Staff Blog: Die, Spaceman! - Xenophobe

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Die, Spaceman! - Xenophobe

On 07/07/2019 at 05:09 PM by Matt Snee

I was ten years old in 1987 when Xenophobe came out. At that time, there was no game cooler to me. With the capability of three people playing at once in different parts of the levels, multiple weapons and items, and a cool but silly Star Trek meets Alien vibe, I was totally sold.

I believe it was made by the same people who made Rampage, and they both have a sort of similar humor. Xenophobe was a bit tougher though... the aliens can be pretty punishing, and it was tough to figure out what to do when I was a kid. Still, I really enjoyed playing this, and while I died pretty quickly, it was a game I always returned to.

Incidentally, when I was reading about it in Wikipedia for this blog, I found out there was a port for the Atari Lynx that was apparently better than the arcade version. I have never heard of this before, and certainly never seen it in the wild. But it sounds cool!

Comments

Machocruz

07/07/2019 at 07:23 PM

I remember a magazine ad for this game getting my attention back in the 80s. Never played it though. Didn't understand the title.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/08/2019 at 10:44 AM

I knew "xeno" meant alien, maybe from the Alien movies or somewhere.

KnightDriver

07/07/2019 at 08:53 PM

This is a cool game. I've played it on various collections. I never beat it. I should go figure out what to do in this game. I remember being a little bit confused at times.

When you mentioned Rampage, I can totally see the similar animations now.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

07/08/2019 at 10:44 AM

It is confusing. More complex than most arcade games.

KnightDriver

07/08/2019 at 02:32 PM

I was surprised at the specific things you could do in the levels. Definitely ahead of its time.

Cary Woodham

07/07/2019 at 09:38 PM

I remember seeing Xenophone a lot in arcades back then, but I didn't really get into it. I dunno, I was more drawn to Rampage for some reason. Wasn't one of the characters you could play as in Xenophone some kind of duck person?