Alien
Developer(s)Fox Video Games[1]
Publisher(s)Fox Video Games[1]
Designer(s)Doug Neubauer
Platform(s)Atari 2600
ReleaseNovember 1982
Genre(s)Maze[1]
Mode(s)Single-player

Alien is a 1982 maze video game for the Atari 2600 published by 20th Century Fox.[2] It is a maze game,[3][4] based on the 1979 Alien film, and was written by Doug Neubauer who is credited in the packaging as "Dallas North." Neubauer is best known for 1979's Star Raiders. Alien for the Atari 2600 is the first officially licensed game of the Alien film series.

Gameplay

The player controls a member of the human crew pursued by three aliens in the hallways of a ship. The goal is to destroy the alien eggs laid in the hallways (like the dots in Pac-Man). The player is armed with a flamethrower which can temporarily immobilize the aliens. Additionally, "pulsars" (like the power pills in Pac-Man) occasionally appear which turn the tables, allowing the human to overpower the aliens.

Development

Doug Neubauer worked as an independent contractor making film tie-in games for 20th Century Fox's new game division making games such as Mega Force, M*A*S*H and Alien. Neubauer had hoped that making several video game adaptations would lead to making a film license like Star Wars, finding that "just because a company makes a movie doesn't mean they have the rights to make a video of the movie, Case in point, Star Wars. They didn't have the rights to it."[5]

Release and reception

Alien was released for the Atari 2600 in November 1982.[6]

From contemporary reviews, The Video Game Update did not recommend the game, stating it was a "one more rehash of the eat-the-dot maze" finding the graphics to be "only fair and game play is just too much like other games already available to create much interest."[7]

From retrospective reviews, Brett Weiss in his book Classic Home Video Games 1972-1984 referred to the game as a Pac-Man clone, stating that it was "one of the best movie-based games ever released on the Atari 2600" and that it was derivative of Pac-Man and Freeway, but still "high playable."[1] Reviewing the game for the All Game Guide, Weiss added that the other drawback was the cartoonish depiction of the aliens, but that "given the graphical limitations of the system, this weakness is understandable."[8]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Weiss 2007, p. 31.
  2. ↑ "Alien (Atari 2600) – Release Summary". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-02-28.
  3. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray; Riendeau, Danielle (2014-10-03). "From Atari to Isolation: A video and written history of Alien games". Polygon. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
  4. ↑ Buffa, Christopher (2014). "Alien Evolution – From Atari 2600 to PlayStation 4". Prima Games. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  5. ↑ "Video Games' First Space Opera: Exploring Atari's Star Raiders". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on February 27, 2008. Retrieved June 16, 2023.
  6. ↑ "Availability Update". The Video Game Update. Vol. 1, no. 9. December 1982.
  7. ↑ "Atari 2600-Compatible". The Video Game Update. Vol. 1, no. 9. December 1982.
  8. ↑ Weiss.

Sources

  • Weiss, Brett Alan. "Alien". Allgame. Archived from the original on November 15, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  • Weiss, Brett (2007). Classic Home Video Games 1972-1984. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3226-4.
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