Game for the
ZX Spectrum by
Ultimate Play The Game, based on their
isometric graphics engine that was previously used in
Knightlore. Although viewed by many as simply
Knightlore in space, Alien 8 was an accomplished
arcade-adventure (as we called them back then) in its own right.
It cast the player as a maintainence droid on board an interstellar sleeper ship. As the ship enters orbit around its destination world, you are activated, and must bring the cryogenic systems back online to allow the crew to be revived. This involved plugging different-shaped objects into the correct sockets around the ship, which required you to negotiate all manner of platform puzzles.
It was a pretty tough game (but then most games were in those days), but frustration was countered by the fact that each of your lives started at a different randomly chosen start point around the ship. When you lost all your lives, a Terry Gilliam-esque animation showed your droid being beaten with various implements and squashed by a giant foot.