Alien 8 - HOT NEWS as Ultimate Play the Game classic has arrived on the C64

Possibly the best news of the day unless something even better comes out this evening, as we have recently come across a post from a good friend of ours, that the Ultimate Play The Game classic ' Alien 8 ' has been released on the C64! This port of which we have been eagerly awaiting for some time, was compiled by Mariusz, worked on by EMU, music by Saul Cross with loading screen by STE. Furthermore the game was originally developed by the legends that is Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC and MSX in 1985!

Sadly I wont be able to try the game as I'm just about to walk out the door so even this article was done in rapid time. But what we can say is going by the description from Emu. That this not only completes the task of converting the Ultimate Filmation games to the C64, but the performance of the game is very good and in line with the other 8 bit versions released in the 80’s and faster than most of them. Play it on a C128 in C64 mode and it’s the fastest of them all.

Notes : 

The "Lock Maximum Game Speed" option is defaulted to On when run on a C128 or accelerated machine as the game would run too fast otherwise.
This can be adjusted in the Front Ends config screen.

Features include :

- PAL and NTSC compatible.
- Super CPU and Turbo Chameleon compatible and speed enhanced.
- 25% speed increase if played on a C128 in C64 mode.
- Second fire button of the C64GS joystick can be used for pick/drop in directional mode.
- Complete conversion from the original Spectrum Z80 source code with all the features included, nothing is missing.
- In-Game music option.
- Keyboard and joystick control in the main game menu.
- Lots of cheats and configuration options that can be saved to disk from the front end.
- New SID Music by Saul Cross.
- New loading Picture by STE and also the original Spectrum loading picture in the front end. The loading picture stays visible on the screen while the game de-compresses.
- Disk, tape and cartridge versions included.
- 3 Versions included in the Disk archive: 1) The full Game including the front end. 2) Game only without front end, uses default settings only. 3) Game only without front end but loads any saved settings.
- Easyflash version with save game settings to cart option by Excess.

Joystick controls are:
Up = Walk Up or Forward. Down = Walk Down or Pickup/Drop. Left = Walk or Turn Left. Right = Walk or Turn Right. Fire = Jump. Space or Second Fire = Pickup/Drop.

Keyboard controls are:
Q = Walk Up or Forward. A = Walk Down or Jump. O = Walk or Turn Left. P = Walk or Turn Right. Space = Jump. M or Z = Pickup/Drop.

F7 = To Pause the game. From Pause Mode press Space or Fire to Un-pause or hold down F1 for a second to quit the game or hold down F3 to lose a life.

From the main game menu press 1 for Keyboard control or 2 for Joystick control. Press 3 or joystick up to toggle Directional control.
Press 4 or joystick down to toggle In-Game music. Press 0, space or joystick fire to Start a game.

All the instructions including controls details are in the View Instructions and Info Terminal option in the front end title screen.

Native C128 Vic II & VDC and Plus4 versions will follow.

Links :1) Source  2) Download 3) BUG FIX DOWNLOAD (Quick fix version...Fixed a lock-up that could happen if you had in-game music switched on)