Over 13 years ago when Treasure released Ikaruga to the world- well Japanese arcades and then the Sega Dreamcast- gamers were in awe of the graphics and challenge that Ikaruga posed.  Eventually the world got Ikaruga on the Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox Live and an enhanced version on Windows but what about those lowly retro systems that gamers have forgotten, or didn’t even think of as a gaming platform?  Things such as the Texas Instruments TI-83 and TI-84 graphing calculators.  These were never meant to play simple games like tic-tac-toe let alone play something like Ikaruga.  The team over at RMV Pixel Engineers didn’t get that memo though.

Much like the Super Smash Bros and Fruit Ninja ports to the TI-83/TI-84 this port of Ikaruga is “close enough” to get the point across.  This port of Ikaruga is much more a “demake” than a port like the Nintendo brawler. 

For those that do not know, a new game that is retrofitted onto an older, usually less capable, platform.  You can’t get much less capable than the TI-83.  This is a freaking graphing calculator for goodness sake.

This version of Ikaruga does not have any of the color, or course it is running on a black and white screen, scaling or flashy effects (read the demake description above) or tons of powerups.  What Ikaruga X does have is the challenge, polarity changing and tons and tons of bullets- it is not called a bullet hell (known as a danmaku in Japan) shooter by accident.

As we investigate the TI-83 gaming scene more and more we discover more and more games.  I plan on covering these as long as you support the articles with likes, shares and comments.  That is the best way to tell us what you want more of.  So far, we see a resoundingly huge amount of support for these games and I am more than happy to oblige with more articles.  Maybe even a feature in an upcoming issue of Retro Gaming Magazine.

Ikaruga X by RMV Pixel Engineers is available here.

Carl Williams

It is time gaming journalism takes its rightful place as proper sources and not fanboys giving free advertising. If you wish to support writers like Carl please use the links below. https://www.paypal.me/WCW https://www.patreon.com/CarlWilliams