Alien Breed 3D

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Alien Breed 3D

Developer(s)	Team17
Publisher(s)	Ocean Software
Release date(s)	1995
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, Two player via network connection (Co-operative and Competitive)
Rating(s)	N/A
Platform(s)	Amiga 1200/4000, Amiga CD32
Media	3 floppy disks or 1 CD
System requirements	2MB RAM (4MB recommended), AGA Chipset
Input	Joystick, CD32 Joypad (optional), Keyboard, Mouse

Alien Breed 3D (sometimes AB3D) is the fourth game in Team17's Alien Breed franchise, a series of Science Fiction-themed shooters largely inspired by the Alien films. It was published in 1995 by Ocean Software, and is the first 3D game in the series. This is also notable for being the first game Team17 did not self-publish.

Team17 made the sourcecode for AB3D freely available in 1996.

1 Gameplay
2 PatchAB3D
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The surging popularity of FPS games such as Doom, and the appearance of other Doom clones for the Amiga such as Gloom, resulted in Team17 developing AB3D. Their aim was to not only meet but exceed the capabilities of Doom's engine, a goal which they succeeded in achieving. AB3D is capable of maps of varyinf depths with platforms and floors above others, something Doom was not capable of in its initial release (but something which has been added in recent years to third-party Doom engines such as ZDoom and The Doomsday Engine). The graphics, although rendered at 2x2 pixel depth, were considered excellent for the time, even when running on an unexpanded Amiga 1200 or a standard Amiga CD32. However, the PC games market had already begun to surpass Doom during this time, with Quake released only the following year.

The game also gives the player a sense of freshness with regards to the series. None of the characters or locations from previous Alien Breed games make appearances, and there are also more varieties of aliens in this game. AB3D can be considered a reboot of the franchise.

[edit] PatchAB3D

Some time after the game was released, Team17 fan Peter Gordon programmed a patch for the game that makes some modifications to the way the game engine functions. Specifically, the patch allows you to save keyboard/controller configurations, and also allows you to use the mouse and keyboard at the same time, which is the easiest and most popular way to control home computer FPS games today. It also adds some controls, such as a Run toggle key (as a substitute to having to hold the key down), various Cheat Keys, and a Mouse Sensitivity option.

Perhaps most importantly, the patch also removes Team17's newly instated Copy Protection code which required the player to enter a three digit code from a particular page, row and column of a booklet. The booklet itself was black matt text printed on black paper, to prevent photocopying. PatchAB3D removes this request, and was included in the program with the permission of Team17 themselves.