Meteor Mission

An advertisement from 80 Microcomputing

Meteor Mission was Bill Hogue’s first TRS-80 game. It is usually not included in listings of Big Five games, and some people have denied that it ever was sold. But it was advertised in the August, September, and October 1980 issues of 80 Microcomputing. It seems to have been withdrawn at that point, and it never appeared in any future advertisements. I don’t know how many copies of Meteor Mission were ever sold (I’ve only ever seen one copy). Unlike the other Big Five games, there was only a Model I cassette version.

The goal is to move a missile, represented by an up-arrow, through the meteors to dock at the space port at the top of the screen. It is a two-player game and the players compete with each other. The player who docks at the spaceport the greater number of times wins. Player 1 uses the up and down arrows to control the missile on the left. Player 2 uses the right arrow and CLEAR key to control the missile on the right (which makes sense if you look at a Model I keyboard). Unfortunately, the use of the up-arrow symbol for the missiles makes them somewhat difficult to distinguish it from the background.

Instructions

Notice the up arrows on the left and right

Meteor Mission doesn’t feature the impressive graphics of the later Big Five games, or use the Big Five trademark alien, the Flagship. It was never updated to support sound or a joystick and it was less expensive than the other games (only $9.95 as opposed to $14.95). But it is still a fun game, and one of the few TRS-80 games that can be played by two people at the same time.

Written by Matthew Reed | Filed Under Arcade Games · Software · Big Five · Bill Hogue