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ALLEY
CAT (1984) |
REVIEW
by Nightcrawler
As
Freddy the Cat it's your job to win a kiss from potential girlfriend Felicia.
You start off in an alley with dustbins, a fence and clothes lines, which are
used to reach the open windows. Within these windows are various challenges
to overcome and each time you complete one you get a chance to steal a kiss
in the cupid room! Avoid Felicia's brothers and grab that kiss!
There are four levels of play, these are Kitten, House Cat, Tom Cat and Alley Cat. With each difficulty there are less bins and clothes to jump on and your opponents are quicker. You start off in the alley and need to jump on the bins then onto the fence and then grab the clothes line and into an opening window. If you spend too long in the alley Bowser Von Spike (the local cat hating dog) comes running for a scrap. Take too long jumping off the bins and a trash-dwelling cat will push you off with his head. Plus, if you stay perched on the fence then objects are thrown out the windows to knock you off. As if this wasn't enough to keep you moving there are also mice running along the clothes lines to nibble off any clothing you hang to!
Jump through an open window and you end up in one of five different rooms. All these rooms have a broom which sweeps up your dirty paw prints and also tries to push you back out the window and into the alley. If you stay on the floor for too long then along comes Bowser Von Spike to make fur fly. The five rooms are: The Aviary, The Pantry, The Kennel, The Library and The Aquarium.
The
Aviary: on the table is a bird cage with Petey the Parakeet inside, you have
to repeatedly jump at it to push it off the table. Once the cage is on the floor
then you have to jump around the room trying to catch the bird.
The Pantry: as you enter this room you are confronted with a giant slice of Swiss cheese with four mice (Eeny, Meeny, Miny and Moe) running inside the many holes. Jump on the cheese and get those mice, pressing the fire button on a hole sends you through the cheese and out another hole.
The Kennel: by far the best room as there are 7 dogs asleep lying next to 12 bowls of milk and you have to drink all the milk whilst not waking up the dogs. As well as the broom there is also a floating milk carton that fills the bowls up occasionally. You can't spend too long next to a sleeping dog as he will smell you, wake up and fight. So move bowl to bowl and let sleeping dogs lie!
The Library: you need to get the three rare vases containing Ceygolian Dandy-Lions on top of the bookcase but there are two deadly Salivating Spiders from Sith which drop down and bite you, beware!
The
Aquarium: jump up and touch the fish bowl and you find yourself in the aquarium
where you must dive down and get the fish whilst avoiding the deadly eels. Watch
out though as you need to surface to get some air back before you turn blue!
Once any challenge is complete you find yourself in the alley again, but this time as the windows open you can see Felicia inside. So what are you waiting for, jump inside.
The Cupid Room: In this room are seven platforms of hearts that you need to jump on to reach the top and kiss Felicia. However on the five platforms in-between you and Felicia are her brothers who hiss and spit and knock you back down a level. Also above it all are various cupids who shoot their arrows in a diagonal fashion at the platforms, which either break the platform hearts or replace them. If Freddy walks on a broken heart, he will fall through to the level below. Never fear as you are assisted with presents. For every room you complete you are gifted with a present which when placed in front one of Felicia's brothers clears that platform as the brother opens it and exits the screen for a time.
When
you finally reach the top and get the kiss, you are awarded extra points and
fireworks and love hearts. You gain a life for every kiss and start again in
the alley but with the difficulty raised slightly with faster foes, fewer dustbins
and quicker closing windows.
Freddy is controlled by pushing the joystick in an upward direction to jump or downward to descend. Holding the joystick left or right will accelerate Freddy from walking to running, the latter of which is needed for higher jumps. The fire button is used for drinking the milk, entering the cheese and to pick up and drop a present in the Cupid Room. You have three lives to start with but gain one for every time you kiss Felicia - up to a maximum of nine lives.
Alley Cat has very
good cartoon like graphics with good sound effects and excellent music. Couple
this with fast paced action, a variety of different challenges, plus originality
and you have yourself one exciting game. Only drawbacks are that it takes a
long time to master how to control Freddy and also that the harder level is
just too hard, making it almost impossible to even get in a window.
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"Purr-fect"
(8/10) |
GAME
TIPS
When in a challenge room that features the broom, try running up and down the
same point on the carpet to make enough dirty paw prints to keep the broom busy
for a while.
GAME
CHARACTERS
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Freddy the
Cat
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Feicia
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Bowser
Von Spike
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One
of Feicia's Brother
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Alley
Mouse
|
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Mad
Housekeeping Broom
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Salivating
Spider from Sith
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Fish
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Electric
Eel
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Petey
the Parakeet
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Pantry
Mice
(Eeny, Meeny, Miny and Moe) |
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Kennel
Dog
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Cupid
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CLICK
HERE to Download an Unlimited Lives file for use in the Atari 800Win
Emulator.
Further Information:
Bill Williams was also the author of 'Salmon Run' (1982) and the excellent 'Necromancer' (1983).
Cats Protection
(The UK's oldest feline charity)
www.cats.org.uk
Cat and
Girl
(Online comic strip about a cat and... a girl!)
www.catandgirl.com/
My Cat Hates You
(Various photos of angry-looking cats!)
www.mycathatesyou.com/