Car Wars (video game)

Car Wars (TI 99/4A)
Command Module booklet for Car Wars
Developer(s)	Texas Instruments
Publisher(s)	Texas Instruments
Programmer(s)	Jim Dramis
Platform(s)	TI-99/4A
Release	1981
Genre(s)	Maze

Car Wars is a video game for the TI-99/4A computer. Car Wars is a clone of the 1979 Sega/Gremlin game Head On.

The player controls a car starting at the bottom of the screen and navigates it through an open grid full of dots. The object is to collect all the dots while avoiding crashing into other cars. The player's car is always moving counter-clockwise. The player, who can never stop the car or change direction, is only able to control the relative speed of the car and move the car across one or two lines of the grid. After the player comes close to collecting all the dots, the other cars begin speeding up.

Prior to the game, the player can select playing options from a menu. These will determine the speed of the player's and computer's cars and when the computer's cars will speed up.

There are three speeds, identified as slow, fast, and flyin'. Both the player and the computer will move at the selected speed. The three speed-up options are titled late, early, and lookout. The computer's cars will speed up after clearing 150, 120, and 90 dots, respectively.

The player has the ability to speed up at any time by pressing the joystick button, but it is sometimes advantageous to move slowly.

During the play of the game, the player is represented by a red car, and the computer, at the beginning, uses a yellow car. The player's car always moves counterclockwise around the board, and the computer's cars move clockwise.

There are five "lanes," each of which forms a circumference around the board. The outer lanes are larger than the inner ones. The lanes (from inner to outer) have 4, 20, 36, 52, and 68 dots respectively. Each lane is divided into four sectors, with breaks at the 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 points. It is at these locations where lane-changing is possible. The player has the ability to switch up to two lanes at each break, while the computer's cars can only switch one lane at a time.