Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds
Encyclopedia
Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds (sometimes AB:TKG or TKG) is the fifth game in Team17's Alien Breed
franchise, a series of Science Fiction
-themed shooters largely inspired by the Alien
films. It was published in 1996 by Ocean Software.
Team17 had originally intended this to be their final Amiga title. Following the success of Worms
, Team17's first multi-format release, the company were looking to get out of the Amiga game market, which had become stagnant over the years. As it transpired, TKG was not Team17's final Amiga title - Worms: The Director's Cut
was released the following year. Alien Breed 3D II sold 5,000 copies.
Team17 made the game's source code freely available in March 1997, on the cover CD of Amiga Format
magazine issue 95.
, Team17 decided to follow it up with a sequel. This time they were aiming even higher, hoping to recreate something similar to the Quake engine on an Amiga
. Team17 had included two versions of the game spread over 5 disks - one with high-quality sound and textures, the other with reduced quality versions. The reduced version was supposedly able to run on a non-expanded Amiga 1200
, although the game ran slowly.
Their project, however, was perhaps over-ambitious. Most Amigas of the time struggled to run the game, even with upgraded RAM and accelerator cards. Even with the fastest CPU at that time (MC68060 @ 66 MHz) the game could not be played smoothly with high details in fullscreen . Most Amiga enthusiasts have only been able to play the game in recent years using emulation
.
Poor level design, no collision-detection with monsters and repetitive sounds did nothing to aid the gameplay experience.
An editor was shipped with the game, allowing users to create their own levels.
was ported by MicroLeague, while Alien Breed: Tower Assault
were ported to the PC by East Point Software
).
According to what little information there is concerning this game, ABC was also planned to be a first-person shooter and, presumably, would have followed on directly where TKG left off.
Alien Breed (series)
The Alien Breed games are a series of Gauntlet-style top-down sci-fi shoot 'em up video games developed by Team17 primarily for the Commodore Amiga in the 1990s, heavily inspired by the Alien films. Later, first person shooter titles were released under the Alien Breed name...
franchise, a series of Science Fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
-themed shooters largely inspired by the Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
films. It was published in 1996 by Ocean Software.
Team17 had originally intended this to be their final Amiga title. Following the success of Worms
Worms (computer game)
Worms is a series of turn-based computer games developed by British company Team17 Software. Players control a small platoon of earthworms across a deformable landscape, battling other computer- or player-controlled teams...
, Team17's first multi-format release, the company were looking to get out of the Amiga game market, which had become stagnant over the years. As it transpired, TKG was not Team17's final Amiga title - Worms: The Director's Cut
Worms: The Director's Cut
Worms: The Director's Cut is a sequel to Worms, an artillery game developed by Team17 and published by Ocean Software. It was programmed by Andy Davidson and released in 1997 for the Amiga platform only....
was released the following year. Alien Breed 3D II sold 5,000 copies.
Team17 made the game's source code freely available in March 1997, on the cover CD of Amiga Format
Amiga Format
Amiga Format was a British computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future Publishing. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when, in the wake of selling ACE to EMAP, Future split the dual-format title ST/Amiga Format into two separate publications...
magazine issue 95.
Gameplay
With the success of Alien Breed 3DAlien Breed 3D
Alien Breed 3D 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...
, Team17 decided to follow it up with a sequel. This time they were aiming even higher, hoping to recreate something similar to the Quake engine on an Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
. Team17 had included two versions of the game spread over 5 disks - one with high-quality sound and textures, the other with reduced quality versions. The reduced version was supposedly able to run on a non-expanded Amiga 1200
Amiga 1200
The Amiga 1200, or A1200 , was Commodore International's third-generation Amiga computer, aimed at the home market...
, although the game ran slowly.
Their project, however, was perhaps over-ambitious. Most Amigas of the time struggled to run the game, even with upgraded RAM and accelerator cards. Even with the fastest CPU at that time (MC68060 @ 66 MHz) the game could not be played smoothly with high details in fullscreen . Most Amiga enthusiasts have only been able to play the game in recent years using emulation
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
.
Poor level design, no collision-detection with monsters and repetitive sounds did nothing to aid the gameplay experience.
An editor was shipped with the game, allowing users to create their own levels.
Cancelled Sequel - Alien Breed: Conflict
A PC/Dreamcast follow-up to TKG, entitled Alien Breed: Conflict (referred to internally as Alien Breed Action, ABC or ABA) began development in 1999. The development was cancelled due to the size of the project. To date, ABC remains the only title in the series that was developed specifically for the PC, and the only PC game in the series developed by Team17 themselves (the PC version of Alien BreedAlien Breed
Alien Breed is the first in a series of science fiction computer games played in the form of a top-down shooter for one or two players. It was released in 1991 by Team17 for the Commodore Amiga and later in 1993 by MicroLeague for MS-DOS.-Gameplay:...
was ported by MicroLeague, while Alien Breed: Tower Assault
Alien Breed: Tower Assault
Alien Breed: Tower Assault is the third game in the Alien Breed franchise, a series of science fiction-themed top-down shooters. It was released in 1994 by Team17 for the Amiga, PC and CD32, and is the last 2D game in the series....
were ported to the PC by East Point Software
East Point Software
East Point Software Ltd., also known as Promethean Designs Ltd., is the software development company for Aqua GT on the SEGA Dreamcast.-Games:*Adventures of Tintin, The: Prisoners of the Sun*Alien Breed: Tower Assault*Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds...
).
According to what little information there is concerning this game, ABC was also planned to be a first-person shooter and, presumably, would have followed on directly where TKG left off.