Thursday 10 December 2009

Ant Attack (ZX Spectrum)

Jesus.

Now, I know old games can be difficult. I've been there and done that. Sometimes, a game that looks very simple can be absolutely rock, much to one's surprise.

Ant Attack appears to be one such game. Now, I was not a Speccy boy, or Spec-chum, or whatever it is they're calling themselves these days. But I was aware it had some cracking games, and Ant Attack is renowned as a classic. So I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm not very good at it.

I don't know if that's because of my inability to grasp the controls... I had to use keys because I couldn't configure my joystick. As a result, I died a lot.


Quick! Run! We're almost freeeeee!

Despite the screenshot, I did score points and I did get past the first level. I took a screenshot early because, at the time, I didn't think I would get much further. I did, though, which was just as well or this little post would have been much shorter and more awkward.

Ant Attack has quite a nasty atmosphere to it, actually. It's set in a very bleak, forced 3D town/world, and if you wait long enough, you'll see that it's seething with giant ants. And these bastards don't mess around... once you jump over that wall, they're on you. They don't let up, either. You can't just run off and hide, and hope they'll forget about you. Even in "safe" spots, they'll just hang around waiting for you, and then bite big lumps out of you at the first opportunity.

I can't say I really got far enough into the game to have got to know it properly. I can't say I really enjoyed it that much, either. Too much pain in too short a time. It's interesting though, that's for sure, but I'm not sure if I'd have had the patience to stick with it back in 1983, let alone now.

1 comment:

  1. Funny how things change... I played this a lot in recent months and did enjoy it, and really appreciated what it was doing.

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