There was a time when I would go to school and brag about having games on my Casio TI-83. It was the cool thing to do. Games like Block Pusher and stuff were the best way to kill time in boring classes. Some people even ported Doom to it! Now kids these days… they want to have calculators on their portable consoles! What a twist of fate. All kidding aside however, 3DS developer flarn2006 has recently updated his amazingly complete calculator GraphCalc3DS to v1.5.

I’m really impressed with how much this calculator application can do, as it seems like a complete replacement for a dedicated graphing calculator. I can see many people using this as a way to save money on an actual calculator since they tend to be really expensive. Anyhow, let’s get into the meat of the release!

What is GraphCalc3DS?

GraphCalc3DS is a complete graphing calculation utility for your 3DS created by flarn2006. It features variable sliders and equations can both be entered in the regular traditional algebraic notation or in the RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) format.

Features

Variable Sliders:
Adjustable variable sliders are a new feature in version 1.3. They enable you to add values to graphs that you can easily adjust and experiment with, without the need to manually enter in different values (which can be annoying if they aren’t at the end of the equation.) The sliders are on a new “page” on the screen; press Left or Right on the D-pad to switch pages. (This is the only other page as of 1.3, but there may be more in the future, and the code is already written to support more than two.)

You will then see four sliders, labeled ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’, and ‘d’. The labels to the left are actually buttons; pressing them will insert the variable into the equation just like the ‘x’ button on the main page. To the right of each slider is a button labeled “0-1”. This will reset the range of the slider to the default of, well, 0 to 1. You can extend the range of the sliders by holding down L or R while dragging past the left or right. You can shorten the range by setting the slider to the value you want to be the minimum or maximum, activating alt-mode (press Select) and pressing the button to the left (for minimum) or right (for maximum) of the slider.

About the RPN Format:

This means, for example, rather than “sin(4 + x)”, you would enter “4 x + sin”.

Changelog for v1.5

This new release includes a new feature that several people have requested: RPN input is now optional. Pressing A will open the system keyboard, where you can type in an equation using traditional algebraic notation.

In addition, if you have a New 3DS (or possibly a Circle Pad Pro, not sure if it’s compatible) you can control the first two variable sliders (‘a’ and ‘b’) by moving the C-stick.

Instructions

Controls

• Circle pad: Pan view, move cursor
• C-stick: Control sliders A and B (New 3DS only, may work with Circle Pad Pro)
• L / R: Zoom
• Up / Down: Change active plot (for equation editing/trace cursor)
• Left / Right: Fine trace, change screen page
• A: Enter equation using algebraic notation (what you’re probably used to)
• X: Hold for free cursor
• Y: Hold to trace graph (hold B to snap to units)
• Select: Toggle alt-function mode (like the 2nd key)
• Start: Quit

Credits

Libraries used:

• sf2dlib, by xerpi
• SF2DBmpFont, by myself (included in source code download)
• tinyexpr, by codeplea (included as submodule, use git clone --recursive)

Download GraphCalc3DS

If you want to download and use flarn2006‘s GraphCalc3DS simply go to his GitHub and download the version of your choosing. If you’d prefer to download it from this article, here’s a link to the 3dsx version and one for the cia version.