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Retronauts Episode 221: Alien (Patreon)

Published:
2019-05-13 14:05:33
Edited:
2019-05-20 19:24:08
Imported:
2021-08

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Content

There's another media-focused episode for you this week, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of a film that has had a profound influence on video games: Ridley Scott's Alien. Of course, we also talk about the games based directly on the movie, too. Although somehow I had a giant brain fart while recording this and completely forgot to mention the very first game inspired by Alien—Heiankyo Alien. Whoops!

Content warning: We do talk briefly about the sexual assault metaphors baked into the premise of this movie. There's nothing particularly explicit said here, but please be aware if you're sensitive to those topics.

Description: The last survivors of the Nostromo—Jeremy Parish, Benj Edwards, Chris Sims, and Ben Elgin—transmit from deep space to pay tribute to Ridley Scott's film Alien and its influence on pop culture and video games.

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Comments

Mat Segal

As both Carpenter and O'Bannon were brought up on the episode, I'd highly suggest anyone interested watch their student film Dark Star, which was the inspiration for Alien. Here's a good write-up on the subject: http://www.roguesportal.com/dark-star-defined-alien/

Colbin Erdahl

Great discussion from the East crew as always. Alien really is a singular film, and I think very much holds up, fake android head and all. Just wondering if you guys have seen the documentary “Jodorowski’s Dune”, which chronicles the failed attempt to make a Dune film in the mid 70’s. It involved both Dan O’Bannon and H. R. Giger. Some of the concept art shows how the xenomorph design really came out of this failed effort. They show that the concept art also influenced Star Wars and The Terminator. I found it pretty fascinating as a fan of Sci Fi from that era. I’m now excited to try Alien: Isolation. Unfortunately it’s a little more expensive than advertised, still at $40 on Steam. Although, from Jeremy’s rave reviews, it sounds like it’s worth it.

retronauts
>>22684100

Yeah! I intended to bring up Dark Star, which I saw at a midnight screening when I lived in S.F. and had "Alien" written all over it. Didn't have the chance to squeeze it in, though.

retronauts
>>22706767

I guess the price I cited must have been a sale, but you can definitely find it in the $20 range at retail!

Anonymous

Alien is a masterpiece and it absolutely holds up! I was trying to decide which Alien inspired game I like the most, but it's really difficult to pin down since it has more or less become part of the game fabric itself. There's a little bit of the Xenomorph in nearly every monster or creepy corridor of the last 40 years. An obscure one that came to mind is the old arcade gun game "Space Gun" that was very intense as it had monsters clawing at the screen and bursting out of infected humans. I thought it was a little scary when I came across it as a kid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlZ0slLwcN8

Anonymous

Also your description of the Alien C64 game reminded me of that "The Thing" game on PS2 where the monster could be different members of the group each play through.

Al

Ah, this was such a fun one! Had no idea Alien was so old. Can't believe y'all used the term "Space Truckers" ten times, but never once mentioned the 1996 Alien-rip-off classic, "Space Truckers!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQOqLOErhZA

Tentomon4

When you inevitably cover the Aliens game I hope you mention Games Workshops boardgame classic turned videogame many times over: SPACE HULK! Because that game and it's Genestealers are VERY Aliens inspired. (and at this point in time I find Genestealers as a concept more scary but that's for a different podcast)