Radical Software

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radical-software-logo.png

Site URL

http://www.radicalsoft.org

Founders

Michael Vincent

Founding Date

Fall of 1998

Years Active

1998 to 2006(?)

Programmed For

TI-83+, TI-86, TI-89

Languages

Assembly, Flash

Aliases

Radicalsoft

Affiliations

InterCalc
Otaku Programming Association
Abacus Software, Inc.
The Programmers Group

Radical Software was a programming group that created many quality assembly games and useful Flash applications for the TI-83+ calculator. They also programmed for the TI-86 and TI-89 calculators.

Group Significance

Some of their most interesting games include Kaboom, the classic Atari hit; different variations of Pong, such as death pong, pong solo, pongon, and wacky pong; and a few different variations of the Tunnel game.

Michael Vincent and Robin Kay released TSE, the first multitasking shell for the TI graphing calculators. It also had the standard shell features, such as a program manager where you can un/hide, un/potect, and delete any program on your calculator.

Brandon Wilson wrote several utility programs for the TI-83+, including Dislink, a program that disables the silent linking ability of your calculator; GroupTool, a program that allows you to view the contents of group files; KLogger, a program that logs keypresses for later perusal; NoExec, a program that prevents execution of other programs; X-Link, a program that allows the sending and receiving of variables from any TI graphing calculator; and AddAsm, a program that allows you to run assembly programs from the home screen without using the Asm( command.

Alex Roper created Chasm, the first z80 on-calc assembler available for the TI-83+. It allows you to write and compile your assembly programs directly on the calculator, bypassing the whole business of using your computer.

Group Staff

Some of the members were involved with other programming groups and sites including Michael Vincent (Ticalc.org, Detached Solutions), Brandon Wilson (Detached Solutions), and Jason George (The Programmers Group).

Site URLs

The site was originally hosted on one of the free large third-level domain hosting sites from 1998 to 2000. It is not known whether it was Geocities, Angelfire, Tripod, or something else. In August of 2000, the site was transferred to Dimension-TI and got a third-level domain there, existing as http://radical.calc.org. Sometime in 2002(?), a domain name was purchased and the site URL simply became http://www.radicalsoft.org where it has remained to this day.

Group History

(Taken from the Radical Software about page)

Radical Software is the result of a programming group merger in October of 2000, comprised of two groups, Radical Software and InterCalc.org. The groups were combined on the following basis: InterCalc.org was to acquire the Radical Software name, members and programs. The founder of Radical Software, Michael Vincent, was to be one of the two Sr. Vice Presidents. The web programming aspect of the site was to be done by Joshua Vanderburg, Michael Vincent and Brandon W. Joshua Vanderburg pays for the web host. The rest follows its own course.

Radical Software was founded by Michael Vincent (gro.tfoslacidar|leahcim#gro.tfoslacidar|leahcim) in the fall of 1998, and was hosted by Dimension-TI (www.calc.org) at radical.calc.org starting in August 2000. At the time of the merger, there were five members, one of which also belonged to InterCalc.org. The Radical Software archives contained about 47 files for five calculators in eight different languages. The site wasn't updated enough to bring a whole lot of viewers, but brought in about fifty individual IPs a week. A contribution to the few impressions were the mass of programming groups already in production. Programs were coming, though. En mass…

InterCalc.org was the by-product of the Otaku Programming Association, founded by InterCalc.org's Vice-President Chris Rojewski (gro.tfoslacidar|sirhc#gro.tfoslacidar|sirhc), which was renamed from Abacus Software, Inc., founded Christmas 98, later called Abacus². It was renamed to OPA on December 6, 1999. Joshua Vanderburg joined later became the president around Febuary 2000. With Chris leaving OPA, this led to a few more members leaving and OPA wasn't making many programs. In March of 2000, Joshua decided for a change. He bought a domain name, purchase some server space, and set up InterCalc.org with the help of Brandon W. Chris was to re-unite with Joshua in June of 2000, Joining InterCalc.org.

Many members tried many times, but InterCalc.org would never be announced on "the ticalc.org project" (ticalc.org), and even with the announcing on Dimension TI, InterCalc.org never received more than an average of 25 impressions a day. In September 2000, InterCalc.org received an makeover, with a new site design, server, and the first useful message board for the entire TI community. TI-Galaxy (ti-galaxy.org) had one, but it wasn't of a high enough quality to be used by all. In October 2000, Joshua planned the redesign of InterCalc.org with the help of Brandon W. On a spur-the-moment occasion, Joshua asked Michael Vincent to combine his site of Radical Software, he agreed and Radical Software exists as you know it today.

This site was originally coded by Michael Vincent, with the exception of the behind-the-scenes PHP news script for the front page. Brandon Wilson re-designed it in October of 2004 and has been thoroughly tested in Internet Explorer 6. It should work in other browsers as well.

Miscellaneous