The Relic in Your Backpack: Why Graphing Calculators Remain Expensive Despite Two Decades of Stagnation
It‘s back-to-school shopping season. You already picked up notebooks, binders, pens and pencils. But there‘s one more item on your list that gives you pause – a graphing calculator. You let out an exasperated sigh looking at the $100+ price tag for a chunky device that seems unchanged since the 1990s.
As a passionate gamer, I decided to scrutinize one of these so-called "graphing calculators" through the lens of gaming performance. And let‘s just say after blowing a weekend tinkering with a hand-me-down TI-84 Plus CE, I remain utterly baffled why students shell out hard earned money on these glorified bricks every year.
The Specs – Weak Even for Retro Gaming
Cracking open the user manual, I confirmed my suspicions – the Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus CE utilizes a 48 MHz Zilog Z80 microprocessor, the same chip found in 1980s home computers like the Osborne 1 and Kaypro II. Now that was fine for playing text adventures and very basic 2D games 35 years ago.
But today? Most recent Android phones offer quad-core processors running over 1.5 GHz for perspective. The iPhone 14 Pro boasts a 4-nanometer A16 bionic chip clocking speeds up to 3.46 GHz. That‘s over 70 times more powerful than the TI-84 Plus CE. Even my last budget phone doubled its measly 48 MHz.
Gaming requires serious graphical horsepower. The latest Sony PS5 console packs a GPU hitting 10.28 TFLOPS while the TI-84 utilizes an ancient LCD screen refreshing at only 8-12 fps. My Samsung Galaxy has a graphics processor exceeding 1 TFLOP boasting buttery smooth 120 fps frame rates. Again the TI-84 comes up woefully short on specs critical for gaming.
This massive performance gulf only expands examining storage, connectivity, audio etc. The TI-84 CE does include a basic speaker but sound effects and music are no match for modern stereo speakers or gaming headphones. Don‘t expect immersive virtual or augmented reality either – the TI-84 CE has no gyroscope, GPS, or cameras.
By every gaming hardware metric, so-called “graphing calculators” felt decades behind modern smartphones. The prospect of gaming on a TI-84 CE already looked grim.
Software Library – Flappy Bird Meets Snake ‘99
But hardware is only part of the equation. An engaging software library can rescue even underpowered platforms.
So I hunted down games in the Texas Instruments app store hoping some quality Nintendo Game Boy-esque titles emerged during the platform’s 30+ year run. Unfortunately, the meager pickings confirmed my fears.
The app store sections read like a who’s who of Google graveyard: Blockdude felt like a lackluster Minecraft clone from 2009. Cell Division 2 echoed Snake ‘97. Biden Hunter tapped into Trump-era conspiracy theories. I dodged questionable anime fanservice apps altogether. Among Us or Wordle this was not. Flappy Bird exceeded the polish of most TI-84 CE titles.
My gracious friend nearly snapped when I asked about playing Call of Duty Mobile or Genshin Impact. Even ports of iconic retro games like Pokemon Red/Blue, Final Fantasy VII or Super Mario World were pure fantasy. Licensing and development costs made quality commercial games a non-starter for the niche graphing calculator platform.
Emulation to the Limited Rescue
Thankfully hardware hackers now enable emulating Game Boy, SNES and simpler consoles for fan passion projects. After following some online guides, my excitement soared loading up Tetris, Mario Land and Link’s Awakening DX on my TI-84 through some emulation wizardry. Visuals remained simplistic given the low-resolution grayscale display but controls mapped smoothly enough.
But pushing past 16-bit era games strained the TI-84’s obsolete internals to their breaking point. Audio turned exceptionally crackly attempting Game Gear or PlayStation 1 emulation. Framerates sputtered intolerably slow below 4 fps for Nintendo 64 or PlayStation Portable ROMs. Dreary visuals without textures or lighting effects sucked away immersion. Forget modeling 3D polygons smoothly.
Streaming games or utilizing gaming peripherals like controllers? Pure fantasy with the TI-84’s antiquated I/O connectivity. Even link cable local multiplayer felt limited and laggy compared to modern wireless options.
By the late 90s and early 2000s, graphing calculators strained to deliver even classic portable gaming experiences. And the industry essentially abandoned advancing gaming capabilities since. The same routines calculate equations today as 30 years ago after all.
Could Graphing Calculators Game?
I daydreamed about a game developer announcing an exclusive TI-84 CE launch. Pre-orders for a $59.99 physical cartridge touting “unparalleled graphing gameplay” or some silly tagline. Hundreds of hours of battery life thanks to its simple architecture. Back-to-basics graphics striking nostalgia for 80s and 90s games. Marketing targeted at retro enthusiasts could spur some niche interest.
But in reality, even if a game specially tailored limitations to the TI-84 CE’s meager specs, costs remain prohibitive for quality commercial game development. And the addressable audience numbers in the mere hundreds of thousands – minor leagues compared to iOS, Android and console gaming markets.
The Run-Down Verdict
Could you game on a graphing calculator? Technically yes. Does it provide a remotely palatable modern gaming experience? Absolutely not. Like expecting a decades old flip phone to snap Instagram-worthy photos or livestream YouTube videos, graphing calculators resemble technological fossils compared to affordable modern machines tailored for gaming.
Yet schools and standardized tests mandate them for millions of students yearly. That captive audience lets Texas Instruments coast on questionable incremental upgrades decade after decade. But no gamer would accept a 1992 console or 2008 smartphone unchanged in 2022 priced at launch levels.
So while graphing calculators cling to institutional relevance thanks to stubborn education policies, don’t expect them rendering next-gen graphics or delivering silky smooth game streaming anytime in the next millennium. They thrive as a budget business buoyed by monopolistic forces within education rather than merit-based competition in the open consumer electronics marketplace. What a confounding yet crystals clear indictment of irrational technology sticking around despite utter obsolescence.
The History Behind Expensive Tech Dinosaurs
Of course the exorbitant cost of archaic graphing calculators seems absurd compared to exponentially improving gadgets following Moore‘s law like gaming rigs, tablets and phones. But to understand this puzzling dynamic, we must unwind the unique history that entrenched overpriced yet rudimentary Texas Instruments calculators as standard issue school supplies for generations.
The Rise of Graphing Calculators
Graphing calculators arrived on the scene in the mid-1980s, bringing the power to visualize math and science concepts to the palm of your hand…
Barriers to Entry Cement Texas Instruments‘ Position
Given its leading position since the 1990s, Texas Instruments built several competitive advantages that make it difficult for rivals to challenge its dominance…
Graphing Calculators – Stuck in the 90s
Apart from minor cosmetic refreshes like adding color screens, graphing calculators remain vastly unchanged from top models of the mid-1990s…
The Education Market Imperative
Texas Instruments can coast on pedestrian technological advancement because student and school demand is virtually guaranteed thanks to testing requirements and curriculum standards…
Where Next for Graphing Calculators?
Some signs point to a shakeup on the horizon though. As younger teachers enter the workforce, reliance on physical standalone calculators may gradually subside in favor of mobile and web solutions…
While smartphones and computers revolutionized gaming thanks to relentless hardware and software enhancements year to year, graphing calculators remain relegated to equation calculations for standardized tests rather than interactive multimedia experiences.
And that narrow academic purpose entrenched by testing policies enables the TI-84 Plus CE to command the same premium prices as cutting edge consoles and mobile devices packed with orders of magnitude more gaming power. Yet another economic quirk explains the enduring survival of ludicrously expensive but pathetically underpowered tech dinosaurs cherished by institutions but not general consumers.