ALIEN SYNDROME

REMEMBER THE BACK OF THE ARCADE, WHERE THE NOT-SO-FLASHY COIN-OPS LURKED IN THE DARKNESS, WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED? BACK IN 1987, THIS IS WHERE YOU'D LIKELY HEAR A BLOODCURDLING FEMALE SCREAM THAT COULD BELONG TO ONLY ONE GAME...

- WORDS BY MARTYN CARROLL

Following the success of James Cameron's Aliens in 1986, a trio of licensed games were quickly developed for home systems. In the arcades though – a space-like vacuum existed. Konami would eventually release an Aliens coin-op in 1990, but until then fans had to make do with games merely inspired by the blockbuster movie. The most obvious and blatant example was Alien Syndrome, released in April 1987.

It's not clear why Sega didn't acquire the Aliens licence at that time, as it would later do with its Alien 3 arcade game. We know that licensing arrangements can be as labyrinthine as LV-426's terraforming colony, so perhaps the various home versions prevented it from doing so. Regardless, Sega pushed ahead with its own spin, replacing Ripley and Hicks with Mary and Ricky, two soldiers tasked with saving their friends from a foul alien race. The game takes place across six main stages, each a different spaceship infested with aliens. A bomb is set at the beginning of each stage (hardly the most prudent plan, guys), and then you have limited time to search the ship and free as many people as possible before the whole place blows. Standing in your way are a bunch of regular aliens and a big old boss that attempts to block your escape. Thankfully, the ships are well appointed when it comes to weaponry and you can grab effective alternatives to the peashooter you start out with.

Aliens had a strong influence on the game, as did Atari's Gauntlet it appears. Each ship is like a mini maze and the action is viewed from a top-down perspective on an eight-way scrolling screen. And just like Gauntlet, it was seemingly designed with the coin box in mind.