It seemed in the US that home computer games of the time were almost completely devoid of the humor that came with British microcomputer titles. Sure, consoles and arcade games had plenty of humor, and there was even the OCCASIONAL exception to the rule, but home computers of the US usually sported either arcade ports or games that took themselves too seriously, usually called “Star ______.”
These days in the homebrew scene there’s humor and personality for years, yet in the early 80s, Atari and Commodore yearned for businesses to take their machines seriously, and not JUST as mere game systems.
So imagine my surprise playing Alley Cat on the Atari 800XL. This is a game I was recommended from YouTube by several Top 10 videos for the 8 bit line. New to the Atari line, I was trying to avoid games I had already played on the C64, and this one is only on Atari and DOS, so it fit the bill purrfectly.
After playing it for a good while, I have to say, this game is charming as hell. The game play is incredibly complex for the time, featuring multiple game sections, each of which are super fun to play and fit the cat theme of the game. The graphics and sounds are also superb, on-par with the C64 to be sure. The cherry on top is this was released in major stores by an American developer! If you had told me this was a port of a ZX Spectrum or Amstrad CPC game, I would have believe it, because this reminds me of a British micro game through and through.
These days in the homebrew scene there’s humor and personality for years, yet in the early 80s, Atari and Commodore yearned for businesses to take their machines seriously, and not JUST as mere game systems.
So imagine my surprise playing Alley Cat on the Atari 800XL. This is a game I was recommended from YouTube by several Top 10 videos for the 8 bit line. New to the Atari line, I was trying to avoid games I had already played on the C64, and this one is only on Atari and DOS, so it fit the bill purrfectly.
After playing it for a good while, I have to say, this game is charming as hell. The game play is incredibly complex for the time, featuring multiple game sections, each of which are super fun to play and fit the cat theme of the game. The graphics and sounds are also superb, on-par with the C64 to be sure. The cherry on top is this was released in major stores by an American developer! If you had told me this was a port of a ZX Spectrum or Amstrad CPC game, I would have believe it, because this reminds me of a British micro game through and through.