The first World War II submarine simulation ever made for the PC, GATO was a true pioneer in this niche genre, an ambitious sim that features a lot of realistic instruments and weapons. As the submarine history page at Subsim.
com describes it: "This was the first sub simulator for a personal computer. The graphics were very limited, CGA with stick figures for ships, of which there were five enemy types. Although it simulated GATO class subs, there were only four bow torpedo tubes available.
All functions were generated by the keyboard (mouse? what's a mouse?). The mission area was very limited--a group of islands in the Pacific, which was subdivided into 20 "quadrants". You pressed the "M" key for new missions and they were transmitted by Morse code. You were instructed to keep in mind "the enemy may break Allied code at some point. Some messages may be enemy fakes designed to trap you." How's that for early efforts at realism?
Resource management was one of the game's subtler features. Your primary strategic objective was to complete as many missions as possible with the supplies you carry before returning to the quadrant where your subtender waits.
Gato was the Pong of submarine simulations. When the first players encountered Gato, you can imagine they thought it was pretty significant. They had to start somewhere."
True enough. Primitive, but honorable for the pioneer that it was.
Review By HOTUD
English 
Comments and reviews
Found this game while working in the Personnel Department at the Kool-Aid Plant in Chicago in 1985.
Loved the switch to spreadsheet function even though I did not need it.
I used to absolutely love this game, and I still do. I wish I still had my copy that was on a 5 1/4 double sided floppy disk. Which version do I download to play?
I spend countless hours with this game when I was 8 years old. It's very good
the bat, it shows that it takes its inspirations seriously. It has all the right elements of a proper (modern) crawler. Grid-based movement, fantasy setting, party of four adventurers, real-time combat, and rats. Lots of rats. The map is large and you can satisfy yourself with filling in all the gaps on the automap as you explore. So as for the automap and other UI features, like level progression, and the inventory are very similar to Legend of Grimrock, and that is a good thing. However as you progress through the 2 hours or so of the demo you will begin to notice the diversions from this modern classic.
Sorry, Ctrl F12 speeds it up... Ctrl F11 slows it down...
To slow down the CPU speed/game press Ctrl - FN - F12 (or Ctrl - F12) repeatedly. Hitting 5 centers rudder and dive plane.
My father's cousin have this weird computar, and then he said to my older brother, come and see if you can manage to handle this game. There it was. GATO. I had a terrific memory installed on my brain. Cheers!
The 5 key centers the rudder and dive.
And how do you centre the rudder? Left and Right arrows continually rotate direction.
So how can I slow Gato down on Windows 7? I am using D-Fend Reloaded.
My First PC game on DOS 2.11!
Great! THX very much!!!
Anyone figured out how to center rudder / dive plane?
This is the game that hooked me on PCs. My brother worked at a Radio Shack, and the manager let me bring the game in and play on the demo computers. Paid off for him, as I purchased a Tandy 3000 from them. This game, and MS FlightSim were the bleeding edge of simulators back in the day.
Quick-reference for keys :
*** Function keys :
F1 : Full speed
F3 :
F5 : Moderate speed
F7 :
F9 : Stop
F10 : Reverse
F2 : Periscope up
F4 : Periscope down
F6 : Radar
F8 : FIRE
*** Other commands :
F : Forward view
P : Left view
A : Rear view
S : Right view
L : ( Log ) list of sunken ships
M : ( Mission ) Start a new mission
R : ( Report ) Damage report
C : General map
Q : Map of the current quadrant
T : ( Torpedoes ) Open & Close torpedo doors
D : ( Diesel ) Only if Depth
It is the first subsim game in the world!!
Does anybody have the quick-reference for what keystrokes do what? email me at jwf at rocketmail dot com.
When I found the game here, I immideately remembered it. One of my first games! I can`t believe it! So happy! :-)
i love this game
mad
Came here to get f-19 - but then I remembered the OTHER love of my life! Found it, found it, FOUND IT ! ! ! YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!
Found it at last!!!! I just can't beleive it! You can't imagine how many memories and flash backs this little great game brings to me. 27 years ago when I was a college student I used to spend many hours in the computer lab (full of Tandys and Comodore) amazed by what at that moment was the most advanced game ever. Can't wait to download.
Thanks a lot!!!
i love submarine simulations.
Love this game.
Great game!
This Game Rocks!
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.