Championship Baseball is one of the few TI games that requires the MBX Expansion System sold by TI and Milton Bradley. It uses voice recognition, the special MBX joysticks (which has three axis and multiple buttons), and the special MBX keypad peripheral to issue plays and instructions to your team. This is a two-player game. There is no one-player option against the computer.
The player at bat uses the joystick to control batting and running, and the fielding player uses voice recognition and the keypad to control the pitcher and fielders. Pitches vary by speed (fast, medium, or slow) and type (fastball or curveball). When fielding, the player speaks the name of the fielder or pitcher to indicate which position should try to catch and throw the ball.
Drive your cattle along the famous Chisholm Trail in this top-down arcade-style game. Use the keyboard or joysticks to maneuver your steer around the playing field. But watch out for rustlers who want to steal your cattle, and wranglers who want to put their own brands on your stock. The game features 9 levels of difficulty.
Everyone's mothers always say "Don't make those faces! They'll stay like that!" But now you have the chance to make the silliest looking faces anyone's ever seen!
Choose from a wide assortment of eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. Then make your newly created faces blink, wiggle their ears, wink, or razz you. You can even play a "Simon Says.." type game where your face will do some kind of action and you have to follow along!
Hen Pecked is a take on the arcade game Joust, but instead of knights, ostriches, and buzzards, you are a rooster trying to rule the roost. Flap your wings with the joystick and try to stay on top of the hens. Landing on them transforms them into eggs, which must be collected before they hatch into a new chicken.
In Henhouse, you are trying to help a farmer collect his eggs. Eggs are laid in the hen house near the top of the screen, and then move to one of five chutes. When the chute is full, you can collect the eggs and take them to your truck. If the chute is full and another egg lands in it, you'll have a cracked egg. Six cracked eggs will end your game.
Of course, you're not the only one who wants those eggs. Bandits and coyotes appear from time to time. Bandits will steal an egg (earning you a cracked egg), but the coyotes will kill your chickens, ending the game. To stop them, you have to grab your shotgun from the left of the screen and shoot them. There are also two birds flying at the top of the screen. Although they don't harm you, you can shoot them for 50 points.
You must put your gun back when finished defending the hen house, as you cannot collect eggs while holding the gun.
Munch Man is a video game written by Jim Dramis for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A home computer and published as a cartridge by Texas Instruments in 1982. Based on Namco's Pac-Man, Munch Man includes several variations that alter and enhance gameplay. Dramis later wrote Parsec for the TI-99/4A.
The player controls the Munch Man using either the keyboard or joystick. Like Pac-Man, the goal of a level is to visit every part of the maze, but instead of eating dots the player fills the maze with a chain pattern. Four Hoonos (the equivalent of Pac-Man ghosts) attempt to thwart Munch Man's efforts to complete his mission. However, Munch Man always has his "Energizer" (the equivalent of a Pac-Man power pill) which gives Munch Man the ability to devour the Hoonos. The game ends when the player's lives are depleted.
In level 20, 40, and 60, the maze is invisible and there are no chains. Instead, Munch Man must eat all the TI logos in the invisible maze. This gives the odd effect of showcasing the maze at first, but slowl
One of the first graphical computer role-playing games, Tunnels of Doom puts the players in control of up to four characters in a single party, to explore the dangerous Tunnels of Doom, fight monsters, and collect treasure. The four characters can be controlled by one player as a party, or by up to four players, each choosing an action during battles.
There are four different character classes available: Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, and Hero. The latter can be selected only if he is the only character in the party. Enemies appear randomly, and the battles are turn-based. Various treasure is scattered around the dungeon; the player also has the option of buying certain equipment. In some places, fountains can be found; drinking from them will affect the party in different ways, positive or negative.
"One of the best TI99/4A games ever!" - Chris Forrest
Aliens called "Morgs" are invading the old west. You must destroy them by shooting them from your "schooner". When you kill them, they turn into cactuses which create obstacles on the map. But if you kill a Morg while it is adjacent to an existing cactus, the Morg and the cactus are both eliminated from the map.
Tombstone City was known as Saguaro City in Prototype but was later changed. TI released the source code to this game as part of its Editor/Assembler package.
Demon Attack is an arcade action game with gameplay similar to Space Invaders. You control a laser canon at the bottom of the screen, and need to destroy wave after wave of brightly colored demons. The demons bounce around the screen in bizarre patterns, and try to destroy your canon with bombs or lasers. When you shoot a demon, it will be replaced with another or will split into two smaller demons depending on which wave you are playing. When the required number of demons for the current round is finally destroyed, you can move on to the next, more difficult round.
Originally called "Alien Attack," this game pits the player against alien "spores." Although the spores themselves are harmless, they can join together to form giant aliens that chase you down and eat you. To make matters more interesting, scattered around the playing field are a number of "incubators," which can hatch either more spores or, at later levels (or in early levels, in more advanced difficulty levels), more aliens. Use your ship's weapons to blast the spores before they can make new aliens, and blast any aliens before they can devour you.
Card games and computers seem to go hand-in-hand. TI's offering, Blackjack & Poker, allows you to play Blackjack or Stud Poker against the computer, or with up to three other players. The Blackjack game has most of the features of real Blackjack, except for the "split" option. The Stud Poker game pits you against three other players (human, computer or both), and follows the rules for 5-Card Stud.
Will you break the bank, or lose your shirt? Only Lady Luck knows for sure!
As the name implies, A-Maze-Ing is a maze game, but with a twist: you control a mouse who has to make its way through an actual maze. Options include "Cheese Hunt" (collect 10 pieces of cheese in the right order before you are shown the exit), "Escape Maze" (Get to the exit as fast as you can), "Mouseholes" (shortcuts through the maze walls) or "Obstacles" (which blocks the center of the passages), whether there are cats (and how many) in the maze, how fast they are, and whether the cats are smart or dumb. Try to beat your own best time, or play with another player choosing between co-operative or competitive play.
The object of the game is to pick up patients from their homes and race them to the hospital. When a house flashes, that indicates a sick patient is present. Navigate to the house and press the fire button to pick the patient up. Then, drive through the city to get to the hospital. You have to avoid other cars on the road because they will not stop for you. On certain levels, there's a train that makes you sit and wait. You only have a limited amount of time to deliver your patients.
Alpiner is a third-person action game in which the player's goal is to climb safely to the top of various mountains. Each of the six mountains the player climbs has various obstacles which should be avoided: falling rocks, avalanches, wild animals, trees, and brush fires can all hinder progress. Being hit by these obstacles will cause the player to lose progress, falling down part of the mountain (some obstacles cause a short falling distance, others a long distance).
Should the player fall all of the way to the bottom of the mountain a life will be lost. To help anticipate obstacles, voice synthesis provide a warning when danger is near. Each mountain has a time limit in which it must be climbed, though the timer only counts down when the climber isn't moving. As the player progresses through the levels the mountains become higher and obstacles become faster and more numerous.
Driving Demon is a racing game played from a top down perspective on a single straight. The player has to race down a two-lane road to earn the high score. Other cars occupy the road and these have to be avoided or else the player will crash and lose a life. Crashes also occur when going off the road and hitting an oil slick. A scanner located to the right of the main view allows the player to spot cars down the road. The game uses manual transmission and it's necessary to shift gears at the appropriate time or else the engine might blow and the player will crash. The game ends when time runs out or after five crashes.
Honey Hunt is a simple game where you guide your bee from open flower to flower, collecting nectar and returning it to your hive. Bee assassins, dragonflies, and spider webs are all out to get you. Dragonflies fly around the screen. Bee assassins skip from flower to flower. Spider webs are static, but make navigating nearby very hazardous.
From time to time, a bear wanders by. If the speech synthesizer is attached, you'll hear it say, "Time to get the honey!" You must return to your hive to defend it. Simply being present in the hive is sufficient to ward off the bear.
You're piloting some kind of tank / ship into a mine. Along the way there are monsters to shoot and items to collect. Shoot too much at once and your laser will overheat. You can also run out of coolant if you don't collect water along the way.
What I found neat was that you have to get out of your ship and walk around to collect items. Reminds me of Blaster Master.
Rotor Raiders is a game very similar to Pac-Man where instead of you are on cleanup. Your character is that of a drain cleaner where you must navigate through the sewers to clean out the mice and their trail as they navigate. Four mice are typically in the sewer per level and each will make capture difficult and unpredictable.
During gameplay there are brief periods of darkness where knowledge of the map design will come in handy to the user. After a brief outage lights are restored and the map can once again be seen.
Who knew sewer cleanup could be so much fun!
Submarine Battle is a poorer version of the Atari Classic Combat but without the variety. In this game you are a submarine shooting boats and planes as they attempt to locate and destroy your submarine. Sea material is also found in the water making this even more challenging.
This game disappoints on so many different levels.
Watch out for the Commies!
In this combination racing game and maze game, you have to maneuver your race car around the track, clearing the dots from all five lanes. The catch is, there's another car (controlled by the computer) driving around the track, in the opposite direction, bent on stopping you. You have to be quick with the lane changes, or the computer car will crash into you. You start with three cars, and can gain extra cars by clearing all the dots from the track. But watch out! The computer adds an an additional opponent on the third round, and another every second round after that!