''Katakis'' is a

horizontally scrolling shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of character mo ...

developed for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...

Rainbow Arts Rainbow Arts Software GmbH was a German video game publisher based in Gütersloh. The company was founded in 1984 by Marc Ullrich and Thomas Meiertoberens and acquired by Rushware in 1986. The company's decline began in the early 1990s: The dis ...

in 1987, and converted to the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Factor 5 Factor 5 GmbH was a German-American Independent business, independent software and video game developer. The company was co-founded by five former Rainbow Arts employees in 1987 in Cologne, Germany, which served as the inspiration behind the st ...

in 1988. It was re-released as ''Denaris'' in 1989. The name Katakis has a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

origin and was found in a phone book in

Gütersloh Gütersloh () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, in the region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe and the administrative region of Detmold (administrative region), Detmold. Gütersloh is the administrative centre for a Gütersloh (distric ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The name Denaris was created by a random name generator, and by coincidence, matches a Greek name as well.Katakis on C64-Wiki
/ref>

Plot

The game takes place on the planet Katakis, a human colony in deep space. There, scientists developed machinery with advanced

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

capabilities. However, the machines eventually evolved beyond the control of their human creators and overtook the planet. The humans attempted to retaliate through the use of nuclear ballistic missiles, but the machines survived. The colonists' remaining plan is to use a series of DS-H75 Eagle Fighter space gliders to attack the machines and retake the planet.

Gameplay

Katakis has a very similar theme as the game ''

R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and released by Irem in 1987 and the first game in the ''R-Type'' series. The player controls a star ship, the R-9 "Arrowhead", in its efforts to destroy the Bydo, a powerful a ...

'', with multiple levels, power-ups and various end-bosses. Players must eliminate enemy opponents to reach various end-bosses. One major innovation is the fact that the two-player mode features the second player controlling the Force module. This creates an unusual play strategy of the attacker and the defender, since the main ship is vulnerable to enemy fire and hazards.

Controversy

Due to the game's obvious similarity to ''R-Type'', rights holder Activision Europe delivered an ultimatum: either Factor 5 accept a contract to perform the official R-Type conversion for the

home computer, or receive a lawsuit for rights infringement. According to Julian Eggebrecht, this was because "Activision couldn't find any programmers" but the opportunity was "a dream come true".

Legacy

Factor 5 released the Amiga version of ''Katakis'' as freeware as follows: In ''

Turrican II ''Turrican II: The Final Fight'' is the second game of the ''Turrican'' series. The game, developed by Factor 5 was released in 1991 for the Amiga, Commodore Amiga. This version was finished before the Commodore 64, C64 version, but Manfred Trenz ...

'' (also designed by

Manfred Trenz Manfred Trenz (born 29 November 1965 in Saarbrücken) is a German video game developer. He is the developer of the ''Turrican'' video game series as well as the Commodore 64 version of the game ''R-Type is a horizontally scrolling shoo ...

) there are references to the

version of Katakis. At the end of level 2-2, the main character takes off in a fighter resembling the one from Katakis. During the take-off sequence, the fighter's drone pod can also briefly be seen, hanging from the ceiling. From that point, and for the whole world 3 duration, the game turns from a platform shooter to a scrolling shooter. There is also an easter egg: before level 3-2's end boss, a Katakis bonus container ship appears. If shot down, it reveals a "question mark" (?) bonus (unique in the whole Turrican II game map) that, if picked up, makes a helicopter walker robot appear, towing a banner with "KATAKIS LIVES!!!" written on it. The

Super NES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania a ...

video game '' Super Turrican'' is also set on a planet called Katakis. Turrican II also shares numerous graphical assets with Katakis, such as the

H. R. Giger Hans Ruedi Giger ( ; ; 5 February 1940 – 12 May 2014) was a Swiss artist best known for his airbrushed images that blended human physiques with machines, an art style known as " biomechanical". He was part of the special effects team that won ...

inspired backgrounds in both game's final levels.

References

{{reflist

External links

Katakis Info
an
Denaris Info
a
Amiga Hall of Light

Katakis Free Download
from

1987 video games Amiga games Cancelled ZX Spectrum games Commodore 64 games Factor 5 games Horizontally scrolling shooters IOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games Rainbow Arts games Science fiction video games Video game clones Video games developed in Germany Video games scored by Chris Huelsbeck Video games set on fictional planets