The first TI calculator I got was a TI-85 in July 1997. Boy, what a mistake. The TI-86 came out maybe one month later. Of course, at the time I had no idea of the capabilities of it anyway.

Around January or February, I discovered assembly when one of my friends at school who also had a TI-85 gave me a memory backup with ZShell. At the time, I thought this was amazing. Still, it was relatively limited in capability. Around the same time, I got a TI-Graph Link, and discovered the internet scene, with websites such as ticalc.org and TI-Files. I subscribed to the 85 assembly mailing list, even though I never so much as made a "hello, world" program for it.

In March, I got a TI-86, and things really picked up from there. I had been programming in TI-BASIC since around September, and really wanted to learn assembly. I downloaded Assembly Studio 86, a really cool developmental tool, and began learning z80 assembly around May, 1998.

After a few weeks, I had learned enough to make my first game, Drugwars. It was basically the same as my TI-BASIC version, which I had made earlier. Still, I learned a lot from making it.

For most of the summer, I was out of town doing various things, and when I got back I was kind of rusty in z80, but I eventually got back into it. While on vacation in August, I began working on On86, a really really cool password program which activates whenever you turn on the TI-86.

For my birthday, I got a TI-89. That was reeeeally cool. Although I didn't need it, it enhanced math class by a ton and a half. It has around 650k of storage space, plus more vertical pixels than the TI-82\83 contain horizontal pixels. Not to mention the symbolic manipulation and 3D graphing! I've learned enough 68000 assembly to port crapong, a TI-89 game, to the TI-86.

In June 1999, TI emailed me about being a "TI-83+ SDK beta-tester". What this resulted in was they gave me a free TI-83+ and lots of documentation and tools for programming the TI-83+. For a long time I didn't make use of this, but then in June 2001 I became a Z80 programming contractor for TI, writing them a math game called Decimal Defender for the TI-83+ and TI-83+ Silver Edition. Supposedly this application will be included in all new TI-83+'s, but in any case, it's available on TI's website.

For a complete listing of all my released TI-related files, click here. For my newer programs, I've begun using my own customized compiler called cz80. You can also download the include files I've been using, which were created by Clem Vasseur. The following is a highlight of the asm programs I am currently working on or have already released.