Has anyone here beaten the TI-99/4A Cannonball Blitz port?

[pixelpedant]

It's a Donkey Kong clone, originally for Apple II, with three levels of escalating difficulty/complexity.  I still haven't quite managed to beat the (particularly brutal) third level.  So I was just hoping someone could confirm it's genuinely beatable.  It looks like it should be beatable in roughly the same manner as the original.  But the software evidently has some bugs (e.g., for me, maybe 10% of the time, the bonus score countdown gets caught in a loop, and some deaths cause the game to hang). 

 

Also, the title screen attributes this version to "Jlando", circa 1982.  Anyone know who this is?

[+arcadeshopper]

heck I can't even get past the first screen!

 

[S1500]

Just out of curiosity, was this an official Sierrra On-Line release, and how come it is so relatively unknown? I never saw it sold retail, or even in Triton catalogs. 

[pixelpedant]

Seems to me there's no obvious evidence it was anything more than an independently produced and unlicensed E/A port.  Though I'd be delighted to learn there is more to it than that. 

 

I will, however, answer my own initial question, and point out that the Cyc identifies Jlando as James G Landowski.  And it looks like James G. Landowski worked for Syndein Systems (originally, Rich & Rich Synergistic Enterprises), who was contracted by Atarisoft to port Centipede and Dig Dug. 

[+Ksarul]

I'm pretty sure I bought a copy of it BITD, either from Tenex or from Triton. . .

[pixelpedant]

Some online lists refer to a Romox ECPC release.  But no listing of Romox ECPC titles I can find includes it.  Notably, it isn't in the Winter 1984 Catalog.  Though the VIC-20 version is.  Titles there for TI-99/4A being

 

[HOME AUTOMATION]

The version on my GameBase wont start!

[pixelpedant]

Finally managed to beat the third level after I know not how many hours of play, this week.  Pretty horrific difficulty, but I suppose it's rewarding to be able to say it's solved.  There are a couple different ways to beat the third level, none of them remotely easy (at least for me).  I'll do a video on it at some point, with the full playthrough and an explanation. 

 

It is an interesting game.  And there is a place for horrifically difficult and unforgiving games, and enjoyment to be had in them, it seems to me. 

 

The version I'm using is the one in the FinalGROM archive on the WHT FTP.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

3 levels?  Wow. I always thought there was only one level/screen. ?

[sometimes99er]

3 hours ago, HOME AUTOMATION said:

The version on my GameBase wont start!

Mine is Gamebase version 2.1. Works fine here in Classic99 and JS99'er.

 

[pixelpedant]

Well, Cannonball Blitz sort of took over my life for a week or so there. 

 

So I did end up making a video about it. 

 

Of all the TI-99/4A games to treat in depth - this one? 

 

Well, what can I say.  Single Screen Platformers can be damned addictive.  And it was genuinely a challenge to beat all three stages.