolution (TI-84+CE, TI-BASIC): This was the month for Oxiti8, with not one, not two, but four projects! He has completed his second racing game, Calculator Street Racing II: Evolution, written in TI-BASIC for the TI-84+ CE. There have been massive improvements to the game since the original CSRacing, with a better racing engine, graphics, new features, and more! The game is extremely well-thought out and impressive, and is certainly worth a try!
  
• Calculator Street Racing: A drag racing game for 84+/CE: Oxiti8 has updated CSRacing Deluxe to include gray roads and some more color variation as well, using some of the techniques he learned from CSRacing II.
  
• CEaShell: A Shell for the TI-84+ CE: TIny_Hacker and RoccoLox Programs have started work on a TI-84+ CE shell, written in a mixture of both C and Assembly. It features a focus on ease-of-use and a fresh new design, along with some other expected shell features as well.
  
• Celtic BASIC library for the CE: RoccoLox Programs, with assistance from TIny_Hacker, has been working on a creating a version of the Celtic TI-BASIC libraries (written by Iambian) for the TI-84+ CE! It greatly expands the possibilities of vanilla TI-BASIC, using the power of assembly to add graphics capabilities, file management, and more. If you’re a TI-BASIC programmer looking to beef up your programs, this is the tool for you!
  
• CEPORT: An on-calc tool for porting TI-BASIC prgms to CE/CSE: His fourth project this month, and the third to reach the poll, Oxiti8 has written a new version of his CEPORT program using the Celtic CE library, which works on the TI-84+ CE! If you’re not already familiar with CEPORT, it’s a utility which can be used to port TI-BASIC programs written for monochrome 83+ and 84+ calculators to the TI-84+CSE and CE, by adjusting for the difference in resolution of the calculator’s screens, which can greatly help with the struggles of TI-BASIC programming for multiple platforms.
  
• [84+CE] Dino Puzzle: merthsoft has also begun porting the classic Dino Puzzle game to the CE, with some fresh, colorful graphics as well! It hasn’t been released yet, but he’s made some good progress, so make sure to give him your support!
  
• ESP32-S3 powered CAS for the TI 84 Plus CE: Dmalenke has modified the hardware of his calculator by attaching an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, which has allowed him to use it as a co-processor for CAS operations. You can read more about the behind the scenes process in its forum topic!
  
• i292i - A new Image conversion program for TI-92/V200: After noticing a lack of programs in the image -> calculator file department, matalog has created a utility which can be used to take images on your computer and convert them to the image files used on 68K calculators, like the TI-92 and Voyage 200. It’s certainly a useful program, so be sure to take a look.
• MineSweeper (C): ZERICO2005 has created a MineSweeper game for the TI-84+ CE written in C! The graphics are true to the classic game, and the game runs very smoothly as well, along with supporting many different game modes as well! Overall, it’s very well-made and polished, so I highly recommend trying it out!
  
• Sonic 2 CE: A port of 8-bit Sonic 2 for the TI-84+ CE (WIP): grubbycoder has begun porting Sonic 2 to the TI-84+ CE, and he’s already made good progress! It’s an ambitious project, so make sure to show the author your support!
• Super Smash Bros. CE: theflamingninja21’s Super Smash Bros. game has received more development this month, adding same-calc multiplayer!
• Tiny Jumper 2: RoccoLox Programs has begun work on a sequel to his speed platforming game, Tiny Jumper. New in the sequel is a more polished UI, new secrets, obstacles, and a darker palette!
  

That’s all for this month! As I said earlier, there were a ton of great projects, so picking which one to vote for might be pretty difficult! Great job to everyone keeping the community alive with your great ideas, and make sure to stay tuned for the next PotM article soon!

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Published by KermMartian 1 week, 2 days ago (2023-11-23T01:56:57+00:00) | Discuss this article

After a somewhat quiet month of updates in July, August came back with a large number of projects advancing.

• [84+CE] Block Dude: merthsoft made his regularly scheduled sporadic appearance and in just a few days built a port of the monochrome calculator classic Block Dude for the TI-84 Plus CE. Be a small figure that lifts and pushes blocks, try to reach each level’s door, and discover (or rediscover) how tricky some of these levels are. Next month, it’ll be released (or you can time-travel to grab the download now).
  
• C8SALT: A CHIP-8 emulator in TI-BASIC for the 83+/84+: In August, Oxiti8 returned to this project after a six-month lull, fixing three bitwise ops and preparing for a September release.
• Calculator Street Racing II: Evolution (TI-84+CE, TI-BASIC): It was another busy month for Oxiti8’s now two-game franchise of Calculator Street Racing games. After starting this second edition in July, they implemented car dealerships, special events, wheelspin and skid marks, tuning cars, and graphical improvements to races. They aimed to release all these features in a September update (spoiler alert: they did!).
  
• CE C Toolchain and Libraries for the TI84+CE/TI83PCE: MateoConLechuga announced version 10.2 of these seminal tools for TI-84 Plus CE C development in August. Follow the link to the latest release (which incidentally is now well beyond 10.2) for all the latest tools for C development for our favorite color-screen calculators.
• CEDISASM - an on-calc disassembler for the CE: PT_ had been very busy, but he returned with an on-calculator port of zdis, a disassembler created primarily by jacobly. This useful tool for assembly and C programmers lets you inspect exactly what’s happening in assembled code running on your TI-84 Plus CE, especially useful for debugging on-the-go and reverse engineering. If that describes you, grab it and check it out!
  
• CryptX - Cryptography Bundle for the CE: ACagliano released version 9.2 of his increasingly powerful and diverse cryptography library for the TI-84 Plus CE. The biggest change is that the AES implementation has been reworked.
• [C] Endless Mazes on the CE: matkeller19 first showed this TI-84 Plus CE maze generator in June 2022, inspired by a personal learning journey into maze-generation (and adjacent) algorithms. They showed off a way to move through the maze and a new feature that allows watching mazes be generated. Check out the screenshots in the topic!
  
• macOS Monterey 12.0: ProgrammerBobSmith updated his TI-84 Plus CE shell to version 12.2.1, primarily fixing bugs. As always, you can grab it in the topic.
• macOS MonTIrey Library (Iron XCoder): Relatedly, ProgrammerBobSmith pulled some of the graphics tools written in C out of their “macOS Monterey” shell, such as number printing and input, listing programs, running programs, and more. If you want to quickly create your own shell, this library is an easy way to get started.
• Modular calculator wall display: Addressing a problem that many of us face, commandblockguy began to explore a modular, nondestructive way to display their many calculators. It’s still a work in progress, so if you have any suggestions, please add them!
• MyCalcs, a website for your graphing calculators collection!: Adriweb announced MyCalcs, a place to tabulate and share your graphing calculators and accessories. It has helped to organize what the community knows about rare and prototype calculators (and is a great example of parallel evolution: Cemetech once had a section to register your calculators, albeit for globalCALCnet).
• Oxygen [C]: Alvajoy123 showed the first version of his Xenon shell’s GUI library, pulled out into a reuseable library for other developers to use. It offers a mouse cursor, interactive widgets including different types of input fields, and shape-drawing functions. In a future month, you’ll see how it evolves.
• PS2/USB Keyboard entry on TI-83+/84+ ((C)SE): matalog used the ArTICL Arduino-TI Calculator Linking library to support PS/2 keyboards on the TI-83 Plus, TI-84 Plus, and TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition family of calculators. An Arduino attached to the calculator communicates with a keyboard over PS/2, then uses ArTICL to send “silent linking” commands to the calculator. Download the Arduino code from the topic, and share your feedback with matalog!
• Super Smash Bros. CE: theflamingninja21 showed off an early demo of a Super Smash Bros. clone/port for the TI-84 Plus CE. So far it has platforms, character movement, and a few characters: in a clever twist, theflamingninja21 is "featuring only characters that have appeared in calculator games", such as Tetris pieces. Keep an eye on the topic (and future PotMs) for updates!
  
• Tuppers Formula on TI-84 CSE: matalog shared an update to their implementation of Tupper’s Self-Referential Formula, a formula that when plotted as a bitmap generates an image of itself. The binaries can be downloaded from the topic (no source is provided).

That’s all for this end-of-(last)-summer update: vote for the best project completed this month, and see you next time!

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Published by Wavejumper3 3 weeks, 6 days ago (2023-11-05T01:10:49+00:00) | Discuss this article



Cemetech Contest #26 is the screensaver contest! Save our screens with cool visuals! Here's some ground rules, of course:

General:
Programs for this contest may be in any language, for any platform. The use of any assets, such as sprites and code, will also be permitted provided that they are public at the start of the contest. Projects released or started before the contest's beginning are ineligible for entry in the contest. In order to qualify for the contest, the program has to fit the general constraints of a "screensaver" (defined below). The contest is open to all Cemetech users, except for judges.

Development:
Please create a thread to document your progress throughout the contest, in the format "CC26: <your username>". Receiving help is also allowed for the contest, provided it is done through a Cemetech-run public place of discussion, such as the forums, SAX, IRC, or the Cemetech Discord server. If you receive help from someone, be sure to give them credit. (Thanks Epsilon5 for writing most of this. I heavily drew on CC25 as a base for the phrasing.)

Submission:
Source code is required. Send the source, executable, and readme in a zip file to "contest@cemetech.net" before the deadline. Late submissions won't be eligible for voting.

Judging and Scoring:
Personal Judgement of 5 judges: Wavejumper3, LogicalJoe, and three others TBA.
There will be a community vote as well!
One winner from 2 categories of programs will be picked by judges.
Categories as follows:

1. Programs written in TI-BASIC on any (e)Z80 calculator model.
   
2. Non-TI-BASIC programs, which may be written for calculators or any other platform.

A community vote picks an overall winner (which can be different from the judge-picked winners)

Timeline:
This contest will begin when this post goes up, and end on Saturday, November 25th, at 3pm EST, 12 Noon PT. Community voting will be the following week, and winners will be announced soon after.

Prizes:
A surprise! (There are prizes, though, don't you worry).

Now, a definition of "screensaver", as the judging will be based on these criteria:

1. An emphasis on not requiring user input.
   Of course, it can accept user input to change the visuals, but it should continue to function in an interesting way without any user interaction for most of the runtime. We will judge each entry by running the program and not touching the calculator or computer again.
   
2. Dynamic Visuals
   The screensaver has changing visuals, often in a purposefully non-repetitive way. They generally lack audio, and are relaxing to look at (a strobe light is not a screensaver).
   
3. Creativity!
   Screensavers are encouraged to be interesting in both execution and concept. Originality is a big plus!

Now, go save some screens!

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Published by KermMartian 1 month, 2 weeks ago (2023-10-14T14:01:33+00:00) | Discuss this article

With absolutely Zero delay, let's dive back into 2022's plethora of projects.

• Calculator Street Racing: A drag racing game for 84+/CE: Oxiti8 released the deluxe edition of their street racing game for the CSE and CE, sporting a host of car types, racing modes, and car customization. Go check it out on GitHub!
  
• Calculator Street Racing II: Evolution (TI-84+CE, TI-BASIC): Following that successful release, Oxiti8 reworked and reenvisioned their racing game's engine, developing an enhanced semi-sequel for the CE (and all while still sticking to (almost) pure TI-BASIC). You can view a preview below, check out the main thread for more details, or read Oxiti8's discussion on the switch to the new engine here.
  
• Elimination: An RPG inspired by Earthbound / Pokemon: Hot_Dog released a small update to their RPG, improving the user-friendliness of a tool added in the last release. The change is great for newer players, and as always sports fantastic graphics.
  
• Latest News on TI-Trek: ACagliano dropped a handful of updates to TI-Trek, improving networking, enhancing graphical elements, and welcoming TKB Studios as a team member. A lovely rendering test involving a certain billionaire's head can be found in the thread.
• Lua port for the CE: commandblockguy has implemented the ability to run Lua programs from appvars on the CE. Lua users of all proficiencies should give this port a try!
• macOS Monterey 12.0 COMING TO TI–84 PLUS CE: ProgrammerBobSmith continued work on their macOS Monterey shell for the CE. The shell comes with a number of built-in apps and utilities, as well a cursor-based interface. ProgrammerBobSmith is always welcoming comments and suggestions, so be sure to check out the thread.
• Telnet MUD Cyberia! (think zork meets internet multiplayer): Wavejumper3 released their multi-user dungeon (MUD) game Cyberia, a text-based adventure played over Telnet. Check it out!
• VYSION 2 CE: the ultimate CE shell: epsilon5 released a major update for their shell VYSION 2, adding custom color themes, an enhanced file explorer, translucent windows, and so much more. The shell is more than worth trying out for yourself, so what are you waiting for!
  
• [C] CEdit editor for the TI 84 plus CE: Michael0x18 made great progress on their on-calc text editor for CE, rewriting the keypress routines to better support modifier keys.
  

That's all for July 2022! Be sure to vote in the poll, and we'll see you in the next PotM!

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