How to play Alley Cat
You are a cat in a back alley. Climb the fence and the two clotheslines, wait for a window to open and jump through it, then clear the room inside before its clock runs out.
Three cleared rooms open Felicia’s window. Climb the hearts in her room to reach her and the next round starts, faster, with a life added.
Rules
- You have three lives. The dog that runs along the ground costs one if it catches you down there, and so do an eel, a woken dog, the spider and running out of air.
- Windows open for a few seconds at a time. The lower row can be reached from either clothesline, the upper row only from the upper one. The lower line carries you right, the upper one left.
- Neighbours throw boots, telephones and frying pans out of open windows. A hit knocks you all the way down to the ground.
- Rooms: catch 5 mice as they peek out of a cheese, eat 5 fish in a bowl while dodging the eels and coming up for air, empty 3 dishes beside sleeping dogs, or fetch 3 ferns from a bookshelf with a spider on it.
- A broom chases you round the cheese and bookshelf rooms. It never hurts, but if it sweeps you out of the window, or the clock runs out, you are back in the alley without a heart.
- In Felicia’s room, cupids shoot arrows that break the hearts for a few seconds. Fall off the bottom and you are back outside, with your hearts kept.
- Mice and fish score 20, dishes and ferns 30, a cleared room 100 plus 5 for every second left, and Felicia 500, all multiplied by the round.
Controls
- ← → / A D
- Walk
- Space / ↑ / W
- Jump; swim up in the fishbowl
- ↓ / S
- Drop off the fence or a line; swim down
- Touch
- On-screen pad with left, right, down and jump
- P / Esc
- Pause
- Enter / Space
- Start
Tips
- The trash can lids are springs: land on one and it throws you up to the lower line in one go.
- When the dog’s “!” flashes at the edge, get off the ground. On the fence you are safe.
- Sleeping dogs warn you: the snoring stops and an ear twitches just before an eye opens. Stand still until it closes again.
Alley Cat strategy
Getting into windows
A jump lifts the cat about 116 units, and the lines are 64 and 72 apart, so every climb is one jump at a time: fence, lower line, upper line. A lower-row window is entered on the way up from either line; an upper-row one only from the upper line, near the top of the jump. Lines carry you along at about a sixth of walking pace in round 1, faster later, so stand slightly upstream of the window. Windows stay open for 2.2 to 3.8 seconds in round 1 and about a third less by round 6, and no more than two are open at once.
Time is points
A room pays 100 plus 5 for each second left, times the round, and its clock starts at 32 seconds in round 1, falling to 22 by round 6. Clearing a cheese room in 12 seconds is worth about as much again as the mice themselves. Timing out or being swept out costs no life, but the room stays to be done again, and each round deals you rooms you have not cleared yet.
Reading the rooms
Mice show for about 1.7 seconds in round 1, and never in a hole right next to you, so expect a short dash to each; from round 2 two can be out at once. In the bowl, air lasts 7 seconds and refills four times as fast at the surface, and the eels only swim side to side. A sleeping dog stirs for about two thirds of a second before its eye opens for 1 to 1.5 seconds: be still on the ground then, because being in the air counts as moving. The spider creeps along the ceiling and only drops when it is right above you.
Felicia’s room
Each row of hearts swings back and forth, and the top row’s middle heart swings under Felicia’s cushion. Jump when a heart above is coming towards you; you can steer in the air. Cupids take turns to fire, about every 2 seconds in round 1 and faster later, and a broken heart grows back after three and a half seconds. You have 45 seconds, and falling only sends you back outside, where her window opens again.
About Alley Cat
Bill Williams wrote Alley Cat for Synapse Software. It came out on Atari 8-bit computers in 1983, and IBM brought it to the PC and PCjr in 1984 on a self-booting disk in four CGA colours. You played Freddy, a cat who broke into flats to win Felicia.
This version keeps the fence, the clotheslines, the dog, the broom and the climb to Felicia, with four rooms of its own and touch controls. It is drawn in ink on paper, with the cat in red.
Questions
Is this the original Alley Cat?
No. It’s a tribute written for this site, after Bill Williams’ game for the IBM PC, and it runs in the browser with nothing to install.
How do I get into a room?
Jump into a window while it is open. From the fence you can’t reach any; climb to a clothesline first.
How is the score calculated?
Catches score 20 or 30, a cleared room 100 plus 5 a second left on its clock, and Felicia 500, all times the round number. For a yardstick, the Expert target is 1,000 and Pro is 9,000.
How does the game end?
When your last life goes. Reaching Felicia gives you one back, up to five.
