Wednesday, November 05, 2025

Alien Busters 4






What happened to the first three?

Back in 1996, Daniel Fielding released Alien Busters 4, a multiplayer shooter with one simple rule: kill your mates before they kill you. The action takes place in an arena where up to five players can jump in and shoot the living daylights out of each other. Hey, I remember the carnage of Death Chase, so this should be great!

Gameplay is simple: move your man with a joystick or keyboard, grab whatever weapons appear, and blast anything that moves until it explodes in a shower of blood and dismembered body parts. Pistols provide endless ammo, but the fun comes when you grab something better: machine guns, lasers, and rocket launchers. Even the scenery isn’t safe: trees get shredded, rockets blast rocks into smithereens, and barrels love triggering chain reactions. Rounds are fast and furious, and only end when every other player is brown bread.

While the game technically supports up to five players, you’ll probably need a parallel port adapter once you’ve got more than two joysticks already attached. I haven’t fully tested that, but just imagine the glorious chaos around an ST with a full party of eager shooters. If you’re a sad, lonely gamer, then simply hit keys 1-5 on the player select screen and your Atari ST will happily pretend to be your murderous mates.

Alien Busters 4 is all about gathering your friends around the computer for a riotous time. It’s a pixelated party full of guns, gore, and hilarious carnage - made even sweeter by the superb DMA samples on the STe. What an absolutely excellent multiplayer with chaotic, quick-fire, addictive carnage. I absolutely love it!

  • Gather your mates and grab the download from Atarimania.
  • Seeing as this game is enhanced, it gets instantly added to the STe gaming list.
  • While you're here, check out another outstanding game by Daniel - Death Chase.
  • If you enjoyed duelling against mates, then there are more here.


Have some of my rocket pie...


...Yeah, that little man didn't stand a chance!


Yep, it's always the same rule. Use real hardware for best results!!
Emulation won't be good enough. You'll see...

8 comments:

  1. Wow. Something for our gathering at the end of the month. Great that it supports 5 players.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brilliant to hear!! Hope you all enjoy as much as I did

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  2. Last photo - why ATARI STE hasn't got resolution 640x400/480 in at least 16 colors? On the TV in interlace.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interlacing any colour resolution must have a slight CPU hit, but not that much tbh. So, yes, it's a shame more games didn't take advantage of that imho. Well, except Megaroids... I wonder if there are many others out there?
      https://ataricrypt.blogspot.com/2016/02/1985.html

      Delete
    2. There were numerous publications in 1989/1990 in which developers expressed disappointment. ATARI didn't deliver anything... but ATARI was furious that such texts were being published.
      .
      ATARI promised 256-color GFX mode, BliTTer better than any other computer, and a few other things / features.
      Even DMAsound is actually just a 1 stereo sample in compare to 4 independent in Paula.
      .
      Ehhh... A missed opportunity...

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    3. I agree. I remember the day back in 1989 and I was expecting (at least) another "ST LOW". One with 32 colours... Still, almost all games from about 87 onwards broke the 16 colour limit, so it's not all bad.
      Unless you invent a time machine, I think it's better to play the ST games and enjoy a fantastic computer :)

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    4. The "playability" is the basement !
      I also play on the ATARI 8bit. Even more.

      Delete

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