The Classic PC Gaming Era (1977-1989) - Alley Cat
An amusing action platformer arcade-style game about the life of an outdoor cat that you can still play and enjoy today!
RELEASE DATE: 1983
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Bill Williams / Synapse Software
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Highly Playable
BEST VERSIONS: Atari 400/800 (original), Windows (modern remake)
Sometimes, it’s just fun to be a nuisance, and Alley Cat is the sort of game that gives you a wonderful opportunity to do just that. While Alley Cat is a fairly simple game that doesn’t require a lot of time to play through, it’s actually a remarkably sophisticated title for its time and still holds up quite well today.
The premise of the game is that you’re a little black cat named Freddy and you’re trying to reach your feline lady love, Felicia, first by impressing her with your prowess at tasks such as dodging dogs, stealing food, snatching fish and catching mice, and then by navigating a courtship-themed maze (complete with Cupids firing arrows!) to reach Felicia and give her a kiss (and, erm, cuddle). The game then resets and increases the level of difficulty.
But while the framework is fairly similar to Donkey Kong, the game plays quite a bit differently. For one thing, it moves fast. Your cat can quickly scale the initial level set in the alley behind an apartment building by jumping on trash cans, walking along the fence, climbing on clotheslines and jumping into windows. Each widow leads to a room where you might find things like a giant wedge of cheese (which provides you with a large supply of mice) or a bunch of sleeping dogs ignoring their full food bowls. One room even has you jump into a fishbowl on a table and capture fish while you dodge electric eels. In several of the rooms, a non-lethal broomstick may sweep you away out the window or into a hazard, and you’ve got to move quickly and with careful timing to ensure you avoid its chaotic path.
Part of what makes this game so endearing is how cute and silly it all is. The stakes are low, and the gameplay’s not terribly challenging until the difficulty begins to spike after a few kisses have been planted. The graphics are also particularly good for a game from the early 1980s, offering a nonviolent and cartoonish vibe that’s quite endearing even in the DOS version’s crummy 4-color graphics. Best of all, it’s tremendously easy to pick up and play, and even today, most players won’t have any trouble mastering the simple controls or understanding each room’s objectives.
While the game is much easier to find for DOS than the PCJr or then-superior Atari 8-bit platform, there is actually a fairly recent (and free!) fan remake called Alley Cat Remeow Edition which adds new levels and game modes, 4-player local multiplayer and improved graphics and sound. What’s more, it also includes loving recreations of all of the original versions. Even though the remake is unofficial, it’s definitely the definitive version of the game.
Bill Williams also created an unusual 1982 Atari 400/800 game called Salmon Run which shares some similar themes with Alley Cat, and if you enjoy the idea of seeking out your mate while playing a River Raid style swimming game, it’s an easy title to recommend.
NOTE: The 1984 Solar Software Alley Cat game on the Commodore 64 has no relation to this one; it’s just a ho-hum sidescrolling platformer. The 1986 Commodore 64 demolition racer Alleykat by Graftgold and Hewson also bears no relation but is a great game in its own right.
As Our Series Continues…
In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about arcade action games, 3D games, flight simulators, sports games, gameroom games, puzzle games and so much more.
And while you’ll definitely see some titles from prominent North American publishers like Sierra On-Line, Infocom, Activision, Electronic Arts, Brøderbund, SSI, MicroProse, Lucasfilm Games, Epyx and Sir-Tech in the mix, you’ll also see references to games from the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Spain and Japan.
If you’ve missed the earlier entries in the series, which cover ASCII games, adventure games, wargames, strategy games and role-playing games, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 1. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!