Alan '96
Release type: Freeware
Release date: February 6, 1996
Levels: 10
Author: Adam Tyner
Related games: Alan!, Alan B-Day, Alan '95, Bear Fun Show, Blip!
The conclusion of the Alan's Birthday saga is by far the most ambitious and refined chapter in the series. Alan '96 is at times very detailed, both in its backgrounds and its (highly vocal) sprites. As before, interstitial in-engine cutscenes bridge the early levels (including one in which Alan exclaims, for those in the back, that he is in Mister Spiff). These vignettes are well-drawn and in roughly the same style as the rest of the game, giving the whole package a sense of coherence.
That coherence is doubly impressive, given that every level is different. The game begins in what seems to be Alan's house, overrun with Star Wars toys, random electronics, and of course Mr. Bear. Level two briefly returns to the meta-commentary of earlier games, with descriptive text on every tile. Level three pulls a rather difficult Pac-Man tribute -- possibly the only such tribute to use the counter-reset trick from Alan '95 and other games, to ensure that the player eats every pellet.
The whole game is rather difficult, due in large part to the persistence of its monsters. As with most of Adam Tyner's games the monsters in Alan '96 tend to freeze when attacked (what does Alan throw? Toast? Cans? Spam?) rather than die outright; here, though, they remain inert for no more than a second or two. The levels also contain several monster generating tiles, so there is rarely a moment to stand still. To make things trickier, Alan's injury animation lasts for several seconds, leaving him open to repeated damage.
Level four dials down the challenge and switches to a top-down action-adventure format, possibly inspired by Gauntlet. Level five is a small room filled with Warholesque portraits of "Weird Al" Yankovic. Level six is a Dig Dug style game featuring a protagonist halfway between Blip! and Q*Bert. Level seven is stylized with super-pixelated sprites and a screenshot of Block Designer. And so on. Somehow it all fits together.
Notably, as with several other Adam Tyner projects, Alan '96 is missing some key files. In this case, they constitute the visual content from level 8 -- the monster sprites and background tiles. For the purpose of distribution, some generic content has been substituted to fill in the surviving map and monster files.
If you can brave the early levels and make good use of the save feature, Alan '96 is one of the best games in the Tyner/Caudel birthday swap program -- somewhere in the neighborhood of Adam '97 -- and one of the highlights in Adam Tyner's catalog.
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Story[edit]
Alan's New Birthday Game!
Well, you got a thing from Radio Shack on how to make a video capture board! The thing is that you used a double-watt doohickey instead of a single-watt double bypass circuit (ooh, technical!). That means that when you hooked it up, it sucked you AND everything in your room into the computer!!!
NO! Even the Dummy Statue! Get out if you can!
Oh, Dummy's present is late. Press the secret key! You also must play through other games... I want you to see them yourself, tho'! To win, get out! Yay!
Instructions[edit]
Fun Instructions!!!
Icons: Palladia P: Energy!
LEVELS ONE AND TWO:
- Moving: Numeric keypad or joystick.
- Firing: ENTER or Button 2 on joystick.
LEVEL THREE:
- Moving: Numeric keypad or joystick.
LEVELS FOUR-ELEVEN:
- Moving: Numeric keypad or joystick.
- Firing: ENTER or Button 2 on joystick.
Credits[edit]
Eat Cud. It's gud. Like 'good,' only better. And it looks more like 'cud.' OH! ALAN'S NEW BIRTHDAY GAME is by Adam "Spoon" Tyner.
Actors:
- Bear - Himself
- Weird Al - Himself
Catering by:
- World o' Cud
Availability[edit]
This game is not known to have been distributed in any form, prior to its addition to the Archive.
Archive History[edit]
After an earlier wave of rediscoveries, on July 13 2011 Alan Caudel provided another archive of previously missing Game-Maker material, including the following:
Links[edit]
Downloads[edit]
- Alan '96 (241 kB)
