Not digging Alien 3 very much

[Phil]

Hi peeps so I've been trawling through old issues of Sega Pro and came across a cheat for invincibility for Alien 3 which I'd never seen before. Unfortunately my Segas are all packed up, so thought I would try the cheat on an emulator.

Alien 3 is a title I've played for a few minutes, kept getting killed and ended turning it off out of frustration!

I'm assuming it's not a buggy emulator but a buggy game!

Leafing through the manual was a waste of time, vague is not the word for what classes as the instruction. It doesn't tell you anything and what it does tell you seems to be wrong! It doesn't even tell you that you are Ripley!

I am struggling to see the point of what picking up batteries does. You can see the enemies on the radar, but does picking up more batteries enable you to see the prisoners? It seems really pointless and the enemies are on you in a split second if you don't memorise where they are anyway!

You have to scroll through to find the battery by pressing down and button 2 to select the radar, but then you have to remember to select a weapon. You can't use a weapon if you are looking at the radar?

Also what's with the jumping? You hardly jump at all vertically, but horizontally you fly to the left or right in a really strange manner!

After all that I don't think the cheat even works.

Maybe it plays better on a real SMS with a decent control pad, I thought it was all a bit crap sadly...

There are no difficulty settings and you can't seem to change the continues on the configuration screen. Maybe they should call it a 'non configuration'. The music doesn't even resume on the selection screen if you turn it off then on again.

Everything seems to be a bit 'broken' with this game!

[ian]

I've actually been playing Alien 3 quite a lot recently for a game guide book I'm working on. It's actually a pretty good game but it is buggy. As you mentioned, the batteries are pointless as the radar scanner does not deplete. I don't believe it records what level you got to on the high-score table. The infinite lives cheat is basically a bug, and it only actually gives you 255 lives. Some of the boss fights are a bit peculiar as some weapons damage some bosses and not others.

If you'd like to take a look at my guide just let me know.

[alexkiddinwonderland]

It's one of my favorite games actually, love the atmosphere and music even more than the other ports from the time. Played the crap out of it when growing up but could never beat the last boss as I always ran out of ammo. I could spend the whole day evading him but no new ammo ever appeared. Only recently I found that was a bug. Decided to play it on an emulator and finally discovered what the issue was, for me: if I picked up the very last item before finishing the penultimate level, just before the final boss the Alien Queen, she'd become invincible. The workaround was to jump over it. The only reference to it I found was a comment in some spanish forum, some playthroughs I saw had no issue. So not sure exactly what causes it. I've made a video of it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdPy_jpxShc), played on BizHawks with a 360 controller and it plays pretty much as I remember (this run is TAS, abusing the rewind feature, as I was too much rusty after all these years).

Other bugs I found were either on screen scrolls/transactions or the blast from the grenade launcher but nothing really game breaking.

[segamasterdude]

Never played it through but i remember the first time i played it and thinking how amazing it looked for an 8bit title.

[Kaunisto]

I think I gave a quick try on emulator, but didn't have patience to get into it.

[ian]

Dec 3, 2020 13:49:24 GMT alexkiddinwonderland said:

Played the crap out of it when growing up but could never beat the last boss as I always ran out of ammo.

The one way the final boss works is that you have to land the killing blow whilst it is in mid-air (you just about caught it at the end of its jump in your video). If you take its last bit of health when it is on the ground, the health will just go back to full. It definitely seems like a bug. I actually contacted the programmer recently as part of my research but he has little memory of working on the game.

Anyway, here's my guide if anyone is interested:
smstributes.co.uk/alien3.pdf

[Phil]

That is awesome reminds me of the walkthroughs you'd get back in Sega Pro or Sega Power back in the day. To be honest I had to watch a You Tube video to work out to complete level 1! Kept getting killed on the 2nd level so gave up! It's tough. Top effort! Might try to give it a go myself again without referring to your guide just yet!

Your game guide book like intriguing, it is something that you hope you get published in physical form? Beats those Sega A-Z guides back in the day which had crappy reviews and the screenshots didn't even match the actual game! Something like that would definitely give me incentive to play those games I've never really given chance due to the frustration factor!

[alexkiddinwonderland]

Dec 4, 2020 18:07:32 GMT ian said:

The one way the final boss works is that you have to land the killing blow whilst it is in mid-air (you just about caught it at the end of its jump in your video). If you take its last bit of health when it is on the ground, the health will just go back to full. It definitely seems like a bug. I actually contacted the programmer recently as part of my research but he has little memory of working on the game.

Anyway, here's my guide if anyone is interested:
smstributes.co.uk/alien3.pdf

Thanks for the file. I still have the replay file, I'll give it a go with the strategy you described.

[segamasterdude]

Dec 4, 2020 18:07:32 GMT ian said:

Dec 3, 2020 13:49:24 GMT alexkiddinwonderland said:

Played the crap out of it when growing up but could never beat the last boss as I always ran out of ammo.

The one way the final boss works is that you have to land the killing blow whilst it is in mid-air (you just about caught it at the end of its jump in your video). If you take its last bit of health when it is on the ground, the health will just go back to full. It definitely seems like a bug. I actually contacted the programmer recently as part of my research but he has little memory of working on the game.

Anyway, here's my guide if anyone is interested:
smstributes.co.uk/alien3.pdf

Fantastic guide, as the poster above said very reminiscent of the gaming guides in sega magazines.

[ian]

Dec 4, 2020 19:45:05 GMT Phil said:

That is awesome reminds me of the walkthroughs you'd get back in Sega Pro or Sega Power back in the day. To be honest I had to watch a You Tube video to work out to complete level 1! Kept getting killed on the 2nd level so gave up! It's tough. Top effort! Might try to give it a go myself again without referring to your guide just yet!

Your game guide book like intriguing, it is something that you hope you get published in physical form? Beats those Sega A-Z guides back in the day which had crappy reviews and the screenshots didn't even match the actual game! Something like that would definitely give me incentive to play those games I've never really given chance due to the frustration factor!

Thanks! I've been working on it for about 8 months and I haven't even finished the A's

I'm thinking of trying to enlist some help to write some of it but am not sure if anyone would be willing to be involved. I would like to get it published in physical form. The page size is nearly the same as a game box, so it should fit neatly on a shelf next to a collection of games. It might also end up being a few volumes, I'm not sure yet though.

[Phil]

I would like to have to see this back in a day as a weekly/monthly magazine with it's own ring binder and each time you get a guide for 2-3 games starting with Alex Kidd or Sonic! Something you can pull out and use when you need it for a particular game! It's a massive task if you're going to do every game. Good luck with it all....

[segamasterdude]

Wow I didnt realise you were doing every game! Thats a mammoth task! I hope it comes off.

[ian]

It is indeed a mammoth project. Not every game is going to have a full walkthrough though so I'm hoping I'll finish some time in my lifetime

[edwithmj]

Wow I have to disagree here. Alien 3 is one of the best games on the system; I've had hours of fun with the game and the music and atmosphere are superb for an 8-bit title. I never had any problems completing the game when I was a little-un. I just gradually learned the best route for rescuing all the prisoners and the best strategies for defeating the bosses too.

[kungfukid]

Dec 12, 2020 12:51:22 GMT edwithmj said:

Wow I have to disagree here. Alien 3 is one of the best games on the system; I've had hours of fun with the game and the music and atmosphere are superb for an 8-bit title. I never had any problems completing the game when I was a little-un. I just gradually learned the best route for rescuing all the prisoners and the best strategies for defeating the bosses too.

This was exactly my experience too. I did find the jump physics a little unusual at first, but really didn't take long to adjust to it, and then it's predictable. I love the game, and definitely think it is one of the very best for the system. In terms of overall atmosphere, the size of the game, the graphics, sound, and difficulty, I think it's not far away from being the perfect game.