Year & Price 1985 - £5.95 Publisher Ultimate Graphics Sound Gameplay

"Alien8" (Ultimate)

Description:
Another hit from the Ultimate team. Alien8 is a 3D Adventure with connecting rooms angled at 45 degrees. This type of layout and gameplay saw many similar reincarnations such as Hydrofool, Sweevo's World and Fairlight- and others not so worthy of mention. You control a robot 'Alien8' throughout the screens and pass obstacles to perform tricky tasks and maneuvers in order to finally accomplish your goal and complete the the game.

The colours are fair as most of the screens are monocolour, but the graphics are neatly designed and fit perfectly with the general theme. Sound is also lacking though and is minimal throughout.

Object:

Vitals   Publisher Ultimate Year 1984 19851986 Author Tim & Chris Stamper Model Spectrum 48k/128k Format Platform Price £5.95 Controls Keyboard, Joystick Tips & More No. of Players Up to one player Graphics Sound Game-Play Overall

Certain rooms must be 'activated' by a corresponding object- find the object and active the room. This in turn will release the captives and complete the game. As with many of the releases that sounded this simple, this was no walk in the park- and many maps appeared shortly after its release in order to help those who were less fortunate and found themselves in diffs after hours of hair wrenching frustration!

Articles:
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History:
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Criticism:
There are quite literally hundreds - if not over a thousand- of this type of 3D room game that were extremely popular at the time. I believe they are an acquired taste, however Alien8 was another smash hit for the publisher.

Sound is fair, and the graphics are excellent. Gameplay is ok, but gamespeed noticeable grinds almost to a halt when you enter a room with much activity - this greatly impairs the playability and feel of the adventure in some rooms and perhaps could have been sacrificed in favour for consistent action. But, spilt milk and all that..

Sound & Graphics:
Update to follow shortly..