[General Topics] Menneisyys:
2.2.5 Other apps / games to try

As far as games are concerned, you can also give a try to Aspirin v3.0 (a small but pretty nice and indeed addictive game), CalcRogue (an interesting RPG; remember to transfer ONLY the contents of the binTI89 to the calculator, without the contents of the Titanium subdirectory), Calcwars (also see Advance Wars for the Game Boy Advance; must be started with ttstart("cwdata")) etc. There are TONS of other games in the Games subcategories of the TI-89 archive of ticalc.org (for example, here’re the assembly language (meaning fast) ones and here’re the BASIC ones (slower).

The same stands for applications / math libraries. There’re virtually thousands of such apps for example here (assembly math) and here (BASIC math). If you have the time, I REALLY recommend looking around in all the subfolders of the ticalc.org TI-89 library - it’s really worth it! There’re even (simple) Java Virtual Machines for the calculators - let alone goodies like Telnet apps or (Lynx-like) Web browsers.

In addition, you’ll want to take a look at CalcG.org. Much as, in general, it has fewer titles, it has some really interesting goodies (and an online forum – ticalc.org’s mail list archives are currently down); for example, this StarCraft article (unfortunately, without any downloads).

Finally, there are some (very few) official Flash programs on TI’s pages themselves.

Now that you know how to use the desktop version, let’s move on to the mobile port.

2.3 The Windows Mobile port

2.3.1 Getting and installing the mobile version

The mobile version, VTI Pocket Emulator v2.4, which, more or less, is a direct port of Rusty Wagner’s original on the desktop, is ported by Daniel Galano (see his personal page HERE) to Windows Mobile and is accessible HERE.

Installing it is pretty straightforward: decompress the ZIP archive and start the only EXE file inside. It’ll install the emulator through ActiveSync. As with the desktop version, you’ll need to copy the ROM(s) of the calculator(s) you’d like to use to the home directory of the emulator.

Having a dedicated installer, you can start the emulator right from the Programs, by clicking the VTI Pocket Emulator icon.

Note that you won’t want to use it in Landscape (there wouldn’t be much point in doing so as, for example, you can’t use slide-out / clamshell key/thumboards anyway) because of the major GUI bitmap problems (tested on ALL my test device, VGA and QVGA, old and new - behaved the same).

Swapping ROM’s can be done in File / Select ROM as can be seen in here. Upon swapping a ROM, the corresponding skin will also be auto-loaded as can be seen in here. (Note that skins except for that of the TI-89 are all pretty blurred.)

2.3.2 Differences between the desktop and the mobile version; problems with the latter; tips

There are some major differences between the original and the ported version. They are as follows:

The mobile version can’t load external files and can’t save programs you enter yourself / variables you’d like to be saved. This means the only way to transfer programs / data in either direction is using the <romname>.sav files (for example, with the official TI-89 upgrade ROM, os.sav) it automatically saves its state to upon exiting and restoring the state upon restarting / reloading a given ROM BIOS. That is, you WILL need to use the desktop version to transfer external apps to state saves.

Because the aspect ratio of the original calculator might be around 10:3 as opposed to the 4:3 aspect ratio of (most) Windows Mobile devices, the original button layout isn’t preserved – the uppermost three row buttons are relocated to the right of the screen, which can be pretty annoying if you’re got used to the original button layout.

It’s FAR slower than the desktop emulator, even on very fast WM devices. That is, it’s completely useless for gaming. For “traditional” uses, however, it may be OK (albeit, for example, graphing functions are REALLY slow – even the most simple ones. Just try entering graph sin(x) on a mobile device and see how slow graphing is – it’s decidedly faster on desktop devices).

Unfortunately, Windows Mobile hardware buttons can’t be used to speed up input (see the way the Alt / Ctrl keys are used on the desktop emulator to dramatically speed up invoking second/third functionality). However, built-in keyboards / the D-pad work on most devices. An exception is the HTC Universal, where attempts to use external / internal keyboards resulted in an almost immediate address error / privilege violation error. With the HTC Wizard (which also has a built-in thumbboard), I’ve encountered no similar problems. As far as the D-pad support is concerned, it’s only with the Dell Axim x51v (A12 ROM) that the D-pad didn’t work and trying to use it resulted in an immediate crash. With most (all?) of my other test devices, D-pad worked OK.

In addition to the problems outlined above, you MUST refrain from entering any data at a fast pace on the native GUI of the emulator, especially on (comparatively) slower devices. If you enter data too fast, the last entered button will be endlessly repeated upon subsequent key presses as if the last key were stuck. This (and the fact that you will need to slow down the pace you enter your data) can be pretty annoying.

2.3.3 Transferring files from / to the desktop version

As has already been pointed out, unlike on the desktop, it’s not possible to directly import an external program (data file) into the emulator, and you can’t export anything either. For example, if you select F3 / 1:Send in VAR-LINK (the way of directly exporting files / data to the file system in the target desktop), the mobile version just hangs. However, this isn’t really a problem if you do have the desktop version of the emulator on your desktop computer.

Then, all you need to do is making sure you do save the internal state of the calculator when exiting (that is, after right-clicking the skin, select the Exit and save internal state when exiting the emulator) and, then, just copy the newly created .sav state file to the Windows Mobile handheld. It’ll make use of it without any problems.

The same states for file transfers in the opposite direction. While the WM version doesn’t support selecting between exiting with and without state saving, when you exit the program, it does save the state. That is, if you need to export a program you’ve written / dataset you’ve created on your WM-based emulator, just copy over the .sav state file from the home directory of the emulator to your desktop emulator, and use the latter to export the file / data to the local file system as a non-sav, self-standing file.

All in all, if you need to import any kind of file into the mobile version, you must do this in the dekstop version and just pass on the state save (os.sav with the official TI-89 ROM) file to the mobile version.

2.4 The feature / comparison chart

As usual, I’ve created a feature / comparison chart so that you’ll have an easier time checking whether a given model is emulated under the desktop / mobile Windows, what hardware features (most importantly, screen and RAM/ROM size) it has, whether it supports CAS, where its ROM BIOS can be downloaded from etc. It’s available HERE. Don’t forget to check it out!

Note that the chart doesn’t include discontinued / superseded models: the TI-92 (1995; replaced by the TI-92 Plus (and later the Voyage 200), TI-80 (1995; replaced the much superior TI-73 and is, due to its proprietary CPU, is NOT emulated by any emulators), TI-85 (1992; replaced the superior and backwards compatible (!) TI-86), TI-81 (1990; replaced by all newer models; few additional apps because the programs needed to be entered by hand – this calculator had no linking capabilities).

Also note that TI’s official comparison chart only lists the four most current models (TI-83 Plus, TI-84 Plus, TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, TI-89 Titanium), unlike my chart.