GATO

Atari 8-bit Title Screen.

The initial game menu.

Setting up a new game.

The mission briefing, received appropriately in Morse code (slowly, too).

Submerged.

The main game naval chart, showing all quadrants.

Quadrant map.

The radar.

Approaching a Japanese PT boat.

A hit with the torpedo produces a large splash.

Then a glimmering explosion characteristic of Atari 8-bit graphics.

Unlike the Atari ST version, the Atari 8-bit version actually shows the ships sinking.

And down she goes. Sinking animations really are important to naval sim games.

The damage control screen.

The Captain's Log from the demo mode.

The game has a helpful tutorial demo mode.

There is no one-page chart of all the ships you'll face; here you flip through the different ships.

And, again, the obligatory history and specifications infotainment section of the game.

The title screen.

The about screen.

I imagine every new Gato player first attacked his subtender.

Our subtender -- the ship that replenishes and repairs our Gato.

Look at that intricate graphical explosion!

It makes you just swell with pride -- our first confirmed kill.

So much for glory.

The map plotting screen; every ship, enemy or friendly, is a white dot.

Three Japanese ships detected on radar.

There they are! They seem far, but the distance closes quickly.

One down. After this explosion animation, the ship simply disappears.

Nighttime operations; the ships are appropriately harder to see.

But, once closer, they are as hard to see as your computer monitor.

The missions included decent variation.

The straightforward seek-and-destroy mission.

Each mission is timed.

Replenishing mines and torpedoes at the subtender.

The captain's log / kill list.

The enemies profile.

The options available, screen 1.

The options available, screen 2.

The obligatory (but interesting) history portion, which included Gato statistics.

get a status report of your sub

check the map for enemy ships

dive cap'n!

The initial splash screen.

The title screen.

The main game menu.

The mission briefing is received slowly in Morse code.

The main map charts; green is the sub and the subtender, and purple is enemy ships.

The quadrant zoom map; here we're stalking a Japanese transport.

A torpedo hit on a transport.

The splash looks decently realistic.

The explosion, consisting of a series ray-traced lines.

After the explosion, the ship simply disappears; no sinking animation.

Approaching an unidentified ship from behind.

Rule #1: do not ram enemy ships. Blub, blub.

The radar showing a convoy of four ships ahead.

Approaching the convey from a distance.

The distance closes rapidly; 3-D rendering is decent.

Once you're detected, the destroyers and PT boats close in on you quickly.

They *will* ram you. Better to dive.

Diving...

Submerged; the engine shuts down, and you must manually switch to electric.

The damage screen; we're blind.

Completing a mission.

The captain's log, showing your kills.

The game options screen.

The tutorial presentation.

The enemy ships are presented page-by-page during the tutorial.