Desert Rats (1985)

Desert Rats is a war strategy game released in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum 48K/128K. The title was published by CCS, designed by Robert T. Smith, and featured cover art by John Berry.

The game focuses on the North African campaign and supports up to two players. It features multi-directional scrolling and offers control options via Kempston joystick, Interface 2, or cursor keys.

In addition to the ZX Spectrum, the game was released for the Amstrad CPC. It was also included as a bonus title in the big box release of Vulcan by CCS.

The game received critical acclaim with an average magazine score of 94.70%. It earned several accolades, including a Crash Smash from Crash magazine, a Sinclair User Classic award, and a ZX Computing Globert.

The game became known in the Soviet Union through reviews and strategy tips published in ZX-Ревю. It saw multiple TR-DOS releases from groups such as THD and Black Eagle, alongside various cracked cassette versions.