The Amstrad version of Batty was written by Mark Crane and first published by Hit-Pak in 1987. My initial thoughts were that it was poor, in comparison to the Spectrum and C64 versions, but extended play did convince me that it was better than first impressions led me to believe.

I don’t know what happened with the Amstrad port of Batty, but I can guess that it was released without being properly finished. One example of this is at the very start of the game – when the ball first releases. In the other versions of Batty the ball stays on your bat for a few seconds, while you decide where to launch from, then you press fire to launch the ball. In this version the ball releases instantly and there is no warning.

Graphically, Batty on the Amstrad is not bad. The title screen is sparse and contains grammatical errors, but the in-game screens are nice and wide, and at least are colourful. It’s a pity the blue background doesn’t change over the course of the game’s 15 levels, though.

Gameplay-wise: the Amstrad version of Batty seems to suffer the most from only having digital controls. There were numerous occasions where I could not reach the ball in time using the keyboard or joystick. The bat movement is okay. It’s a little slow, with no ability to increase the speed like in the other versions. There is no support for use of a mouse, only keyboard or joystick.

Batty on the Amstrad is an okay game overall, but I think it comes third in comparison to the Spectrum and C64 versions.

More: Batty on Wikipedia