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Attack of the Mutant Camels is a surrealist video game written by Jeff Minter and released for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers in 1983 by Minter's Llamasoft. The horizontally scrolling shooter is similar to the Atari 2600 game The Empire Strikes Back (1982), with AT-AT walkers replaced by giant camels.[1] Confusingly, a very different game from Jeff Minter's Gridrunner series was also released in the US under the name Attack of the Mutant Camels.
| Attack of the Mutant Camels | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Llamasoft |
| Publisher(s) | Llamasoft |
| Designer(s) | Jeff Minter |
| Platform(s) | Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit |
| Release | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Llamasoft released a sequel, Revenge of the Mutant Camels, in 1984.
Gameplay
edit
The player controls a small jet plane and has the task of killing giant yellow camels before they reach the home base. Doing so requires several dozens of shots. The camels retaliate by shooting fireballs from their mouths. If a camel reaches the base, the game is lost. Once all camels on a level are killed, the player has to survive a "hyperspace" sequence which requires avoiding high-speed missiles. Upon successful completion, the next level presents a new wave of camels, with slightly harder gameplay.
Reception
editStating that "there is a fiendish mind at work here", Ahoy! said that Attack of the Mutant Camels's gameplay on the Commodore 64 was similar to but "much faster, more challenging and more demanding" than Gridrunner or Centipede. Despite criticizing the "little more than serviceable graphics", the magazine concluded that it was "all in all, a fine game".[2]
Legacy
editIn 2011, Attack of the Mutant Camels was chosen to be featured in the Smithsonian Institution's "The Art of Video Games" exhibit.[3]
In 2012 the assembly language source code of the Konix version of the game was released on GitHub.[4][5]
References
edit- ^ "Attack of the Mutant Camels – Llamasoft Baachive".
- ^ Kincaid, Scott (May 1984). "Attack of the Mutant Camels". Ahoy!. p. 59. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
- ^ "The Art of Video Games Exhibition Checklist" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
- ^ jeff-minters-unreleased-konix-multisystem-port-of-attack-of-the-mutant-camels-preserved-a-due-for-release Archived 2016-04-29 at the Wayback Machine on retrocollect.com (2012)
- ^ AOTMC89 "Konix Multisystem - Attack Of The Mutant Camels '89 V0.4 - Source Code" on github.com
External links
edit- Attack of the Mutant Camels at Atari Mania
- Attack of the Mutant Camels at Lemon 64
- Llamasoft's 8-bit games, from which AMC is downloadable
- https://web.archive.org/web/20120319051045/http://c64s.com/game/94/attack_of_the_mutant_camels/
- Attack of the Mutant Camels can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
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