BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS »

Monday, February 14, 2011

Munchman for the TI-99/4A

[Updated 2/16/2011]
On this day in 1978 Texas Instruments patented the first "micro on a chip" - or so I'm told from several "on this day in history websites". So I thought it would be a nice time to do a quick post on the ONLY Texas Instruments TI-99/4A game that I remember ever playing on the real computer back in the day - Munchman.
Obviously, Pac-Man was incredibly popular in the early '80s so virtually every system had its own clone of the game and Munchman was the TI-99/4A's version. I never owned a TI-99/4A but I remember they always had one on display at the local Sears store, and whenever my parents would go to Sears I would typically park it over in the computer/games department and play until they got finished looking at whatever the hell adults look at in Sears (I still don't know).  The game that I usually hit there was Munchman.

Munchman
It was released in 1982 for $39.95 and was pretty much exactly the same as Pac-Man except that, in an effort to avoid litigation, Texas Instruments made it so that instead of eating dots the main character ran around the maze laying chain.  And you had to interconnect a chain throughout the entire maze to complete a level. So it was sort of the negative-zone version of Pac-Man. You could control your "munchman" with either the keyboard or a joystick. Frankly I think the gameplay of Munchman was more derivative of Pac-Man than K.C. Munchkin was, but K.C. is the one that Atari actually sued. Go figure.

I remember being impressed with the graphics - they were simplistic but sharp and colorful and on a white background which was unique - it kind of reminded me of the colored pen and ink designs I used to make on the Spirograph when I was younger.

Munchman on the TI-99/4A

Spirograph Design
I also remember being impressed with how smooth the animation was - much more fluid than Atari 2600's much-maligned 1982 port of Pac-Man.

The "ghosts" in Munchman were called Hoonos and the "power pills" were Texas-shaped T.I logos. There were also a few minor differences in gameplay aside from the cosmetic differences - every 20 mazes the maze becomes invisible with no trailing chains and you must eat all the T.I. logos to progress. I admit that I never got to level 20 in the store but read this online prior to this post. So I guess it gives me something to work toward. Also, the Hoonos become faster, more agressive and smarter with each successive level so the game becomes more and more challenging as you progress.

I was recently reminded of Munchman from Gnome's excellent review of the TI-99/4A game TI Invaders (a cool Space Invaders clone). He mentioned the Win994A emulator which I found to work quite well so I officially added it to the list of emulators on the home gaming cab. And Munchman still stood up quite well for a 1982 Pac-Man variant. So if you care to give Munchman or any of the other old TI-99/4A games a try but don't happen to own the system why not install Win994A and download a few old TI-99/4A games from gameternity.com and give them a go.  If you discover any other TI-99/4A gems be sure to let me know!

[Update:  I originally linked to oldcomputers.com for the game ROMs but I forgot I had problems running theirs so I switched it to the gameternity.com directory which ran fine. My Apologies!] 

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

19 comments:

gnome said...

Well, I think I might just do that; Munchman, here I come. I do love Pac-Man clones you know.

Oh, and thanks a ton for the nod dear MadPlanet.

MadPlanet said...

My pleasure Gnome. Munchman might not be quite as good as TI Invaders but it's still solid and deserves a place in a top 10 list of TI99/4A games.

Oh BTW - "love, care and sexual energy" that goes into the handling on S&H? Well-penned sir!

Mik said...

That graphics look... sexy. I really should know more about those obscure (at least, here in Italy) computers from 80's.

Mik said...

*those - sorry, my english is getting worse day after day, not sure why

gnome said...

Why, thank you kind MadPlanet. Sometimes my silliness level gets out of control.

MadPlanet said...

@Mik: Please, your english is excellent. And I only know maybe a dozen words in Italian so if I tried to comment in Italian on your blog I would pretty much sound like a caveman so you win by a long shot! And yes the graphics have a unique look to them - I rather like it. Simple and linear colors - almost like vector graphics.

@Gnome: I hereby elect you to the post of the chief executive of the Ministry of Silly Walks.

Paradroyd said...

The TI99 was my first computer. I had TI Invaders, Munchman, and a bunch of other carts for it. These were great games, but my favorite on that machine is Parsec. It has some of the qualities of Defender, but with a few unique twists. Among it's other virtues, it supports the excellent (even by today's standards) TI speech synthesizer.

Tombstone City is another uniquely TI game that's worth a try if you've never played it. You have to read the directions for it though, or you'd never be able to figure out what's going on. It's very weird. You can read the history of the game on Wikipedia, which sheds some light on how it evolved into something completely different than what it started out as. (Diner on Intellivision kind of evolved/mutated the same way).

There weren't a ton of licensed major-name non-clone games for the TI, but one of the exceptions was Burgertime. Burgertime for the TI is one of the best versions of that game I've played on any platform.

I still have my original beige TI in near mint condition, currently in it's original box. I also have all of my original carts in their boxes along with the speech synth. Every once in a while I take it out and power it up just to make sure it's all still working. So far, so good. Someday I hope to have the space to set it up permanently, along with my other older computers and consoles. For now I usually just fire up one of the emulators on a PC or the GP2X Wiz when I want to play those games.

MadPlanet said...

Greeting Paradroyd and thanks a ton for the suggestions! I'm still in explore-the-TI mode so I'll definitely check them out. Just last night I played the E.T. protoype (Frogger clone).

I've heard a few people tout the virtues of Parsec so I emu-booted it up a couple of weeks back and played a bit and I agree it is quite cool. I plan to come back to it to give it some more playtime.

Oh, and I also definitely did notice the quality of the speech synthesis. Very impressive for such an early computer and utilized in quite a few games apparently.

One of these days I hope to pick up a real one too. But like you I currently have a bit of a space problem that still has my VIC-20 and an old 286 in mothballs until I can move some things around. So it might be a while.

Paradroyd said...

Glad to be able to contribute. There's lots of interesting stuff on your blog. I don't know how I've missed it till now. Anyway, you're added to my feed reader now, so that situation has been rectified.

MadPlanet said...

Thanks Paradroyd and welcome. Feel free to wander around - just watch for all the wires and loose cartridges on the floor.

Fallguy40 said...

I remember playing Parsec before. I'm not sure where or who I knew that had a TI-99 but I remember that game. Maybe it was at the same Sears store where MadPlanet's parents shopped.

MadPlanet said...

Maybe so FG - you probably went to the Sears in Pasadena sometimes too I would guess. So far I only remember Munchman. Hey, free play on computer games, a giant candy/snack cases where I could occasionally get a free sample, and a Pancho's mexican restaurant next door for a buffet meal. Come to think of it Sears back in the day was not bad at all.

Fallguy40 said...

Yeah, Pasadena Sears was pretty good. Now, it's just another
Wal-Mart.

Remember Gemco? It was a membership store back in the day located on I-10 where a Fiesta store now stands. It had a great game section.

MadPlanet said...

oh my god - I COMPLETELY forgot about Gemco. I used to love that store! Partly for the video games and also because they used to have a good selection of comic books - both loose copies on the bookshelf and also in the little baggies of 3 wrapped together. Wasn't there another store over there called Best? That was designed to look like the building was collapsing with bricks everywhere?

Fallguy40 said...

Yeah, I remember Best with the collapsing facade, but for some reason I think it was near Almeda Mall. I may be completely wrong about that though. If memory serves, Best was kind of like Service Merchandise (another defunct department store).

MadPlanet said...

yep and yep - poor man's Service Merchandise by Almeda Mall - you're right. OK that's it I'm starting the Old Department Store Blog.

Lisa Marie said...

I was searching for anything I could find about downloading and being able to play munchman on my pc, and I found your post, so it was very helpful, BUT the gameternity.com link you left has been confiscated by some government or some such because it's no longer accessible. I don't know if you know of any other site where I can download the catridge file to run on the simulator you suggested?

Lisa Marie said...

I actually answered my own question and wanted to share with you a simulator that was created and had games already installed on it.

http://www.mainbyte.com/ti99/emulator/classic99.html is the link. it's working great with my system.

MadPlanet said...

Hey thanks a lot for the link Lisa Marie. I hadn't heard of that emulator before so I'll check it out. And thanks for the heads-up on the gameeternity.com - guess I'll remove that dead link.