 Today, we're going to be looking at the Alien Board Game from 1979 by Kenner. I've had this particular game since it was first released. It was given to me as a gift when I was a kid. Let's look more closely at the box here, the Alien Game. For completeness, the number here is number 40460. The cover of the box features a movie still from the scene in the movie when the astronauts are entering the alien spaceship. It also features a large photograph of the Alien toy that was released by Kenner that same year. My experience in the toy stores at that time was seeing the Alien toy sitting on the shelves side by side with the ROM Space Knight toy, which was about the same size as it was by Milton Bradley. I'm quite sure that many other people had the same experience. Let's look at the sides of the box. It's got this really interesting little alien logo here. I always like that with the stylized egg shape again here on this side. It keeps seeing ages 7 and up. I don't know why I particularly 7. Anyway, let's look at the back of the box. There's that alien photo again with that stylized egg logo. The object is to, just like in the movie, is to get to the space shuttle without the alien killing you. It's a really neat game. Here's a picture of these kids playing it. Alright, let's open up the box and take a look at it. There are four players, each has their own corner. The objective is to get to the space shuttle in the center of the board. The four corners feature paintings of scenes from the movie. These are paintings. At first they look like photographs from the movie, like movie stills, but they are in fact paintings. There's another interesting stylized alien logo here. I really liked, I've always liked the artwork on this game. The other contents of the box are the game pieces, a pair of die, and the instruction sheet. We'll look at those here. Every player gets three game pieces, or excuse me, three astronauts and one alien, each with a plastic standee. And I have all the pieces. I thought I would have a piece missing, but they're all here. The white die is for moving astronauts. The red die is for moving aliens. We get to the instructions, which are here. Look at this art here, covered with blood. That is awesome. The object, be the first player to get one of your astronauts into the space shuttle Narcissus at the center of the board, and also use your alien to eliminate the astronauts of the other players. So, here's how it happened. The play continues clockwise around the board. Players roll both die each turn. Each player moves his or her alien, the number shown on the red die, and one astronaut, the number shown on the white die. You can move only one astronaut each roll. And it's up to you which astronaut you move. You must use the whole number you roll when you move your tokens. Any player who rolls doubles gets a free roll. Astronauts are safe in their home bases. You do not have to move all three at once, and it says here it's a good strategy to leave one behind. That's very interesting. Here's the thing, an astronaut is eliminated by an alien in two ways. When an alien ends his move on a space occupied by an astronaut, or when an astronaut is forced to end his move on a space occupied by an alien. Aliens never eliminate astronauts of their own color. That's boring. Come on. And there are safe spaces where astronauts are safe from aliens. Yeah, if two or more astronauts occupy the same space, they're all safe from aliens. However, an alien lands on this space and all the astronauts leave, but one, the one left with the alien is eliminated. Aliens are never eliminated. You got that? If an alien ends his move on an air shaft, it may move to any other air shaft on his next roll. They're cool. Astronauts may always use this shortcut if they choose. If all your astronauts are eliminated, keep moving your alien. You might eliminate all your opponent's astronauts and face a tie. Well I can think of, the game itself sounds interesting, but I can think of another variation. I can think of a number of variations that would make the game more interesting. For example, eliminating the safe areas and giving each player only one astronaut, leaving only one alien on the board that moves with each turn. Yeah, there's all sorts of things that could be done here.