Author Topic: What should I buy? (Read 14324 times)

chiefpiggy · « **on:** August 21, 2012, 04:59:13 pm »

Alright guys so I have a question: there are two great color calculators out thre, the Nspire cx cas and Casio prism. Which one should I buy? Or should I just bide my time until the new cm-c or cx-c to come out?

Deep Toaster · « **Reply #1 on:** August 21, 2012, 05:14:18 pm »

It really depends on what you need.

The -C calculators (CM-C and CX-C) aren't too different from the ones without the -C except that they're labeled in Chinese. (If you want Chinese, the Nspires already have localization settings.)

In terms of math, the CX CAS is far superior to the Casio Prizm or normal CX because it has a [wikipedia]computer algebra system[/wikipedia]. It's geared mainly for higher-level math (beyond calculus), similar to the TI-89/92/V200 series (which also has a CAS). As far as I can tell, the Prizm was designed to compete against the TI-83 Plus series, so the math functions are fairly similar to the ones on those calculators. The plain CX might be slightly better, but probably not by much. Both calculators have prettyprint notation (or MathPrint, whatever you call it).

In terms of gaming, there's historically been more development on the Nspire series than the Prizm series, which is why you'll see Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and NES emulators on the CX but not the Prizm. Nspires also have Lua built in, which offers another boost in terms of variety of games (since it's a fairly easy language to use and many games have been made in it already). However, Kerm's working on a port of Lua to the Prizm—it's not finished yet, but I'd imagine it'll really help out Prizm game designers. The CX also offers better potential than the Prizm because of its specs: it has more memory and more speed. Hence why nDOOM runs significantly faster than CGDOOM.

In terms of cost, the Prizm is way cheaper than the CX (like half the cost). In fact, the official price for a Casio Prizm is just around the official price of a plain, black TI-83 Plus—there's TI's market dominance for you

chiefpiggy · « **Reply #2 on:** August 21, 2012, 05:48:20 pm »

but are the -c calculators coming to america ever?

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2012, 05:49:49 pm »

I guess the question also is do you already have a graphing calculator? Are either of these a necessity for you? How much do you want to spend? Deep thought covered it pretty well for you though. Personally I own calcs as a hobbyist/collector. I won't buy the nSpire due to TI's refusal to have it as an open platform. I do own a Prizm. There are not as many developers for Prizm though, so things tend to come out more slowly.

*edit* Fixed a stupid spelling error.

chiefpiggy · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2012, 05:59:27 pm »

i am fascinated that now developers are putting videogames on calculators (cause they make classtime that much more fun!) i have a v200 but there isn't much space on that for games. The cx has tons of space for games and can play gba, gbc, and nes games whis is amazing. I wanted to know if the -c has better gaming perfrmance

Deep Toaster · « **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2012, 06:07:33 pm »

I can't imagine why the CX-C would be any different from the CX (it looks the same except for the key labels, and I'd assume the C just stands for China). The CM-C would definitely be worse because it has half the RAM.

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #6 on:** August 21, 2012, 06:18:23 pm »

Again Deep thought is correct, and it seems likely the CM-C models will not come here. There have been other instances of TI producing models for specific regions such as the TI-84 Pocket (Europe) and the TI-84 Pocket SE(China), and many of the french models (TI-76 fr, TI-82 stats).
Also: The V200 has quite a lot of space for games. Aside from the nSpire series I believe it has the most space available. You should be able to fit plenty of stuff on there.

Unfortunately development for the 68k series is very slow these days (TI-89, TI-89 Titanium, Ti-92+ V200)as TI doesn't promote them much anymore. There is a fairly large library of older programs that has been developed for them though as it used to be a very popular platform. You should check <a href=http://www.ticalc.org>Ticalc.org's archives</a> to see what I mean.

Until you get another calc (if you decide to) the V200 is still a very nice machine.

chiefpiggy · « **Reply #7 on:** August 21, 2012, 06:36:15 pm »

but when i try to send pokemon games on (3 files at a time as directed) it always runs out of space! there are always no other files on it besides the kernel, gb68k and their files, and the hw3patch. I really dont know what the hw3patch does but whatever.

ive also tried doing the -pack extension when converting the files but the same thing happens. i have put on a smaller game, contra, and that works just fine but pokemon games dont work

ive tried pokemon red, blue, and gold. neither of them are small enough to fit on my calc

ben_g · « **Reply #8 on:** August 21, 2012, 06:49:19 pm »

Do you store them in RAM? You should keep as much as possible in th flash memory. It's much bigger and everything in there is (usually) safe during a crash.

chiefpiggy · « **Reply #9 on:** August 21, 2012, 07:08:10 pm »

i always store in the flash rom man but when it says it runs out of mem i actually check the mem and theres still tons of space left

TIfanx1999 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 21, 2012, 08:51:09 pm »

Hmm.... I'm not sure. I'd try reseting all your memory. Resend everything and try again.

shmibs · « **Reply #11 on:** August 21, 2012, 10:30:36 pm »

seemingly inexplicable things like that happen fairly often on TI's hardware, and, like art said, usually the only way to fix it is by resetting things. if even overwriting the operating system doesn't do anything, though, you should post about the issue somewhere. there isn't much 68k activity around here, but someone might be able to help you out all the same.

as for calculators, i like the prizm much more, because of how open it is to writing programs. if you are going to be using it only as a device for playing games, though, then an nspire, with it's larger available library, is probably the better option.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #12 on:** August 21, 2012, 10:44:01 pm »

Heya, here is my opinion on each available series of calc

TI-83 Plus Pros: The second largest variety of games available on any model, after the 84+ (almost all 84+ games run on the 83+ or vice-versa), and some of the best classics. Very documented and has many easy to learn languages
TI-83 Plus cons: Half slower than the TI-84+, very small amount of memory, crappy screen

TI-84 Plus/SE Pros: The largest variety of game available on any model, and some of the best classics, by far. Very documented for programming and has many easy to learn languages
TI-84 Plus/SE Cons: Crappy resolution and no color, limited RAM, even though the calc costs the same price as the PRIZM.

TI-Nspire Pros: Best CPU, memory and a standard screen resolution for gaming (at least old skool games), a decent choice of programming languages (providing you got one of the latest OSes), no need to buy AAA batteries.
TI-Nspire Cons: Expensive, closed platform, where every OS update you risk losing the ability to run games like nDOOM or the GBA emulator. It's like Apple with iOS and Cydia or Sony with PSN. Not a lot of games either, most being ports or emulators of existing games. The CAS version is banned in most tests.

Casio PRIZM Pros: Second best CPU, memory, high screen resolution, wide screen and lots of programming potential. Cheap price considering the specs.
Casio PRIZM Cons: Not very popular compared to TI calcs, small selection of games, although if you wait a bit, that might change eventually. Small selection of programming languages, although that will change soon.

TI-89/v200 Pros: Second best selection of games, slightly more performant than the 84+
TI-89/v200 Cons: Expensive, banned from most tests, almost nobody program it anymore so nothing new comes out or almost. On the possible verge of being discontinued.

Casio FX-9860G Pros: Cheap, similar specs to the 84+ although higher RAM, a decent selection of games and languages
Casio FX-9860G Cons: Almost nobody seems to program it at all nowadays in the English community.

jwalker · « **Reply #13 on:** August 21, 2012, 11:48:30 pm »

Realy It depends on what you want to do. Personaly, I do both and own an Nspire CX, Nspire clickpad and a Prizm.

The Nspire CX is great for math and playing games (when not locked down) that are written in C/ASM. Lua is also a very easy to learn language and you can make games with it. It also has alot of memory, you can store several doom wads on it.

The prizm is an open platform, so your games written in C/ASM probably wont be blocked. The switch to the prizms interface from a TI one is kind of hard. The math features are deffinately similar to that of a TI-84+, like Art said.

DJ Omnimaga · « **Reply #14 on:** August 21, 2012, 11:55:17 pm »

Well interface-wise it depends. If he's switching from a TI-80-86, he should get familiar with any Casio calc pretty quickly, even the PRIZM. If he's switching from a TI-Nspire or a 68K calc, however, then that's another story. Also the TI-85/86 uses almost the exact same home screen interface as the Casio models, with the small menu at the bottom of the screen, where you use F1 through F5 to choose options. On MP OSes on the 84+, such menus also exist now.

Author Topic: What should I buy? (Read 14324 times)

chiefpiggy

What should I buy?

Deep Toaster

Re: What should I buy?

chiefpiggy

Re: What should I buy?

TIfanx1999

Re: What should I buy?

chiefpiggy

Re: What should I buy?

Deep Toaster

Re: What should I buy?

TIfanx1999

Re: What should I buy?

chiefpiggy

Re: What should I buy?

ben_g

Re: What should I buy?

chiefpiggy

Re: What should I buy?

TIfanx1999

Re: What should I buy?

shmibs

Re: What should I buy?

DJ Omnimaga

Re: What should I buy?

jwalker

Re: What should I buy?

DJ Omnimaga

Re: What should I buy?