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Xenophobe (video game)
Encyclopedia
Xenophobe is a 1987
arcade game
published by Bally Midway
. Starbase
s, moons, ships, and space cities are infested with aliens, and the players have to kill the aliens before each is completely overrun.
for its time, the split screen did not detract from the game's graphic appeal.
The laser pistol lends itself to a conservative play style, keeping opponents at range and moving through levels slowly (often crouched) while the gas gun encourages faster moving play since the player must close quickly to eliminate foes.
The hostile aliens (known as "Xenos") come in different forms. There are "Eggs" (similar to the eggs in Alien
). If an Egg hatches, it creates a "Critter" which can attach itself to the player and drain health. If a Critter is not killed, it eventually matures into a "Roller" (a cross between a lizard, caterpillar, and armadillo). Rollers are one of the tougher enemies, as they can ball themselves up and roll around while impervious to the players' guns. Rollers sometimes grow into the "Warrior" Xeno form, which attacks by leaping and requires multiple hits to kill from most weapons. Warriors are able to spit damaging acid across rooms (and sometimes into adjacent rooms). This acid also drips from the ceiling in some rooms. They also have a devastating leap attack that will knock down and disarm. One of the more insidious attacks in a Warrior's arsenal is its ability to disarm a player. Simply walking past a Warrior can cause the player's gun to drop to the floor (destroying it if still in a doorway). Other Xenos include "Tentacles" that randomly appear from the deck or ceiling, and trap or strangle the player respectively, and the arguably toughest enemy is a Xeno "Queen" which appears either in doorways or behind certain backgrounds and throws proto-eggs at the players and shoots hypnotic eye beams which trap players and drain their health. If the proto-egg lands on a screen with a player, it grows into another Egg, which eventually hatches into a Critter as usual. Any biological kinship between Warrior Xenos and Queen Xenos, and whether the Tentacles growing in the ducting are part of the Queen Xenos, is merely implied. There are much larger alien carcasses the player can walk pass or through but they only appear as part of the background.
As players go through the various maps (Rocket Ship, Moon Base, Space City, etc.), they encounter various items to be picked up. Some (human skulls, lab vials, fire extinguishers, etc.) are only for bonus points at the end of the level. Others (grenades, knives, food) are immediately useful to the players (grenades for throwing, will inflict instant death on Xenos and damage on a player; a knife will cut a player free of Tentacles, killing them in the process; and food replenishes the players' health). Still other items (disks, tools, ID tags, codes, etc.) are useful in the right room. For example, the tools fix the always-malfunctioning grenade dispenser (which constantantly throws out live grenades), the disk allows a player to use a teleportation device, the ID tag will deactivate security obstacles and the code enables a player to set a self-destruct sequence to destroy a base instead of letting the Xenos take it over. In this case, the players receive a reduced reward compared with a victory, but if the Xenos take over, there is no reward. Items collected are counted, and bonus points awarded for each collected. Grenades carry over from level to level.
Each credit gives the player a certain amount of health, which counts down even without combat. Food and some rooms replenish a player's health. The game cycles through levels, increasing the difficulty each cycle, until all players died and no-one continued. It is entirely possible to do well enough to continue playing without adding more credits.
to many home systems
. Beginning in 1988, it was ported to the Atari 2600
, Atari 7800
, Atari ST
, Commodore 64
, Lynx, Amstrad CPC
, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Nintendo Entertainment System
. (An Atari 800/XL/XE
conversion exists in prototype form).
Atari published the versions Xenophobe for its systems (the 7800 and XE versions were developed by BlueSky software, and the Lynx version was developed by Epyx) while Sunsoft
ported it to the NES. The Commodore 64 port was done by Microplay
. In 2004 Xenophobe was included in Midway's
Arcade Treasures 2
for the PS2, Xbox
and Nintendo GameCube
.
1987 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* January 14, Nintendo releases Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in January for the Famicom Disk System in Japan only. The game would go unreleased in America for nearly two years afterwards.* February 20, Konami releases Contra...
arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
published by Bally Midway
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
. Starbase
Starbase
A starbase is a facility, often in space, used in science fiction works such as Star Trek, Babylon 5, and Firefly. Typically they act as drydocks, battle stations or trading outposts.- Star Trek :...
s, moons, ships, and space cities are infested with aliens, and the players have to kill the aliens before each is completely overrun.
Description
This game was unusual in that it split the single monitor into three separate horizontal sections, one for each player. This allowed the players to cooperate, but also allowed the separate players to wander around freely, a feature not found on most cooperative multiplayer games. With most games that allowed multiple players at once, all players were bound by the edges of the screen (that is, all the players had to be in the same general area on the screen, so it could contain them all). Because the game featured such high resolutionDisplay resolution
The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection...
for its time, the split screen did not detract from the game's graphic appeal.
Characters
There are nine characters to choose from in Xenophobe, three for each joystick. The leftmost controller (red) offers Mr. M.Brace, Dr. Kwack, and Col. Poupon. The middle controller (yellow) offers Mr. Fogg, Col F. Truth, and Dr. Udderbay. The right controller (blue) offers Mr. Eeez, Dr. Zordiz, and Col. Schickn. Humans and aliens alike make up the playable characters -- for instance, Dr. Kwack has a duck's head. Players were also color-coded. For instance, the left player's choices wore red shirts, middle player's yellow, and right player's blue.Weapons
The weapons a player collects are fairly diverse. In order of damage, the weapons are: punch (unarmed), phazer (the starting weapon), laser pistol, lightning rifle, gas gun, and grenades. The guns tend to trade power for range. The one exception to this is the phaser, which has medium range and very low damage. Great care has to be taken with the grenades, as they bounce off walls and doors and can hit the player who threw it, or even other players. None of the guns can hurt other players, but punching can, and makes the punched player fall down, and drop the gun he was carrying, which the attacker is then free to pick up. Whenever a player's gun is lost and destroyed (such as by dropping it in a doorway), a small robot wheels into his room and dispenses a random gun for him to use.The laser pistol lends itself to a conservative play style, keeping opponents at range and moving through levels slowly (often crouched) while the gas gun encourages faster moving play since the player must close quickly to eliminate foes.
Gameplay
The Arcade Game can be played by up to 3 players, and the goal of each level is to defeat all the aliens before time runs out. Some rooms routinely display the percentage of alien infection and time remaining until self-destruct when the level ends (but a nearby button can temporarily deactivate the count-down). Levels may contain more than one floor, and players use elevators (and sometimes holes in the floor) to move between floors to defeat all of the aliens. Players can also pick up more powerful weapons and other items to help in their eradication of the aliens.The hostile aliens (known as "Xenos") come in different forms. There are "Eggs" (similar to the eggs in Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
). If an Egg hatches, it creates a "Critter" which can attach itself to the player and drain health. If a Critter is not killed, it eventually matures into a "Roller" (a cross between a lizard, caterpillar, and armadillo). Rollers are one of the tougher enemies, as they can ball themselves up and roll around while impervious to the players' guns. Rollers sometimes grow into the "Warrior" Xeno form, which attacks by leaping and requires multiple hits to kill from most weapons. Warriors are able to spit damaging acid across rooms (and sometimes into adjacent rooms). This acid also drips from the ceiling in some rooms. They also have a devastating leap attack that will knock down and disarm. One of the more insidious attacks in a Warrior's arsenal is its ability to disarm a player. Simply walking past a Warrior can cause the player's gun to drop to the floor (destroying it if still in a doorway). Other Xenos include "Tentacles" that randomly appear from the deck or ceiling, and trap or strangle the player respectively, and the arguably toughest enemy is a Xeno "Queen" which appears either in doorways or behind certain backgrounds and throws proto-eggs at the players and shoots hypnotic eye beams which trap players and drain their health. If the proto-egg lands on a screen with a player, it grows into another Egg, which eventually hatches into a Critter as usual. Any biological kinship between Warrior Xenos and Queen Xenos, and whether the Tentacles growing in the ducting are part of the Queen Xenos, is merely implied. There are much larger alien carcasses the player can walk pass or through but they only appear as part of the background.
As players go through the various maps (Rocket Ship, Moon Base, Space City, etc.), they encounter various items to be picked up. Some (human skulls, lab vials, fire extinguishers, etc.) are only for bonus points at the end of the level. Others (grenades, knives, food) are immediately useful to the players (grenades for throwing, will inflict instant death on Xenos and damage on a player; a knife will cut a player free of Tentacles, killing them in the process; and food replenishes the players' health). Still other items (disks, tools, ID tags, codes, etc.) are useful in the right room. For example, the tools fix the always-malfunctioning grenade dispenser (which constantantly throws out live grenades), the disk allows a player to use a teleportation device, the ID tag will deactivate security obstacles and the code enables a player to set a self-destruct sequence to destroy a base instead of letting the Xenos take it over. In this case, the players receive a reduced reward compared with a victory, but if the Xenos take over, there is no reward. Items collected are counted, and bonus points awarded for each collected. Grenades carry over from level to level.
Each credit gives the player a certain amount of health, which counts down even without combat. Food and some rooms replenish a player's health. The game cycles through levels, increasing the difficulty each cycle, until all players died and no-one continued. It is entirely possible to do well enough to continue playing without adding more credits.
Ports
Like many games of this era, Xenophobe was portedPorting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to many home systems
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
. Beginning in 1988, it was ported to the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
, Atari 7800
Atari 7800
The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in January 1986. The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 had originally been designed to replace Atari Inc.'s Atari 5200 in 1984, but was temporarily...
, Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, Lynx, Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
, Sinclair ZX Spectrum and the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
. (An Atari 800/XL/XE
Atari 8-bit family
The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers manufactured from 1979 to 1992. All are based on the MOS Technology 6502 CPU and were the first home computers designed with custom coprocessor chips...
conversion exists in prototype form).
Atari published the versions Xenophobe for its systems (the 7800 and XE versions were developed by BlueSky software, and the Lynx version was developed by Epyx) while Sunsoft
Sunsoft (company)
is a Japanese video game development company founded on April 16, 1971 as a division of Sun Corporation, itself a division of Sun Electronics, or in Japan is a Japanese video game development company founded on April 16, 1971 as a division of Sun Corporation, itself a division of Sun Electronics,...
ported it to the NES. The Commodore 64 port was done by Microplay
Microplay Software
Microplay was a video game publisher, an imprint of developer and publisher MicroProse Software. MicroProse used the label for externally developed games...
. In 2004 Xenophobe was included in Midway's
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
Arcade Treasures 2
Midway Arcade Treasures 2
Midway Arcade Treasures 2 is the second collection of classic arcade games published by Midway for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. This compilation includes 20 games that were not in the 2003 release of Midway Arcade Treasures or the 2005 release of Midway Arcade Treasures 3.The game plays...
for the PS2, Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
and Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
.