TI Invaders
A Space Invaders clone for the TI-99/4A home computer.
In 1981, Texas Instruments brought a Space Invaders-style shooter to its TI-99/4A computer. Players must blast all descending aliens before they hit the bottom. This fixed shooter is one of three titles in the TI Arcade Game Series, alongside Tombstone City: 21st Century and Car Wars.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Texas Instruments
- Released
- 1981
- Genre
- Fixed shooter
- Modes
- Single-player
- Platforms
- TI-99/4A
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
TI Invaders puts you in control of a laser base, which the manual calls a missile, as you face off against an alien formation that is eleven creatures wide and five deep. You move left and right using a joystick or keyboard and fire lasers at the invaders. Each type of invader is worth a different number of points. As you destroy more of them, the remaining ones pick up speed. Once you clear the grid, a bonus round starts before the next level begins. A UFO, much like in Space Invaders, appears once or twice during a round and drifts from one side of the screen to the other. Hitting it earns bonus points, with the amount depending on where your shot lands. Two difficulty settings are available. On Merely Aggressive, the invaders fire semi-randomly and only occasionally aim at you. On Downright Nasty, they fire quickly and deliberately, and their point values are doubled. After finishing a level, the bonus round features a single UFO. It moves slowly across the screen until you hit it for the first time, then it reverses direction at double speed. You need to hit it again to make it turn back once more. Each hit increases the score value and shrinks the UFO. This continues until you either destroy it completely or it escapes off the edge. When you reach 3,000 points, you gain an extra missile. After that, every 10,000 points repairs one damaged missile and makes it usable again. When a missile is damaged, it rolls onto a small elevator and moves off to the right side of the screen, while a spare missile rolls onto the elevator from the left to replace it. When a missile is repaired, it shifts from the damaged area to the extras area fully fixed.
Reception
Lawrence De Rusha, Jr. for InfoWorld found the game very entertaining and a challenge to play, noting that the options and various screens allow for a wide range of skills and that the increasing difficulty gives lasting value. Dick Olney for Personal Computer World said he had long tired of the game in arcades but that having such a good version at home rekindled his interest, and considered it good value for money. Unofficial 99/4(A) gave the game two stars, commenting that the aliens keep coming, the player shoots them down, they shoot back, and a spacecraft flies by, calling it all good fun for those into that kind of game but adding a yawn. In 1982, TI Invaders was listed as one of the top-selling computer games for the TI-99/4A along with Hunt the Wumpus.
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