Back in the days before the internet, and before smartphones, people used calculator devices.
Coming in various sizes and shapes, these devices have lived on top of many desks and inside drawers, helping people calculate simple math to difficult equations. But with the internet and smartphones, calculators have slowly become relics of the past.
Newer technologies have made less and less people depend on physical calculators.
Because of this, there are very few things that are as nostalgic to those people who grew up in the late 20th century, than seeing these devices working, like how they were decades ago.
The Internet Archive wants everyone to have "universal access to all knowledge," and among the ways, include bringing technologies of the past to the present, so they won't ever be forgotten.
And that is why it launched a bunch of those physical calculators online so people can once again feel nostalgic.
The Internet Archive has published what it calls "The Calculator Drawer."
It provides a collection of emulators of several popular calculators, including, among others, the TI-85, the TI-86, and a bunch of others.
Initially, the collection is rather scarce and slim. But regardless, The Internet Archive has successfully replicate the visual and the digital representation of not only the software output of the calculators' hardware, but also of the keys themselves for an experience that is as accurate as possible.
The emulators do this using an additional layer on top of the emulated hardware.
Among others, this is to allow users to click on the keypads and controls as they originally existed, right down to the “on” button on many of the more advanced machines.
Like the real deal, the emulators recreated the classic devices using both vector graphic representations of the hardware, as well as real photos of the devices as artwork layers.
The drawer includes both graphing calculators, as well as simple calculators, all emulated.
And because they are calculators, users can also use the keys on the keyboard as an input source.
Here, The Calculator Drawer is an addition to The Internet Archive's existing family of emulated older technologies.
It's part of what the team calls The Emularity.
To make this happen, The Internet Archive works with the MAME Team, which has spent over 25 years adding support for tens of thousands of machines, platforms, and tools.
MAME, which stands for "Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator," was merged with a general emulation project to cover a wide array of vintage devices.
This is the reason why its named the MAME Calculator Drawer on The Internet Archive.
The Internet Archive has again live up to its name.
In the past, it has been working to create and bring up backups of information and content that would otherwise be lost to history as technology barrels forward.
The Internet Archive has archived lots of web page snapshots, Android APK files, and more.