''Alien Breed'' is a top down

run and gun video game Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain typ ...

released in 1991 by

Team17 Team 17 Digital Limited (Team17) is a British video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Wakefield, England. The venture was created in December 1990 through the merger of British publisher 17-Bit Software and Swedish dev ...

for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

and later in 1993 by MicroLeague for

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

. The game is the first in the ''Alien Breed'' series. ''Alien Breed'' is based on the '' Alien'' films, specifically ''

Aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with ext ...

'', and also on the

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data bu ...

-era games ''

Laser Squad ''Laser Squad'' is a turn-based tactics video game, originally released for the ZX Spectrum and later for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Amiga, Sharp MZ, Sharp MZ-800 and Atari ST and PC computers between 1988 and 1992. It was designed by Ju ...

'' and '' Paradroid'' as well as the '' Gauntlet'' arcade game.

Gameplay

Players must find the lift down to the next level, occasionally setting the self-destruct sequence to blow up the level above them. The players collect or purchase a variety of weapons from the space station's computer terminals. In some versions of the game, these so-called ''Intex'' terminals provide additional features such as a clone of the classic video game ''

Pong ''Pong'' is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but B ...

''. Credits found on the ground have to be saved for these weapons and other enhancements, each giving the players an edge over the gradually more and more powerful alien forces. In advanced levels, players are occasionally trapped in enclosed spaces with huge

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

aliens.

Release

Team17 made an "intro disk" available, containing a short animated introductory sequence with on-screen narration which follows events leading into the start of the game. After the introduction is finished, the player is prompted for disk one of the game, effectively making the introduction disk "disk zero". Team17 produced a similar introduction disk for '' Superfrog'', animated by Eric W. Schwartz, although this was included with the retail edition of the game.

Reception

Amiga

''Alien Breed'' was released to generally favorable reviews. ''

CU Amiga ''Commodore User'', (also referred to as ''CU'') later renamed to ''CU Amiga'', is a British magazine initially published by Paradox Group before being acquired by EMAP. Timeline ''Commodore User'' was launched in October 1983 with an initial pr ...

'' wrote that "Team17 have come up with a winner".

MS-DOS

The MS-DOS port's reception was mixed. ''

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...

'' described the gameplay's variety as lacking and the sound effects as "shallow and tinny", with problems using the Pro Audio Spectrum sound card to be expected, but favorably compared it to

Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...

games and called it a "solid shooter

ith The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometers, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is i ...

plenty of high-octane fun." ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American Video game journalism, computer game magazine that was published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 199 ...

'' criticized the "asinine"

copy protection Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy prevention and copy restriction, is any measure to enforce copyright by preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media. Copy protection is most commonly found on vid ...

, but said that it is still a good action title for those who like their play quick and simple". The magazine stated in the next issue that while "right at home at the local arcade or any cartridge game machine", the DOS version of ''Alien Breed'' "has fallen behind in the tech race". Citing the "European" use of mission codes instead of

save game A saved game (also called a game save, savegame, savefile, save point, or simply save) is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. From the earliest games in the 1970s onward, game platform hardw ...

s and "pretty" but shallow gameplay, the reviewer unfavorably compared it to ''

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'', with "an almost identical (somewhat tired) premise" but of which "the execution makes all the difference". Despite the good graphics and "fast-paced" action, he concluded that ''Alien Breed'' was "not suitable for the average computer gamer on this continent", but might be for the "less demanding player" or one who wanted a Nintendo. In a critical review, ''Computer and Video Games'' pointed to the port's bugs such as the screen flickering. The more serious bugs included not being able to buy weapons from any ''Intex'' terminal and the game crashing nearly a quarter of an hour into it. The reviewer concluded that the bugs overshadowed what was otherwise a faithful conversion of an Amiga classic. James V. Trunzo reviewed ''Alien Breed'' in ''

White Wolf The Arctic wolf (''Canis lupus arctos''), also known as the white wolf, polar wolf, and the Arctic grey wolf, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to the High Arctic tundra of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, from Melville Island to Ellesme ...

'' #45 (July, 1994), giving it a final evaluation of "Good" and stated that "''Alien Breed'' isn't the cutting edge of science fiction action gaming, but I don't think it's trying to be. It's like a watered-down version of EA's superior ''Space Hulk''. For the money, it's a fun beer 'n' pretzels game that lets you vent hostilities on nasty critters - and you can even do it with a friend!"

Legacy

''Alien Breed Special Edition '92'' was an expanded version, published in 1992, at budget price. It was hugely popular, staying in the British software charts for more than a year. It also featured a

film trailer A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

-style advert for Team17's upcoming '' Superfrog'', which was unusual at the time. As well as being released on the Amiga, this version of the game was also released on the Amiga CD32 in a double-pack with '' Qwak''. Both the original and the ''Special Edition'' did well enough to merit further sequels, almost all of which have been commercial and critical successes. The player characters in this game and its sequel were named Johnson and Stone. By the third game ('' Alien Breed: Tower Assault''), the player characters were named John and Nash. In keeping with the ''

'' theme, a female voiceover (the voice of Lynette Reade) provided warnings and other messages to the players. In 2012, a port of ''Alien Breed'' for smartphones and tablets was released for iOS and Android, to very favourable reviews.

References

External links

* {{Team17 1991 video games Alien Breed Amiga CD32 games Amiga games Android (operating system) games Cooperative video games DOS games Games commercially released with DOSBox IOS games MicroLeague games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 3 games PlayStation Network games PlayStation Vita games Run and gun games Science fiction video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Allister Brimble Video games with cross-platform play Video games set in the 22nd century