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Texas Instruments Games

Although more associated with calculators in 2011, Texas Instruments played a major role in the early days of home computing. It released its first home computer in 1979, the TI-99/4. This was followed two years later by the TI-99/4A, which had graphics capabilities that made it more suitable for gaming. Texas Instruments home computers were DOS-based but not compatible with IBM PCs of the time, meaning that any games for them had to be specifically designed. Texas Instruments itself published games, across a variety of genres, that were surprisingly sophisticated for the time.

Parsec
- Released in 1982, "Parsec" was a sideways-scrolling shoot 'em up with 16 levels of play. The game's objective was to fight off wave after wave of fighters and cruisers. Fighters aimed to collide with you while cruisers fired. Two of the cruiser types were "Urbites" and "Dramites," named after the game's programmers, Jim Dramis and Paul Urbanus. Later levels introduced satellites and asteroid belts for players to destroy. The game was one of the first to utilize the TI-99/4A's speech synthesizer capabilities with certain phrases being shouted at you during crucial moments.
TI Invaders
- Although the TI-99/4A never had an official Space Invaders conversion, like many systems of the time it had its own unofficial remake. "TI Invaders" was released in 1981 and was programmed by Garth Dollahite. The game kept the same basic format as "Space Invaders," with the player moving from left to right trying to destroy a fleet of aliens before they reach the bottom of the screen, but added a number of changes. One of these was a bonus level, where you got extra points from hitting one spacecraft repeatedly; another improvement was receiving points for shooting at any missiles aimed at you.
Alpiner
- "Alpiner" was a 1982 adventure game designed by Janet Srimushnam. The game's plot sees you attempt to climb six mountains: Mount Hood, The Matterhorn, Mount Kenya, Mount McKinley, Mount Garmo and Mount Everest. However, various obstacles stand in your way such as trees, bats, vultures and the Abominable Snowman. The Abominable Snowman only appears at the very top of Mount Everest, but a single hit by him sends you back to the foot of the mountain. "Alpiner" was not released on any other computer or video game platform.
BurgerTime
- One of the few conversions to appear on the TI-99/4A, "BurgerTime" was a 1984 release programmed by DataEast but published by Texas Instruments. Its plot remained the same as the original: you, the player, are a chef, Peter Pepper, who has to run around platforms creating burgers whilst an evil hot dog, egg and pickle try to catch you. You can stun them by spraying them with pepper, but due to system limitations the TI-99/4A version does not let you spray pepper and walk at the same time. As the game progresses, the enemies become faster and the burgers become more difficult to construct.

Classic Console Games