We’ve been having a big old nostalgia jam on the Poke mailing list, people nerding out about their first computer games / online experiences. It’s getting deep-geek.
So I was looking for stuff about Ant Attack (one of the most influential games ever?)
It featured.
- 3D isometric views
- Equal opportunities (play as boy or girl)
- Smart(?) ants
Anyway I found this tribute page by Sandy White, the guy who wrote the game in the first place. It includes an online emulator for the game so you can play it in all it’s 8bit glory. He says:
Well, I know I’m probably a bit of a sad git, putting together a page about a game I wrote myself! But I don’t care! Who better to do it? Plus, I thought I’d better get on with it before some other sad git did it… come to think of it… I wouldn’t at all mind if they did…
Sandy, you could never be a sad git to me!
On Sandy’s page I also found this fantastic 16k tribute from the B3ta guys:
So many memories…
:-)
… you inspired me to search for 8bit music and i’ve been playing c64 and Amiga tunes all day. My brain hurts but my heart is warm.
Was this followed up / shamelessly copied by the game ‘Colony’? You were some weird sort of robot bug running around trying to farm giant mushrooms (there may be something in that I missed at the time). And giant pesky ants would come and eat them. Damn those pesky ants.
There’s an ace ZX Spectrum emulator widget for your Mac desktop. It comes with a load of games, including Ant Attack and my favourite smash-my-head-against-the-rubber-keys-in-frustration title, Bugaboo The Flea.