Unlike the situation with most of the other calculators, there is not one single shell which should always be used for the TI-82. All of the shells require you to send a full memory backup to the calculator to install. You can download all of these shells from ticalc.org, in the TI-82 assembly shells section.
CrASH was the "standard" TI-82 shell for quite a while. It has its own program format but also runs programs for the older Ash shell, which when combined give CrASH the largest selection of programs of any TI-82 shell. Unfortunately, CrASH is not compatible with ROM version 19.006, so if you have this version, you will need to use ACE instead (see below).
This shell takes approximately 1K of memory on your calculator. To install it to your calculator, you must send a full memory backup, since system data must be modified for CrASH to run. Once you have installed CrASH on your calculator, run "prgmCRASH" and CrASH will start. Then you can select any assembly program on the calculator and run it.
After installing CrASH, two matrices called 'a' and 'b' will be on the calculator. You must not delete them. Also, don't worry about the large size one of them appears to have; it doesn't really use that much memory.
ACE is a new shell (new by TI-82 standards, that is -- it was released in 2002), which is compatible with ROM 19.006 but still works on older ROM versions. Unfortunately, it does not run programs made for older shells. Most TI-82 programs were written long before ACE, so ACE has a smaller selection of programs than CrASH. ACE can be installed and used in essentially the same way as CrASH. However, it does take about 3K of memory.
There is also a special version of CrASH, CrASH_19.006 which, as its name would suggest, has been modified to run on ROM 19.006. This version works only on ROM 19.006, and it will not run regular CrASH or Ash programs. Instead, it only runs the few programs that have been recompiled specifically for CrASH_19.006 (such programs don't work on regular CrASH).
SNG is another new shell, which like ACE also works under ROM 19.006 as well as older ROM versions. It has a very small selection of programs.
OS-82 is a very old TI-82 shell. This is one of the "original" shells along with Ash. Since it does not provide program relocation, programs for it will be somewhat less efficient. OS-82 is the only shell that supports the very old ROM version 7*, so if you have this ROM version OS-82 is your only choice. Very few programs are available for OS-82, and almost all of them for OS-82 have now been converted to Ash or CrASH, so there is little reason to use OS-82 unless you have ROM version 7*.
Ash is one of the oldest shells for the TI-82. Ash is very similar to CrASH, but CrASH has a few additional features. Many currently available assembly programs for the TI-82 are written for Ash. CrASH can run Ash programs but Ash will not run CrASH programs, so you generally should use CrASH instead.
To find out the ROM version of your TI-82, press MODE, then ALPHA, then S. The number displayed is your ROM version. To get out of this screen, press CLEAR (don't press ENTER, as this will run the self test which erases your memory).
| TI-82 ROM version | Shells supported | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 7* | OS-82 only. | This shell is very old and there are few programs for it. |
| 16.0, 17.0, 18.0, 19.0 | All (except the special ROM 19.006 version of CrASH) | These are the "mainstream" ROM versions with full support among shells. You can run any TI-82 asm program on any of these ROM versions if you install the corresponding shell. |
| 19.006 | ACE, SNG, speical ROM 19.006 version of CrASH | This newer ROM version is only supported by newer shells. If you have this ROM version you will be unable to run many older programs that haven't been updated to support them. |
| Anything else | None | If you have any other ROM version, there are no shells available and therefore you can't run any asm programs on yoru calculator. |
Other than asm program compatibility issues, it does not matter which ROM version you have.
If you had ROM version 19.006, you would once have been unable to run assembly programs. This is less of a problem now as some shells that support ROM 19.006 have now been release, as described earlier. Unfortunately, many programs have not been updated for the newer shells, so having this ROM version greatly limits what you can run.
ROM versions earlier than 16.0 are very rare, but if you have one, you probably have an even worse problem. ROM version 7* only allows running the very old OS-82 shell and the other pre-19.0 ROM versions can't use any shell. The TI-82 scene is rather inactive these days so updates to handle these old, rare ROM versions are unlikely.