Alien Atari 2600 Review
My copy of Alien
It’s September 20th, 2019. Do not storm Area 51. I repeat, do not storm Area 51. Do not go to a rave. Instead, it would be much more fun to pull out your copy of Alien for the Atari 2600 and take out your frustrations on the Aliens waiting for you there. Use your flame thrower and collect up to three pulsars per map to evaporate the alien scum awaiting you.
If you put this cartridge in with the expectation that you would be playing as Sigourney Weaver fighting off an alien invasion, then boy will you be disappointed. This game does feature aliens that can be repelled with a flame thrower as well as other elements from the movie. This is the first licensed “Alien” video game based on the 1979 movie.
According to a 2017 slashfilm.com article, there are a total of 18 notable video games based on the “Alien” movie franchise, the most current of which is “Aliens vs Pinball” available on most consoles and phones. I realize this article is from a few years ago and since then about a half dozen more video games have been released with still even more planned for future releases. The Alien franchise has crossed over not only into video games, but into many other areas as well. There are literally dozens of comics, books, board games, and movies inspired by the 1979 classic.
Now, If you throw this video game cartridge in with the expectation that you are going to be playing a Pac-Man clone, then you will be in for a nice treat, because that is exactly what this is, with a few tweaks of course.
Multi-colored Alien crabs, look out…
Alien is an unabashed clone of the smash-hit arcade game Pac-Man. It was developed by Doug Neubauer using the pseudonym “Dallas North”. From the moment you insert the cartridge and are presented with the title screen, you know this is a Pac-Man clone. Once the game begins, the background siren from Pac-Man is playing. It’s too bad that Atari didn’t use this background sound for the Atari 2600 port of the game, since it is spot on the arcade. Alien is a single-player game. In it you play as a human running around through a maze, your mission, to crush all the alien eggs that have been left there.
OMG Aliens are all blue, can now be destroyed…
You can see that even though this was an Atari 2600 game, the programmers made the eggs appear as dots rather than wafers, this, in my understanding was not easy to do. In fact, this has been so difficult, that I don’t believe any other Pac-Man style game or clone has done this. The dots are not uniformly placed but are staggered slightly at different vertical positions so as to not form a straight line when viewed horizontally. This is hardly noticeable, but even if you do notice this, it is not that distracting.
There are three alien monsters to avoid in this game. They are colored green, yellow, and pink. Your character is a human being, not a round Pac-Man. He can shoot a flame, either to the left or to the right, which if used properly, will temporarily scare off the aliens. You have four seconds of flame per map. If you use the flame on a pulsar you can move through it without picking it up, allowing you to save the Pulsar to use at a later time. This is the only Pac-Man style game in which Pac-Man carries around a defensive weapon. The alien monsters look like traveling crabs trying to eat you. You have the ability to kill or consume them by finding and collecting the pulsars. There are three pulsars on the map but only one appears at a time. Collecting a pulsar will turn the aliens blue allowing you to destroy them. Doing this will send them back to their base at the bottom center, giving you more time to smash alien eggs. There can be up to three “prizes” that randomly appear in the center of each map. There is a warp tunnel on the left and right sides of the map which will warp your character to the other side. This will help you to avoid the aliens.
Once you completely clear the map, you are presented with a mini-game, much like the Atari 2600 game Freeway, where you must travel from the bottom of the screen to the top, avoiding obstacles, without any horizontal movement. This must be accomplished within eight seconds. Successfully doing so will grant you a nice reward. Failure to do so will simply mean you do not get the reward. You do not lose a life during the bonus round. The game alternates between egg smashing maps and the bonus rounds until you lose all your lives, ending the game, a great way to break up the monotony. Your score and your lives remaining are displayed on the bottom left portion of the screen.
Bonus round. Let’s play Alien Freeway…
Scoring
According to the manual:
Each time an Alien catches you, one Human is lost. You score points for smashing Eggs and frying Aliens with the aid of your Flame Thrower or Pulsar.
Collecting eggs grants you 10 points each. The Pulsar is worth 100 points. Consuming your first alien, 500 points, 2nd 1,000 points, and the third alien is worth 2,000 points. You are awarded one point for clearing the map. There are prizes which appear in the center of each map, collecting them will reward you with bonus points, ranging from 500 all the way up to 5,000 points.
Graphics
Overall the graphics in this game are pretty good as compared to other Pac-Man style games. It uses dots instead of ‘wafers’. The human is animated. The pulsars are animated. The alien’s animation probably could use a little improvement. The alien eggs appear to randomly change colors. They seem to match the color of the Aliens as they step over them. As far as I know, this is the only Atari Pac-Man clone style game in which the dots change colors during gameplay. At that 8-bit size, how do you pull off a scary-looking alien? I guess a crab look-a-like will do. The designers even included a decent attract mode in which the Aliens randomly move around the map.
Sound
The sound effects are also quite nice but rely heavily on copying the arcade sounds of Pac-Man. The background siren is present. There is a sound for smashing eggs. There is a sound for capturing a pulsar, which I find to be the most annoying. There is a sound for destroying an alien. There is a sound for dying, a sound for collecting a bonus, and for going through the horizontal warp tunnel. Overall the sound effects are quite nice. Having a background siren is a huge plus, and Alien is one of the first Atari 2600 Pac-Man clones to include this effect.
Game Sounds:
Background Siren
Collecting bonus
Destroy Monster
Dying
Pulsar
Smashing Eggs
Warp Tunnel
Difficulty
With the left difficulty switch set to “A” the aliens randomly move around the map. With it set to “B” the aliens move in fixed patterns. With the right difficulty switch on “B”, the pulsars will turn the aliens blue. In position “A” the pulsars are disabled.
In general, the difficulty ramps up a little for each level you clear.
Game Variations
There are a total of four game variations, each one affecting the difficulty level of play and the number of humans you start with. In-game variation one you start with three humans and receive a bonus human after clearing the second screen.
Game variation two is considered advanced gameplay. You begin with two humans and receive no bonus humans.
Variation three is for experts only. You begin with three humans and receive no bonus humans after clearing the first screen.
In variation four, “Easy mode”, you start with six humans and receive one bonus human after clearing the first screen.
Bugs
The only obvious bug I noticed had to do with the sound effects. Sometimes when killing or consuming an alien, the sound effect does not play, I believe this may be due to the other sounds currently playing.
World Record:
For the purposes of the Twin Galaxies world record, it appears they used “game 1 with the difficulty switches both set to “B”. Right difficulty set to “B” means pulsars are not disabled. Left difficulty set to “B” means the aliens travel in fixed patterns around the screen. The current world record holder is listed as Mark Feldt at 251,916.
https://www.twingalaxies.com/game/alien/atari-2600-vcs/ntsc-game-1-difficulty-bb-points/page/1?ref=fbshare
Podcasts:
Alien was covered in Episode 81 of the Atari 2600 Game by Game podcast.
Conclusion
Alien for the Atari 2600 was produced by Fox video games and is a fun Pac-Man clone. I really wish I had played this game back in 1982 when it was first released. Instead, I wore out my joystick playing the original Atari 2600 Pac-Man. Alien is definitely a better version of Pac-Man than was Atari 2600 Pac-Man. Once you understand this is a Pac-Man clone with Alien themes built-in you can get quite a kick out of it. Highly recommended.
Now, stay Away from Area 51, go back home and play Alien for the Atari 2600. It’s the absolute best place to get your alien fix.
*****
Youtube Original Post Date: 09/20/2019
