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TIgameoflife

screenshot

A simple implementation in C of John Conway's Game of Life for TI-83+ series calculators.

Supported Calculators

This program is tested on a TI-84+. It should be compatible with the TI-83+, TI-83+SE, TI-84+, and TI-84+SE. However, it will run noticeably slower on the TI-83+, which has a slower CPU.

Compilation

The source code for this program is hosted on Github. To compile the program, you will need the following software:

  • SDCC (Small Device C Compiler): compiler/assembler/linker
  • binpac8x.py: packages binary file into executable for the calculator

The makefile assumes all these programs are in your system path. On Linux, it may also be necessary to change the permissions of binpac8x.py so you can execute it: chmod +x binpac8x.py.

Linux

To download and compile the source: open a terminal and navigate to the directory you want to download the source to. Then enter the commands:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/mortonsc/TIgameoflife.git
cd TIgameoflife && make

That's it! The executable file is conway.8xp.

Windows

All the required software is available for Windows, so it should be possible to compile, but I haven't tried.

Installation

To install on your calculator, you must obtain an executable, either by compiling the source using the instructions above or by downloading the release from this repository. Once you've done that, open conway.8xp with your favorite emulator, or, if you're particularly trusting, upload it to your calculator with your favorite linking software. As far as I know the program is safe, but bear in mind that running assembly programs on the calculator is inherently dangerous.

How to Play

The compiled program is called CONWAY on the calculator. To run, use the Asm( command (found in the catalog):

Asm(prgmCONWAY

The program does not offer any way to edit the screen; the contents of your graph screen at the time you run the program are used as the initial state. If you want to quickly create an interesting screen, you can use the Draw->Text( command to print text to the screen.

When the program starts, it is paused. There are 5 possible actions:

  • Clear: quits the program
  • -: advances the game one step
  • +: starts the game running
  • Sto+Num: Stores the contents of the screen to picture variable Num. Num is any of the numerical keys. (as if you had entered StorePic Num)
  • Ln+Num: Loads the contents of picture variable Num to the screen. (as if you had entered RecallPic Num)

While the game is running, pressing Enter will pause it again. You may have to hold the button for a second before the game pauses.

Planned Features

This is a list of features I plan to add:

  • About/help screen
  • Wrapping around edges
  • Generation number tracking

Contact

You can contact me via email; my address is visible on my Github profile. Bug reports should include enough information for me to replicate the error.