Alley Cat is one of those games you *must* have played if you wanna call yourself a true gamer.

The original game was created by Bill Williams, who unfortunately died too early, at the age of 37 (due to a disease affecting his lungs), and John Harris, and released in 1983.

A port for IBM compatible computers (in other words DOS computers) would be released one year later.

Now, I am a bit conflicted if I should discuss the entire concept of the game, as I may have to review the original game in a separate review in my "Know Your Classics" section, but in short it comes down to that you are an alley cat who has to do the typical things an alley cat does... Break into people's houses, turn them into a mess somehow and mate with a female cat in order to get many kittens.

Perhaps that description doesn't do the original game justice. What I want to focus on is the work that was put into preserving this game for the future. Although the original DOS game does run fine in DOSBox (I tried... I still have a copy I obtained somewhere in the 1980s), a version specifically made for modern computers could definitely be a good idea. This remake does certainly give the game a new "better" look in the sense of better graphics and more detail, but in the same time it still gives that old retro feeling. Now in this remake, it was also taken in mind that some people hate old games being remastered in new style graphics and audio, however for this remake that opinion has been taken into mind (as a matter of fact, the project started with the original styles only, but over time the idea to come up with a new style look was added, at least that is what I am to understand from the game's homepage). The old style screenshots I displayed above are also from this remeow version, and I must say that the IBM looks are just as I remember that, and also clearly showing the limitations of the CGA graphics adapter which the game used. (You basically had two screens. Red-Green-Yellow-Black and Cyan-Magenta-White-Black. Hard to imagine these days, eh?)

Now what i must note is this. Just because a game is old, doesn't mean it's automatically free to do with what you want. This remake is unofficial, and I have no idea how the copyrights are taken care of. Although there is not much way the original game can still be profitable to the current copyright holders, they can still make a fuzz out this. For me who likes it when people preserve games I am only greatly pleased when people come up with remakes like these and especially when they are done well.

If a museum for computer games ever comes to be, this game definitely should be in the collection there, as this is a true piece of history, and the remake was well done. As well in the new style looks as in the original style looks. Those who liked the original game should definitely give this remake a try and if you don't know the original, give this remake a try. You'd be amazed, that the stuff this remake has was really present with the limited hardware of the past.

Very good remake! And also a very good looking website comes with it.

Game's website: https://www.joflof.com/alley.html
GameJolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/alleycatremeow/327439
Brought to you by: @joflof

The original version for ATARI can be played on-line here: https://archive.org/details/a8b_Alley_Cat_1983_Synapse_Software_US_k_file

I hope I can find time soon to write a detailed on the original game (which will as a result also cover much of the remake).