GATO (PC/DOS) 1984, Spectrum Holobyte, inc

GATO is a real-time submarine simulator first published in 1984 by Spectrum Holobyte™ for MS-DOS. It simulates combat operations aboard the Gato-class submarine USS Growler (SS-215) in the Pacific Theater of World War II. GATO was later ported to the Apple IIe, Atari ST, and Macintosh. In 1987 Atari published a version on cartridge for the Atari 8-bit family, to coincide with the launch of the Atari XEGS.
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By: Paul Arlton, Ed Dawson
Special Thanks to Retired Captain (US Navy): Bill Graves
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[@TheRetroRaven]

Pure nostalgic. This was literally one of the first games I played. Thank you so much!

[@supermasterPIK]

I thought was Called "DUMB"

[@supermasterPIK]

At that time (1990 or so) computers were very expemnsive. In some homes there was a PC for dad´s work.

[@DLJohnsonHonourofKings]

I was a security guard in an empty building and would put a copy of this game on one of their computers while I made my rounds. I would slow it down so it took time to reach the targets. Those were the days. Thanks for the memories. 🤣

[@squarewave808]

This and Alley Cat were literally the first computer games I ever played. Remember Alley Cat?

[@karakenio]

always remember

[@evanstephen300]

Love the theme song. Took me the longest time to beat the cupid part!

[@PhiZeroth]

OMG thank you for mentioning Alley Cat! I've been going down a PC game nostalgia journey and hadn't thought of that one

[@squarewave808]

@@PhiZeroth And remember those classic “Quest” games from Sierra? The developers at Sierra were collectively responsible for many missed days of school for me.

[@horsservice4820]

Sooo immersive back then (1986 or so) that I'm still hooked watching this :)

[@Cjay2200]

I used to play that with my dad when I was younger. I was in charge of the torpedoes 😆. You know you are a gamer when this is what hooked you up!

[@zatoichisushiconnoisseur4179]

Same here. It must have been around 1989. Man, good times.

[@tomj528]

I spent MANY hours playing this awesome game on our IBM AT and then later on a clone that I bought...which I still have, somewhere. Funny how those games seemed so much better than what's available today even with the far superior graphics.

[@squarewave808]

I think it's a good example of technical limitations driving innovation in gameplay, mechanics, story, etc. I still think those 1980s Sierra adventure games are more fun than recent games.

[@winternow2242]

I think it's a video gamer's version of the "uncanny valley". When graphics are crude, people imagine the details that a more sophisticated game just gives them. It's that imagination that's a big part of what makes a game immersive.

[@tomj528]

@@winternow2242 I think you hit the nail on the head. I've noticed that with other forms of media like old radio shows and black and white movies vs. color. Several years ago my wife and I were watching an old black and white movie and as an experiment I asked her what color an actress's dress was. She looked at me like I was being silly and said "Well, yellow of course" without hesitation. Our minds had both filled in the same detail to such an extent that it was an obvious certainty.

[@Shrapnel82]

This actually looks weird in color to me. I'm so used to the black and white version.

[@ijnfleetadmiral]

I played it on a green screen. Color is weird to me also.

[@rlouie05]

When you only had 4 channels to watch and your parents couldn't afford a better PC than one with a 386 processor and a CGA screen, we still had hours of fun blowing up unsuspecting ships until one of those shipped rammed us!

[@comchia4306]

0:07 Spectrum HoloByte: bringing you games from the dark side of the moon.

[@1969EType]

We lunatics…were in the “grass”…

[@matteovrizzi]

one of the first games i ever played. i used to try and chase ships around an island until they got stuck and then pick them off

[@Psychonaut-im3zz]

Apparently there's also c64 version, and a spinoff called Sub Raiders. Best subsim.

[@winternow2242]

Played this in the late 1980s, before I got Sub Battle Simulator by Epyx. In this game, you can look and shoot directly ahead only.

[@BammerD]

Looks to be a different version than the one I had. Mine also had a radio voice giving you your mission orders.

[@winternow2242]

I find that hard to believe for a 1984 game that ran off a floppy disk. Did you play this on an Amiga?

[@BammerD]

@@winternow2242 No, Commodore 128.

[@gitboy314]

You clearly had a privileged childhood, I had an IBM PC XT clone with 4 color RGB/CGA graphics as in video.

[@JF.M.]

If I recall correctly, there was a teleport activate by ctrl+z, and the password was "pead"

[@MYOB990]

Holy hell. I remember playing this.

[@drug.3797]

I thought there was a jump right to the quadrant you wanted to go command.

[@Laurent312]

Where can i buy this gem? 🙂

[@hardanheavy]

Nowhere, as far as I know. Look for abandonware and you will find it to download though.

[@shankao]

Pink water!

[@blabblab5589]

CGA :-)

[@Hannodb1961]

That's magenta, which is a shade of purple, not pink. Pink = Red + white Purpose = Red + Blue.

[@supermasterPIK]

@@Hannodb1961Remember that CGA Graphics! Eg. test Drive.

[@Hannodb1961]

I think we had a demo version of Test Drive. Something was not quite right with it, I don't remember what, but we played it anyway.

[@holden6104]

First video game I ever played, at six years old. I had no idea wtf I was doing.

[@captainharris8980]

No monochromatic Hercules lime green display? What a rip off :)

[@BabyDiazmusic]

I played the crap out of this game alongside Starfleet hours on end

[@MARCOPLAYSDOSGAMES]

My friend...so great satisfaction!!!!

[@Hannodb1961]

I was about 9 or 10 when I played this game. It created an ever lasting love for ships in me.

[@blabblab5589]

Nice!!!! this was my second game on a DOS PC and the mother of all SUB SIMS! Nice! I still play Gato! thumbs up @Thriftweeds

[@blabblab5589]

this game ran very well with MS DOS 3.2 and 640 KB of RAM in 1990:-D (Commodore PC 10-II) thanks to DOSBox we can still play it :-).

[@ZeToOm]

Wow GATO 🥰🥰🥰 I played a lot this game on our first computer Win3.1 with CGA screen. Thanks for the video !!

[@JF.M.]

If I recall correctly there was a "teleport " activated by "ctrl+z" and the password was "pead"

[@nickpaulie]

Can't understand how to make the submarine to turn left and right

[@Melvorgazh]

I remember that game well. I used to play it a lot on my old Scheinder 086 PC

[@blabblab5589]

Suggestions: "The Seven Cities of Gold" and "Zeppelin - Giants of the Sky (1994)"

[@thriftweeds]

Seven Cities Of Gold: Commemorative Edition kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4iqaqejaMyGftU

[@blabblab5589]

nice! :-)

[@abugina]

This and Sea Dragon were my first PC games I played