The 20 Greatest Texas Instruments TI-99/4A Games of All-Time

[@Trialwolf]

TI-99 was the first computer my family had, with both Munch Man and Ti Invaders. Father traded it for an Apple II plus which then got traded for a PC compatible but I still have memories of the TI-99 despite how young I was.

[@Tetlee]

So nice to see some TI99 love, I have all of these games in my collection, have covered a few on my channel too🙂 Hey you included one of my quotes aswell, didn't expect to see that pop up there on TI Invaders, what a game that was! All of these are brilliant, of course Parsec well deserves its number 1 spot, still extremely impressive today especially with the speech synth. Thanks for the great vid👍

[@joesshows6793]

Maaaaannnnnnnn you are dragging out memories from the tape drive in my mind with this one. Crazy stuff

[@tron3entertainment]

One time I was playing BLASTO and kept resetting the high density mine field until I saw one to my liking. I have no idea how it happened. But I twitched, moved the tank and fired ONE SHOT. Cleared the ENTIRE screen. All those simultaneous explosions slowed down the game. Mesmerizing like a slow-motion scene in a movie. I kid you not.

[@kenwheeler3637]

The TI99/4A was the first computer I had. Got it in 83 at Sears. I never was able to get any of the expansion items back then because they were exorbitantly expensive. So many great titles for this system. I have put endless hours into Tunnels of Doom, alone.

[@1realtruthrightnow742]

Tunnels of Doom!!!!!!!!!!!! YES Hours and Hours and very late nights. Theoria Apophasis?

[@AngryCalvin]

Microsurgeon was unbelievable! Especially the TI port. One of the best looking games you could play at home back in the day. That’s the game I showed to friends to show just how capable the system was. Nothing ever surpassed it. The multiple screens and the zoom in screen plus speech made it the juggernaut of TI games.

[@arostwocents]

"The Home Computer" is such a great name. "Introducing, our new product... 'THE GAMES CONSOLE'"

[@ersatz_cats]

Great list!! Wumpus is my personal #1, but I can hardly argue with Parsec. Also really enjoyed Hopper, Car Wars, and The Attack. And when I was little, all the various educational games I had were engaging, too.

[@MiTBender]

10:20 Such an unenthusiastic "Help!" 😝

[@DavidDatura]

Didn’t realize the TI-99/4A had such colorful and pretty good graphics.

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

16 K, in color, and had BASIC programming language, games: fun

[@markaes]

In the US it seems all of my friends had a TI-994a at home. I got mine as a hand me down in 1984. The games were still impressive then.

[@markaes]

I just bought a boxed TI-994a and a bunch of games. Still impressive in 2024!

[@retrobitstv]

Great memories! The 4A was my first computer and I'm glad to see Tunnels of Doom and Parsec top the list. Despite its shortcomings, some of the arcade ports from Parker Bros and Atarisoft were among the best versions and I'd put e.g. Popeye up against any other home computer of the day!

[@pjcnet]

The TI99/4A was ahead of it's time, I ended up with one instead of the Spectrum 16K due to months of delays after ordering one, it was a much more impressive computer with a proper keyboard, sound chip, hardware sprites Etc. and I later got a C64 too. The TI99/4A "speech synthesizer" was very impressive, in extended basic you could break words in the vocabulary down to a string of parts, I spent hours cutting up tiny parts of words from the almost 400 word vocabulary to put them together to make new ones, but it was really just digitized sound, not a synthesizer. Some games were able to increase the built in vocabulary for custom digitized speech like the male and female speech in Alpiner for instance.

[@smallmj2886]

I would have put Tunnels of Doom at #1. Amazing game that I still like to play.

[@colinmcdonald2499]

I agree.... I voted hard for it. But I am cool with it at number 2.

[@TheLairdsLair]

It was soundly beaten by Parsec, but it was also way ahead of 3rd place too.

[@colinmcdonald2499]

@@TheLairdsLair Parsec was definitely gonna win. Every TI syatem i got to play had it in their home. But the one i got to play the most had tunnels of doom.

[@AngryCalvin]

Tunnels of Doom was really advanced and provided replayability and a D&D experience. I would rank the mind blowing TI port of Microsurgeon in the top 2 also. It was unbelievable at the time and completely blew away other ports with multiple screens and speech included.

[@colinmcdonald2499]

@@AngryCalvin i never saw microsurgeon. I would have been blown away from it.

[@STR82DVD]

I never realized they were actually 20 great ones for the ti-99

[@bartdunbar5108]

Would love to see a compilation of all the different games that just missed the top 20 etc basically all the honorable mentions

[@TheLairdsLair]

As I said at the start of the video I do just that for my Patrons (they get a top 40). In a few months I will update this video with a pinned top 50 list in the comments like I have done with my others.

[@RetroGamingNook]

Joe Ridifer of Game Sack and Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains in the same commercial, who knew?

[@SeanTurnerDeeper6]

Munch Man is the only video game I ever beat!

[@jeremycline9542]

Wow...one system I never got to play back in the day. From the footage, I can see I would have loved it more than Coleco or Intellivision.

[@Meebzorp5200]

Tunnels of Doom was the killer app for the system along with Parsec. Easily justifying the purchase of a TI after price slashing ($100 or less?). I remember we got a 13" Goldstar color TV bundled with the TI at Kiddie City (Toys' r Us's competitor), they were so desperate to unload them. I spent countless hours playing ToD. Unfortunately, TI software was hard to come by and contributed to the demise of the system.

[@drno-xc1yt]

I didn't know Munchman before seeing this video - it gives strong Pepper II vibes.

[@AngryCalvin]

My single biggest regret was not having Popeye. I didn’t know it had a port until years later and a really good one.

[@arostwocents]

Interesting, thanks for the video. Was speech built in to all systems? Loads of games seem to take advantage of it. Spectrum homebrew games would be a good list.

[@TheLairdsLair]

The Speech Synthesizer was an add-on.

[@thebadgamer1967]

Awesome work

[@cliffjumper1984]

Munchman and that maze game with the cat and mouse were the only 2 I ever played for this console. Id like one again. learned about some games in this video that. awesome

[@dbranconnier1977]

Q-Bert and Shamus were good games for the TI99/4a, also.

[@f.k.b.16]

No Star Trek!? Not "Excellent maneuvering captain!" Just kidding great list! The TI994A is such a great machine! Taught me a lot as a kid!

[@TheLairdsLair]

Star Trek only just missed out, the competition was tough here!

[@purpleepicicon]

Loved this list. Although I didn't have most of the games on it. Had a few though. If you do another list for the TI-99/4A I'd suggest doing one on the exclusive games. Might include some of the educational games as well since they were a big part of it. My folks got it for me as a kid mainly for the educational games. Dragon Mix had you fighting off aliens as a dragon by solving multiplication/division problems. Beginning Grammar had different games for nouns, verbs, etc. that, for me, helped reinforce the lessons.

[@TheLairdsLair]

I've already done one on TI99 exclusives, which is linked in the description, but I'll post it here for you too: kzbin.info/www/bejne/haTdkJ2nrbucpM0

[@colinmcdonald2499]

Those coin op mods were pretty epic! They deserve top 20. I got to play Only #1 and #2 and maybe TI Invaders (meh). That self mapping on Tunnels of Doom was another epic point i forgot about! I suspect the reason this computer system got so many voters/ so much love. Is that everyone that actually got to play some of these top 20 games are still fans of gaming or retro gaming today. Some systems/platforms.. The first gen fans are all gone.

[@robbiereisman8954]

Fathom and Star Trek should have made the list too

[@TheLairdsLair]

Star Trek only just missed out, Fathom made the top 40 IIRC too.

[@chinabluewho]

3:00 say what you want about Bill Cosby being a serial rapist but the man had screen presence.

[@allanmailer4540]

I've got all of these and I know lists are subjective but I can't believe that Blasto got in there ahead of the Parker Brothers version of Q*Bert. Still good to see a bit of TI stuff though. This may be slightly controversial for the purists but I'd also put the Homebrew 'TI Scramble' ahead of Parsec.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Q*bert and TI Scramble both made the wider top 40.

[@TehDrewsus]

I'm glad I tagged my brother in the FB post and he got quoted. Got some real invisible man stuff going on lately. I'll put less thought into my posts next time 😅

[@TheLairdsLair]

Which quote was that? I obviously saw his name before yours or something.

[@TehDrewsus]

@@TheLairdsLair alpiner I think. Nate's comment. It's no big deal. Current bout of seasonal affective disorder makes me feel totally invisible, among other things.

[@GCSoundArtifacts]

Not a system that I played that much, and I only have gotten to know thanks to emulation. But, if I were to rank it, I'd certainly include TI-99/4A's versions of Bump'n Jump, Popeye, and the originals Alpiner, Tunnels of Doom and, of course, Parsec.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Bump N Jump made the Top 40, great port.

[@TheRetroEngine]

I think we had one at school just before we got some Beebs. Don't remember it being colour though, maybe we had an earlier version. What emulator are you using to run these games, I'd love to check them out.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Classic 99 - very good emulation and easy to use too.

[@Sinn0100]

My dad had one of these...I think I used it once. Did it know this computer had a 16-bit processor in it?

[@STR82DVD]

Oh damn! Those commercials didn't age did they?

[@colinmcdonald2499]

Watch it or Bill Cosby will slip a qualuude in your wine and rework your whole rear drivetrain!

[@chrishensley5384]

Tombstone City is a banger!

[@pjcnet]

I loved the game and yet it was so simple that I think I could have programmed it, I did programs a few simple games back in the 1980s including a few that were marketed on a school computer.

[@TheodoreWard]

A lot of people owned these because they were marked down to about 50 bucks, but how many had any way to store data?

[@neilthomas6042]

I think I used one, but never played any games. I used a lot of computers in the 80s but never owned them or played the games.

[@darrenjkendall]

Just had to say that you're very brave by courting controversy by including a clip with Bill Cosby at the beginning of your video.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Cosby was the face of the TI99 so it's pretty impossible to avoid him!

[@AstriaStarwynd]

There was one I remember playing a lot I think it was called Zero Zap.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Zero Zap only just missed out, but if you click on the link for my TI99 Exclusives video in the description you'll see me include it there!

[@CasualSpud]

Tunnels of Doom wasn't number one, so this list is flawed. Yes, that was sarcasm.. ToD just hits my nostalgia button more.. Parsec and Munchman after that.

[@AngryCalvin]

Nothing was more fun as a 6 year old kid than kicking the bear in the bum and falling all the way down the mountain in Alpiner. Getting farted on by the skunk was also a joy!

[@joesshows6793]

Why Bill why????

[@johnt7372]

No Star Trek, Burgertime or Jungle Hunt 😢

[@TheLairdsLair]

Star Trek only just missed out, BurgerTime made the top 40 too.

[@baroncalamityplus]

I'm surprised Star Trek isn't in the top 20.

[@TheLairdsLair]

Only just missed out by a couple of points.

[@UnbornApple]

My dad was a cheapskate so he was all over the TI when it was severely marked down, so that was my childhood computer instead of something more popular.