Alien Highway

Alien Highway

Developer(s) Mark Haigh-Hutchinson
Publisher(s) Vortex Software
Platform(s) Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad CPC
Release date(s) 1986
Genre(s) Arcade adventure
Mode(s) Single-player
Distribution Compact Cassette

Alien Highway: Encounter 2 is an isometric 3D arcade adventure game released by Vortex in 1986 for the Sinclair Spectrum and Amstrad CPC. It was programmed by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson and is the sequel to Highway Encounter.

Gameplay

Gameplay is similar to Highway Encounter, with the player controlling a "Vorton" robot in its attempt to deliver a bomb to an alien base at the end of a highway. Various enemies and obstacles lie in its path.

A notable difference is that the player has a single Vorton with an energy meter, instead of five lives; accordingly, the bomb must be pushed by the player, whereas in the previous game it was pushed by the player's spare Vortons.

Background

Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, the developer

"After Highway Costa [Panayi] wanted to come up with something completely different again. Since I was now working full-time for Vortex it was decided that I should write Alien Highway whilst Costa developed his new ideas. I had previously written Android One for the Amstrad CPC (in my spare time at University) and then converted Highway Encounter to the CPC in 8 weeks after graduation. Alien Highway attempted to retain the essence of the original game yet expand the gameplay and introduce a random element into the game. It was also considerably faster than the original."[1]

References

  1. Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, "The History of Vortex Software", March 1995

External links