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B.A.T. (expanded: Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters) is a futuristic point and click adventure game with some role-playing video game elements. It was released in 1989 and available on several home computer platforms. It was developed by Computer's Dream and published by Ubisoft. A sequel, B.A.T. II – The Koshan Conspiracy, was released in 1992.

The Atari ST version was notable in the fact that it shipped with a dongle purporting to be a 16-channel sound card. This was required to play the game, but resulted in no sound being transmitted to the attached monitor or television, and to get any sound at all the user was forced to either play the game wearing headphones plugged into the dongle, or purchase external speakers. It is also dubious whether the dongle produced higher quality sound, since the music did not feature any more channels than regular sound-chip music.

The card actually contained a 12-bit DAC, giving the dynamic range for 16 simultaneous 8-bits samples at the expense of the CPU given the lack of DMA. The game audio itself only used up to 4 simultaneous samples.

Computer Gaming World praised the NPCs and graphics of the Amiga version of B.A.T., but criticized the combat, puzzles, user interface, and arcade sequences. The magazine advised traditional RPG fans to avoid the game.

Title B.A.T. , Bureau of Astral Troubleshooters
Game Type Adventure
Company Ubi-Soft
Released 1990
Players 1
HD Installable Yes (With Patch)
Compatibility OCS/ECS (All With Patch)
Submission Nick Scott (HP_Lovecraft@hotmail.com)

Review
BAT is a graphical Adventure game. It was released with a bit of fanfare
for its cyber-punk styling, which was at its peak in 1990. At first
glance, it appears to function similarly to the many Sierra games like
Kings Quest. The game consists of a series of static screens of your
surroundings, and you click on certain items to do certain tasks. (ie,
click on a telephone to make a call). But the game is much more dynamic
than that. The static screens are arranged like pages of a comic, where it
might contain 2-4 sets of frames.

The premise is pretty interesting. You are a cyborg secret agent in the
distant future, working on a distant planet for an organization called
BAT. (Apparently the space version of the FBI). The game starts out with
you meeting another secret agent in the bathroom of a filthy
train-station, and learning that you need to apprehend a mad scientist,
recently escaped from prison.

From this start, the game becomes your standard detective story. You
travel around the city, going to a variety of places, talking to people,
and getting info. You eat, sleep, dance, etc. Each static screen is
beautifully done, and the sound/music is great. You can easily spend hours
just wandering around the city, enjoying the highly addictive music.

Gameplay is fantastic. The city is huge, and the characters you come in
contact with are fairly complex. They will talk to you, but you will
usually need to bribe them to get useful info, but you can also try and
pickpocket them for useful items, like access cards.

BAT also contains 2 special features that set this game apart from other
Sierra-style adventure games: The BOB and DRAG.

The BOB is a computer that is implanted in your arm. You can program it do
automate certain tasks using a primitive programming language. For
example, both the robots and aliens you come in contact with speak a
language you don't understand. However, you have a translator that you can
adjust when you meet them. You can program the BOB to do things
automatically like this "IF ROBOT TRANSLATE ROBOT END IF IF ALIEN
TRANSLATE ALIEN END IF RESTART END". You can build up large programs that
do a variety of tasks. Most of the tasks relate to the fact that you are a
cyborg, and need the computer to regulate your temp, heart rate, and a
whole set of other factors. Pretty interesting.

The DRAG is a pretty good 3D-flight simulator. At one point during the
game, you know where the scientist is, so you use the DRAG (some sort of
airplane) to fly there. It's a small part of the game, yet the graphics
are pretty good. The only complaint is the plane is controlled via the
mouse, which is awkward, but the entire game is mouse driven, so its
understandable.

After you kill the scientist, the game ends, but you are still free to
explore the city, and continue to interact with characters. Overall, BAT
is a great game. The gameplay and style are excellent. Graphics and audio
are all top-notch. The static-screens will bother some people, but the
comic-book atmosphere makes it appealing. The only complaint is it's easy
to get stuck because you have not completed a certain task. (A common
place to get stuck is when you need to pickpocket a certain guy to get his
pass). This is the one aspect of Sierra-style games I do not like. You
literally have to click on every part of the screen to see if it "does
something", and usefull to the game. Fortunately, unlike Sierra-style
games, BAT has the nice feature where a "question mark" pops up above your
pointer to let you know there is something you need to get done in order
for the game to proceed.