_____  _     ___  ____  _  _
      |  _  || |   |   ||  __\| \| |
      | |_| || |    | | | |__ |  \ |
      |  _  || |    | | |  __||    |
      | | | || |___ | | | |___| \  |
      |_| |_||____/|___||____/|_|\_|
Alien FAQ/Walkthrough by red soul                    
Made originally for the NTSC US Atari 2600 version   
You can contact me via e-mail at: numandina@gmail.com


Alien is yet another Pac-Man ripoff, with the theme of the
movie Alien here. Contrary to Pac-Man though (atari version),
Alien doesn't suck and is actually a pretty good game with
some of its own features and additions, and has impressive
graphics and sound. Everyone knows how Pac-Man plays and if
you don't, then I suggest you play it in one way or the other.
Pac-Man was so popular and imitated that Pac-Man clones made
a genre of itself, kind of like Doom clones. Alien is one of
the rather good clones and some fun can actually be found here.


Stick: Move up/down/left/right.
Fire: Fire flamethrower.


The main objective is to go over all the dots in the maze. Once
that is done you'll have completed the current level. There are 
three aliens in the maze with you and touching them will deplete
a life from you. If you press the fire button you will fire your
flamethrower and scare the buggers off, but they will not die, nor
will you be immune to them while doing this. You have five seconds
of flamethrower in each level before it runs out.

At both ends of the screen there is an opening. Going through one 
will have you come of the other but be careful as aliens can do this
as well. There is only one maze shape and some items will be
scattered randomly in it. First is the glowing power thingie. Upon
taking this, the three aliens will change colours to blue and the  
music changes. Now when you touch an alien instead of dying you will
make it disappear and go back to its "home". After it comes out of
the home, however, you cannot eat it again.

There will always be one of these glowing items at any given time and
as soon as you take one another instantly appears. Another item is
the plane symbol, which will give you points when taken, and when
you get 10,000 points you will recieve an extra life. And finally 
there's the planet item, which will give you additional points as
well when taken. 
All the maze shapes are the same in all the levels and after you've
completed a certain level you'll be taken to play a little "mini game".
This game involves going past 6 pairs of aliens that move from left to
right and with a prize at the end, a white plane item. If you either
reach the item or die by making contact with the aliens, you will 
proceed to the next level without losing a life. The next level is the
same as the previous but with faster aliens. And that's all there is to
know about Alien.


Q. How many points do I get for the different actions?
A. You get:
   10 points for eating a dot
   500 points for eating an alien
   1,000 points for following that with another alien
   2,000 points for eating the third alien in a row
   (100 * your level) points for eating a yellow plane	
   (500 * your level) points for eating a planet
   (1,000 * your level) points for eating a white plane (mini game prize).

Q. Does changing the difficulty do anything?
A. The difficulties differ in the speed of aliens at the beginning and the
   number of lives you start with.
   Difficulty 1: Aliens have normal speed, start with two lives.
   Difficulty 2: Aliens are pretty fast, start with one life.
   Difficulty 3: Aliens are very fast, start with two lives.
   Difficulty 4: Aliens are very slow, start with five lives.

Q. What's the max number of lives you can have?
A. Seven lives.
Q. I have always wondered, do the Aliens have AI?
A. I'm guessing yes, they do, since they move away from you when you can
   eat them and at the higher levels and difficulties they keep chasing you
   down. Nothing to mention they run away when take out the flamethrower.

Q. The dots are not aligned, have strange colours and sometimes flicker.
A. This is a movie based game on the Atari 2600, be thankful it plays and
   is actually somewhat fun.

Q. Can you recommend other similar games that I can play on the VCS?
A. Sure. The best Pac Man style game on the Atari 2600 is easily Jr. Pac-Man.
   A fun game with a similar premise is Bank Heist. Also you might want to
   try Jawbreaker or Lock 'N Chase for some innovation as well.


If you want this on your site, ask me first. Alien is copyright
20th Century Fox, the Atari 2600 is copyright Atari, and this document is 
copyright red soul.

Thanks to God for everything.
Thanks to 20th Century Fox for making the game.
Thanks to Atari for making the Atari 2600.
Thanks to CJayC for making GameFAQs.
Thanks to me for writing this.
Thanks to you for reading it.