Well, I just spent the past hour or so playing one of my all time
favorite games (and it isn't Joust this time). I had a sudden urge to
hook up the TI-99/4a to the TV tuner card and fire up good old Parsec.
It didn't take me long (about 3 tries) before I got my Dramite fighting
reflexes back after all these years. This was the game that back in
1982 was my greatest addiction (with Alpiner and Tombstone City a close
2nd).
When I heard 'Press fire to begin', I felt like I was back in my old
room on Cedar Street, Baker City, OR, where I had spent many afternoons
sequestered with my TI, blasting Swoopers, Urbites, Dramites, Saucers,
asteroids, and killer satellites; all the while trying not to overheat
my weapons. When I was finished for the night, I found I had come close
to beating my old score from back then. My top tonight was 35,800. My
old score was in the low to mid 40K range. I can't remember exactly.
I also discovered that the old crash and warp bug wasn't just a false
memory, since I just got it to work on several occasions. For those who
are wondering what the hell I'm talking about, it works like this...
Start the game by crashing into an object on the ground instead of
pressing fire. You will then get the first wave of swoopers. If you
survive that wave without losing any ships, there is a random chance
that you will warp ahead a few waves. Tonight, I managed to warp all
the way to the first Bynite wave. I'm not sure if there is an actual
method to it or if it is totally random what wave you get. I remember
back in the old days, I actually got to warp all the way to the first
killer satellite wave. I'll need to experiment much more to see if I
can figure out a pattern.
Anyway, Parsec is still a great game after all these years, and the TI
is still one of the best (though oft overlooked) classic gaming consoles
of all time, with many games that were exclusive to it. Parsec is one
of them, as is Tombstone City, Alpiner, and Chisolm Trail. And as I
mentioned in another thread, TI Invaders is the best home version of
Space Invaders out there (IMHO). Also, the TI has the only version of
Star Trek with speech (barring the arcade ROM for MAME).
One other great thing about the TI is the system and games are still
cheap, since collectors don't seem to go after them as rabidly as other
systems, possibly because the boxes aren't really all that collectible
due to them being so generic that you have no way of knowing what game a
box goes to.
Enough babbling from me for now. Time to call it a night, then do some
more Parsecing and Alpining tomorrow.
-- Otter
(Game over. Press Redo or Back.)
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