Alien 8

Ultimate, 1984

Written by Chris Owen, HTML'd by Arnt Gulbrandsen.

Controls

Keyboard, Kempston, Cursor

Aim of the game

As Maintenence Droid 8, you are aboard a starship which is slowing for its long-awaited rendezvous. Unfortunately, the ship has been invaded by a group of rather unpleasant aliens which have deactivated the timer circuits in the cryogenic chambers, leaving the ship's crew still frozen. It's your job to reconnect the timers before the ship gets to its destination.

Game play

The timer circuits appear as geometric shapes with plugs on the end, scattered around the spaceship's 129 rooms. A cryogenic chamber has only one socket, each of which demands a specific type of plug - you must work out which type of plug goes with which type of socket. As well as this, you must overcome the other hazards - the aliens, the moving and dissolving blocks, and the ship's auto-defences, which include mines, vicious spikes and lethally-charged pyramids... The mines can be cleared by using a multi-directional robot, controlled by standing on a compass pad in the mined room, which can be used to blow them up.

Comments

"Compelling and exciting to play ... poses many strategic and thinking problems as well as arcade action."

Rating

95% (CRASH #15, April 1985)

Now

Graphically speaking, Alien 8 is probably the finest of Ultimate's isometric 3D games. It wasn't as great a landmark as its predecessor, KNIGHT LORE, but it is a much more polished game. Still a challenging and enjoyable game!

Keys

Left         - Z, C, B, M
Right        - X, V, N
Forward      - A to L
Jump         - Q to P
Pick up/drop - 1 to 0
Pause        - CAPS/SHFT, SPACE

Nettverksgruppa, 5/10-94, sinclair@nvg.ntnu.no