Alien Legacy

by Sierra

Product Features

• Discover ancient alien artifacts that offer vital clues to game success.
• Face natural disasters of epic proportions.
• Strategic decisions determine the fate of humanity.
• Digital soundtrack intensifies the drama of your struggle.
• PC: DOS. Windows 95 DOS Mode, Windows 98 DOS Mode

Product Details

• ASIN: B0002S50O6
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,352 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

In 2043, an alien probe is detected in our solar system. Attempts at peaceful first contact fail and an attempted missle barrage is launched at earth. While ABM systems are successful at destorying these, one missle does get through and it's power of destruction forces the earth government to consider the threat from the stars. Within the next several years, great technological leaps are made to make space travel a reality. Battlefleets are assembled and sent slowly across the vast distances to defend against the alien menace. Now it's 2119. And earth is losing the war. Fearing extinction, Earth builds giagantic seedships, "arks" to propel people, machinery and the sum of human knowledge across the stars. The UNS Calypso, one of these seedships, is sent to Beta Caeli, the farthest star attempted yet. 15 years later, a second seedship, the Tauntalus is sent towards the same star to better our chances. The Tauntalus is equipped with a much faster engine so it should reach the star some 21 years ahead of the Calypso. You are the captain of the Calypso. You've just come out of statis and your ship is orbiting the most habitable planet in the area. There is no sign of the Tauntalus. All you have is some 5000 colonists, some radio transmissions and a few key advisors to help you colonize this solar system anew. The gameplay includes building and maintaining your bases on alien surfaces and space stations, resource management, the exploration of the planet, research of new innovations and discovered annomolies. Your sucess at this and a progressive and branching storyline will ultimately determine whether the colony of Beta Caeli survives or fails. "A space strategy game to measure all others by" -- Interactive Entertainment

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun game, August 22, 2004

By 

Ethan D Van Vorst (Salisbury, NC USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Alien Legacy (CD-ROM)

I picked this game up from Babbages back in 94' and was immediately enthralled by it. In a nutshell you essentially micromanage the continuation of the Beta Caeli system while making incredible new scientific discoveries, searching for the remains of the Tantalus which arrived 21 years before you did, and eliminate the alien threat.

I just recently pulled this out of my "Old DOS Games" box and attempted to run it on XP. Bear in mind I haven't touched the game in the better part of 8 years at least, so I truly wasn't expecting it to run. To my surprise it *will* operate even on XP, although it's a bit more difficult to manage, especially on the star map screen where the slightest click will zoom you to the closest perspective of the celestial body you're looking at.

I'm running through the game again to see if the magic is still there. From the first hour or two of gameplay it would appear that in fact it is. From memory the only two faults I had with the game were the incredible amount of micro-managing one has to do, as well as fighting native lifeforms. Every single detail requires personal attention and this may grow thin on people's patience. After surpassing about 10 colonies you'll be hard pressed to keep up with all of them. In addition between the aliens and the hostile native lifeforms which constantly bombard your base at least a few hours will be needed to clean planets out before your bases are overwhelmed.

That aside I have to admit that I find the game as enjoyable as I did when it first came out. The one issue back then I really had problems with was that the ending was glitched...you couldn't win the game. I remember contacting Sierra about it and the sympathetic, but clueless, tech support guy saying only that he wished he could help but that there wasn't enough info on the game. Sad too, it's a sterling example of a single-player sci-fi game of the 90's, when the genre was in full blossom.

If you can get over the graphics which are terribly aged you're bound to discover this Joe Ybarra - produced gem of a game. :)

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time for a remake of the best game ever, July 1, 2005

By 

L. Gonggrijp "Lodewijk" (Amsterdam, NL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Alien Legacy (CD-ROM)

A long time ago there was milennium 2.2. which was interesting. Then there came Alien Legacy. The game is 10 years old now and still brilliant. The plot of this game is absolutely fascinating. Every time I tought the game was over some new disaster loomed over my fragile colonies. There are a lot of things which don't hold up to our high standards these days. The graphics are obsolete and the combat against alien lifeforms is tedious. The management screens are unwieldy when you have a large amount of ships and colonies. Nevertheless, you will find that you don't give a damn and just keep playing and playing, watching your colonists take over the system and waiting for the next ingenious plot twist. The game does have an ending by the way, but I won't tell. I pray to all the Gods every day some company will make a game with a story as good as this instead of all the boring shoot-em-ups and so on. Buy it. If you can't buy it steal it. But play it. You will thank me :)

On fast computers you can play it no problems with D-Fend and/or DosBox.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this game!, April 17, 2005

By 

Ian McFarlane (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Alien Legacy (CD-ROM)

This is a really entreaging game. It can be as complex as you want it to be, you can get into trying to make your collonies as self suffishent as they can be, or focus on other things. There is always something to do. You can always search the planets for reaserch and bonuses. The Plot is the last of man left in two ships, you are the second ship and the first has disaperared. You are uneasily setting up mankind in a brand new solar system, which in of itself is fun, while discovering the secrate of what happened here. Very well written with spots of humor here and there. Very charming graphics. One of my favorite games. Along with Master of Orion.