''GATO'' is a real-time submarine simulator first published in 1984 by Spectrum HoloByte for

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

. It simulates combat operations aboard the Gato-class submarine in the Pacific Theater of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. ''GATO'' was later ported to the

Apple IIe The Apple IIe (styled as Apple //e) is the third model in the Apple II series of personal computers produced by Apple Computer. The ''e'' in the name stands for ''enhanced'', referring to the fact that several popular features were now built-in ...

, Atari ST, and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

. In 1987,

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of computers and video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than two months later when Warner Communica ...

published a version on cartridge for the Atari 8-bit family, to coincide with the launch of the

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Gameplay

The player is tasked with chasing Japanese shipping across a 20-sector map while returning for resupply as necessary from a

submarine tender A submarine tender is a type of depot ship that supplies and supports submarines. Development Submarines are small compared to most oceangoing vessels, and generally do not have the ability to carry large amounts of food, fuel, torpedoes, and ...

. The islands on the map are randomly generated and not based on real-world geography. Combat is conducted using a screen with a view through the periscope and at various gauges and indicators. The game has multiple difficulty levels, the highest of which requires the player to translate mission briefings which are transmitted only as audible Morse Code. The MS-DOS and Apple IIe versions contain a boss key which replaces the game screen with a spreadsheet.

Development

''Gato'' was developed by student programmers in Boulder, Colorado.

Reception

''Billboard'' magazine reported in June 1985 ''Gato'' coming in at number 6 of a national sample of retail sales and rack sales reports. In 1985, '' Computer Gaming World'' praised the game for being simultaneously easy to play and having deep, detailed strategy. 1991 and 1993 surveys in the magazine of strategy and war games, however, gave it one and a half stars out of five, stating that "it was adequate in its time, but not exemplary in any regard". ''

Compute! ''Compute!'' (), often stylized as ''COMPUTE!'', was an American home computer magazine that was published from 1979 to 1994. Its origins can be traced to 1978 in Len Lindsay's ''PET Gazette'', one of the first magazines for the Commodore PET ...

'' stated that "''Gato'' promises realism, and it delivers ... tlives up to its claims".

Jerry Pournelle Jerry Eugene Pournelle (; August 7, 1933 – September 8, 2017) was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s ...

wrote favorably of the game in ''

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

'', stating that he wished he could slow the game down but "I've certainly wasted enough time with it ... Recommended", and that he preferred the black-and-white Macintosh version to the color IBM PC version.

Reviews

*''The V.I.P. of Gaming Magazine'' #2 (Feb./March, 1986)

References

External links

* *{{Internet Archive game, id=msdos_GATO_1984, platform=MS-DOS
Of AJAX, GATO, and Bill ScottReview
in

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1984 video games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games Atari ST games Cancelled Atari 7800 games Commodore 64 games DOS games Japan in non-Japanese culture Classic Mac OS games Single-player video games Spectrum HoloByte games Submarine simulation video games Video games developed in the United States Video games set in Oceania Pacific War video games