Editing Mobile game (section)

===Calculator games===
[[File:TI83tris.JPG|thumb|right|Clone of ''[[Tetris]]'' being played on a modified [[TI-83 Plus]]]]
[[File:TI-84 Portal.jpg|thumb|A fan-made game similar to the game ''[[Portal (game)|Portal]]'']]

Calculator gaming is a form of gaming in which [[Video game|games]] are played on [[programmable calculator]]s, especially [[graphing calculator]]s.

In 1980, [[Casio]]'s MG-880 [[pocket calculator]] had a built-in "Invaders" game (essentially a downscaled ''[[Space Invaders]]'' clone),<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Technology: The games that aliens play |magazine=[[New Scientist]] |date=18 December 1980 |volume=88 |issue=1232–1233 |page=782 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ainC3-wuz_kC&pg=PA782 |publisher=[[Reed Business Information]] |issn=0262-4079 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> released in the Summer that year.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Porter |first1=Matt |title=Episode 131 - Retro Gadgets - Part One - Casio MG-880 Music and Game Calculator |url=https://www.thegadgetman.org.uk/gadget-man-episode-131-retro-gadgets-part-one-casio-mg-880-music-and-game-calculator/ |website=The Gadget Man: Technology News and Reviews |access-date=2 December 2021 |date=11 May 2019}}</ref> Another early example is the [[type-in program]] ''[[Darth Vader|Darth Vader's]] Force Battle'' for the [[TI-59]], published in ''[[BYTE]]'' in October 1980.<ref name="jackson198010">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1980-10/1980_10_BYTE_05-10_Software#page/n51/mode/2up | title=Darth Vader's Force Battle | work=BYTE | date=October 1980 | access-date=14 June 2014 | author=Jackson, Clete | pages=50–54}}</ref> The magazine also published a version of ''[[Hunt the Wumpus]]'' for the [[HP-41C]].<ref name="librach198102">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-03/1981_03_BYTE_06-03_Programming_Methods#page/n231/mode/2up | title=Hunt the Wumpus with Your HP-41C | work=BYTE | date=February 1981 | access-date=18 October 2013 | author=Librach, Hank | pages=230, 232}}</ref> Few other games exist for the earliest of programmable calculators (including the [[Hewlett-Packard 9100A]], one of the first scientific calculators), such as the long-popular ''[[Lunar Lander (video game series)|Lunar Lander]]'' game often used as an early programming exercise. However, limited program address space and lack of easy program storage made calculator gaming a rarity even as programmables became cheap and relatively easy to obtain. It was not until the early 1990s when [[graphing calculator]]s became more powerful and cheap enough to be common among [[high school]] students for use in mathematics. The new graphing calculators, with their ability to transfer files to one another and from a [[computer]] for backup, could double as game consoles.

Calculators such as [[HP-48]] and [[TI-82]] could be programmed in proprietary [[programming language]]s such as [[RPL programming language]] or [[TI-BASIC (calculators)|TI-BASIC]] directly on the calculator; programs could also be written in [[assembly language]] or (less often) [[C (programming language)|C]] on a desktop computer and transferred to the calculator.  As calculators became more powerful and memory sizes increased, games increased in complexity.

By the 1990s, programmable calculators were able to run implementations by hobbyists of games such as ''[[Lemmings (video game)|Lemmings]]'' and ''[[Doom (1993 video game)|Doom]]'' (Lemmings for [[HP 48 series|HP-48]] was released in 1993;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.xeye.org/1995-2000/LemmGames.html |title=Lemming Games |publisher=Xeye.org |date=1997-04-06 |access-date=2013-08-12}}</ref> Doom for HP-48 was created in 1995<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hpfool.free.fr/doom/images/index.html |title=Le projet Doom |publisher=Hpfool.free.fr |date=2001-01-07 |access-date=2013-08-12}}</ref>).  Some games such as [[Dope Wars]] caused controversy when students played them in school.

The look and feel of these games on an HP-48 class calculator, due to the lack of dedicated audio and video circuitry providing hardware acceleration, can at most be compared to the one offered by 8-bit handheld consoles such as the early [[Game Boy line|Game Boy]] or the [[Gameking]] ([[low resolution]], [[monochrome]] or [[grayscale]] graphics), or to the built-in games of non-[[Java virtual machine|Java]] or [[Qualcomm Brew|BREW]] enabled [[cell phone]]s.<ref>{{cite web|author=Eric Rechlin |url=http://www.hpcalc.org/hp48/games/arcade/ |title=HP 48 Arcade Games |publisher=Hpcalc.org |access-date=2013-08-12}}</ref>

Games continue to be programmed on graphing calculators with increasing complexity.  A wave of games appeared after the release of the [[TI-83 plus|TI-83 Plus]]/[[TI-84 Plus series]], among TI's first graphing calculators to natively support assembly.  [[TI-BASIC]] programming also rose in popularity after the release of third-party libraries. [[Assembly language|Assembly]] remained the language of choice for these calculators, which run on a [[Zilog Z80]] processor, although some assembly implements have been created to ease the difficulty of learning assembly language.  For those running on a [[Motorola 68000]] processor (like the [[TI-89 series|TI-89]]), C programming (possible using TIGCC) has begun to displace assembly.

Because they are easy to program without outside tools, calculator games have survived despite the proliferation of [[Handheld device|mobile device]]s such as [[mobile phone]]s and [[Personal digital assistant|PDA]]s.