Looks like a whole lot of fun! Suppose I could have jumped in, but by then I was away from needing the calculator, ah well.
One thing the author overlooks is how game programmers were able to exploit the primitive networking capabilities of the calculator. I fondly remember playing multiplayer Bomberman by plugging two TI-83 together via the 2.5" link cable.
I recently had enough nostalgia to pick up a new 2021 TI-84 Plus CE PYTHON unit. On one hand, it hurts to buy a 20+ year old CPU for over $100. On the other, there's something satisfying about still being able to program TI-Basic via muscle-memory using the token-based input.
As for the CPU...
I paid a few hundred bucks as I put together a great 8 bit workstation and had similar thoughts.
We are buying the system. A lot went into these things. A lot can still come out. And the skills can matter to us. Maybe that helps some.
When trying to figure out when embedded systems became mainstream, I accidentally just wrote an incomplete history of embedded pocket computing.
1967: LOGO programming language developed by Seymour Papert.
1970: Sharp QT-8B calculator was the first battery-powered calculator
1972: HP-35 calculator was first scientific calculator
1974: Sinclair Scientific 1974 was affordable, programmable, moddable, repairable. 400 functions in library.
1976: PIC microcontrollers released.
1976: Zilog Z80 launched.
1977: Tandy TRS-80 released, using Zilog Z80 chip.
1977: Apple II released, with colour graphics.
1980: Epson HX-20 released, a laptop with receipt printer and screen. (my dad wrote his Ph.D. thesis on one)
1981: BBC Micro released, targeted at education.
1982: Commodore 64 released.
1984: Apple Macintosh released.
1984: Psion Organiser, 1984 added database, calculator, clock, diary, alarm clock, a-z keyboard. Programmable in OPL, became Symbian.
1985: LEGO/Logo (later Mindstorms) began, with hardware turtles drawing lines using a pen.
1989: Nintendo Game Boy released.
1989: Macintosh Portable released. First laptop with a GUI and mouse (trackball).
1990: ARM founded, as a joint venture of Apple, Acorn (BBC Micro) and VLSI.
1993: Apple Newton 1993 used handwriting recognition, custom ASIC, name PDA. Popular in medical field.
1996: Palm Pilot 1000 in 1996 brought dimensions down to 120x80x18 mm.
1996: TI-83 calculator got added to high school curriculum.
1999: Apple iBook released, targeting education.
2000: Garmin eTrex handheld GPS device introduced.
2000: Nokia 3310 mobile phone released, 126 million units sold.
2001: iPod brought 5 GB disk space, rapidly doubling. Rockbox custom firmware released for Archos in 2002, iPodLinux in 2003.
2004: TI-84 calculator introduced, with USB OTG.
2004: OpenWRT firmware for routers.
2005: Arduino project began.
2007: iPhone decreased disk space compared to iPod but gained capacitive multi-touch screen.
2012: Raspberry Pi released, targeted at education.
2014: ESP8266 released.
2016: iPhone 7 finally exceeded storage of iPod Classic, but removed headphone jack, increased physical dimensions.
Embedded hacking involves hardware and software, which makes it hard to specialise. I took LEGO/Logo after school in 2000-2001, then extra ICT classes for IGCSE 2004-2005, then Computer Science for IB 2005-2007, and Electronic Systems Engineering in university 2007-2011. There's plenty more devices and emulators to explore!
I started with the Apple machines. Missed that apparently sweet TI era and went Unix, and Sgi IRIX. (Beautiful OS)
Going small again, all the little micros and home brew 6502/Z80 projects.
You are right. I could explore the TI. :D. I just may. This scale of computing is a lot of fun!