Ant Attack
1983 · Isometric Action · ZX Spectrum
Overview
Ant Attack (1983) is Sandy White's ZX Spectrum rescue game, set in a walled isometric city of giant ants — and one of the first games to let the player choose to be a boy or a girl.
Deep Dive
The player chooses to play as a boy or a girl and enters the walled city of Antescher to rescue the other, who has been captured. Giant ants roam the streets and bite, and the player's grenades can kill them but also hurt people. Once the hostage is reached, the pair must escape the city together, and each new rescue places the next captive somewhere harder to reach. The city is drawn in a 'Softsolid 3D' isometric view that, unlike Zaxxon or Q*bert, lets the player climb up and down the scenery as well as move across it.
Developer Story
Sandy White wrote Ant Attack and Quicksilva published it for the ZX Spectrum in 1983, with a Commodore 64 version in 1984. It finished second to Ah Diddums for Best Original Game at the 1983 Golden Joystick Awards.
Did You Know?
- The city's name, Antescher, is a nod to the artist M. C. Escher.
- In 2009 Edge wrote that the game 'marked the very beginnings of the survival horror genre'.
Sources & further reading
- Ant Attack — Wikipedia
