Anyone who knows the TI-99/4A has played Alpiner (gameplay footage
here). Basically, the player has to climb a series of six mountains, culminating in Everest, while being besieged by various hazards and falling objects (rocks, ice, avalanches). If you have a voice unit, the game will warn you of hazards and hector you when you mess up.
It's actually a pretty fun game, and when you finally clear Everest it's very rewarding. However, the game then loops, and midway through the second loop it gets a
lot harder, to the point of unplayability. Falling objects come down at the player almost nonstop, and you have neither time nor warning enough to do anything about it.
The manual claims there are three loops, for a total of 18 levels, but
research has shown that the game doesn't actually end after the third loop, but just continues. Still, the manual's statement makes it clear that climbing Everest for the third time should be the "end" of the game -- even if the gameplay itself suggests that the designers meant the idea of clearing the 3rd loop as nothing more than a cruel joke.
So I'm wondering if, with a TAS, it'd be possible to manipulate the game logic to allow these levels to be clearable. I don't have the TI-99/4A chops to take this on, but maybe someone out there has warm childhood memories of the system and wants to give it a shot?
