Big Five Software ( Big 5 Software) was an American video game developer in the first half of the 1980s founded by Bill Hogue and Jeff Konyu. The company released games for the

Tandy TRS-80 The TRS-80 Micro Computer System (TRS-80, later renamed the Model I to distinguish it from successors) is a desktop microcomputer launched in 1977 and sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of '' ...

and later the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

. Most of its TRS-80 games were clones of arcade games of the time, such as '' Galaxy Invasion'' (''

Galaxian is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, who ...

''), ''

Super Nova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a ...

'' (''

Asteroids An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

''), ''Defense Command'' (''

Missile Command ''Missile Command'' is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for Japanese and European releases. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game ''Tempest ...

''), and ''Meteor Mission'' (''

Lunar Rescue ''Lunar Rescue'' (ルーナー・レスキユー Runā Resukyū) is an arcade game released by Taito in November 1979. The gameplay has some resemblance to both Taito's own 1978 hit ''Space Invaders'' and Atari, Inc.'s ''Lunar Lander'' (release ...

''). Big Five also sold an Atari joystick interface called TRISSTICK which was popular with TRS-80 owners. The company's most successful release was original: the 10-stage platform game ''

Miner 2049er ''Miner 2049er'' is a platform game created by Bill Hogue that was released in 1982 by Big Five Software. It was developed for the Atari 8-bit family and widely converted to other systems. The title "Miner 2049er" evokes a 21st-century take on th ...

'', released for the

in 1982 and widely ported to other systems. Hogue stopped developing games after Big Five's final release, '' Bounty Bob Strikes Back'' (1984-85). In 2007, he released a free, custom emulation of the Atari 8-bit versions of ''Miner 2049'er'' and ''Bounty Bob Strikes Back'' for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

Games

TRS-80

* '' Attack Force'' (1980) * ''Cosmic Fighter'' (1980) * '' Galaxy Invasion'' (1980) * ''Meteor Mission'' (1980) * ''

Meteor Mission II ''Meteor Mission II'' (written as ''Meteor Mission 2'' on the title screen) is a clone of the Taito arcade game ''Lunar Rescue'' released by Big Five Software for the TRS-80 home computer in 1982. It was written by Big Five co-founders Bill Ho ...

'' (1980) * ''Galaxy Invasion Plus'' (1980) * ''

'' (1980) * '' Robot Attack'' (1981) * ''Stellar Escort'' (1981) * ''Defense Command'' (1982) * ''Weerd'' (1982)

Atari 8-bit

* ''

'' (1982) * ''

Bounty Bob Strikes Back! ''Bounty Bob Strikes Back!'' is the sequel to ''Miner 2049er'' published in 1985 for the Atari 8-bit family. The game adds a pseudo-3D look to the platforms and increases the level count from 10 to 25. As with the original, the Atari 8-bit versio ...

'' (1984)

References

{{Reflist TRS-80 Defunct video game companies of the United States