Yesterday, Google announced that you could now use their search engine as a graphing calculator. Just type in the function, or several functions separated by commas, and you get a graph.
Why? Because why not?
Still, it reminded us that we almost never actually used these things for graphing cosine functions. We used them to kill time in math class playing games. So, as a trip back to the one good part of high school, here are our favorite graphing calculator games.
#5) Tetris
We’re pretty sure anything with a processor strong enough to handle it is required to have Tetris installed on it. We’re pretty sure it’s installed in printers, at this point.
#4) Doom
What’s interesting is that apparently a lot of “Doom” games for the calculator are actually “Wolfenstein 3D” with a little bit of Doom rubbed on it for flavor. Apparently Wolfenstein was a lot easier to port, but Doom was more popular. Eh, whatever, it’s all gunning down pixels in the end.
#3) Super Mario Bros. 3
The physics are a bit wonky and there are no coin animations…but otherwise, that’s the Nintendo game we know and love, in monochrome…looking a lot like “Super Mario Land”.
#2) Pokemon Stadium
The best possible way to combine math and biology.
#1) Counter-Strike
OK, so it’s a bit cheesy and requires a TI-89. On the other hand, it actually supports deathmatch via connecting to other calculators. That’s right: multiplayer LAN parties have come to math class!