| Ant Attack |
| |
| Release Date | 1983 |
| Original Publisher | Quicksilva Ltd (UK) |
| Min. Hardware | ZX-Spectrum 48K |
| Genre | Arcade Game: Maze |
| Max. Players | 1 |
| Inspiration for | Alien Evolution Ant Attack Boom Bot Isometric Ray Cast |
| Original Price | £6.95 |
| Original Price according to SPOT/SPEX | 7.95 *** Data provided by SPOT/SPEX is unconfirmed. Please help us validate this information! |
| Competitions | C&VG 1983 Golden Joystick Awards |
| Graphical Views | Isometric 3D Graphics |
| Screen Movements | Multi-directional Scrolling |
| Other Platforms | Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 |
| Average mag. score | 71.17% (6 reviews) |
| Martijn's WoS score | 84.8% (281 votes) |
Re-releases
| #1 - Hansesoft GmbH (Germany) | (1983) | ||
| #2 - Investronica S.A. (Spain) | (1983) | as "Hormigas" | |
| * Release price: 1900.00 Ptas | |||
| #3 - Microbyte [ES] (Spain) | (1987) | as "Hormigas" |
Authors/Contributors
| Sandy White (UK) | - ? | ||
| Angela Sutherland (UK) | - ? | ||
| David John Rowe (UK) | - Inlay/Poster Art |
Annual Awards
| 3rd place in the C&VG 1983 Golden Joystick Awards - Best Original Game. | |
| Rank #09 - 1984 Sinclair User Top 50 Spectrum Software Classics |
Known Errors
| The 1984 microdrive version (on the Games Cartridge) is slightly corrupt. When playing the boy, after landing from a jump the graphic is "damaged":  Geoff Wearmouth explains: "The tape version of Ant Attack has a short 76 byte BASIC bootstrap which then loads the entire 41K memory map including BASIC up to 65535. That affords a good level of copy protection. For microdrive loading a 600 byte buffer was required for a start. This was achieved by using variables to replace zero in the substantial BASIC program. Andy Pennell was responsible for duplicating the Games Cartridge. Because of the way LDIR works you often get copies of BASIC and machine code in the spare section of memory. It is never cleaned. Andy would have tried to reduce the loading time as much as possible. At the end of the tape there are several K of zero bytes. easily recognisable and these will have been cut out. Also 6K was trimmed from the BASIC by using variables for 0 and -1 in DATA statements - tape left, microdrive right.  Unlike the Tape version which has no LOAD command the microdrive version has a line 9999 which loads the code from microdrive and then executes machine code. This among other things assembles 'RUN' + CHR$13 in memory somewhere, manipulates the error stack pointer so that instead of the Program finished message it autostarts from false BASIC. The graphics corruption is in the region of the normal stack position and I think that at loading or during preparation the block has been saved with a normal RAMTOP." |
Series "Ant Attack"
| 1. | Ant Attack | (1983) | by Quicksilva Ltd (UK) | |
| 2. | Zombie Zombie | (1984) | by Quicksilva Ltd (UK) |
Compilations
| Full version in | Clasicos Spectrum: Hormigas + Traxx + Futbol Manager + Billar Americano | (1987) | by Microbyte [ES] (Spain) | - titled "Hormigas" | |
| Full version in | Games Cartridge | (1983) | by Sinclair Research Ltd (UK) | ||
| Full version in | Soft Aid | (1985) | by Quicksilva Ltd (UK) | ||
| Full version in | Software Magazine issue 02a | (1984) | by Monser S.A. (Spain) | - titled "Anttown-3D" | |
| Full version in | Your Sinclair issue 81: Magnificent Seven | (1992/Sep) | by Magazine Your Sinclair - covertape from issue #81 - 1992/Sep |
Main File Downloads
| Filename | Release | Machine | Scheme | Language | Comments | |
 | AntAttack.tap.zip | Original | ZX-Spectrum 48K | (???) | English | |
| AntAttack.tzx.zip | Original | ZX-Spectrum 48K | (None) | English | |
| AntAttack(HansesoftGmbH).tzx.zip | #1 | ZX-Spectrum 48K | (None) | English | |
| AntAttack(Hormigas)(Microbyte1).tzx.zip | #3 | ZX-Spectrum 48K | (None) | Spanish |
Additional File Downloads
| Filename | Size | Release | Type | Language | Comments | |
| ants | 0 | Original | Remote link | - Additional information | ||
| AntAttack.gif | 4,334 | Original | Running screen | |||
| AntAttack-OPEN-1.scr | 6,912 | Original | Opening screen | |||
| AntAttack.jpg | 371,552 | Original | Inlay - Front | |||
| AntAttack_Back.jpg | 278,347 | Original | Inlay - Back | |||
| 3DANTATK.TXT | 11,823 | Original | Instructions | - Docs (from games database) | ||
| AntAttack.txt | 2,301 | Original | Instructions | English | ||
| AntAttack.png | 359,933 | Original | Game map | |||
| YRPoster02.jpg | 411,871 | Original | Magazine poster | - Your Spectrum magazine poster | ||
| antattack.rzx | 0 | Original | RZX playback file | - Recorded by Philip Kendall | ||
| Ant Attack (1983)(Quicksilva).pok | 148 | Original | POK pokes file | |||
| AntAttack(Hormigas)(Microbyte).jpg | 82,907 | #3 | Inlay - Front | |||
| AntAttack(Hormigas)(Microbyte).pdf | 9,472 | #3 | Instructions | Spanish |
Magazine Reviews
| C&VG (Computer & Video Games) | issue #26-1983/Dec | page 31 | - Review | |
| Crash | issue v.1 #1-1984/Feb | page 16 | - Review: 85% | |
| Crash | issue v.1 #2-1984/Mar | page 60 | - Review - Crash Living Guide: 85% | |
| Crash | issue v.1 #3-1984/Apr | page 79 | - Review - Crash Living Guide: 85% | |
| Crash | issue v.1 #7-1984/Aug | page 98 | - Review - Crash - Crashback | |
| Crash | issue v.1 #51-1988/Apr | page 83 | - Review - Crash - Run It Again: 22% | |
| Home Computing Weekly | issue #31-1983/Oct/4 special "week#1" | page 17 | - Review | |
| MicroHobby | issue #2-1984/Nov | page 15 | - Review - Nuevo | |
| Personal Computer Games | issue #3-1984/Feb | page 51 | - Review: 7/10 | |
| Popular Computing Weekly | issue v.2 #44-1983/Nov/3 special "week#1" | page 58 | - Review | |
| Sinclair User | issue #32-1984/Nov supplement "Top 50 Spectrum Software Classics" | page 11 | - Review | |
| Your Computer | issue v.3 #11-1983/Nov | page 67 | - Review: 4/5 |
Magazine References
Magazine Advertisements
Related Magazine Reviews
| C&VG (Computer & Video Games) | issue #43-1985/May | page 105 | - Review (Soft Aid) | |
| MicroHobby | issue #33-1985/Jun | page 22 | - Review - Nuevo (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair Programs | issue #31-1985/May | page 15 | - Review (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair User | issue #44-1985/Nov supplement "Top 50 Sinclair User Classic" | page 4 | - Review (Soft Aid) |
Related Magazine References
Related Magazine Advertisements
| Crash | issue v.1 #15-1985/Apr | page 66 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Popular Computing Weekly | issue v.4 #9-1985/Feb/28 special "week#4" | page 38 | - Advert (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair User | issue 1986 special "Annual 1986" | page 44 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair User | issue #37-1985/Apr | page 135 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair User | issue #38-1985/May | page 110 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair User | issue #39-1985/Jun | page 104 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair User | issue #41-1985/Aug | page 95 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair User | issue #42-1985/Sep | page 103 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Sinclair User | issue #43-1985/Oct | page 104 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Your Computer | issue v.5 #5-1985/May | page 131 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Your Computer | issue v.5 #6-1985/Jun | page 126 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Your Spectrum | issue #14-1985/May | page 71 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) | |
| Your Spectrum | issue #15-1985/Jun | page 63 | - Full-page ad (Soft Aid) |
Links
| Centre for Computing History | (Information - in English) | |
| MobyGames | (Information - in English) | |
| RZX Archive | (Information - in English) | |
| RZX Archive - YouTube | (Information - in English) | |
| Speccy Screenshot Maps | (Information - in English) | |
| The Tipshop | (Information - in English) | |
| UVL | (Information - in English) | |
| Wikipedia | (Information - in English) | |
| ZX Spectrum Reviews | (Magazine Reviews) | |
| Spectrum 2.0 | (User Reviews) | |
| The TZX Vault | (Software Preservation) | |
| ZX-Art | (Spectrum Graphics) | |
| ZXInfo | (ZXDB Front End) | |
| Every Game Going | (Multi-Platform Archive) | |
| New World Of Spectrum | (Spectrum Archive) | |
| Original World Of Spectrum | (Spectrum Archive) | |
| World Of Spectrum Classic | (Spectrum Archive) | |
| Spectrum Computing | (MAIN VIEW) |
