Indeed, +1. I was the same though with a TI-83 instead. I had to get good at hiding the calculator under the desk in non-math classes because the English teacher (for example) would press me on "why do you need a calculator for English class?"

I'm kicking myself for not saving the game code I wrote for some of those early games. They weren't very good, but I'd love to see the code, despite the horrifying spaghetti that it was.

Ah I was a few years later on the TI-86. Around 1999.

Between this, and SNES emulation (searching memory for values and adjusting things to see how they'd affect the game), I was destined for computer science.

We had a chat program on the TI-85 over an extended (10m) link cable.

Good times, indeed.

I had a TI-81 (and then an 85 later on). I wrote a blackjack program. There was no link cable for the 81, so other kids had to type it in manually.

Same here! TI-85, and then HP48G series after that!

+1 ti85 7th grade '95

> so I could write them down on tests.

We had show our calculator had been memory wiped before any tests.

Although in retrospect we only had to show the wipe screen which we probably could have coded up as its own program.

It was OK, just needed to memorize the commands, they are all reachable via a combination of number keys :-)

And many of the people I knew who went on to become real incredible software devs got tired of the limitations of basic and went to ASM. My friend and I started building (and selling) graphlink cables made from old printer parallel cables, mainly for the ASM hackers. We even sold them with a warranty!

productive procrastination!

Same. I even convinced my mom to buy me a transfer cable so I could distribute my programs to my classmates. I was the "plug" for a brief time. Probably my closest taste of being "popular". It was nice.