Rat Attack (PlayStation)

Rat Attack
Developer: Pure Entertainment Publisher: Mindscape Platform: PlayStation Released in US: August 31, 1999 Released in EU: October 15, 1999 This game has unused playable characters. This game has unused code. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has a hidden level select. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

Rat Attack™ was a game developed by short-lived game development studio Pure Entertainment Games and published by Mindscape. This game is semi-known for having been in development for years going through many name changes such as Rats and Cats&Rats until they eventually decided on Rat Attack. They just couldn't trademark a name like Rats. Despite this, it couldn't resist to suffer a fate of being lost in obscurity.

This game has you play as one of the Scratch Cats™ and save the world from evil mutant space rats Washington and Jefferson using the Eraticator, an invention created by Professor Rex Julius, the head of the Scratch Cats. Making matters worse, Special Agent Pearl of the Scratch Cats has been kidnapped by said space rats.

The gameplay is similar to that of an arcade game, with all the Scratch Cats having a lives counter (that maxes up to 9 lives). If you lose all your lives and game over, you can input your high score and name into the game.

16 years later, an unofficially official spiritual successor to Rat Attack called MagNets was released on Steam and Xbox One in 2015 with some of the staff (including Scratch Cats artist Phil Corbett) returning. They didn't own the IP anymore, so they had to start off from scratch (get it?) and make the same game with a different setting and characters.

This game also has a Nintendo 64 port that is for some reason extremely expensive online for a game that had been forgotten by the world after its release.

To do: If there's anything of note, document some source code garb.

Sub-Pages

To do: Document the Digital Press Kit and some more info in a Development subpage.

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Atomicat

All the files for Atomicat, a character in the Nintendo 64 version (a re-skin of Banubis with Hai Jinx's special), have been left in the game. However, no code to load them without switching the files around remains.

Text relating to them also exists, scattered in ENGLISH.PAK:

ATOMICAT WINS!!
ATOMICAT'S OUT!!
ATOMICAT

As they go completely unused in both versions of the game, the files for Atomicat were removed in the PC port.

Placeholder Character Screen

If the value of the character at the selection screen is 256, this image will be displayed. Other values for unused characters will cause the game to lock up instead.

To do: Either re-record this without reverb, or rip the sound effect from the raw game.

Selecting this character also plays this sound, which sounds like someone saying 'elementary':

Unused Text

In addition to Atomicat's text, the following is repeated a few times:

PARKY TEST

Parky here is referring to the nickname of programmer Simon Parkinson as can be mentioned in the game's source.

At the end of the level text:

BAD MESSAGE

A bit further down is possible remnants of when Professor Julius was once considered a playable Scratch Cat:

PROFESSOR JULIUS WINS!!

Unused text for Robinson, Bob Cat’s real name.

ROBINSON WINS!!

Just beneath that is a losing line for Professor Julius.

JULIUS LOSES!!

And in RATATTAK.EXE, at offset 0xxBA744 and next to the other languages is a placeholder for a separate text file for the US:

YANKEE

Secret Music

The CD for Rat Attack has 2 tracks. As usual, Track 1 is all of the game data. Inserting the game's disc into a CD player and setting it to Track 2 will play this music. It's purpose is unknown, and it does not exist anywhere within Track 1 (which also stores the rest of the game's music).

Build Date

07/19/99

Level Select

To do: Please rephrase this. Is this related to the PC port?

Type in the name wholetthecatsout at the new save screen.