PrinceWatercress plays Alien Jailbreak

At long last, I finally play a text adventure with a sci-fi theme. It's a shame this game never had a follow-up, but at least the game has finally been unearthed and made available to play.

Longplay

Alien Jailbreak is a text adventure from the BBC Micro that was originally started in the 1980s yet stayed dormant and incomplete for years until it was found and completed by Lurkio in the 2010s. It's a rather short text adventure, and while the sci-fi setting makes for a nice change of pace (compared to the other text adventures that I've played), it does end on a cliffhanger that will, sadly, never be resolved.

When you start the game, you'll get a short list of some of the commands that the game understands: L, LOOK, I, INVENTORY, X, EXAMINE, N, S, E, W, U, UP, D, DOWN, GET, DROP, OPEN, CLOSE, ON, OFF, SAVE, LOAD, ABOUT, HELP. (The game does not understand "TAKE," so don't use it.)

It was all going so well...

You had just hauled a massive cargo of food and liquor (plus a mindfuggering stash of narcotics) to the homeworld of the notorious Synn system, which was on the very edge of Stellafed-controlled space.

Not only had they given you an unusually generous payout for your trouble, but they'd even invited you to join the party. The more the merrier, they'd said. Those crazy guys! How could you refuse?

Hours - or was it days? - had passed in a rush of toxic ecstasy. You'd indulged in all the pleasures that Synn had had to offer, till your brain and body were screaming for mercy.

And it was in this befuddled state that you decided to stumble back into your ship and head for home, even though you could barely walk in a straight line, let alone navigate half-way across the galaxy in a Stellafed trading vessel.

So perhaps you shouldn't have been altogether surprised to wake with a start and realise that (a) you'd fallen asleep at the controls of your ship, and (b) its defence systems were sounding a red alert.

Now, as you desperately try to wrap your pickled head around the computer's sensor readings, it slowly dawns on you that an astonishingly powerful tractor-beam appears to have locked on to the ship, which is hurtling towards the surface of an alien planet at homicidal speed.

You have no idea how you got here. Where the hell is "here," anyway? Is someone trying to kidnap you? Or kill you? Or, worse, steal your ship?

You're just about to start cursing Vog for creating drink, drugs, the people of Synn, interstellar travel, space, and life itself, when the ship suddenly crash-lands on the alien planet, hurling you across the cockpit with what you can't help thinking is cruel and unnecessary force.

Reeling from the impact, not to mention several nights in Synn, you're only dimly aware of the shadow figures that come aboard and steal the ship's power booster.

It's at this point that your addled brain finally admits defeat and you slip into sweet oblivion...

STELLAFED COMMUNCATIONS LOG

"This is listening station Ebdu, with an urgent report for Stellafed Communications HQ."

"This is SCHQ. Go ahead, Ebdu."

"One of our citizens appears to have been kidnapped by target QUAKE."

"Please repeat that, Ebdu."

I repeat: QUAKE has kidnapped a Stellafed citizen."

"Please identify yourself, caller."

"This is Intel Officer Gruntt."

"Officer Gruntt, I would remind you that target QUAKE is currently at the top of the Galactic Governmental Threat List. All comms regarding QUAKE must be taken extremely seriously. This is no time for jokes, Officer Gruntt."

"No joke, SCHQ. This is Grade-A intelligence."

"Please ID the kidnapped citizen."

"He's already a Subject of Interest to us: a petty smuggler codenamed SIDETHORN."

"SIDETHORN?! Trust that jackass to land himself in deep skakk. He'll keep."

"Er, with respect, SCHQ, I don't think he will. We had an implant on SIDETHORN's ship and managed to record a brief snatch of conversation between QUAKE agents when they came aboard. Transmitting recording now..."

"Take the intruder to the interrogation room."

"Yes, Commander. But what if he refuses to talk?"

"In that case, terminate him."

"Oh. I see. But SCHQ's decision remains unchanged: We shall continue to monitor the situation. No immediate action."

"So a citizen of Stellafed has been kidnapped by Public Enemy Number One, who might be about to execute him, and we do nothing?!"

"Firstly, you would do well to remember your place, Intel Officer Gruntt - if you wish to carry on being Intel Officer Gruntt, that is."

"I'm in no way tryi-"

"Secondly, we don't want to take any action that might reveal that we routinely bug our own citizens."

"I understand, but-"

"And thirdly, what exactly would you have us do? Vog knows what'll happen if we actually try to engage with QUAKE - and the last thing we need now is a war with a mysterious and powerful enemy whose mere existence we dare not make known for fear of causing mass panic across the galaxy."

"Of course, I fully suppo-"

"This conversation is terminated, Officer Gruntt."

"But-"

"SIDETHORN will have to look after himself."

TOP SECRET PRATS 3 SECURE CHANNEL

You are "Sidethorn." You are stuck on a planet you do not even know, and not only have you been kidnapped, but your ship's power supply has also been stolen. You need to get out of this place.

You start in a dingy prison cell with no doors or windows. You are strapped to a hard metal couch, connected to a mindprobe. EXAMINE MINDPROBE to find out that it is a Neurocellular Matrix Scanner Mark X111, which is banned due to requiring the subject's brain be removed. You'll also find out that wires lead from the ceiling down to a circular blade. PULL WIRES to stop the mindprobe and release the fetters holding you to the couch. If you EXAMINE WIRES, you'll find out that they still buzz with electricity as they hang down from the ceiling. If you GET WIRES, you'll shock yourself to death and you'll have to start over.

From here, STAND UP and TAKE BLADE. If you EXAMINE BLADE, you'll find out that the blade has a shuriken-like appearance. If you LOOK, you'll notice there is an air vent. OPEN AIR VENT, then ENTER VENT. You'll enter the air ducts, unable to see. The game will tell you where cool air is blowing from, so go in the direction it blows from with the first letter of NORTH, SOUTH, EAST or WEST where necessary. You'll eventually feel it blowing from below if you keep going in the right direction. You can use either D or DOWN to go down. In the next room, which is the central cooling complex, you'll find a torch. TAKE TORCH, then TURN TORCH ON before you go UP so you can see while in the air vents. (If you EXAMINE TORCH, you can see if the torch is on or off.)

From here, you're left to your own devices to map out the vent system, which is actually pretty big and makes up the majority of the game's map. After getting the torch and turning it on, go UP, then E, S, E, E, S, S, W, S, and then DOWN. This will drop you into the junk room with the remains of robots ready to be re-used. You'll find a metal hand. TAKE HAND. If you EXAMINE HAND, you'll find out that the robot hand is hollowed out and that you can wear it like a glove.

Go UP, then go W, N, W, S. When you're able to go down, DROP TORCH and DROP HAND. Go DOWN to land in a chemical plant, and take the Dacanium crystal. You'll need this to power your ship back up. (If you came down here with the torch and the hand in your inventory, the magnet that is picking up the ore will pick those two items up and drop them into the furnace, making the game unwinnable, as you'll need the hand to complete the game.) Go UP, then TAKE TORCH and TAKE HAND. Thankfully, the torch will still be on.

From here, I split the directions into groups of four, since you'll need to go a bit of a distance for what you need to do next:

NESE

NENN

WNNN

WNEE

SEEE

SESD

When you're able to go down, you'll find out that a closed vent is in your way. OPEN VENT before you go DOWN. Once you go down, go south twice. Going south once, leads to a passage leading to a plaque with useless information as well as two store rooms with nothing useful in them. After going south twice, go west to enter a computer room. EXAMINE MONITOR, and you'll find out that whoever took you hostage is aware of your escape in what is known as "Dome 1" and and that they want you - as well as someone named Xandros - executed.

Go back east, then go south again. Follow the junction west, then go west again. You'll come across a robot. If you stay around this room for two turns, the robot will kill you. THROW BLADE at the robot to kill it, then go north. You'll end up in a teleport with a control column in the center. EXAMINE COLUMN to find a touchpad on the column. EXAMINE TOUCHPAD to find out that it is a control pad for a teleporter. WEAR HAND, then TOUCH TOUCHPAD to teleport. (If you do not WEAR HAND to put the android hand on first, the teleporter recognizes you as an intruder and kills you.) Once you teleport safely, you'll get the ending. Sadly, it ends in a cliffhanger. Nevertheless, you just beat Alien Jailbreak!

You've escaped the mindprobe, found your ship's power booster, and teleported out of Dome 1, where you'd been imprisoned, and you're now in transit to Dome 2.

But you don't think you can relax just yet. For one thing, your captors seem to know that you're free and are probably looking for you. For another, you're far from certain that Dome 2 will be any better than Dome 1.

But surely it can't get any worse, what with all the killer robots and deadly mindprobes lurking round every corner?

But what if killer robots and deadly mindprobes are de rigueur on whatever planet this actually is? You still haven't figured out where you are, nor do you know why you were captured, or what the robots were trying to probe your mind for...

Who are these frukking robots anyway? As far as you knew, sentient robots that were capable of building a complex civilisation like the one you appear to have sleepwalked your way into are unknwon to Stellafed.

So where are you, and what are the robots up to?

Perhaps the mysterious "Xandros" they were so frightened you might speak to can tell you - if the two of you ever meet, that is. The problem is that you've never heard of Xandros before, so how will you recognise her? Is Xandros human or robot?

Is she in Dome 2?

Why is this teleport taking so long?

Perhaps you'll discover the answers to these and other fascinating questions in the second, scintillating part of Alien Jailbreak...

Map by unknown user, "rainbow color edit" made by PrinceWatercress. Original map can be found here.