Numero
Numero is a libretro core for emulating the TI-83 family of graphing calculators. It is based on the awesome Wabbitemu emulator. It allows you to play your TI-83 games like never before in fullscreen and using a gamepad! You can also control it with a mouse or keyboard, or you can just use the virtual mouse for pressing the calculator buttons.
Now available on Steam!
Why did I make this?
The TI-83 is where I first learned how to program in high school using the built in TI-Basic language. It was amazing discovering all the cool games people made and were able to get running on this device. There is a huge ecosystem of games and apps that have been created for these calculators over the years that deserve to be preserved and enjoyed by all!
Using the core
Here is some useful information to help you run the emulator
- You will need to put the BIOS into your RetroArch System Directory
- ti83se.rom is recommended since you will get the largest storage capacity
- The Emulator will save your progress every 10 seconds
- this is done in the background since the calculator doesn't really have any "long term storage"
- everything was always just saved in RAM
- or if you just select "Close Content" in RetroArch that will also immediately save your progress
- You can run the core without any content by just selecting "Start Core"
- There are two control schemes
- Joypad which is the default
- And "Gaming Buttons" which is more suited towards gaming
- You can move the virtual mouse with the left stick
- and by Pressing R2 to click
- You can also use the D-Pad and A Button if using the Joypad scheme
- Change the virtual mouse speed in the core Options
- You can toggle between the calculator view and "Big Mode" with L2
- Hitting "Restart" in the RetroArch menu will clear the entire memory
- So be careful when doing this because you will lose all your data
- This is useful however sometimes when the emulator hangs for one reason or another
- Installing Apps
- You will probably need to install some "loaders" for most of the demanding apps
- Such as "Ion" or "Mirage"
- You can install "Ion.8xg" by going to RetroArch => Load Content
- After starting you will see a message in the bottom left corner if it imported successfully
- Then go to "Close Content"
- Then go again to "Load Content" and install the game you want to run inside of Ion such as "Ztetris.8xp"
- Then keep repeating the process to load all the apps you want (careful not to fill up the entire space)
- Essentially you have to load each piece one on top of another since there is a single common "hard drive" for the calculator
- Every time you load the emulator you will start from the last place you left off
- For the same reason mentioned above where it saves in the background
- Also keep this in mind for save states
- Save States
- You can create as many save states as you want using the different slots
- However they will be named internally based on how you started the emulator
- From a rom or just the core itself
- There will be a common "In Progress" storage mechanism when loading different states
- Save States will restore whatever the state was of the entire calculator
- Including all installed apps at the time of saving
- Take lots of save states since you may run into problems where you will need to wipe the memory and try again
- If you have trouble installing one game or another
- Try moving things around between Memory and Archive
- Sometimes different launchers require things not be in Archive
- You can watch this awesome video by LGR where he talks about the phenomenon
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nduMTX86Zl0
References