Bat Attack

The Good
When they were released in the arcades, Galaxian, as well as Space Invaders, were targets of unofficial clones on popular home systems such as the Commodore 64, yet a few of these clones not only took the usual gameplay mechanic, but tweaked the formula. And one of these clones was Bat Attack by Antony Crowther, a newcomer to the scene.

In Alligata’s take on the popular Namco arcade game, five rows of bats swoop down and fire their weapons at you, never to join the pack again. You will need to dodge left or right to avoid losing a life, and they will never stop swooping down at you until they are destroyed. Once you have killed all of them, spinning donuts will fall down and you need to dodge them on the way to the next set of bats.

The front of the game’s cover is well designed, consisting of someone in a cockpit shooting down bats, and each of the bats looks nothing like the ones during the game. On the back cover, the blurb states the fact that the game runs in machine code. This was really a big deal back at the time of the game’s release, given that games that were made with machine code ran a lot faster than they did when they were programmed in BASIC. The instructions on how to play are given below the game description.

The game can be operated with the [Z] and [X] keys to move in the respective direction, while the [Shift] key is used to fire your weapon. Although it doesn’t tell you, Bat Attack can also be played with the joystick. This is easier for me to use rather than the keyboard, since I found the controls to be a bit sluggish.

Graphic-wise, the sprites are well designed. The bats actually look like invaders, but that’s understandable given that Crowther meant to replicate Galaxian but tried to do something different. Your ship looks good as well, although he went a bit over the top with its size. The sound effects are quite basic, but judging by the rate at which the sounds play, it feels as if you are actually listening to some background music.

The Bad
The donuts are quite huge and it is impossible to avoid them if you don’t start moving at the right time.

The Bottom Line
Ignore the bit of information on the back cover that suggests that Bat Attack is suitable for people aged nine years and over. In my opinion, it can be played by anyone, regardless of their age. The graphics and sound are great, and the game deserves a place in your collection if you are into shoot 'em ups.