Favourite early era (1979-1981) game cartridge

[pixelpedant]

TI-99 games really did some maturing in the 99/4A era.  But what's your favourite from the first cohort, that were there for its debut?

[Gilbyph]

No Zero Zap?

[Retrospect]

Tombstone City will always hold a place in my heart because that's one of the command-modules I had for my TI as a kid, however, I didn't get the gist of how to play it properly and was randomly shooting the Morgs until I inevitably died.  Now I know how to play it, ensuring there are no Cacti paired up , to get to a new day, I like it even more.  

 

I also like the Blackjack game although it's not on your list. 

Edited January 27, 2023 by Retrospect

[+OLD CS1]

16 minutes ago, Gilbyph said:

No Zero Zap?

Around here?  The red-headed step-child.  The Dane Cook of TI games.

[pixelpedant]

I've added the major (mainly Gamevision) omissions, so everyone can vote for whatever they like, instead of just whatever I think is worth voting for. 

 

But heck, if I went with my gut on this one, the list would read 

 

1) TI Invaders

2) Oops, my finger slipped and I clicked the wrong button

 

So I've got to leave my bias behind, here, clearly. 

 

[jrhodes]

Hustle, it is under rated.

Never got to try it in the arcade though.

Edited January 27, 2023 by jrhodes

[+InsaneMultitasker]

The Attack.  I might have enjoyed the music more than the game play.  40 years later I can find myself running through the tune when I see the cart.  (The same can be said of some other games like Tunnels of Doom.)

 

[fabrice montupet]

TI Invaders without any hesitation. It's the first game cartridge I got, an excellent port of Space Invaders and, still today, the game is always pleasant to play with and still up to date.

[+Schmitzi]

 

Car Wars 😍 was my very first cartridge under the christmas tree , IIRC, so this is one of my choices

[Retrospect]

I see TI Invaders is winning the poll so far closely followed by Tombstone City. 

[Casey]

Put me down for TI Invaders as well.  I got this game when I got the 99/4A as a kid and it is probably the game I played the most.  An excellent and fun port of Space Invaders.  

[WhataKowinkydink]

I ticked 4 of the options: TI Invaders (of course), A-MAZING, Hunt the Wumpus, and Indoor Soccer.   As for many Invaders was the first and favorite, but I recall many hours of solo A-MAZING (setting up all sorts of crazy mazes, with pouncing smart cats and no mouseholes) and Wumpus (which I never had the patience to get really good, like MineSweeper-  but I still had fun with it).  Finally Indoor Soccer my brother and I would do tournaments for the Champion of World 😅😂

[unhuman]

I put Football.  The only game my father and I could play together.

[+Ksarul]

TI Invaders was my all-time favorite from this group, but The Attack and A-Maze-Ing were both high on my fun game list too.

[pixelpedant]

7 minutes ago, unhuman said:

I put Football.  The only game my father and I could play together.

Nice to see some love for multiplayer games in this sort of way I suppose.  I feel like certain games in the TI-99 library, otherwise including Beyond Parsec, Black Hole and Meteor Belt (off the top of my head), have largely been dismissed out of hand for most of TI-99 history mainly just because without two players, they're largely pointless, and most 99ers did not have a second player most of the time. 

[GDMike]

Blackjack!! Right on

[8_is_enuff]

It's hard for me not to say TI Invaders, such a great conversion. I also spent tons of time playing Chess, Car Wars, and Tombstone City. 

 

I would give an honorable mention to Blasto for being such a great two player 'quickie'.  

[+OLD CS1]

Is there a way to un-vote?  TI Invaders wins for me by a small margin.  Munch Man is my close second, followed by The Attack and Car Wars.  All these with the exception of Car Wars, plus Parsec and A-Maze-Ing were the start of our TI system.

 

I purchased Beyond Parsec specifically because it was a two-player game that my dad and I could play together.  We got bored with it much more quickly than we got bored with Combat on the Atari VCS.  But it turned out neither of us really liked the head-to-head genre of games, rather we liked each-player-takes-a-turn competition.  (Although, Air-Sea Battle was good for us -- kind-of co-op while still competitive.)

 

Still holds for me, today, though I owned an X-Box BITD and really took to the "slayer" free-for-all mode of Halo, and really really liked the one-on-one play in Crimson Skies (I wasted sooooo many of my friends in CS.)

 

BTW, @pixelpedant, you spelled "favorite" incorrectly.  I can fix that if you want.

[+Ksarul]

20 minutes ago, 8_is_enuff said:

It's hard for me not to say TI Invaders, such a great conversion. I also spent tons of time playing Chess, Car Wars, and Tombstone City. 

 

I would give an honorable mention to Blasto for being such a great two player 'quickie'.  

The only thing I didn't like about Blasto was the music. That was one where I often had the volume turned all the way down just to keep from going more insane than I am already. It was one of my favorite go-to games BITD though, just because it had a lot of fun factor.

[InfiniteTape]

No love for the Wumpus? I've even got my hunting license.

[8_is_enuff]

1 minute ago, InfiniteTape said:

No love for the Wumpus? I've even got my hunting license.

That's awesome. 😆 

[+OLD CS1]

9 minutes ago, InfiniteTape said:

No love for the Wumpus? I've even got my hunting license.

License?  Pfah.  Honest, I just found it dead in a cave, tax man.

[+Ksarul]

1 hour ago, InfiniteTape said:

No love for the Wumpus? I've even got my hunting license.

I put a checkbox on there for him too, as that was another game I played a lot of.   He was one of the first games I bought, right after TI Invaders.

[1980gamer]

I got The Attack, Car Wars and Tombstone City when the were $4.99 close outs...

 

My first CART game was Centipede and I was PO'ed because I didn't own Joysticks and it ONLY works with Joysticks...  Come on Atari...

 

My Next was Parsec!  then Micro Surgeon and Demon Attack.

 

Eventually getting all the usual suspects on the cheap...

 

[sometimes99er]

6 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Munch Man is my close second, ...

I voted, but where is Munch Man !? 😕