Today I’ve learned that the MAME emulator project did a cooperation with the Internet Archive, Texas Instruments and HP to create software replicas of historic pocket calculators. The result is the Calculator Drawer.

While there are emulators for the HP 38G, 48G+ and 48GX, my trusty HP 28S on whose software and hardware design they are based, that I bought for uni in the early 90s and am still using, isn’t available (yet?). When it’ll meet its inevitable demise, I’ll have to make do with “RPN 28x Calc”, a lovingly crafted iOS app.

I learned about MAME as an emulator software for arcade games, but it’s much more than that. The MAME community builds software replicas of all kinds of vintage hardware, including the Apple II as well as amazing synthesizers such as the Fairlight CMI IIx music workstation of the 1980s!