Alien English translation/hack

"Alien" is a hack/translation of the 1988 Italian text adventure for the ZX Spectrum, originally developed by DJS (DJ Soft) and programmer Gian Battista Aicardi, inspired by the 1979 science‑fiction horror film of the same name. The game was published on the covertape of issue 48 of the Italian Load 'n' Run magazine.

You play a lone crewmember aboard spaceship Nostromo, drifting through space after a deadly extraterrestrial organism has wiped out the rest of the crew. With the ship’s AI compromised and strange noises echoing through the corridors, your mission is to search room by room, piecing together what happened, finding tools, and ultimately stopping the creature before it’s too late.

The game stands out for its tension-filled narrative and minimalistic presentation, which leaves much to the player's imagination. It’s a compact but clever homage to the original movie and a fine example of 1980s Italian interactive fiction.

This English version by Obsolete.gr includes a carefully restored and translated interface, cleaned-up formatting, and updated character names for clarity. A Greek version is also available from GreekRoms, maintaining the same enhancements.

Navigation commands:

• N/NORTH
• E/EAST
• S/SOUTH
• W/WEST

Interaction commands:

• EXAMINE/LOOK AT
• READ
• ENTER/TYPE
• USE
• OPEN THE DOOR

Informational commands:

• L/LOOK
• I/INVENTORY/ITEMS
• H/HELP/INSTRUCTIONS/COMMANDS
• A/ABOUT

Special commands:

• SHOW ROOM NUMBER
• HIDE ROOM NUMBER
• COPY
• END/EXIT/QUIT/RESIGN/RESTART/STOP

What is done in the hack:

• All text and images have been translated into English.
• The text has been expanded with additional phrases.
• Various bugs from the original have been fixed.
• "Help" screen has been added.
• "About" screen has been added.

Tools used:

• ChatGPT and DeepSeek, for translation suggestions.
• Google Translate, for translation.
• HxD hex editor, for text and code editing.
• DJSRLE compressor/decompressor program.
• Spectrum SCR Editor, for the loading screen editing.
• ZX-Paintbrush, also for the loading screen editing.

Obsolete.gr is not affiliated with DJS (DJ Soft) and programmer Gian Battista Aicardi, the original developer of the Italian game; copyright for the game itself belongs to them.

Translation and hacking was done by Vag.

A big thanks goes to Catmeows, who helped with the image compression algorithm.