TI bans community calculator emulation

[DJ Omnimaga]

By the way, has there ever been any case where console emulators that includes no copyrighted code have been subject of lawsuits and cease & desist letters?

Also just to reiterate, in case the argument earlier gets misinterpreted at one point: The views of a few hardcore TI/84+CSE/Nspire haters does not necessarily represent the views of the entire Omnimaga userbase nor the team. Same goes for the PRIZM and other calcs. Just to ensure that no one thinks that Omnimaga is becoming anti-84+CSE/Nspire/Prizm or something. In fact I'm buying the calc the second it's available for sale to me, unless it's like $239.99.

[Keoni29]

In fact I'm buying the calc the second it's available for sale to me, unless it's like $239.99.

That's very specific

Most people don't even know what an emulator is. Why would TI even mention it in their terms and agreements? Because of the community??

[Stefan Bauwens]

why are they doing this
I mean, you still need a real calculator to legally use a third party emulator...

Not so. You can illegally download a ROM and use it(so without buying a real calc).

[critor]

In conclusion, jsTIfied is safe, Wabbitemu is safe, VirtualTI is safe, TiEmu might be safe, but TI8xemu is not (since ROMs are included in it).

TI8XEmu doesn't include any rom.
It's just that the app can be given URLs to load a ROM and a RAM backup to start with.

[Keoni29]

I acquired my rom by dumping it from the calculator as well. Can't we be like apple and take their OS, modify it and say it's not theirs anymore?

[SpiroH]

... Can't we be like apple and take their OS, modify it and say it's not theirs anymore?

It seems like "Yes, we can!"

[TIfanx1999]

If I had to wager a guess I'd say TI added that last little bit to try to prevent schools from just emulating calculators without purchasing them and also to get schools to buy their own simulators/ emulators. I would also guess that the new license only applies to the current software available on their website. It's also worth mentioning that there is nothing stopping the community from writing their own OS from scratch, or porting one (in regards to z80s). The Z80 platform is very old. I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least one open source OS for z80 machines floating around out there somewhere.

[blue_bear_94]

However, user-made OSes will have to emulate the behavior of both assembly and TI-Basic routines, without using TI's code.

[TIfanx1999]

If you want to maintain backwards compatibility yes. However, ASM could work as long as the old program didn't use any Bcalls(and the same safe ram areas were available), and an Improved BASIC interpreter could even be made.

[blue_bear_94]

Note that the OS is made to test both ASM and TI-BASIC programs. That includes ASM programs taking advantage of BCalls, so we can't assume that none of them will be used; same for the saferam areas.

[critor]

TI is planning an online TI-84 emulator for the PARCC mathematics assessments for High School.

Source: http://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=10813 (in french, sorry)


So, I think we might be starting to understand why...

[DJ Omnimaga]

Hmm interesting. The question, though, is how accurate are their emulators?

[TIfanx1999]

I doubt they will be accurate as far as hardware emulation goes. As long as they emulate the math functions properly TI will be happy. That would be my guess anyways.

[Stefan Bauwens]

Yes, that's what I fear too. They create these "emulators", which are kinda limited. The Nspire iPad app is rather a simulator, for example(which can not run Ndless, for example).

We cannot be limited to there "junk", and be forced not to use the hard, worked for, GOOD emulators out there.

Just remember about TI's license:
"This Agreement will immediately terminate if you fail to comply with its terms. Upon termination of this Agreement, you agree to return or destroy the original package and all whole or partial copies of the Program in your possession and so certify in writing to TI."

[Keoni29]

They did not ban it. They put it in their agreements. If you do not agree with it you can just use the OS you got when you did not have to agree with this. I still use 2.43 on all of my emulators and my calc.