Alley Cat (x86-64 recomp)

A recompilation of Alley Cat (Bill Williams, SynSoft/IBM, 1984) from its original DOS executable for x86_64 platforms.

[!IMPORTANT] About 99% of the code is LLM-generated and only roughly reviewed. If you have concerns about AI-generated code, avoid this project.

CGA (default)	PCjr (-pcjr / Ctrl-P)

Platforms and downloads

Platform	Latest release	Package to choose
Web	1.3	Play in your browser
Windows x64	1.3	windows-x86_64 ZIP
Linux x64	1.3	linux-x86_64 archive
macOS Intel (x64)	1.3	macos-x86_64 ZIP
macOS Apple Silicon (ARM64)	1.3	macos-x86_64 ZIP — runs under Rosetta 2

The macOS build is not signed or notarized: allow it under Privacy & Security or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine <folder>.

Controls

• In the options menu, K, H, T and A (or 1 to 4) choose the skill level. The skill sets the starting difficulty; the game raises it as you complete levels.
• Use the cursor keys to move the cat and jump.
• Alt (PC) or Option (MacOS) performs special actions:
  • Room 6 (milk bowls, sleeping dogs): hold it next to a bowl to drink from it. A full bowl takes several sips, and the room has 12 bowls.
  • Room 7 (hearts cat room): drops a picked-up gift on the nearest shelf at the cat's position. A rival cat that walks into a gift takes it and stays away for a while. Each completed room adds one gift, up to 8.
• Ctrl-S: turns the sound on and off
• Ctrl-R: returns to the title screen
• Esc: pauses the game whie playing; quits the game on the title screen.

New (not in the original game):

• F10, Ctrl-W and Ctrl-Q: quits at any time
• Ctrl-L: adds a life, up to 9
• Ctrl-K: infinite lives (counter gets set to 0)
• Ctrl-I: invincibility against the dog, the cat head in the garbage cans and the rival cats in the hearts cat room; nothing is thrown from the windows
• Ctrl-P: toggles the IBM PCjr colors and the CGA colors. With -pcjr on the command line, the game starts directly with the PCjr colors.
• Alt-Enter or F11 (Cmd-Enter or Cmd-F11 on macOS): toggles fullscreen. The game starts in fullscreen by default. With --window on the command line, it starts in a window.

Building

See BUILDING.md for requirements, build steps, the source layout and how the port works.

License

Unlicense