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[return to "Big Calculator: How Texas Instruments Monopolized Math Class"]
1. briffl+T7[view] [source] 2019-11-26 16:07:08
>>lewisf+(OP)
In highschool, I had a TI-83, and had fun doing things like programming blackjack on it, so I could look like I was doing work while having fun. I went to an engineering school and switched to an HP-48GX for my years at it, and fell in love with the RPN input. I miss that calculator, but not the TI.

I think I sold the HP 8 years after I bought it for $20 more than I bought it for. They were discontinued, and surveyors and others that had special modules that could plug into it would pay a premium for a replacement one.

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2. klodol+v8[view] [source] 2019-11-26 16:11:05
>>briffl+T7
I had a TI-86 and then won an HP-48GX. At some point the TI-86 was lost or stolen, I don’t care, the HP-48GX was so much better. I especially liked working with units, which made everything in science classes that much more convenient. The only thing I missed about the TI-86 was the Mario clone, with level editor, and a puzzle game called DStar.

While the TI-83 and 86 had a pedestrian Z80, the HP series apparently had a weird nybble-serial architecture called Saturn that worked on 64-bit values.

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3. Mounta+8b1[view] [source] 2019-11-26 22:43:10
>>klodol+v8
While it didn't have Mario, the HP48GX did have an almost perfect clone of Phoenix. If it had been in color, I might have been convinced it was an emulation.
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