Katakis

Katakis is a computer game for the Commodore 64 and the Amiga 500 /2000.

Game mechanics

It is a 2D space shooter where a spaceship and an indestructible satellite must fight through twelve different levels. The spacecraft can move on the screen while the background with the landscapes of right to left ( ' scroll ', see scrolling). To the cult classic, the game was on the C64 because it fully utilizing the device both programmatically as well as graphically. Characteristic of the game were big screen boss that had to be defeated at the end of each level. It could be played by two players simultaneously ( spacecraft and satellite) or alternately in the two-player mode alone or.

History of development

The game Manfred Trenz has been programmed which also created the graphic with Andreas Escher. The music was composed by Chris Hülsbeck.

The C64 version was released in 1987 on a double sided 5.25- inch floppy disk, each with 170 KB memory, the Amiga version on a 3.5 -inch floppy disk with 880 KB. Both versions were published in 1988 by Rainbow Arts; former Price: 30 DM Katakis name stems from the Düsseldorf phone book and was a Greek restaurant. When naming of Turrican was similar approach. Also Turrican II contains a Katakis level, where the lettering Katakis Lives ( Katakis lives ) as a banner passes.

The technical and graphic similarity of Katakis to irems flagship shooter R-Type introduced shortly after the publication of the Commodore 64 version to a legendary agreement between Rainbow Arts and R-Type publishers Activision, who wanted to avoid a legal battle. It was agreed that the programming team of Katakis the C64 conversion of R-Type completed - within 6 ½ weeks the game was finished.

The game was then marketed abroad from 1989 for legal reasons as Denaris. A new edition in the low-price segment of Rainbow Arts released later in Germany under this new name.

In 1992, an unofficial sequel to Katakis under the name Enforcer exclusively for the C64.

Factor 5 published the game years later as freeware for non- commercial use.

Remakes

For current PC exists a freeware remake called Takatis.