Game #65 : The Alien (1983)

[Avalon Hill, Apple II]

In space, no one will hear you rip-off licenses.

In 1982, someone at Avalon Hill had a vision. They imagined a world where licenses would not exist, where anyone could just plunder everyone’s else idea. This endearing vision produced, in early 1983, The Alien, a game that managed to rip-off two creations at the same time : 20th Century Fox’s “Alien“, but also a 1980 board game called “Intruder” by Task Force Games, itself inspired by Alien, but Task Forces Games presumably had a legal advisor and thus called its game “Intruder“, and not “Alien“. In a nutshell, The Alien is an unauthorized port of Intruder, using art, names and design additions directly from Alien.

After the Warp Factor, this is (at least) the second time Task Force Games was copied by video game developers. Task Force Games had fought SSI, and while I could not find any paper trail, in 1985 the Alien mysteriously disappeared from the Avalon Hill catalogue, even though at that point in time it still included almost all of their 1980 releases – so someone must have complained.

As you can expect, The Alien is a single-player game about the struggle of a spaceship crew against an alien whose capabilities are unknown. As the game starts, the crew is spread out in their ship (unnamed in the game) minding its own business. Their mission was to convoy a cargo of 7 specimens to some undisclosed location. Six of those specimens are peaceful animals, the seventh, well, was not even supposed to be here in the first place.

The crew of seven includes :

• Two officers :
  • Commander (and Captain of the ship) Clark,
  • Flight Lieutenant (and Navigator) Davis

• Two scientists :
  • Doctor Sutherland
  • Prof. de Vries

• Three engineers :
  • Chief Dimitrov,
  • Engineer Benson,
  • Technician Ju Tsjan

The crew starts distributed along the ship, as is the equipment :

Captain Clark is on the bridge [BRI], from where he or any crew member has access to sensors, allowing him to see “beeps” on the map that are either animals or the alien. It is wise to try to cage the animals as fast as possible, so that any remaining “beep” has got to be the alien. The best way to cage the animals is to use the transportable cages in the laboratory [LAB], where Dr Sutherland is at the moment, though you need two people to cage an animal. Once caged, any scientist can transfer the animals into the “labcage” in the laboratory. Prof. de Vries is currently in the (useless in-game) sick room [SIC] but she will come to assist Dr Sutherland as soon as possible.

Any of the “beeps” can be the alien, and the scientists will need weapons if they encounter that thing. Regulations forbid killing non-threatening unknown likeforms, and the alien starts very cute and non-threatening, so the weapon of choice is the dart pistol, currently in the armoury [ARM] along with the way more lethal lasers. Only officers can open the Armoury door to pick up the weapons, and we need someone on the bridge to check the sensor, so Lt. Davis, currently in the recreation room [REC] will move to the bridge while Captain Clark will pick up the weapons and join the scientists.

Finally, the engineers are the only ones able to work on electric prod and flamethrowers from the maintenance room [MNT] – flamethrowers are of course very lethal so less urgent. Chief Dimitrov is already in the maintenance room and will start working start away, Engineer Benson in the Chemical Storage room [CST] where lethal gas canisters are stored. He will pick one up, just in case, and assist Chief Dimitrov. Technician Ju Tsjan, currently in the recreation room as well, will assist the scientists in capturing animals and maybe the alien.

From the laboratory, Dr Sutherland also checks which animals are still caged :

Only one fontema is caged, so 5 animals are loose.

In The Alien, turns are bit weird, and can be split in 4 phases :

• A first “special action phase” where each character can take one special action : attack the alien, push the auto-destruct button, pick up an animal,
• A “movement phase” : 3 movement points where the player can move but also pick up, construct or drop items. Picking up an item or moving from one room to another takes one movement point (except the ventilation rooms), dropping an item is free.
• A second “special action phase”, same as the first one but more special actions are available,
• The animal & alien turn – they normally can only move by one room during their turn,

During the second turn, Commander Clark drops two dart pistols in the bridge, keeping a laser for himself. Lt. Davis and Technician Ju Tsjan pick a dart pistol each and go for the hold, where a “beep” is still lingering. They are joined by the two scientists.

Meanwhile, Chief Dimitrov and Engineer Benson finish the first electric prod and start working on a flamethrower.

In the hold, the group manages to find a uniped and a thud.

Both animals are caught, but before they could be properly put in the portable cages, drama strikes on the bridge : Commander Clark is attacked by the alien ! He is not allowed to use his weapon to defend himself, but the alien is not very dangerous yet and Commander Clark survives the attack !

Lt Davis, Technician Ju Tsjan and Dr Sutherland drop the animals and rush to the bridge. Pf. de Vries goes to fetch a second cage, just in case.

Meanwhile, Commander Clark who survived the attack leaves the bridge in order to pick up the electric prod conveniently dropped by Chief Dimitrov in the central passageway [CP1], before returning to the bridge. This allows the prod to move faster than anyone carrying it. Realistic ? Nah.

The alien attacks Technician Ju Tsjan, but he shoots with his pistol and neutralizes the alien.

The alien is immediately put in the cage.

Easier than expected. Time to bring it to the labcage. Dr Sutherland and Technician Ju Tsjan rush to the lab – the alien is already undergoing a metamorphosis so it may break its cage ! Meanwhile, Captain Clark brings the second laser to the bridge. Just in case. Engineer Benson finishes the flamethrower. Just in case.

It is over. The crew regroups on the bridge to talk about the event :

And this concludes our short AAR, let’s do the Rating & Rev…

Uh.

That’s worrying.

Two things may have happened :

• The alien cloned itself, and there is a second alien somewhere,
• The alien grew stronger, and destroyed its cage,

The best way to check this is to send a scientist to check the content of the labcage. Said scientist will need some escort – if the alien escapes the lab it will not be far.

Everyone starts from the bridge, with all the equipment at their feet :

If the alien is strong enough to break free, capturing it is no longer an option, so it is time ot use the lethal weapons. The team is divided in two well-equiped groups

• Lt Davis, Engineer Benson and Dr Sutherland will check the corridor leading to the lab,
• Captain Clark, Technician Ju TsJan and Pf de Vries will run an inventory in the lab

Meanwhile, Chief Dimitrov will create more weapons in the maintenance room. I no longer have access to the sensor but the bridge is too surrounded for one man alone.

Pf. de Vries does not need to check the labcages (though she does, and they are indeed empty) because Lt. Davis‘s group encounters an alien in the corridor ! Engineer Benson is attacked, but Davis shoots with his laser, killing the alien !

Ah, that was easy. Back to the bridge for lunch !

Thanks for reading, time to move to the Rat…

Well, well, well. Looks like the alien is a they as in “they cloned” – AND they are too strong to capture.

Anyway, same teams except instead of wasting time in the lab one group will go to the rear corridor and one group to the starboard corridor.

Initially, the only thing they can find are animals, but by methodically exploring the rooms, the team manages to determine which beep is “safe” (green), which one is probably safe (yellow) and which ones could be the alien.

And indeed they find the alien. This time though, it is stronger than ever, and brave Engineer Benson sacrifices his life to save the Lieutenant.

The crew assembles on the bridge yet another time.

At least the alien is killed. Is it the end ? Please ?

The crew is once again on the bridge, with all the equipment on the floor except the flamethrower that previously belonged to the late Engineer Benson and which no one remembered to pick up – it is still in the vents. There are 4 beeps on the map, so it is time to start caging animals again. One of the “beeps” is in the laboratory anyway.

Prof. de Vries remains behind to check the computer, while the rest of the team, picking all the remaining weapons, moves to the lab. Dr Sutherland brings a cage containing an animal.

In the computer room, Prof. de Vries learns some critical information about the alien :

This knowledge won’t be that useful though, because in the lab the alien attacks the group. The alien is fended off by a laser shot.

Chief Dimitrov is ordered to use a gas canister to kill the thing but …

… he refuses ! He shouts out “I must keep it alive. CREW EXPENDABLE !”

Chief Dimitrov turns out to be the Android, planted in the team to make sure no one kills the alien.

He, or rather it will refuse to kill the alien, but once discovered the android is easy to manage by simply giving it the non-lethal weapons like the prod or the sleep dart pistol – it will happily use them to neutralize the alien, and then the rest of the crew will kill the thing.

As Chief Dimitrov exclaims “It belongs in a museum a bioweapon lab !”, Lt Davis answers “OK LOL whatever” and shoots :

The crew regroups on the bridge again…

… and this time it is really the end.

Rating & Review

The Alien by Hans von Halteren and David Kuijt, published by Avalon Hill,
First release : Early 1983 on Apple II,
Tested on : AppleWin emulator
Total time tested : 5 hours
Average duration of a session: 30-90 minutes depending on how many clones there are
Complexity: Simple (1/5)
Would recommend to a modern player : No
Would recommend to a designer : No
Final Rating: Totally obsolete
Ranking at the time of reviewing : 42/59

A. Immersion

A group of unprepared humans who must defeat behind closed doors a dangerous creature growing more powerful over time and whose weaknesses are unknown ? It works ! Immersion is reinforced by the detailed description of the characters in the manual – they are not just names in your game :

Though this atmosphere is a bit weakened by the fact that the first part of the game will be spent optimizing the capture and transport of animals to the lab cage.

Rating : Acceptable

B. UI, Clarity of Rules and Outcome

The UI is quite simply the worst of any game I have played so far – it looks like the game was released without playtest. First, all controls use the paddle : you go through lists of characters, actions, and targets and press the paddle button. Not great, but at least commenter Porkbelly was nice enough to quickly hack a “keyboard” version that I used,

What’s unsalvageable is how stupid the action management is. To do absolutely anything, the player must scroll through a list of every possible character/action/target/room that can exist in the game, including the absent or dead characters, the many unavailable actions (eg “ship self-destruct” in the recreation room), the destroyed items or the inaccessible rooms. With a keyboard, it takes 30 seconds to do something as simple as pick an item in the room and move two rooms. I can’t imagine how frustrating it would have been with a paddle.

Final insult to the injury, the game is extremely strict on how to perform some actions. For instance, a scientist cannot transfer an animal from a cage in his or her hands to the labcage : the cage must be dropped before (which is a free action, so it is not like it can be something you could not have done). If you realize you forgot to drop the cage when you have an opportunity to transfer to the labcage, well, too late, you will have to do it next turn.

As for the manual, it is well-written but sometimes unclear. I understood the game much better after reading the rules for Intruder.

Rating : Terrible, the absolute worst, paddle-throwing and keyboard-smashing.

C. Systems

I believe they are clear from the AAR. It is hard to describe how similar this game is to Intruder. The geography of the ship is different from the Starbase of Intruder but for instance the ways to kill the alien are exactly the same :

• Lock the alien in the labcage,
• Lock the alien in the armoury,
• Apparently and according to the manual, you can freeze the alien in the cold room if it is not “cold-resistant”, but I never managed to do it and I wonder if it works,
• Shoot the alien with a laser,
• Kill the alien with the gas canister,
• Burn the alien with the flamethrower,
• Gas the alien with gas canister,
• Send the alien into the vacuum,
• If you are very lucky, whack the alien dead with an “improvised weapon”, which is what your characters use when they don’t have anything else,

In Intruder, the alien becomes immune to more and more of the methods as it mutates according to the following chart, after the player has rolled 2 dice :

And here is the code managing how the Alien evolves after the computer generates two random integers from 0 to 5 :

If you cannot kill the alien, you can autodestruct the ship (same procedure in both games) and run to the escape pods, in which the alien could be waiting for you, forcing you to a final fight to the death.

The only addition of The Alien compared to Intruder is the android, and once identified it is easy to give him useful tasks he accepts to do like using the dart pistol, carrying cages or manning the electric prod. The rest of the differences are minor and can be counted on the fingers of Mickey’s two hands :

• Intruder has 9 crew members, the Alien 7 including the Android,
• The ship is actually a space station with 3 wings radiating from the bridge / “command module”,

• In Intruder, the players know the powers of the intruder when they meet it, instead of having to either discover them the hard way or through the computer,
• The location of the “beeps” is always known in Intruder, for obvious practical reasons,
• The weight of items is a bit different between the two games (a flamethrower weights 2, a cage with an alien inside can require several characters to carry)
• Opening the door of the armoury/computer room/freezer takes one action. Activating the freeze also takes one action,

That’s it. Possibly some hidden chance-to-hit or similar result tables are also different, but I doubt it. I really wish The Alien had done at least something with the animals, for instance making the alien consume them to become more powerful. It would have created another strategic layer : pick-up the animals to starve the alien, or go directly for the beast.

Overall, I find the system pretty weak. The 3 “direct kill” weapons (laser, flamethrower, gas canister) are equivalent from the point of view of a player that would not have read the rules of Intruder, and trying to lock the alien in the freezer is a superior option compared to locking it in either the computer room or the navigation room (due to the freezing effect). Locking the alien in the labcage is a mistake I only did for story purposes, it is not any harder to escape than the 3 “reinforced rooms” and if the alien escapes the labcage it also frees all the other animals. Finally, as neither the alien nor the animals block movement nor can be blocked, there is no “strategic” location to control or to guard. What’s left is a shallow game.

Rating : Very poor

D. Scenario design and balancing

The game has only one scenario, unlike Intruder, who had special scenarios and even a multiplayer mode. Supposedly, the game has a lot of replayability due to the different possible powers of the alien. In my experience, whatever the alien does, there is one superior strategy : grab weapons in the armoury and send the engineers to make a prod and maybe a flamethrower at the beginning, then move in groups to capture animals or shoot/prod the damn thing when you encounter it. If you fail, it will be because you were unlucky.

In defence of the game, the purpose of The Alien is maybe not winning it as much as telling a story. The manual specifies :

There is no scoring algorithm in the game, as your primary goal is mere survival. If you manage to capture and kill the alien(s) with a minimal loss of life, so much the better. Destroying the ship is a very desperate move, usually done when the alien(s) are too powerful and he crew has already been decimated

As a final note, the game has a lot of bugs .

• The alien sometimes clones itself, but the clones are nowhere to be found so the game cannot end – it happened twice in my tests and is very frustrating.
• The game sometimes ends due to a bug, with even a message telling you that, well, since the game has bugged, you won :

Once again, the game does not look very playtested.

Rating : Very poor

E. Did I make interesting decisions ?

Only a handful

F. Final Rating

Totally obsolete. It would have been obsolete in itself – a good boardgame does not necessarily become a good video game, but the UI issues and the literally gamebreaking bugs sucked the little fun there was in it. Space Station Zulu is a superior game by far.

Contemporary Reviews

I could find only two reviews for the game, though honestly, any research for “The Alien” on archive.org yields so many entries I could not check them all.

• Softtalk (May 1983) found the game much more strategic than I did, concluding “if you liked the movie you’ll love the game. Part horror story and part science fiction, Alien combines elements of fantasy role-playing with the challenge of strategy and comes out smelling like total enjoyment.” If don’t think I agree with any of these statements. Later in September, Softalk compared The Alien to Space Station Zulu and prefers the former, finding it more “exciting” and more “playable“. I don’t agree with any of these statements either.
• Computer Gaming World‘s review (May 1983) is more similar to mine. Johnny Wilson was frustrated by part of the UI but also by the fact that it is impossible to block the alien’s movement. This feature “demands the use of strategies which do not actually make much sense“. Still, Wilson calls it “an interesting strategy game [with] an above-average shelf life”.

We should be back on good old Earth for a while with the future 1983 games with only Cosmic Balance II occurring in space. It is just as well, I have done a lot of alien killing or capturing recently.