Performance (On an HP48GX Graphing Calculator) (opens in new tab)

It was kind of a odd hobby, but there were several game examples

https://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/games/arcade/

Best regards =3

There were even an Zelda attempt with smooth scrolling...

The demo video shows full screen scrolling, in which the entire screen updates smoothly.

Also, LCDs require periodic refresh, so partial LCD updates require framebuffer memory somewhere, often in the display controller built into the LCD panel or module, or less commonly into the pixels themselves. It's possible there's a frame buffer hiding somewhere, but plenty of systems don't have one, so the only option is always updating the entire LCD every refresh.

Since this is anecdote time: I got an HP49G for the SAT Math subject test (which apparently is no longer a thing). I loved it to bits.

But I ended up putting it away – by the time I was simultaneously doing college statistics, a class on numerical methods and DEs, and few other classes, I got so frustrated with having to remember inscrutable 6-letter softmenu items that I took my first summer paycheck and blew it on a TI-89.

I did not have internet access at the time, but it was possible to order contents of this newsgroup on floppy disks from the national HP48 user group, I think they were located at Chalmers university in Sweden. This was my first encounter with the internet, around 91-92-93, browsing Usenet posts from snail-mailed floppy disks.

There was lots of useful software written for it but I was totally blown away by the accuracy of the Phoenix port. Obviously, the graphics couldn't be replicated but even that was well done given the hardware limitations. The game mechanics were pretty close to the original.

I want to second all recommendations of SwissMicros. I own DM15L (~$150), DM41X (~$220), and DM42 (~$250), and they are all absolutely excellent specimens. Not a single complaint. They are easily user serviceable, they have a very high build quality and feel like they will last decades (matching modelfkeyboards dot com build quality). The DM42 has a user-enabled N-stack so you can input algebraic expressions of any arbitrary length. The DM15L is an advanced calculator you (or at least I) can grok completely end-to-end, and packs it all into a compact form; I actually prefer to grab the DM15L before the DM42. The DM41X is also an excellent specimen. It includes the ability to {,un}load module files which are dumps of the old HP-41CX module cartridges. I love every single one of them, and cannot shill (for free) SwissMicros enough. You've beheld Swiss watches, now behold a Swiss calculator!

The hp-50g is pretty nice (I know I know, unpopular enter key location), its USB power and SD card make it quite convenient. Of course the screen is the same as before, but the CPU is faster afaik

And then of course there are many HP calculator emulators and others for android

I'm guessing that you have newRPL. Have you tried putting DB48/DB50n firmware on it? That does have graphics (and RPL). I haven't had time to get familiar with mine, so I can't comment further on capability.