Tombstone City: 21st Century.  The first computer game I owned.

The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A was the first computer I owned and therefore has significant sentimental value for me.  The first game I remember seeing on the TI was Tombstone City.   Although most of the games published by Texas Instruments (like Tombstone City, Hunt the Wumpus, and Car Wars) were not extraordinary, Atari (whose own console and computer systems competed with the TI) was a major publisher for the system.   Arcade staples like Defender, Donkey Kong, Pole Position, Centipede, Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Moon Patrol, Jungle Hunt  and Dig Dug  helped bolster the system's appeal for gaming.  Parker Brothers added some arcade favorites:   Frogger, Popeye  and Q*bert, and even Sega made three games: Congo Bongo, Star Trek, and Buck Rodgers: Planet of Zoom.  And even wargaming giant Avalon Hill produced some of their games on cassette for the system.

A speech synthesizer was available for the TI-99/4A, which added voice to games like Alpiner and Parsec.  Although this rarely added value to gameplay, the speech synthesizer was quite a novelty and a bonus for gamers during a time when PC gaming was at its most primitive. 

Towards the end of my TI days, I purchased a cassette drive and a game called Pirate Adventure  by Scott Adams of Adventure International fame.  This text adventure captivated me and was one of biggest reasons I upgraded to a Commodore 64 and its more sophisticated tape and disk-based games.  

One of my favorite collectibles today is a CD-ROM called "The TI-99/4A  Scott Adams Adventure CD" by Frank Traut.  This CD contains all of Adventure International's old text adventures for the TI (with Scott Adams' blessing).   It also contains an exclusive interview with Scott Adams and the original TI code, which can still be played on a TI when connected to a CD player (much like the old cassette player).  Fifty CD's were produced, and the GOTCHA Museum has lucky number thirteen.

The TI also features an excellent RPG called Tunnels of Doom.   The game is a prototypical early RPG, which means it is filled with monsters to slay and skills to increase, but it lacks a progressive plotline.  Although the TI-99/4A was a great system for its time, huge strides were being made in gameplay during the early 80's and new computer systems were necessary to take advantage of them.

Hardware Resources:

GOTCHA TI-99/4A Page

The Machine Room's TI-99/4A page

The TI-99/4A Computer Home Page

Bill Gaskill's wonderful TI-99/4A Home Computer Web-Site (with cartridge, disk & cassette lists)

Cartridge rarity lists:

http://lonestar.texas.net/~btomlin/ftp/lists/ti99.bdt

http://www.io.com/~vga2000/vgadkslc/vga-ti.lst

The Museum

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Last modified: February 19, 2004

Copyright 1998 - 2004 Hugh Falk International Interactive Enterprises Industries Incorporated Limited Etceteras.  All rights reserved.