My first foray into programming was writing BASIC programs for my calculator. I whipped up a simple number guessing game and was the coolest guy in the class for about a week.
I used to love making games on my 84 in math, took away from the boredom of learning the same stuff two years in a row after being taken out of my honors classes for no reason
@@majomist 😂 it took me a minute too, as he was getting frustrated with the jack I was grooving along and then I actually listened to it and realised it was a custom, to the moment bit of playing
James just making his own cable is so awesome. I like how he goes over how he did it instead of just glossing over it. Not a tutorial obviously but I appreciate how much work he puts into something as simple as a cable
As someone who used to code apps and games on TI-83 Plus in my high school days, glad to see someone raising awareness about graphic calculator gaming. :) Just so you know, there are many far better games available, many of which actually decent ports/clones of famous games, as well as some great games specifically made for this platform. Some were coded in TI-BASIC, but most were programmed in Z80 assembly.
I played a couple Metroid 2 clones. Not my favorite metroid but they were well done. Also some unplayable pacman game that scrolled the screen so it just turned in to mud.
@@Mister_Brown Kinda interesting to think about now, everybody at my school had phoenix and a couple others but I have no idea who was actually getting them onto the calculator to begin with, before they got transferred around via link cable.
Oh, and in case anyone is curious, in Ireland we don't use these. We use €2 Classwiz Casio calculators, unfortunately we miss out on all this mischief.
I installed flappy bird on people's calculators for $10 a pop when in high school😂 so this video was a blast from the past. Thanks for the memories lol I also had a janky homemade cable like yours lol
0:34 I can’t explain it, but as someone who enjoys making cosplays and DIY fashion, I relate to the way James looked at the schematic and thought “This is expensive, but I have all those parts, so I can make that myself.” It’s so cool to see the same thought processes happen with completely different materials!
I don't know what's better, the concept of the video, the fact he's making his own data cable or the fact the highest resolution of the video currently is 360p
Hey love this. I taught myself ti-basic so I could make simple games on my ti-83 instead of paying attention in math class. If you had a computer and the link cable you could make games in z80 assembly, but as I did not I made all my games in ti-basic using the keyboard on the ti-83. Took forever to type anything.
me = Wait... which James is this? James = *creates Frankenstein cable for TI Calculator from many E-corpses me = ah... that James. The Magpie Savior James
The Z80 microprocessors in those calculators is the same as the gameboy. In fact you can emulate gameboy games on it. It is more tricky, but totally doable. You can also hook up headphones or a speaker to the jack at the bottom. You can even play piano, music, and grayscale movies on them. No much of a movie given the limitations, but still. There may be a way around the storage limit with a library called USB8x, but I never actually did that. I started programming on these calculators. That's where I get my username.
Dude, that's awesome! I remember my brother putting Pokemon yellow on a graphing calculator like 12 or so years ago. It still blows me away! Looking forward to seeing your next projects! Btw, did Wade make that background music for you? If those, twas awfully Dank of him!
The Wolfenstein 3D "port" is the best game for the Ti-83+ in my opinion. Plays very similarly to the original game. There's also a version of Doom that isn't as good, but still impressive.
i can see the differences between dank and jame's channels become more apparent. jame is developing into a unique youtuber in his own right. love you jame!
Ah this brings back so many good memories! I had a TI-86 which even had the option of loading external programs in assembly, i had full fledged port of Super Mario for Gameboy and Sega Columns on it, mindblowing
Man this takes me back to middle school when they had a massive surplus of these things collecting dust in boxes and they all came in that clear blue color that for some reason i really liked as a kid. Looking back I'm mad I didn't grab one to keep. While it is handy that most phones today have calculators preinstalled a weird part of me misses handling one of these.
In secondary school we used TI-84s with exam mode, which when turned on would completely wipe your program storage and with it the progress I had in the 2d platformer version of portal
I used a TI-82 because it was cheaper and basically identical to the 83 but I remember using the 83 in school constantly, they had them locked away because people would steal them if they didn't account for every single one. We had to sign each one out. I still have at least 3 of these in a drawer in the garage, all dead (except the TI-82 comically)
I used to love those calculators in school. A friend at the time learned how, and taught me how, to code games into the calculator and play them. So this brings back memories, though we never played GTA LOL and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t remember how to do it anymore. 😅
I JUST LOVE HOW YOU EXPLAIN the diodes and resistors and stuff, makes you soo much better then them other channels and guys who build a effing timemachine not saying one word ;D SUBSCRIBED !!!
I used to write tect based games for these calculators when I was in high school. I learned more about programming from that than I did in any computer class.
Love this! I had a ti84 plus back in the day. It had a mini usb for data and boy am I glad for that looking at this. Being a programmer from early days, my maths teacher swapped my calculator for tests, as he didn't want to wipe the myriad of silly and useful programs I had made :D I had shit from "give me a number and I'll spit out HEY or LISTEN that number of times" to eventually building a blackjack game.
I put basic text based programs on my Ti-84 plus with the built-in programming button instead of paying attention to precalc class.. It was my first experience with programming, and it taught me that maybe I don't want to program as a hobby lol.
Holy crap! I watched this video all the way through and didn't even realize it was youtube's newest device-based geneva-convention-ignorer! You really fell into a stride man, this video is great!
As an owner of a ti-83, thanks, i didn't know i could make my own graphlink cable.
As an owner of a ti-nspire it luckily uses mini usb so i dont have to use a wacky cable
@@reisenImperishableNight mini USB is pretty wacky.
If you ever loose the cable you can just buy a Nugget and it's bound to come with one
@@Zanpaa true that aswell but not as wacky as the cable used in the video
@@chadbranston9741 I'm sorry. But what?
I really should have been ready for James to say "I don't wanna pay $60 AUS for cables so let's make our own."
I know! never saw that coming
And the cable was the easiest part imo
after reading this comment I should've been ready, but I still wasn't
I knew it was coming lol. James could revive a dead test light, James can just make a cable :)
James must really hate Apple ...
My first foray into programming was writing BASIC programs for my calculator. I whipped up a simple number guessing game and was the coolest guy in the class for about a week.
I did that with python on mine
I used to love making games on my 84 in math, took away from the boredom of learning the same stuff two years in a row after being taken out of my honors classes for no reason
That's nothing. I made a periodic elements lookup program in basic and I was the cool guy for months in chem class lol.
we were doing qbasic back in 6th and 7th grade and I was the best at coding in my class. Nobody likes a nerd tho 😢
I remember improvising solver programs on tests because I was too lazy to do the work by hand and programming was just easier lol
Building your own cable is such a James thing to do, I love it
Still can't believe this channel exists. It's like a damn fever dream
But one of those fever dreams that you actually enjoy.
It's like Dankpods' spirit animal came to life
people keep saying this; why? Is this James notorious for something?
@@lily_skyehe’s in many of the videos made by dankpods, probably one of the most popular tech channels.
@@lily_skye wait, how did you get here without knowing who James is?
Thats a dank beat behind the tinkering. I love how it builds with your tooling around too. Perfect
Perhaps from Dankpods?
@@MattRio42 I dunno, whats the chances they know each other... /s
Oh god I didn't even realise that's what the music track was!
@@majomist 😂 it took me a minute too, as he was getting frustrated with the jack I was grooving along and then I actually listened to it and realised it was a custom, to the moment bit of playing
@@MattRio42 It didn't take long for me to also wonder if Dank recorded the drum loop in the background!
You can tell Wade made the music for this and I absolutely love it.
Who's Wade? Do you mean Dankmus or Dankpods?
@@deathsyth8888 Dankpods is Wade
If that's a live drum accompaniment then that's pretty innovative!
@@illustriouschin no way, if it was live accompaniment, you'd hear wade giggling at james' jerry rig insanity
wait he did?
James just making his own cable is so awesome. I like how he goes over how he did it instead of just glossing over it. Not a tutorial obviously but I appreciate how much work he puts into something as simple as a cable
I would have never guessed how tech savvy you were from Garbage Time. Keep it up man, these videos are both fascinating and hilarious.
Ahhha is this James from garbage time!
Hey, his genius is unparalleled in both channels.
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
If we don’t get a smart fridge gaming video Imma be upset mate.
He about to play GTA 5 on a Samsung smart fridge
If this man were to have a smart fridge it would be Atari powered
@@pyroratt San Andreas should be possible.
Toaster
Watching a guy build a cable to avoid buying something and then have it work feels like a miracle, good job mate!
So glad to see you're making videos, always a must watch whenever a new video drops!
As someone who used to code apps and games on TI-83 Plus in my high school days, glad to see someone raising awareness about graphic calculator gaming. :) Just so you know, there are many far better games available, many of which actually decent ports/clones of famous games, as well as some great games specifically made for this platform. Some were coded in TI-BASIC, but most were programmed in Z80 assembly.
I played a couple Metroid 2 clones. Not my favorite metroid but they were well done. Also some unplayable pacman game that scrolled the screen so it just turned in to mud.
I remember playing a version of final fantasy on my ti-83 plus, it took up just about all the memory on it, but it was worth it
best one by far was phoenix
@@Mister_Brown Kinda interesting to think about now, everybody at my school had phoenix and a couple others but I have no idea who was actually getting them onto the calculator to begin with, before they got transferred around via link cable.
0:30 “I don’t wanna pay that” literally explained my personality 💀
Oh, and in case anyone is curious, in Ireland we don't use these. We use €2 Classwiz Casio calculators, unfortunately we miss out on all this mischief.
Whenever you upload, I can hear Wade chanting "JAMES. JAMES. JAMES. JAMES. JAMES." in my head 😅
I installed flappy bird on people's calculators for $10 a pop when in high school😂 so this video was a blast from the past. Thanks for the memories lol I also had a janky homemade cable like yours lol
Much better with the quiet background music! Looking forward to more uploads
0:34 I can’t explain it, but as someone who enjoys making cosplays and DIY fashion, I relate to the way James looked at the schematic and thought “This is expensive, but I have all those parts, so I can make that myself.” It’s so cool to see the same thought processes happen with completely different materials!
God this is amazing! I wish this was a channel when I was in highschool! I would have loved this
I'm digging the background music! So cool that James has a channel! It's really cool to see him work his magic. Keep up the good work, man!
I'm fairly certain that that is wade on the drums, sounds like his setup
@@coreyw7934 It's gotta be right? James fixes his nuggets, so Wade makes background music for his channel. Seems fair.
The homebrew scene for the TI-84 is way bigger. I remember back in highschool i was playing portal and mega man during math class
The backing music does _so much_ to help fill space. Thank you for putting some in!
I live for this stuff man. Got a TI-83 Plus myself. I had a Link cable but I’m not sure what happened to it. May have to try this one out myself.
I don't know what's better, the concept of the video, the fact he's making his own data cable or the fact the highest resolution of the video currently is 360p
I had a TI-84 in high school that I still use to this day , and it still has all the games I loaded onto it back then.
I absolutely love your channel James! Much love!
I'm 100% sure that the background drumming is Wade.
Hey love this. I taught myself ti-basic so I could make simple games on my ti-83 instead of paying attention in math class. If you had a computer and the link cable you could make games in z80 assembly, but as I did not I made all my games in ti-basic using the keyboard on the ti-83. Took forever to type anything.
Yo dude that's so cool! That must've been one hell of a pain to do though
You could make games in machine code on the calculator by writing in hex. Sounds painful and time-consuming but certainly possible :)
I literally just sat down to have lunch and was actively looking for something to watch when this upload popped up. Ol' mate James coming in clutch.
I love how James can mod basically anything
Thoroughly enjoyed this, and the cat at the end *chefs kiss*
I'm glad I found this channel. As a Russian engineer, I relate to your type of engineering
me = Wait... which James is this?
James = *creates Frankenstein cable for TI Calculator from many E-corpses
me = ah... that James. The Magpie Savior James
The Z80 microprocessors in those calculators is the same as the gameboy. In fact you can emulate gameboy games on it. It is more tricky, but totally doable. You can also hook up headphones or a speaker to the jack at the bottom. You can even play piano, music, and grayscale movies on them. No much of a movie given the limitations, but still. There may be a way around the storage limit with a library called USB8x, but I never actually did that.
I started programming on these calculators. That's where I get my username.
Can it play bad apple?
Ok
Hold on, is the drum loop in the background recorded by Wade/Dank? It sure sounds like it!
Dude, that's awesome!
I remember my brother putting Pokemon yellow on a graphing calculator like 12 or so years ago. It still blows me away!
Looking forward to seeing your next projects! Btw, did Wade make that background music for you? If those, twas awfully Dank of him!
Love the cat cameo at the end of every vid
The Wolfenstein 3D "port" is the best game for the Ti-83+ in my opinion. Plays very similarly to the original game. There's also a version of Doom that isn't as good, but still impressive.
I couldn't help but hear Wade going "no, James, it's broken, stop, it's over" just like with the broken voltage tester.
James is like the old man with all the knowledge
i can see the differences between dank and jame's channels become more apparent. jame is developing into a unique youtuber in his own right. love you jame!
i'm very fascinated by the engineering of the cable to do the transfers. love the videos already james :D
I'm impressed by his skill at cutting, splicing and soldering wires.
(Did not expect the cat at the end)
This is a really good channel for a beginner electrician like me who is still learning things thanks a lot for the tricks you showed
thank you for the cat at the end
Dude your videos are great! You and Wade are going to build a UA-cam empire!
I realized today growing up this was who I wanted to be.
Ah this brings back so many good memories! I had a TI-86 which even had the option of loading external programs in assembly, i had full fledged port of Super Mario for Gameboy and Sega Columns on it, mindblowing
Frank looks kinda different or is it just me?
Back in the 80's and 90's the teachers guarded those Texas instruments calculators with their lives.
It's dank pods but in red
Finally, I have been waiting for a new upload. Glad to see you back Mr. James.
I know James is a pro and knows what he's doing, but watching him solder with his fingers so close was a bit of a "pucker moment" 😅
my school had cables so of course we all had games on our calculators, loved playing bomberman
Honestly would love a TI calculator but nobody seems to have one over here
Man this takes me back to middle school when they had a massive surplus of these things collecting dust in boxes and they all came in that clear blue color that for some reason i really liked as a kid. Looking back I'm mad I didn't grab one to keep. While it is handy that most phones today have calculators preinstalled a weird part of me misses handling one of these.
the dank expanded universe
It's like a GTA IV expansion.
2:04 I'm not even kidding, I just looked at my watch and it's actually 5:26 AM. What are the odds of that?
0:07 They still make brand new TI-83 plus models to this day as a budget option
If your budget is 90 bucks
As an owner of ever ti version ever, thanks for your video. It was funny and very nostalgic for me.
1:01 nice drum solo lol
I appreciate that you now have music in the background - Especially as you got Wade to make it.
Why do I feel like the background music is made by Dank..?
In secondary school we used TI-84s with exam mode, which when turned on would completely wipe your program storage and with it the progress I had in the 2d platformer version of portal
More like this please, I just love the random chaos when you're building stuff.
1:57 that boot up sound bring back SO MUCH NOSTALGIA
What an amazing channel I stumbled upon. That level of tinkering is something I dream about being able to do.
god I love this channel so much, its like watching real life Macgyver
I used a TI-82 because it was cheaper and basically identical to the 83 but I remember using the 83 in school constantly, they had them locked away because people would steal them if they didn't account for every single one. We had to sign each one out. I still have at least 3 of these in a drawer in the garage, all dead (except the TI-82 comically)
I love the half second cat outros 🥰
Lmao bro I can't believe I watched the whole vid and kept laughing at you playing those silly games 😂
10/10 content as expected im so excited to see future video james you're a legend m8!
Commenting to help boost this in the algorithm, keep up the good work!
I used to love those calculators in school. A friend at the time learned how, and taught me how, to code games into the calculator and play them. So this brings back memories, though we never played GTA LOL and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t remember how to do it anymore. 😅
James you do some quality content, electronic gadgets and cars are my favorite things. Keep up the good work my dude.
The background music definitely adds to the video. Great addition!
I love the "fuck it ill do it myself" mentality
You just got a new subscriber, keep the cats coming!
My favourite thing a friend got on my school calculator was Doom. I think it was the Ti-84, though.
I used to make games and sell them with a friend. Having the link cable in school made you a legend. Lol.
You're a technical genius! Keep these videos coming, James!
You scare me with your know-how and methods. But, im here for it!!
This channel is the panicle of human engineering.
Lol bro im not even an electronic or programming guy, making your own star cable is a slap in the face. Youre a genious lol
Sounds to me like the background music is recorded by wade…
Amazing video as always James! Much love and respect brother! ❤️
holy shit it's James's channel let's go
3:32 same mate.. same 😢 😂😂
I JUST LOVE HOW YOU EXPLAIN the diodes and resistors and stuff, makes you soo much better then them other channels and guys who build a effing timemachine not saying one word ;D
SUBSCRIBED !!!
Phoenix was the best game on TI-83 PLUS. You could also play super Mario.
I used to write tect based games for these calculators when I was in high school. I learned more about programming from that than I did in any computer class.
YES, I LOVE YOU ALREADY GOD DAMNIT
In Romanian, my language, a PC is called a Calculator, so it's funny. Laugh.
I do enjoy that Wade is playing the drums as background music.
I sprung for a Ti-89 in high school, but now I need to track down a transparent blue 83 just cause it's cool. Thanks James!
"In touch with tomorrow?"
*Windows 98 boots up*
Got me rolling on the floor
Here before it blows up. The UA-cam algorithm and I wish you luck!
Love this! I had a ti84 plus back in the day. It had a mini usb for data and boy am I glad for that looking at this. Being a programmer from early days, my maths teacher swapped my calculator for tests, as he didn't want to wipe the myriad of silly and useful programs I had made :D I had shit from "give me a number and I'll spit out HEY or LISTEN that number of times" to eventually building a blackjack game.
I put basic text based programs on my Ti-84 plus with the built-in programming button instead of paying attention to precalc class..
It was my first experience with programming, and it taught me that maybe I don't want to program as a hobby lol.
Holy crap! I watched this video all the way through and didn't even realize it was youtube's newest device-based geneva-convention-ignorer! You really fell into a stride man, this video is great!
I used to write programs for the TI-86, 83, and others way back when I was in high school and collage. But they were mostly timer programs.
Great to see another upload from you, James! I can't wait to see what you put out :)