The TI-99/4A Legacy Of Games
by Howard 'Codex' Kistler
Page 2 of 6
In The Beginning
The Attack
Before the release of the TI-99/4A, there were games released on the TI-99/4 platform. Many were produced in-house, though third-party software would take off with the rise of the 4A. It was in these formative days that TI debuted an original game with a nondescript title called The Attack.
The Attack plays out in an enclosed space littered with black cubes and odd little purple aliens. You steer your spaceship in the four cardinal directions and blast the aliens, which flee from your ship and cluster around the edges of the board. Should any four of these cowardly aliens come together in a square, however, they will combine into a large red alien, which aggressively hunts you down. Meanwhile, all the cubes are slowly counting down, and when each reaches zero, it bursts open releasing more purple aliens. Survive long enough to clean out all the cubes and aliens and you move up to the next level.
While the game doesn't offer much in the way of long-term play, its original game mechanics make it worth a bash or two.
Hunt the Wumpus
Coming out around the same time as The Attack is a title which is also one of the earliest examples of a game remake. This title takes an existing text-based computer game favoured by the hardcore geeks of the time and catapults it into the family gaming arena. The game is Hunt The Wumpus.
Building on the terminal game of the same name, Hunt The Wumpus utilizes the twisting cave passages, bottomless slime pits, and troublesome bats that made the original such fun. You play an adventurer tasked with hunting down the Wumpus. The beast can only be detected by the bloodstains that spatter the caves adjacent to its own. By carefully moving around the caves, using these blood red telltales as well as the green walls which warn of nearby slime pits, you gradually build up the map until you have a good idea where the Wumpus slumbers. Providing you don't run afoul of the bats, who will seize you and randomly deposit you elsewhere in the caverns, you can expand your map until you feel confident enough to enter one of the caves next to the Wumpus's lair and fire your single arrow into his slumbering form. A wrong guess and the beast awakens, devouring you. Aim true and it's you who triumphs.
Blasto
Meanwhile, over in Atari land, VCS owners were discovering the boundless joy of the Combat cartridge, which shipped with every console. This sobering portrayal of mechanical warfare pitted two nameless tank squads against each other on a blighted field. Every death went unmarked, and additional anonymous troops were always available to perpetuate this war without end. War was indeed hell, especially for those children whose parents believed that there was no need to splash out additional money on other games as long as the perfectly serviceable Combat was around. Sensing the marketability of internecine warfare among friends, TI unleashed from its arsenal Blasto.
The two-player premise of Blasto mirrors that of the Atari 2600 game "Combat". Rival tanks, one black and one white (perhaps driven by the "Spy vs Spy" guys?) appear at opposite ends of the arena, and each attempts to manoeuvre into position to blast the other. Like many TI games, and unlike Combat, movement and firing is strictly along the X-Y axes, so there's a good bit of fiddling in getting yourself positioned for a shot. Missing also are Combat elements like reflecting shots and air combat scenarios, though arena obstacles are available.
What most differentiates Blasto from Combat is the minefield option. Once you choose this, the arena becomes one littered with mines and destructible debris. You can select the density of mines, and whether there are any initial clear paths through the debris or not. Shooting the mines triggers a large explosion, which will detonate any adjacent mines as well as destroying any tank within range. Like an early version of the Bomberman games, much of the fun lies in setting up chain reactions to take out your opponent, though you are free to pursue more direct attacks as well.
A single-player game is also present, based on the minefield arena. You are given a limited amount of time with which to clear away as many mines as possible. The game ends when you run out of time or destroy all the minds, so it ultimately becomes a matter of trying to beat your previous mine-clearing score, or just playing it for the puzzle-like elements. It's a nice addition and a fair bit of fun when another player isn't around, but Blasto really shines in the head-to-head department.