atari2600land's Blog

If you're talking about your basic $10 calculator, I don't think it's possible. Most of those have been one-chip affairs for a long time now, i.e. when you open up the calculator all you'll see is a chip (usually a chip under a "blob"), the display, the keyboard and whatever the power supply is. That leaves no room for "modding" the werx to control individual LCD digit segments, etc.

 

You'd have to design your own chip to do what you wanted. You could either just have it play your game(s), or you could even have it function as a calculator AND play your games.

 

-tet

While not quite what you have in mind, the KIM-1 might be kinda what you had in mind. It was one of the first (if not the first) 6502 based computer. It used a six digit display and a hex keypad. When I was younger I was given (I think) "The First Book of KIM" which included several games (written in 6502 ASM) for the KIM-1.

I want a KIM-1. Only trouble is, eBay does not have one. I did locate something about building your own, but I don't know how to do something like that, plus it ignored the part about a calculator-type layout. I did find on eBay a 6502 microprocessor, but I don't know what I would do with it. Well, I guess I'm not the first one to think up of something like this, although now I want to explore what can be done on a KIM-1.

http://www.brielcomputers.com/wordpress/?cat=5

 

Dig it!

6502.org has several books on the KIM-1. IIRC it's not much more than a 6502 plus some RAM, ROM and support chips. The KIM-1 User Manual includes block diagrams and schematics.