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Game info |
|  | Tomcat |  | Genre | Shoot em Up | Developer | Players Software | Publisher | Players Software | Released | 1989 | Rating
 | Graphics: | 6.0 | Sound: | 5.0 | Gameplay: | 5.0 | Overall: | 5.0 |
| Reviewed by | ndial | Tomcat is a vertical shoot 'em up developed and published in 1989 by Players for the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, BBC Micro and MSX home computers. |
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Review |
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 STORY / GAMEPLAY The game's story is set somewhere in the future, where humans developed a technology to build their own artificial islands (!) Yes, this time mankind managed to create something beyond imagination and brought islands to "life". While everything was quiet and seemed to work under control, a red alert was released from a particular island called ART ROCK! This time it's serious as this island surpassed the control system and now it makes its own "decisions" like a live and breathing creature (!). ART ROCK was basically built as an armed defense island and now has turned against its creators, attacking every ship on sight Your main goal as a combat pilot is to fly your F-14 Tomcat through intense action and destroy every airborne or ground defense system. Shooting power pods scattered around the level, allows you to further increase your firepower. Overall, this game is very tough to play due to its quite slow action and the fact that the enemy bullets cannot be seen easily.
GRAPHICS / SOUND Tomcat was developed for the 8bit home computers only and features nice looking graphics with vivid colors, although its design, low sprites resolution and the small playable area makes it difficult to play. Note that the animation on the Commodore 64/128 version plays great and and much smoother than the Amstrad CPC. The game's sound on the Amstrad is good with a variety of sound effects like explosions and gunfire, but nothing really special though. | |
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Gameplay sample |
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Comparable platforms |
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Hardware information |
| Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128 CPU: ZiLOG Z80 4MHZ MEMORY: 64 KB or 128 KB of RAM depending on the model (capable of being expanded to 512k using memory extension boards) GRAPHICS: Motorola 6845 address generator, Mode 0: 160x200 / 16 colors, Mode 1: 320x200 / 4 colors, Mode 2: 640x200 / 2 colors, A colour palette of 27 colors was supported SOUND: The CPC used the General Instrument AY-3-8912 sound chip, providing 3 channels Mono Sound (via internal speaker) but capable to offer Stereo Sound provided through a 3.5 mm headphones jack (with pretty impressive outcome!). Also, it is possible to play back digital sound samples at a resolution of approximately 5bit. This technique is very processor-intensive though.
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 | RGB 27-colors palette (16 on screen) | |
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