''Tomcat Alley'' is an

interactive movie Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term "interactivity", but ...

FMV

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by

The Code Monkeys The Code Monkeys Limited was a British video game developer based in Dewsbury, England, and founded in February 1988 by Colin Hogg, Mark Kirkby and Elliot Gay. It was known for porting video games to various platforms. In February 2011, share ...

for

Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...

. It was the first Sega CD game to feature extensive full screen, full motion video.Tomcat Alley on MobyGames
/ref> It was later released, with higher quality video, for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

-based PCs. A 32X version was also in development, but never released.

Storyline

The player controls a

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

pilot who has to bring peace and stability to the world after the cash-poor former

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

sold off some of its military equipment to an unfriendly government. The game takes place in a full screen, full motion video, first-person perspective, and the player has to move quickly to launch missiles at enemy aircraft.

Critical reception

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' named ''Tomcat Alley'' the best Sega CD game at the 1994

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

, commenting, "The demo at CES was stunning. It still had that grainy Sega CD look and feel, but you actually felt like you were flying inside the Tomcat." They later reviewed the game and gave it a perfect score, stating: "''Tomcat Alley'' uses actors, sets, and outstanding aerial footage to create a breathtaking aerial battlefield." ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...

'' gave the game a largely negative review: "Aaargh, another full-motion video game! If you've played ''

Night Trap ''Night Trap'' is a 1992 interactive movie developed by Digital Pictures and published by Sega for the Sega CD. Presented primarily through full-motion video (FMV), ''Night Trap'' has the player observe teenage girls having a sleepover visitin ...

'' or '' Double Switch'', then you've played Tomcat Alley. ... the video svery blocky and often hard to see". In a retrospective review, Christopher Baker of

Allgame RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the Alternative Investment Market, ...

gave the game a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. He noted the phrases and scenes are not as repetitive compared to other Sega CD games and praised the gameplay being fun and praised the game's challenging difficulty without being too frustrating. In 1995,

Flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications in physics. For transport phe ...

magazine ranked the game 81st on their Top 100 Video Games summarizing: "A full-motion video game that doesn’t suck, thanks to decent interactivity, semi randomized gameplay, and the hot pilot babe."

References

{{reflist

External links

''Tomcat Alley''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controlle ...

1994 video games Cancelled Sega 32X games The Code Monkeys games Full motion video based games Interactive movie video games Sega CD games Sega video games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games