Aliens is a lesson in how a film licence could turn out. James Cameron’s sequel to Alien reached British cinemas in 1986, and two quite different games were made from it. In Britain, Electric Dreams published a game in which the player never walks the corridors but watches them through the helmet cameras of Ripley’s team, switching from one to another as the aliens close in. “The only way to play this is late at night with all the lights off,” one CRASH reviewer advised. In America, Activision made a game that retold the film in six separate scenes. Both reached the Spectrum under the same name, and CRASH scored them 84% and 45%.
Fast facts
- The British game: designed by Mark Eyles, programmed by Pennsoft and Soft Machine, published by Electric Dreams at £9.99. Reviewed on the ZX Spectrum by CRASH in February 1987: 84%.
- The American game: by Steve Cartwright, Glyn Anderson, Peter Kaminski and Gene Smith for Activision. Released on the Spectrum by Electric Dreams as Aliens (US Version), £9.99, and reviewed by CRASH in December 1987: 45%.
- Publisher: Electric Dreams, which CRASH described as “an offshoot of Activision”, launched by Rod Cousens.
The British game
Mark Eyles had designed Electric Dreams’ earlier film game, Back to the Future. Sinclair User profiled him in December 1986, when Aliens was among his current projects, and printed his original storyboard for the game’s main screen. He told the magazine that Back to the Future “was a bit of a rush. We knocked it out in about two months flat.”
In Aliens the player sits in the Mobile Tactical Operations Bay and commands six characters from the film: Ripley, Gorman, Hicks, Vasquez, Burke and the android Bishop. The main display shows the view from the camera on the helmet of whichever character is under control, and moves with the sights of the character’s Smart Gun. A panel for each character tracks their stamina and turns yellow when an alien finds them. A character can be sent up to nine rooms in one direction and left to walk there while the player takes charge of someone else. If a team member meets an alien, the player has to switch to them fast, find the alien on the screen and shoot it before it rushes the camera and the picture goes dead. Pools of acid blood block corridors, and aliens can carry a character off. The aim is to reach the room where the Alien Queen lays her eggs. The complex has 255 rooms.
CRASH scored it 84%. Ben called it “the best game-of-the-film to date” and said it had “captured the spirit of the movie”: faced with an alien, he “actually started to sweat”. Paul had expected it to be “a bit tacky” and was “really amazed”. The third reviewer thought it could have been more atmospheric, while granting that this was “a somewhat difficult proposition on the Spectrum”.
The American game
Activision’s game, written in the United States, took a wider view of the film. CRASH counted six parts. It opens with the dropship’s descent to the planet, steered along a tunnel, then moves to the marines fighting their way out of the atmosphere processor, each tracked on his own screen. Later sections send Ripley after the girl Newt, with 17 minutes before the processor explodes.
When Electric Dreams released it on the Spectrum in late 1987, CRASH gave it 45%. Its reviewers thought it had more of the film’s story, but that the British game’s graphics came closer to the film. One found the flashing screen of the first level brought “eyestrain and headaches”. In 1990 the game came back on the Alternative budget label at £2.99, and Your Sinclair called it “splattering good fun”, while dismissing the British game as “a more than averagely tedious rushabout”.
In the readers’ chart
CRASH‘s Hotline chart was built from readers’ votes, not sales (see Reading the charts). The British Aliens entered it at number 22 in March 1987 and came and went over the following months. Its best position was number 13, in October 1987.
The same title appears in CRASH again in 1988, higher up. From June 1988 the magazine also ran a Video Top 10 of films, and the film of Aliens, on CBS/Fox video, was number 2 behind Platoon in August 1988. That chart has nothing to do with the game.
Sources
- CRASH issue 37, February 1987, pp. 17–18: review of the Electric Dreams game (Electric Dreams, £9.99, Pennsoft and Soft Machine, Mark Eyles; the MTOB, the helmet cameras, the six characters, 255 screens; the reviewers’ comments; 84% overall).
- Sinclair User issue 57, December 1986: profile of Mark Eyles, with his storyboard for Aliens; news item on film licences (“Aliens and Labyrinth have been snapped up by Electric Dreams and Activision”).
- CRASH issue 46, November 1987: retrospective, “Rod Cousens’s Electric Dreams was an offshoot of Activision”.
- CRASH issue 47, December 1987, pp. 13–14: review of Aliens (US Version) (Electric Dreams, £9.99; Steve Cartwright, Glyn Anderson, Peter Kaminski and Gene Smith; the six parts; the reviewers’ comments).
- CRASH issue 81, October 1990: index of reviews (Aliens, 84%, issue 37; Aliens U S Version, 45%, issue 47).
- Your Sinclair issue 52, April 1990: budget review of Aliens US Version (Alternative, £2.99).
- CRASH Hotline charts: issue 38, March 1987 (22); issue 45, October 1987 (13). Video Top 10: issue 53, June 1988 (first chart); issue 55, August 1988 (Platoon 1, Aliens 2).