Exploring the Texas Instruments homebrew scene

Modding is a bloody-minded activity at the best of times; it's all about the square pegs and the round holes. But in the Texas Instruments (TI) range of scientific calculators, the modding community has found its Everest.

These flauntable overblown electronic abacuses are unlikely candidates for homebrew game applications: the hardware is awkward and the userbase is tiny. However what the TI range of scientific calculators do have is a screen and buttons, and if that's not reason enough to code a version of Space Invaders or even Mario, then we don't know what is.

TI scientific calculators thus embody the raison d'etre of the modding ethos; namely, a need for modding is irrelevant, the motivational factor is simply to prove that it can it be done.

That may sound like a slightly joyless way of viewing such obvious ingenuity, but it seems clear with TI modders that the games are not made for those outside of the modding community, in the way that many PSP homebrew games are. TI homebrew games are made for other TI modders, and even then the chief enjoyment gleaned seems to be in the making and not in the playing.

We at Pocket Gamer admire this sort of absurd stubbornness, especially when it's in the name of handheld gaming, so we've explored the TI scene and rounded up some key TI homebrew games, mods and resources to shed a little light on this obscure pursuit.

TI Calc games

Interestingly, despite the number of titles that any gamer would recognise appearing repeatedly on the archive lists of many different TI community sites, according to the TI community every single one of them is legal. TI mod forums are full of discussions on the subject, and the case for legality is often hinged on the same central thesis.

The argument is that publishers of console and PC games are responsible for copyrighting, compiling and uncompiling their own source code. This means that unless a TI homebrew game is called 'Super Mario Brothers' to the word, or uses any or all of the code from the original game, it's not classed as a copyright infringement. Because TI games are coded from scratch (albeit with the help of the online resources that the community share with one another) infringement, it's claimed, is never an issue for TI games.

That said, many of the titles archived on some of the more popular sites don't seem to follow this 'new' naming convention rule too strictly. And there is also the small matter of the tell tale 'we don't have any official connection to Texas Instruments' disclaimer that can be found on all of the bigger TI mod sites.

Either way, there is such a wealth of familiar titles available, including Mario, Bust a Move, Galaxian, Pac Man, Wolfenstein and Puyo Puyo (or Puyo Pop as it's know on these shores).

Of course no scientific calculator homebrew scene would be worth a single Tetris block if it didn't have a clutch of original titles to offer, and boy does the TI scene have those in swathes.

The difficulty with being blessed by such a volume of homebrew titles is separating the wheat from the chaff (think low-end Java mobile games). There's a large pool of games at one end of the quality scale that are essentially rehashed versions of each other, typified by variations on the name Asteroid Dodger or similar.

Move up the ladder however and there are many much more ambitious titles to indulge in. The Sims 1862: Brothel, a Sims clone set in a Wild West house of ill-repute, is one of the more notable titles (whoever said that the TI-toting mod crowd didn't have a sense of humour clearly missed this beauty).

There are also some interesting original RPGs, such as the earnestly named Dying Eyes, which promises a 'massive and fairly non-linear plot'. There are plenty of original RPGs themed on popular franchises such as Zelda and Final Fantasy too, although the unfinished versions outnumber the complete ones by a factor of two to the power of... well it's more than a couple anyway.

TI Calc hardware mods

TI calc remodelling is fairly pedestrian in comparison to the exotic modifications afforded by the likes of the PSP and the DS. The hardcore nature of the TI scene means the focus is on homebrew code rather than calculator case revamps, and so the majority of the hardware mods lurking in Google's lesser visited search pens are restricted to obligatory collections of case mods, such as back lights and case re-sprays.

In keeping with the 'to prove that it can be done' ethos that is present throughout the TI scene, the best that has been achieved is less than practical. A genius called Justin Karneges has managed to fashion an internet capable TI-83. All you need is a TI-Graph Link cable, an external 9600 modem, and a cellular phone or wall jack.

Something tells us that this would invite a few looks from your math teacher were you to whip it out in class with all of its clunky appendages; even so, Justin's creation makes for an impressive deviation for a device designed to plot parabolas.

The TI Calc community

Most if not all of the TI community sites are fan made affairs, and seem to have a short lifespan. Veterans among the numerous TI sites are rare indeed.

One of the most highly revered is ticlac.org, which enjoyed its 10th birthday last year and shows no signs of going anywhere quite yet (perhaps owing in part to its sober layout being school friendly, with no flashy images or game screens to attract the attention of any watchful teachers… we jest).

The other big games resource for TI hounds is CalcGames.org, which has more of an emphasis on archived game downloads than its more technical peer but no less of a following, judging by its busy forum.

Aspiring modders looking to prove their coding mettle could do worse than seek out these sites and look at TI as a proving ground for their talents. Granted the games are about as far a step back as one can take from the brightly coloured polygons offered by the DS or PSP, but then the PSP cannot be used as a prop for feigning hard work (except by us idle game journalists).

So here's to the TI modding crowd, planting gaming flags in treacherous hardware mountains everywhere. Pocket Gamer salutes you!

Click 'Track It!' to be alerted should we ever be lucky enough to find an excuse to cover TI homebrew again. And check out our latest DS Homebrew Review.