Flappy Bird, the game that countless people hate and despise yet it is played and continues to get ported, has hit the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A computer.  I would say “gaming computer” but anyone that has owned a TI-99/4A would know, it wasn’t (which about five readers would catch).  Flappy Bird for the TI-99/4A is a, for the few that don’t know already, game about avoiding pipes, or depending on the version being played some kind of obstacle.  Yeah, not a lot of gameplay to speak of but it is popular with players, whether they want to admit it or not (kind of like reality television).

The TI-99/4A version of Flappy Bird is quite a programming feat considering the limitations of the hardware.  For one, there are sprites that feature more than two colors and the whole game is programmed in Assembly.  While not monumentally amazing, it is interesting nonetheless, regardless of the game itself, it is still a programming feat.

We have covered Flappy Bird quite a bit here at Retro Gaming Magazine.  Whether it is the type in program version for the ZX Spectrum on up to the Super Grafx and various Nintendo platforms receiving a version, Flappy Bird is apparently here to stay.  Why are so many homebrew developers porting this “simple” game of avoiding obstacles to so many old platforms?  Probably because there are gamers that are downloading it, playing it and most importantly voicing their opinions on it (good or bad).  I can tell this is true based on the traffic we see on the Flappy Bird articles, our readers are obviously interested in reading about another wild assed port of Flappy Bird.  The Texas Instruments TI-99/4A is about as wild assed as I know of so far, but I will definitely keep an eye out for something wilder.  Maybe we will see Flappy Bird hit the new line of smart watches?

Source: Youtube

Carl Williams

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