History Of Alien Vs. Predator Games Explored

Thanks to 1UP for their story exploring the varied history of Alien Vs. Predator games for PCs, consoles, and handhelds, pointing out "...aliens have fought Predators while eating Colonial Marines on half a dozen game platforms with no sign of letting up." Titles featured include Capcom's 2D arcade version, notable for "ridiculous life power-ups, including tossed salads, giant pizza pies with everything, and delicately-garnished plates of sea bream", the first-person shooter Atari Jaguar version, "employing the concept that would later become central to the franchise - the game would be playable from the point of view of all three species", and Rebellion's follow-up PC version, described as "a heck of a game if it's patched to repair the flaws in its initial release."

Comments

Short version

[Dancin_Santa]

We first had these two great movies, Alien and Predator.

Alien featured a lesbian Sigourney Weaver (but I repeat myself) and a gruesome thing which poked its way through people's stomachs and that you could pretend that you didn't see the cheezy stick manipulating it.

Predator featured two future governors! One was Jesse "I ain't got time to bleed" the body Ventura, and the other was Arnold "Whachu talkin' 'bout Willis" Schwarzenegger. There was also some weird invisible guy who ran around the jungle killing people.

Capitalizing on the success of these two movies, game makers made a game where the Alien from Alien and the Predator from Predator fought. They keep remaking this game.

The end

Re:Short version

[darkmayo]

actually there was a 4 part comic book series Of Alien vs Predator put out by darkhorse comic which came before any of the games.

Re:Short version

[wickedj]

Actually, the idea of Aliens vs. Predator began before the comics and occured within the second movie. If you look at the "trophy" wall, you will see the skeletal remains of an Alien.

Re:Short version

[cei]

And between the first movies and the comic books, you had Predator 2 which had a shot of an Alien skull in the trophy case of the Predator's spaceship, thus putting the two species in the same universe.

Re:Short version

[darkmayo]

Now both the comic and movie came out in 1990
obviously the movie was longer in development as well Dark Horse had scored those franchises in the late 1980's perhaps there was a colleration between Darkhorse and the film studio to mix the two together. Do we know which was released first.. was the comic or the movie first to hit the shelves?

Re:Short version

[ivanmarsh]

Actually the Aliens v Predator series was released in Nov. 1989. The skull from Pred2 was inspired by the comic series.

IIRC the first AvP encounter happened in a short story in one of the Alien series books from 1988 (but that MAY be a complete fabrication on my part).

http://www.darkhorse.com/products/pg_profile/sku_9 1044/sec_products/sub_pubdate/index.html

Re:Short version

[ivanmarsh]

Or... I could read the link I just posted. I knew it was somewhere before it became it's own series.

http://www.darkhorse.com/products/profile.html?sku =91166

Re:Short version

[Lightwarrior]

That's not true.

The first AvP Comic was released on Nov. 1, 1989, and appeared in "Dark Horse Presents" before that.

Predator 2 was released over a year later, on Nov. 21, 1990.

-lw

Re:Short version

[wickedj]

Really? I didn't know that. Thanks. I stand corrected ;-)

Re:Short version

[Lightwarrior]

No worries, it's not exactly common knowledge - I've just been a fan of all the alien/colonial marine/predator franchises since... well, right around 1989. I was fairly comic-obsessed, especially with the quasi-dark stuff... it's harder when it's your own money (hah), but AvP/2 are a couple of my favorite concepts/games.

-lw

Re:Short version

[Anonymous Coward]

It was released a year later, but when was that scene written and filed?
I agree with you though. Most likely the film got the idea to put the skull there from the comic that just came out.

Still no word

[darkmayo]

on whether or not a goddamn movie will ever come out.

Re:Still no word

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the AvP movie is set for a 2004 release...

It's being directed by Paul Anderson, and according to IMDB, filming starts this month.

Plot Outline: Hoping to lure a Predator clan to Antarctica using Alien eggs, a rogue team of scientists are caught in an intergalactic war between the two extremely violent species.

-imdb

Re:Still no word

[simcop2387]

cool, i can't wait for this, i'm guessing it wont be as good as the original alien or original predator (crossover plots usually arent) but i think it'll be a pretty darn good movie

Re:Still no word

[oni]

I don't want to harsh your buzz but if the last few Alien movies are any indication, they'll find some way to ruin the AvP movie too.

Re:Still no word

[clu76]

If it does come out and it's anything like the first two predator movies, it'll go a little something like this:

Predator goes around killing Aliens until one Alien rises to the occasion and kills the Predator. The End.

But seriously, didn't they allude to a winner in this hypothetical epic battle at the end of the second Predator movie? It's been years since I've seen it, but I could sware there was a trophy shrine with what looked like an Alien skull.

Re:Still no word

[Lightwarrior]

Alien Vs. Predator

Paul W.S. Anderson (of Mortal Kombat, Event Horizon, Soldier, and Resident Evil) has signed on to Direct and Write - take that as you will.

The plot is outlined as "Hoping to lure a Predator clan to Antarctica using Alien eggs, a rogue team of scientists are caught in an intergalactic war between the two extremely violent species.".

Lance Henriksen, whom you probably know as Bishop, is signed on. Filming is supposed to begin in "late October" in Prague.

There are rumors that an AvP Teaser/Trailer will be released with the Alien: Direector's Cut theatrical release.

Planet AvP generally has AvP news. Dark Horizons is pretty reliable for any film news, and they state: "Last Thurs (9/11), there was a promo shoot for the teaser trailer or teaser poster(s) for the new Aliens vs. Predator movie. Now, I don't know when it will be released but what I saw was totally cool. Here's what I saw: A caucasian male, 6"2, in complete Predator suit/make-up getting ready for some still shots. When I saw him, he wasn't wearing the helmet but the costume pretty much was reminiscent of the last two Predator films. The only difference was that the mask (or helmet) looked more metallic than I remember it being (sorry to say it, but, it reminded me of the metallic finish on the Jason mask in Jason X, when he is turned into the SUPER JASON! BUT cooler). Anyway, the suit was only air-brushed from the waist down, which leads me to believe that the shoot was for a teaser poster. But otherwise, the tendrils of 'hair' on the predator were AMAZING. I wasn't ballsy enough to see up close but the crew was shooting the Predator first in 'attack' position, perfect for a sneak peak poster. Once all photography/ filming(?) was complete, the crew dumped a bucket full of see-through green slime/goo on him and took more pictures. This was either meant to be predator blood, or alien blood--couldn't tell, too far away.

"Later in the day, it was the aliens turn. What I CAN tell you (about this specific Alien shoot) is that it was NOT the Queen Alien; rather a more human-like alien who walked on two feet. It looked amazing because he was walking like PUMPKINHEAD (remember that one?) and he too--a middle aged geeky caucasian dude)--was not wearing his helmet. (The alien head itself is very faithful to the drone aliens in the 'Alien' videogames and the ones in Alien 3, with the elongated head going back, behind the body, round in shape; NOT the flared out helmet of the Queen. I found it odd though that the alien had NO tail. It made me wonder if they would add it later in post, or if it was part of the story, where it gets cut off. Here too, pictures of it were taken in 'attack' position, kneeling down w/head intact. This was by far the most exciting part of the day, although the Predator was 'gargantuan' in size compared to the Alien."

-lw

Re:Still no word

[Lightwarrior]

Sure, in a one-on-one fight, a Predator can probably beat an Alien.

But how about one-on-many? One of the Alien's strengths being numbers, and all...

If you'll forgive me some AvP-related fanism, the Predators have to main species they hunt - "softskins" (humans) and "hardskins" (aliens). A Predator becomes blooded by going on a "hardskin" hunting expedition, and is (generally) branded with the mark of its (his/her) mentor.

Seeing as the Pred in Pred2 only had one Alien skull, it was probably the first he killed - maybe even the first trophy he took.

-lw

Scary game

[stjobe]

I have fond memories of playing AvP late at night, playing as a marine, and being scared silly. It really has a scary atmosphere, what with the bad lighting conditions, strange sounds, dark shadows and monsters lurking around the corner.

A very enjoyable game.

Re:Scary game

[Anonymous Coward]

Was anything sweeter than being Cpl. Hicks and making some guy who thought he was badass and invisible your bitch?

Not to mention the frag grenades, and deformable explosions....

Re:Scary game

[pyr0]

I agree. I think that was the first game to actually make me jump out of my seat. When those facehuggers leap out of nowhere you just want to scream!

The part of the game I really found satisfying though was the alien's ability to crawl on *any* surface. It could almost make you sick if you weren't really paying close attention and you could really lose perspective on where you were if not careful.

I also really enjoyed biting the heads off of poor weak humans, especially the non-marine ones that would just cower in fear and beg for their lives before you removed their heads!

Re:Scary game

[Lightwarrior]

Some of my favorite Multiplayer moments involve either AvP or AvP2. A buddy and I used to hop into an AvP2 game in the evening, and suddenly find ourselves staring dawn in the face...

-lw

TT

[Anonymous Coward]

Did the arcade version take place in a prison? It sounds kind of familiar.

Something along their lines

[Anonymous Coward]

At least this "history" article is focusing on something from the author's own life time. Not like some of the past articles we've seen that obviously didn't do their homework (read: they claim the first being 1979, where there are numerous examples several years prior).

You can play AvP 1 on Linux!

[Dr. Manhattan]

Thanks to icculus. The movies don't work, but they were pretty cheesy anyway (and got worse in the "Gold Edition").

But it was a very nice game. You were so weak as a human, and the aliens were so fast. It took a lot of strategy to get anything done. I sure learned where all the medpacks were. Playing as an alien, where you could cling to any surface and move really quickly, was my favorite. But you had no distance weapons at all. You had to sneak up on everyone. I also liked how you could cheat, but you had to earn it, like getting a specific number of kills, or completing a level without being spotted, and so forth.

While they're at it...

[Firestorm_Rising]

They should have compared them to other alien vs human games, such as the [url="http://www.natural-selection.org/"]Natural Selection[/a] MOD and [url="http://www.s2games.com/savage/"]Savage[/a].

AvP was one of the best games out for the Jaguar

[BrookHarty]

I didnt own a Jaguar, but I rented it soley for AvP. That game had some of the best Gfx, and FPS play that even the PC version dosent even touch. AvP1 for PC was generic, and didnt have the appeal as AvP2 for PC. AvP2 was more dark, faster and had more team play action.

The PC versions just never captured the FPS multiplayer style of game. But reading the history, it does state that the PC release had tons of bugs, and a horrible Initial release. (Ubisoft take note...) I gave up after its initial release because of its bugs, and picked AvP2 on sale because of the bad aftertaste of AvP1.

I dont agree thou, that the Jaguar version was fuzzy and had bad frame rate, if you compare it to Today, maybe... But at the time, the game was indeed a "Show Case game" for the Jaguar and console gamers.

Hopefully, someone gets back to basics, AvP is a good idea, just done badly in the newest incarnations.

redemption

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, to redeem any shortfalls they could cast Keanu Reeves as the edible power-up.

Just wait for the next movie

[pmz]

I hear the final movie in the series has Alien and Predator make up and get married. They move out to the suburbs, have two chilren, and own a riding lawn mower. Here's a spoiler: Predator stays home with the kids and handles the finger painting and birthday parties, while Alien dons a suit at an insurance company and drives an Impala.

Re:Just wait for the next movie

[UltimaL337Star]

sounds like the bonus ending level on starcraft, mightve the expansion, the zerg and protoss are found in a new hybrid form or something...
Anyway the alien/predator universe is actually quite large I hear, lotsa games, lotsa spinoffs, i think theres a comic... and to screw the ending for everyone at the end of aliens ressurection an alien pretty much as sex with weaver and they have a strange more human then alien alien child thing which for some reason is stronger then its more alien cousins

more cross over goodness

[Hes Nikke]

just throw batman into the mix :) [link]

(requires Quicktime, watch it before you mod offtopic, 'cause it isn't)

Re:AvP was one of the best games out for the Jagua

[Lightwarrior]

I totally disagree, but I'm a HUGE fan of the AvP PC games. I didn't encounter any of the bugs from the first AvP, and the "sadistic" save game limitation was to provide for a serious sense of atmosphere - being able to save whenever you want, as many times as you want, takes away any sense of danger (and in my opinion, accomplishment).

I even played the first one through on Director's Cut, without the ability to save at all during a level. That was *awesome*.