Games for TI Calculators

It’s back to school time, and kids everywhere are turning to Texas Instruments for help in graphing calculations. I’ve heard about games designed to run in Excel, adding a fun element to an otherwise mundane tool. Now comes word of games that can be downloaded to your TI calculator. Fifteen year old Andrew Munsell runs TI Wizard, a site focusing on news, software, and tutorials for the venerable calculators.  The most intriguing part of the site is the download section, offering free software and games that can run on the calculators. As of this writing, almost 50,000 programs have been downloaded from Munsell’s site. Mario, PacMan, and Tetris clones comprise many of his top downloads.

Munsell hit the big time today when he was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article about the new TI model, the Nspire. Praising it, he said, “The TI-Nspire that I have is not just a calculator any more — it is a handheld computer.” Check out his neat site and click on some the ads to help support his efforts.

References:
Dicolo, J. A. (2009, September 9). Numbers don’t add up for a TI calculator. The Wall Street Journal, a16.

Update:
Stephen Shankland wrote a neat article on this topic here. TI apparently does not like folks hacking their calculators.

Ambient Offers Sub-vocal Chat Device

In the popular Ender’s Game series of science fiction novels, the hero communicated with his computer via sub-vocal conversations. We’re starting to see a variety of non-traditional input devices for videogames, from the Wiimote to Brain Computer Interfaces. Now, a company, Ambient Corp., has demonstrated a working model of a neckband that can translate sub-vocal nerve signals into computer commands. The demo occurred at a Texas Instruments Developers Conference. Applications include wheelchair control, dictation, and assistive technology for the speech impaired. Of course, videogame apps will be offered if there is sufficient interest and demand.

Imagine a videogame adaptation of Ender’s Game where players navigate the interface sub-vocally … Or how about a game the speech impaired can play as well as others? Or how about a military immersion training that users control on several levels, including vocally, hand-eye, and sub-vocally? The possibilities are intriguing.