it doesn’t make sense to me how that’s possible
In: 0
Calculators are just computers. Computers can play games. Of course the calculator has to be programmed to play the game.
I’m sure you’ve used Excel at least once in your life, some [guy made a whole rollercoaster ride in it](https://youtu.be/IrVA1BBHFHw).
Calculators have a microprocessor in them, like a computer does, just a very small/tiny/weak one. By changing the code that they run, you can have it play a game instead of just doing math.
It’s important to note that this is primarily on graphing calculatiors. These calculators have more buttons, bigger screens, and stronger computers.
Some graphic calculators have a rudimentary programming language, that’s supposed to be used to draw graphs and such.
In high school I programmed a blackjack game on my calculator, that used the random number function of the calculator to deal cards and a simple check to tell you if you go bust. A friend of mine programmed a full physics simulation of how air resistance would move a falling sheet of paper.
He’s now a senior data scientist specialising in computer vision and machine learning. I’m not.
I have a TI-89 Titanium from college and with the internal memory I have the first 5 levels of the Gameboy Mario Bros. And Space Invaders. Used to play them in the boring classes.
You only need a few things for a basic game computer:
1. A processor that can execute instructions.
2. Memory to store temporary data.
3. A way to display progress in the game, like a screen.
4. Some way of giving the processor the logic of the game.
5. Some method of user input.
Graphing calculators are low powered computers with a basic operating system that normally takes button input, does math, stores results, and displays it to you. That’s all you need for a game, as long as the calculator has a way of giving it the right code. Many like Ti ones do.
You won’t get anything fancy, but some games are simple and require just a little memory and a relatively small set of instructions.
Oh man, brings back memories of my life on the TI-8x series calculators in the mid/late-90s.
In short, they are small computers so that they can process the intended purpose of graphing math stuff. But some smart people figured out how to use the underlying technology and programming language to make games.
It’s not that much different than your iPhone/Android device…it can do math stuff, but it can also play games. The calculators are just significantly more rudimentary.
Not every calculator. This applies to programmable graphing calculators.
Being a graphing calculator allows them to display the game, and being programmable allows someone to program a game for them.
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