An early mix of Galaxian and Space Invaders. Motherships appear in the sky releasing alien invaders that swarm around dropping slow-moving bombs. Pods are also dropped, and if they land, they form into crab-like mutants that crawl along the ground towards you. Luckily, you are able to create holes in the ground to trap and kill these mutants. Well that's the good news, because you can only dig these holes five times in total – so only good shots need apply here! This game has no progression as such; no levels or stages, just a single screen of endless minions. It's easy at first, but once many pods begin to drop, you end up in trouble. Smooth, average graphics and sparse sound effects. You will soon get bored.

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A ship is heading towards a distant planet and its inhabitants, the Cryonaughts, have been frozen during the journey. You have to find 24 valves and the cryogenic chambers that they are to be plugged into before the ship reaches its destination. The ship contains lots of rooms, often filled with hazards and obstacles that you have to negotiate, and you might need a valve to climb over some walls. There are also several types of enemy, such as Dalek-like mice and clockwork mice, that you must avoid too! This is an old game, but it has stood the test of time well and is just as good today. The difficulty level might put people off, but perseverance will be rewarded in the end.

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Alien Highway
(Vortex, 1986)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

Defeat the aliens again in this sequel to Highway Encounter. Once again you must guide the Vorton and its precious weapon, this time the Terratron, through 30 zones in an attempt to destroy the extraterrestrials' industrial complex. Avoiding the electrified edge of the road at all costs, you must get past the cunningly placed obstacles, whilst shooting the Zebs and any passing kamikaze aliens. Along the way you are also required to arm the bomb by picking up seven regeneration stations or otherwise it will fail to detonate. However, what is a good, hard game is let down by MODE 1 graphics and poor sound.

See also: Highway Encounter.

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Nothing has been heard from the colony of LV-426 for some time, so Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley sends a team of five Colonial Marines to investigate – and her fears are well-founded, as the colony is now home to an army of aliens. Your aim is to find your way through the labyrinth of 255 rooms and kill the alien queen. The game (which is based on the highly successful film of the same name) mixes arcade and strategy elements – you'll be blasting a lot of aliens, but you need to work out a way of reaching the alien queen's chamber, and there are other rooms to explore as well. If you're not careful, one or more of your team might be captured or impregnated! It takes time to understand how the game is meant to be played, but you'll enjoy it once you do. The background music makes the atmosphere much more tense and eerie as well!

See also: Alien, Aliens: US Version.

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Our planet is once again being attacked by aliens, and a special squad known as Alien Busters is formed to save the day. In this game you may choose from three characters (Gordon, Scooter and Karla) who have different attributes and special moves, in order to complete six big levels, each of which is divided into several stages. Graphics are colourful MODE 0 with 16 colours on screen, and a lot of effort has been applied to make them look very detailed. The sound has a variety of effects which help the game maintain an atmosphere, and the main music theme is also fine. The gameplay is enjoyable because of the variety of players' moves, the good controls and the different gameplay stages of each level. You may have to face aliens in close combat or shoot them in first person perspective! Overall this is a very good and balanced game which you will most probably enjoy playing.

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This game was first released in the USA before it was released over here. As one might expect, it's based on the film of the same name, although unlike the UK version, which concentrates on one section of the film, the US version contains eight sub-games, each of which is inspired by a different section of the film. Unfortunately, the sub-games combine to make a rather unsatisfying and incoherent game. It starts off promisingly, with a nice comic book-style introduction and an easy first level in which you identify your equipment, but the second level, which sees you landing the drop ship, is almost impossible to complete. Thankfully there is a built-in cheat to allow you to select and play the other levels while you're playing this lousy game. The graphics in some of the sub-games are laughably bad as well.

See also: Alien, Aliens.

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Alien Syndrome is an eight-way scrolling maze shoot-'em-up. Your goal is to resuce the captives on each level before the timer runs out. One or two players can take part in a Gauntlet-like game. The game itself looks drab and moves at a jerky rate with endless numbers of mutant sausages and jellies out to get you. Computer screens sometimes hide the odd power-up or bonus, but this usually allows another nasty to catch up with you. Too difficult, poor use made of the CPC's graphic capability, with a handful of sound effects. This one could have been a great game if it wasn't for it being a rushed port.

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Alkahera sees you conscripted by the Galactic Government to patrol the trade routes in outer space. The game places you inside the cockpit of your spaceship with a 3D view of your surroundings, where your scanner alerts you to illegal presence. It's a simple game of "shoot the scaled sprite", where 90% of the time you collide with it instead. Game over occurs very quickly and the escape pod option is a waste of time. The graphics are colourful and add a little appeal. Simple sound effects add some atmosphere to a very boring game indeed.

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Alphakhor
(Loriciel, 1989)

In the year 2006, a deadly virus is threatening humanity's existence. However, there was an outbreak of an identical virus in 1463, and it was stopped successfully. It's up to Xavier Nollevo, who has invented a time machine, to go back to the Middle Ages and save humanity! This is an adventure game where you must explore a mediaeval town in the search for the magic formula, helping various characters as you go along. You have to be careful, and eat and drink all the time, and watch your money as well. The pictures are excellently drawn, and while it's not a particularly large adventure, it'll keep you occupied for some time – provided you understand French, that is.

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Altair is a CPC conversion of the original coin-op game released in Spain in 1981. 33 years later, it finally arrives on the CPC and it manages to remain totally faithful to the coin-op version. It clearly demonstrates the gaming era that was predominantly focused on achieving high scores rather than progressing to new levels. The graphics are, as expected, basic and chunky but they are colourful and vivid. The animation is good, while the in-game sound may be considered annoying by today's standards, but it exactly captures the atmosphere of the arcade halls of the 1980s. The gameplay is fast-paced, and although it is repetitive, you won't get bored easily because the challenge is well balanced and the grab factor is strong.

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