Alien Breed on XBLA

[yilez]

Will it ever happen? I remember having so much fun on this excellently difficult game.

I apologise if this has been asked before, though I couldn't see anything when searching.

[Spadge]

There are no plans for this, sorry.

[yilez]

No problem.

The thought occurred to me over the weekend so I thought I'd pose the question.

[bonz]

What about any other old T17 game on XBLA?
I'd think that games like Superfrog, Bodyblows and Stunt GP could fit nicely on such a system?

Jamie Woodhouse ported his Qwak (http://www.qwak.co.uk) to the GBA.

[Spadge]

Nothing planned on that front - yeah I've seen Qwak on GBA.

[alex atkin]

There always seems to have been a lack of classic Amiga/ST games being ported over to modern consoles. I was pleasantly surprised on the GBA when I found titles like Soccer Kid which I thought had long since died away in the depths. Unfortunately the port of Pinball Dreams/Fantasies was messed up by excluding the savegame chip despite the code in the game supporting one (I used to have a GBA FLASH card with savegame memory which it saved on fine).

I agree that Alien Breed would be a nice game to bring back. Ironically I always felt it was better than the officially licensed Alien games (as I always figured Alien Breed was inspired by the Alien movies).

[Spadge]

XBLA is a global thing whereas Amiga titles were largely european only hits.

[dejay]

Amigas were fairly big in Oz too. I loved Alien Breed co-op on it.

[Spadge]

Yeah there were a few in the states too, but the vast majority were in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia.

[Machetazo]

There are no plans for this, sorry.

:( I was really hoping that wasn't the case. Me and my friend had so much fun when I was younger with Alien Breed on his Amiga, playing co-op. Thanks though, for being straight with people over the things that you're able to confirm aren't coming out. I wish more developers would adopt a similar example, to prevent fans waiting in vain.

[Squirminator2k]

There was mention a few months ago of old Team17 IP appearing on GameTap, so it's entirely possible that the old Alien Breed may yet resurface.

[Laskov]

alien breed to XBLA is a great idéa ...

I am fan o the entire series (i am the five épisode on amiga)

PS: sorry for bladly english i am french

[Squirminator2k]

Pas un problème. Je suis sûr que vous pardonnerez mon français horrible. :p

As a reminder, we over at Dream17 do have the original Amiga Alien Breed games up for download. All you need is a legal Amiga emulator package such as Amiga Forever, which is about £35.

[yilez]

Is the emulator any good? I've used UAE before, which is good, but a pain to set up due to legality issues.

[Squirminator2k]

Amiga Forever includes the latest build of WinUAE as well as all of the required Kickstart ROMs (legally licensed from Amiga Technologies), Workbench versions 1.3 and 3.9, a virtual Hard Drive full of goodies, and configuration files that allow you to easily emulate various different types of Amiga. It's fairly easy to set up.

[Hixxy22]

i would LOVE to see Alien Breed or Overdrive or Body Blows on XBOX LIVE Arcade oh and Project X and Super Stardust and Super Frog!!

[Jocky]

XBLA is a global thing whereas Amiga titles were largely european only hits.

The ZX Spectrum was even less widespread than the Amiga, but Rare are remaking Jetpac for XBLA.

Alien Breed would be awesome.

[XFroG]

I'm a big fan of Team17 (buttkissery on first post!), and would love to show the Americans what they're missing - Worms xbla is a great start so is there any reason you couldn't bring some classics across? Alien Breed, Superfrog and Project X would fit perfectly into the arcade IMO....

I have microsoft points burning a hole in my virtual pocket :D

[AndrewTaylor]

The ZX Spectrum was even less widespread than the Amiga, but Rare are remaking Jetpac for XBLA.

Well that will be a big job...

I wonder what they'll do in the afternoon.

[SiN]

Ignoring those snide remarks, Rare are first-party Microsoft, so it makes sense for them to develop Jetpac for XBLA because it'll be heavily promoted by MS, and it isn't overly important for Rare to turn a big profit on the game. Team17 are independent, which makes things very different.


SiN

[AndrewTaylor]

Ignoring those snide remarks,

Oh, come on. I was exaggerating, but the point stands: Jetpac is just about the simplest game I can think of, aside from Pong and its generation of moving-coloured-squares-'em-ups. Rare are a group of programmers who got the N64 to speak. The N64 had no sound chip. It's hardly going to be a long-term project, is it?

Alien Breed is a much larger game, with more graphics, more sound, more varied levels, more complex controls and enemies, more items and so forth. It would be a much larger job than Rare firing up Klik & Play and kocking out a Jetpac clone.

[Melon]

Don't forget that Rare have already re-made Jetpac before. It appeared as a mini-game inside Donkey Kong 64, so they should be able to throw a new one up with complete ease.

[SiN]

Ummm, perhaps taking a look at the game before commenting would help. It's a remake in the same way Worms XBLA is a remake of the original Worms. So no, not a zero-effort port, but yes, still substantially less new content to make than doing Alien Breed XBLA.


SiN

[Mordi]

I would love to see superfrog on the Xbox Live Arcade. Nostalgia is a dangerous thing... :eek:
Anyway, superfrog was just brilliant.
Sorry for being wildly off-topic here, but what is up with these UK developers? They create such nice games.

[chirtman]

I'd like to see The Killing Grounds on live as not many people had the necessary hardware at the time to run the game properly.

After all Doom turned out ok and quake2 is excellent on the 360.

Surely it must be profitable to release at least one alien breed game?

[Squirminator2k]

The problem with AB:TKG was that while the game engine was very advanced for its time, the level design and gameplay was, for the most part, awful. Just awful.

[chirtman]

Yeah I guess your right. Alien Breed 3D was ok, at least I have fond memories of playing it, but it just wouldn't stand up graphically today. TKG would look good but I admit I didn't play much of it on my unexpanded 1200. Way too slow!

The top down games though are perfect Live co-op material.

[Peeling]

The problem with AB:TKG was that while the game engine was very advanced for its time, the level design and gameplay was, for the most part, awful. Just awful.

Heh; sorry about that :)

[Squirminator2k]

Ah, that's alright. I won't hold it against you.

Wasn't there a team of fans trying to recreate AB3D using the TKG engine? Now that I would pay to play.

[Peeling]

My own personal recurring fantasy (not, I hasten to add, anything that's ever been discussed at Team17) was the idea of revisiting A.B. in a first person 'survival' style outing: more psychological; aliens being a bigger threat individually and something to avoid confronting at all costs when in packs. Really go to town on the AI, too: a lot of games go for the gross-button to try to intimidate the player (especially now that we can bump-map intestines), but years ago, Half Life marines and special-ops were demonstrating how straightforward humanoid enemies can become really, really unnerving when they exhibit a modicum of intelligent self-interest.

I also thought it would be fun to add some computer controlled humans into the mix, helping the player out - only they wouldn't be the usual impassive coffin-nail marines slavishly obeying your every order. They'd be individuals, with different temperaments and degree of skill with weapons, and managing their attitude towards you and each other would put a whole new twist on things. When Bill the technician has a nervous breakdown and starts sobbing hysterically, do you leave him behind, or assign another member of the team to haul him along? Leave him behind and the do-gooders in your group (including his girlfriend) will be angry and upset, plus you lose his valuable hacking abilties; take him with you and the more hard-headed, practical types will think you don't have the guts to do what's necessary to get people out alive - not to mention his blubbering might alert aliens to your presence. If things don't seem to be going well, or people are dying, you might face outright mutiny, with another wannabe leader taking charge and giving orders, leading the group somewhere you might not want to go. What do you do then?

Anyway, it's nothing that's ever likely to happen, I shouldn't think; the FPS genre is too crowded and the budgets involved too big.

[bonz]

My own personal recurring fantasy (not, I hasten to add, anything that's ever been discussed at Team17) was the idea of revisiting A.B. in a first person 'survival' style outing: more psychological; aliens being a bigger threat individually and something to avoid confronting at all costs when in packs. Really go to town on the AI, too: a lot of games go for the gross-button to try to intimidate the player (especially now that we can bump-map intestines), but years ago, Half Life marines and special-ops were demonstrating how straightforward humanoid enemies can become really, really unnerving when they exhibit a modicum of intelligent self-interest.

I also thought it would be fun to add some computer controlled humans into the mix, helping the player out - only they wouldn't be the usual impassive coffin-nail marines slavishly obeying your every order. They'd be individuals, with different temperaments and degree of skill with weapons, and managing their attitude towards you and each other would put a whole new twist on things. When Bill the technician has a nervous breakdown and starts sobbing hysterically, do you leave him behind, or assign another member of the team to haul him along? Leave him behind and the do-gooders in your group (including his girlfriend) will be angry and upset, plus you lose his valuable hacking abilties; take him with you and the more hard-headed, practical types will think you don't have the guts to do what's necessary to get people out alive - not to mention his blubbering might alert aliens to your presence. If things don't seem to be going well, or people are dying, you might face outright mutiny, with another wannabe leader taking charge and giving orders, leading the group somewhere you might not want to go. What do you do then?

Anyway, it's nothing that's ever likely to happen, I shouldn't think; the FPS genre is too crowded and the budgets involved too big.
Wow! Great ideas.

I have always thought that a new AB game would be best as a mix of Aliens vs. Predator 1/2 (different species), System Shock 2 (claustrophobia), Deus Ex 1 (role-playing/character development) and No One Lives Forever 1/2 (sneaking & story).

I can vividly imagine Bill the technician's sobbing, as in AvP2 the humans also were sobbing and cowering in a corner when you snuck up on them from the ceiling as an alien aiming for a headbite. :D

[Peeling]

I have always thought that a new AB game would be best as a mix of Aliens vs. Predator 1/2 (different species), System Shock 2 (claustrophobia), Deus Ex 1 (role-playing/character development) and No One Lives Forever 1/2 (sneaking & story).

Personally, I'd want to steer away from the Deus Ex RPG/character development stuff, or at least make it more organic and 'touchy feely' - hide the numbers away and let the characters' actions speak for themselves. If Bob the tech ends up knowing one end of a gun from the other and taking down some bad guys, I'd like it to be because I made the decision to give him a weapon, and partnered him with someone who I judged could teach him the ropes, rather than because I opened a menu and spent some XP on his rifle skill.

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of really having to be a leader and deal with realistic relationships; making decisions that affect the dynamics of a group. Do you take a potentially hazardous detour to the med-lab in an attempt to save the life of a wounded party member - who your medic says probably won't make it anyway - or do you let him die and take the risk that his wife - your best soldier - will become demoralised or suicidally reckless?

[Melon]

Did you ever play "The Thing"? (Yes, based on the film) It had some similar ideas to this. You had to keep your team mates trusting you and from going mad with fear. Whenever somebody got hurt by a Thing, they could possibly turn into a monster themselves further along in the game. You had blood tests to check them, but they lost trust in you if you believed they were infected. It was quite clever, although more could've been done with the system. Although it was fun when your friend with a flamethrower went mad and started running around burning everything in sight.