Alien 3
Alien 3 for the Commodore 64, developed by probe Software and published by Virgin in 1992.
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Player's Review
“The Xenomorphs are fast, spit acid and are right behind YOU! Can’t see very far ahead in these are ducts. Hard to breath. Face huggers can be anywhere. Must find the Mother alien. The closer you get the more Aliens you find ...better not have them find you first! Just keep telling yourself, “this isn't really happening … it’s only a game!””
Here is an interesting one. Released right at the end of the Commodores 64 life cycle and by Probe/virgin no less. While I don't think port/conversion is the right word as it is its own game started from scratch, it is very much based on the other 16bit home computer and console versions of the game. All things considered it is a well made game seeing off the C64 along with titles such as Lemmings and Mayhem in Monsterland also released around this time. I never got to play it back then as I was was moving over to the Amiga to play its version of Alien3 and I believe the game was only released in limited numbers on the C64.
The game is a classical platform run and jumping game consisting of 15 levels. Find the best route around the maze like levels while rescuing all the captured prisoners before the time runs out and the chest bursters appear! The game ultimately looks and sounds great as well as playing really well. Now to the games biggest issue. The time limit!!! While you do get more time on easier settings, it ticks by at double speed. I played on hard to avoid the whole “well done, you've completed 2 levels now try on a higher difficulty” setting nonsense. Not that I have confirmed if this version of the game does this. On Hard difficulty the game becomes more of a speedrun. The time limit is so tight that you need to know the most optimal route to rescue the prisoners and escape the level while killing any aliens in sight. Do not allow them to slow you down!
The radar is mostly useless. By the time you see a dot on it, the alien has spawned and gone for you. You really do need to know where they will appear and have a grenade ready for when you know they about to appear. It's not really random and always appear in the same area. The game is presented really well and does feel like a console game. It's not going to take away the Master Systems crown of best 8-Bit version of the game but it is still a very good version of the game for the limits of the C64. After completing the game, the game glitches and the high score music doesn't play correctly. I do show the game over screen afterwards where the music plays correctly.
00:00:00 Title Screen
00:02:02 Level 1 - Mission
00:04:05 Level 2 - Mission
00:06:00 Level 3 - Guardian
00:06:28 Level 4 - Rescue
00:08:25 Level 5 - Mayhem
00:10:19 Level 6 - Rescue
00:11:41 Level 7 - Guardian
00:12:17 Level 8 - Rescue
00:14:32 Level 9 - Mission
00:16:17 Level 10 - Mission
00:18:40 Level 11 - Guardian
00:19:24 Level 12 - Mayhem
00:21:09 Level 13 - Rescue
00:22:45 Level 14- Mission
00:24:27 Level 15 - Guardian
00:25:09 Ending
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00:27:50 Game over sequence
Here is an interesting one. Released right at the end of the Commodores 64 life cycle and by Probe/virgin no less. While I don't think port/conversion is the right word as it is its own game started from scratch, it is very much based on the other 16bit home computer and console versions of the game. All things considered it is a well made game seeing off the C64 along with titles such as Lemmings and Mayhem in Monsterland also released around this time. I never got to play it back then as I was was moving over to the Amiga to play its version of Alien3 and I believe the game was only released in limited numbers on the C64.
The game is a classical platform run and jumping game consisting of 15 levels. Find the best route around the maze like levels while rescuing all the captured prisoners before the time runs out and the chest bursters appear! The game ultimately looks and sounds great as well as playing really well. Now to the games biggest issue. The time limit!!! While you do get more time on easier settings, it ticks by at double speed. I played on hard to avoid the whole “well done, you've completed 2 levels now try on a higher difficulty” setting nonsense. Not that I have confirmed if this version of the game does this. On Hard difficulty the game becomes more of a speedrun. The time limit is so tight that you need to know the most optimal route to rescue the prisoners and escape the level while killing any aliens in sight. Do not allow them to slow you down!
The radar is mostly useless. By the time you see a dot on it, the alien has spawned and gone for you. You really do need to know where they will appear and have a grenade ready for when you know they about to appear. It's not really random and always appear in the same area. The game is presented really well and does feel like a console game. It's not going to take away the Master Systems crown of best 8-Bit version of the game but it is still a very good version of the game for the limits of the C64. After completing the game, the game glitches and the high score music doesn't play correctly. I do show the game over screen afterwards where the music plays correctly.
00:00:00 Title Screen
00:02:02 Level 1 - Mission
00:04:05 Level 2 - Mission
00:06:00 Level 3 - Guardian
00:06:28 Level 4 - Rescue
00:08:25 Level 5 - Mayhem
00:10:19 Level 6 - Rescue
00:11:41 Level 7 - Guardian
00:12:17 Level 8 - Rescue
00:14:32 Level 9 - Mission
00:16:17 Level 10 - Mission
00:18:40 Level 11 - Guardian
00:19:24 Level 12 - Mayhem
00:21:09 Level 13 - Rescue
00:22:45 Level 14- Mission
00:24:27 Level 15 - Guardian
00:25:09 Ending
---------------------------------------------------
00:27:50 Game over sequence
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