KATAKIS

THE COMMODORE 64 WAS HOST TO MANY A GREAT SHMUP, SCROLLING IN ALL DIRECTIONS. ONE OF THE MORE NOTABLE EXAMPLES WAS RAINBOW ARTS' KATAKIS AND IT WAS NOT ONLY FAMOUS FOR ITS HIGH QUALITY BUT ALSO FOR ITS HIGHLY EXTRAORDINARY DEVELOPMENT STORY 

- PAUL KAUTZ

Every C64 owner knows Manfred Trenz: the father of Turrican, one of the best-known shooters on the C64. But before Turrican there was Katakis – and before Katakis there was the German computer magazine 64’er which hosted an animation competition in its June 1986 issue. The then 20-year-old Manfred had already had his first contact with 8-bit computers two years prior and was immediately captivated by them, whereupon he taught himself BASIC and Assembler programming. At the same time, he was also a talented graphic artist who had a lot of fun with the popular painting program Koala Painter. Putting all of that together resulted in Megamove II: a huge starship moving across a shiny starfield. This competition was concluded in issue 11, Manfred’s animation left him in third place, securing accolades and prize money of DM 100 (about 90 of today’s pounds). Much more important though was that this animation and the subsequently published pictures of his in the popular mag attracted the attention of German game studio Rainbow Arts who hired him as a graphics artist. The first projects to which he contributed his pixels were Street Gang, In 80 Days Around The World and The Great Giana Sisters (all released in 1987).

The other important player in the making of