Cosmic Aliens was a game developed in 1988 during my college programming class, where, out of boredom, I told my classmate I could create a Space Invader like game on the classroom computer in BASIC, to which he replied “no you can’t”, and the rest is history! What started as an exercise in “I told you so” evolved into a playable, albeit simple game inspired by both Space Invaders and Galaxian, and was released through local computer bulletin board systems of the time. The last known public release was in 1989, and that version was recently discovered which prompted the resurrection of the game on a variety of retro, and ultimately modern platforms.
I’ve been gearing up for a retro programming project on my childhood computer, the Tandy Color Computer, and the discovery of this game, has prompted my first ever retro project, re-creating a game written in 1988 for a 640K 4.77 MHz MS-DOS based Tandy 1000, on a 1980 TRS-80 Color Computer with only 32K of usable RAM, far less graphics capability, and a whopping speed of 0.89 MHz.
Check the blog page for more details on the origin of this game, and the plans and progress of the various new versions. Check the gallery for photos of the original and current versions of the game, and use the links/contact page to send me an email, visit some of my other sites, and view YouTube videos showing the original version, as well as the evolution and development of current and future versions.
Coming to a Color Computer near you in 2018, be on the look out for CoCo Cosmic Aliens, other versions to follow for modern systems!
Thanks for stopping by,
Steve Strowbridge