Ant Attack

Ant Attack! is an action/strategy shareware game released by Dataware in 1994. In the game players need to defend their picnic baskets from the numerous, swarming ants.

Ant Attack! takes place in a 20 x 10 grid with a top down view. At the start of each level there are one or more picnic baskets, boulders, ant hills, and, of course, ants. Initially, the ants are located in only a few spaces; the ants will then begin filling additional spaces one at a time, always filling an adjacent empty space or ant hill next to a space where an ant is already located. The goal is to elminate all of the ants while protecting the picnic baskets; if all picnic baskets are lost, the level is unsuccessful and players need to start again.

Players have several tools available to help defend against the ant attack; the first is a bulldozer to demolish the ant hills. The ant hills don't block the progress of the ants, but players are unable to walk through them so they frequently need to be removed allowing the player to reach the ants or a picnic basket. The second tool is a water bucket; the ants are unable to move through water, and the bucket allows players to pour water into any open space to help control the spread of the ants. Lastly is a can of ant spray; ants in the square players spray will be killed and marked with a red skull & crossbones. Players are able to move over the red squares, however the ants can not so strategically choosing where to kill the ants first can help slow their progress. The boulders in the playfield are unmoveable and block both the players and the ants.

As the levels progress, the game becomes more difficult by having more picnic baskets to defend, more and faster ants, and varied layouts of boulders and ant hills. The shareware version of Ant Attack! features 10 levels with 100 levels available in the complete version.