A YouTuber has recreated Among Us for the TI-84 Plus CE, squeezing the most out of the graphing calculator's humble hardware. The recreation strips out some details and gameplay features, but is still an impressive showcase for many of the same gameplay elements Among Us fans know and love.
Given the popularity of Among Us worldwide, it's no surprise that some fans would bring unofficial ports to new platforms. As a mandatory purchase in many school systems, graphing calculators are no stranger to ports of pre-existing games. One of the most striking recent examples of this was the successful attempt to run Doom on a potato-powered graphing calculator. Granted, the TI-84 line of calculators have very limited processing power, so any port will include compromises as compared to the original game.
YouTube user Everyday Code built Among Us from the ground up, which ended up requiring over 55 hours of work. In addition to recreating crew member sprites, Everyday Code implemented the full map of The Skeld, a popular subject for fan projects. This means Among Us veterans can use their pre-existing knowledge of The Skeld to jump right in to Everyday Code's new port. Everyday Code linked the source code in a comment on the video, so anyone with a TI-84 Plus CE calculator can see it in action.
It's important to note that this version of Among Us is missing key elements of the original. For one, none of the Skeld map's tasks have been implemented. They would likely be very difficult to bring to life on a graphing calculator, but they are still an essential part of the game. Plus, there does not appear to be any kind of emergency meeting functionality. This means that this recreation is essentially a single-player experience where the player assumes the role of an imposter. Everyday Code did note that the game could theoretically support multiplayer, but unfortunately did not have a second calculator to test this first-hand.
This isn't the first time Among Us has been reimagined in a stripped-down graphical style. Fellow YouTube user Lumpy Touch recently made an impressive video imagining how Among Us would look on Game Boy. The fact that both the Game Boy and graphing calculators versions remain recognizable as Among Us is a testament to how well the game's art style balances simplicity with distinctive designs.
This is an exciting time for Among Us fans, whether or not they have a graphing calculator on-hand. Developer InnerSloth just revealed The Airship, the game's latest map, which will give players a whole new set of room layouts to memorize, as well as a mix of new and returning tasks. One thing that won't change is the satisfaction of secretly killing crew members as an imposter, and that's something both the original game and the graphical calculator version capture well.
Among Us is now available for PC, Android, and iOS/iPadOS.