With Alien prequel Prometheus nearing its release, Retro Gamer looks back at some of its favourite videogame aliens, both friendly and hostile.

The regimented and orderly Space Invaders are the most recognisable aliens in gaming, having appeared on everything from footwear to shower curtains.

As well helping grow the games industry with its success and popularity, Taito’s seminal shooter holds the honour of being the first ‘killer-app’ when the game was licensed by Atari for release on its 2600 and sales of the console soared. Yet despite being famous around the world, little is known about the humble Space Invader, but here’s what we’ve managed to glean…

Clearly a hostile race, that they move in fomration means they probably have a collective consciousness, and becoming more aggressive as their numbers are gradually whittled down says to us that they’re an intelligent race too. They’re also determined, never backing down from a fight even when one solitary alien is all that remains of their assault. Actually, we guess that last point could just mean they’re really, really stupid. In which case that goes completely against our earlier point about them being intelligent. Now we’re confused. Erm… have we mentioned they move in unison?

The latest issue of Retro Gamer is now on sale and features lots of cool Atari-related articles to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Atari Inc.

We’ve an in-depth look at the creation of the Atari 2600. Atari Inc’s iconic console sold over 30-million units and is loved the world over. Our article gives a fascinating insight into the machine’s creation, with many world exclusive anecdotes.

The Atari theme is continued with a celebration of the 40 things that shaped the Atari brand, which remains one of the most recognisable brands in computer history. We look at Jack Tramiel, Atari’s various home systems, its ground-breaking arcade games and much, much more.

Other great articles include a look back at Blizzard’s Diablo franchise and an interview about Diablo III, we celebrate the classic Mega Drive shooter Thunder Force III, go behind the scenes of Double Dragon, Hogs Of War and the BBC classic Citadel, and reveal the complex history of the flight simulator.

Retro Gamer issue 103 is on sale now priced £4.99 and is availabel from all good newsagents, the Imagineshop Great Digital Mags and iTunes

With Alien prequel Prometheus nearing its release, Retro Gamer looks back at some of its favourite videogame aliens, both friendly and hostile.  

Howard Scott Warshaw programmed two 2600 games starring alien heroes. One was the infamous E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial (which, given the amount of landfill it created, could be the only videogame in history visible from outer space), and the second was Yar’s Revenge, a superb shooter for the Atari 2600 that became the best-selling original Atari game for the machine.

As explained in the Quotile Ultimatum - a comic book packaged with the game, Yars evolved from common houseflies. When a manned space excursion goes wrong, a shuttle crashes into a strange planet and the high radiation levels caused by the explosion cause the flies on board to mutate into humanoid creatures.

A peaceful race, they soon begin populating several planets in the solar system. However, their existence soon comes under threat from a nefarious alien called the Quotile, which starts decimating their planets one by one. With just one remaining, it falls to a single Yar to breach the Quotile’s shield and destroy it using a powerful weapon known as the Zorlon Cannon.

As well as a deep back story (for a 2600 game), what made Yar so cool was that he flew in the face of the limited visual capabilitiess of the 2600. Gnawing away the shield of its enemy target, furiously flapping his wings and basically just behaving like a housefly, Warshaw packed a lot of character into the little guy.

With Alien prequel Prometheus nearing its release, Retro Gamer looks back at some of its favourite videogame aliens, both friendly and hostile.  

A run and gunner like few others, Alien Soldier is typical Treasure. With a large number of short and easy levels working at odds with many super-tough bosses, it’s a boss rush that has little time for casual gamers, and seems proud of the fact.

Epsilon Eagle is part of a parasitic race of genetically created beings that are able to link themselves to animals and machinery, and this explains why his appearance is comprises an odd mix of bird feathers and metal. Originally the leader of a criminal outfit called ‘Scarlett’ (Treasure often likes to link elements of its games to light and colour), the game explains that Epsilon turned on his team after bonding with a boy with paranormal powers, setting the scene for this unique and challenging Mega Drive title.

Alien Solider never recieved a physical release in North America and was instead only made available through Sega’s short-lived Sega Channel, a cable games service for Genesis. The same thing also happened to the Genesis games Golden Axe III, Pulseman and Mega Man: The Wily Wars in the region.

There is an app out there for everything – or, more to the point, over a dozen apps for each one that you look for – and the list is growing daily. That’s why Imagine has tried and tested the newest, most popular, most useful and truly innovative apps out there, in order to produce a directory of the latest and greatest. Spanning media entertainment and creation, news, networks and education, business tools, cutting-edge games and everything in between, this bookazine will help you get the best out of your iPhone.

Jonathan Gordon, Editor of Apps Magazine, said; “With well over 500,000 apps available on the App Store, finding truly great apps is getting harder and harder, but The Greatest iPhone Apps Ever! is an incredible collection of the best of what’s out there. With more than 200 apps recommended it will save you a lot of time and a lot of money.”

The Greatest iPhone Apps Ever! Directory is now on sale (22/03) from www.imaginebookshop.co.uk, priced £9.99.

To celebrate 10 years of the GameCube being available in Europe, we’ve looked at our 10 favourite games on the system. They system was full of genuinely great games and we’ve really struggled to pick just 10. So without further ado, and in no particular order, here are our favourites.

Resident Evil – 2002

HD Makeovers appear practically every other week these days, but none of them are a patch on this incredible effort from 2002. Capcom rebuilt it’s award-winning PlayStation game from the ground up, and the end results were absolutely sensational. Beautiful rendered backdrops, amazingly detailed graphics and stunning new cutscenes all combined to create the best remake we’ve ever witnessed. Yes it’s even better than Ocarina Of Time on the 3DS.

The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker – 2002

Forget Heavy Rain and any other cutting edge game that professes to act as a bridge between the medium of film and games, because Miyamoto already achieved it with his excellent Zelda game. The Wind Waker initially came under criticism due to its super cute looking cel-shaded graphics (gamers were expecting a more realistic approach as seen in various tech demos). Those oversized faces allowed Miyamoto to pack an insane amount of emotion into his characters, and we defy you to not get involved as Link’s adventure reaches its climatic end.

Ikaruga – 2003

Okay so this was also a Dreamcast release, but it still deserves credit. It’s quite simply one of the best shooters around, and it’s from Treasure. What further proof do you need? Okay, so how about we tell you that it has a beautifully complex scoring system (you shoot enemies quicker when you’re the same colour as them, but don’t get as many points) amazing looking bosses and cleverly designed enemy waves that almost made Treasure’s superb shooter feel like a quasi puzzle game. Find it, buy it love it.

Skies Of Arcadia Legends – 2002

Another Dreamcast game, but another one that is so brilliant it needs to be here. Widely regarded (and rightly so) as one of the best RPGs of its era, Skies Of Arcadia is a rip-roaring adventure that features pirates, hilarious dialogue and a bunch of genuinely lovable characters. There’s a clever battle system in place, the many fights with the huge Gigas are absolutely breathtaking, while the ending will leave your head spinning. It also features lots of cool additional extras, including a new character, that weren’t in the original game.

Resident Evil 4 – 2005

The first time Darran saw Resident Evil 4 running at a preview showing he actually looked beneath the table the GameCube was on, because he couldn’t believe it was running on the system. Even now, seven years after its release, it has yet to be eclipsed by any other survival horror game. Massively influencing – it’s inspired everything from Dead Space to Gears Of War – it remains the benchmark by which all other survival horror games (including Resident Evil 6) will be judged. Stunning to look at and with amazing boss battles, and clever quick-time events, Resident Evil 4 is quite simply one of the best games of the last decade. If you’ve not played it you really don’t deserve to call yourself a gamer.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem – 2002

It’s a testament to the willpower of Silicon Knights that Eternal Darkness ever received a release, as it was in development hell for years. Originally due on the N64 (you can see the roughness in many cut scenes) Eternal Darkness is an innovative survival horror and an intriguing take on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Starting off as Alexandra Roivas, you must explore your grandfather’s mansion in search of clues to his mysterious death. As you find pages of a book, you take on the roles of other characters ranging from a Roman centurian, to a Canadian firefighter, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s a brilliant concept, further enhanced by the creepy sanity effects that range from flies crawling across your TV screen, to the game pretending to accidentally wipe your save. An epic game that we’d love to see receive a sequel.

Super Monkey Ball 2 – 2001

Monkey Target. That’s the main reason this delightful puzzler has made our list. Rolling monkeys around mazes whilst collecting bananas sounds boring, but the reality is so, so different. Fast-paced (it was originally an arcade game) and filled with deviously designed tracks, the original was an excellent launch title, but the sequel was even better. It’s also an absolutely riot in multiplayer thanks to the aforementioned Monkey Target, which sees you rolling your monkey down a huge ramp, launching him into the ether and trying to land on tiny targets. Insane, amazing fun.

Metroid Prime – 2002

Retro Studios’ Metroid game had an extremely turbulent backstory, nearly getting canned. Nintendo intervened, a reinvigorated Retro Studios went back to work, and the end result was one of the GameCube’s best titles. The real beauty of Metroid Prime is that while it uses the first-person perspective and features lots of shooting, it’s actually an adventure game. Retro Studios performed the near impossible and managed to translate all the 2D elements of the Metroid games into the third dimension. Not since Zelda has a transition so impressed. Cutting edge visuals, a clever story and the sheer sense of wonder that came from exploring the world of Tallon IV made Metroid Prime a triumphant return for Samus and made Retro Studios’ Nintendo’s best exclusive developer since Rare.

The Legend Of Zelda: The Twilight Princess – 2006

Nintendo’s last GameCube release was one hell of a swan song to go out on. It may have felt like a re-treading of Ocarina Of Time for some, but The Twilight Princess still had plenty of magical moments and finally gave fans the mature looking Zelda game that they had been waiting so long for. Riding on the coat tails of The Lord Of The Rings, it’s an arguably better game than its Wii counterpart, thanks to the fact that the many weapons Link uses were also tailor made for the console. Okay so you didn’t get progressive scan or widescreen support, but we’ll lose those over more comfortable controls any day of the week.

F-Zero GX – 2003

Everything about F-Zero is super slick. It features fantastic presentation, superlative visuals and runs and a silky smooth 60 frames per second. It’s also fast, insanely fast, and packed with ferocious AI, deviously designed tracks and some of the best music to appear in the series. Boosted by a surprisingly deep campaign setting and offering a wonderfully addictive multiplayer mode, F-Zero is the best racer for the GameCube and one of the best racers of its generations. Yes it’s a hard game to master, but the satisfaction you earn when it finally bows to you is immense. Don’t miss it.

The iPad App Directory Volume 4 is your complete guide to the best apps available for your Apple tablet. Covering every category on the App Store, there are loads of top apps that will help extend the functionality of your iPad, and plenty that will keep you entertained for hours, whether they are games, books or utilities. With over 600 reviews, you’re bound to find plenty of applications that will catch your eye, and you’ll even discover our top 200 iPad apps of all time.

Apps magazine deputy editor Jonathan Gordon commented: “With the release of the new iPad, Apple’s tablet has never been hotter, but navigating your way around the App Store to find the best apps remains a challenge. Thanks to the expert reviews in this iPad App Directory you can find some fantastic apps and some hidden gems you might otherwise have missed. With more than 25 billion apps now downloaded from the App Store, this guide will make sure that your next contribution to that impressive number is an app you’ll keep for good.”

The iPad App Directory Volume 4 is available now priced £9.99 from www.imaginebookshop.co.uk and all good newsagents.

The number of retro gaming reboots and sequels given a chance of life courtesy of Kickstarter funding seem to be increasing each day, with the latest a sequel to the gory Death Race-style 1997 PC racer Carmageddon.

The sort-of sequel, which is titled Carmageddon: Reincarnation, is being developed by Stainless Games. The creators of the original game, Stainless recently bought back the rights to the IP and is hoping to reboot the franchise if it can raise the funding it needs. The target is set at $400,000, and at the time of writing the total pledged so far was $182,155, with 28 days remaining for them to raise the full amount.

Naturally the more pledged the better the rewards, and in return for backing is the chance to secure some exclusive signed artwork and even have yourself immortalised in the game as a hapless pedestrian to be run over. We would love to see Carmageddon return to our screens, so wish Stainless the best of luck with its venture.

If you’re interested in pledging, the relevant Kickstarter page is here.

Nintendo is celebrating 20 years of Kirby, by releasing a new compilation later this year.

The compilation will be released exclusively on the Wii, but so far, Nintendo hasn’t revealed what games will actually be included. We’re hoping that it will feature all of Kirby’s Game Boy, NES and SNES platformers, as well as the numerous spin-off games he has appeared in. Nintendo’s Super Mario All-Stars celebration bundle didn’t go down too well with gamers due to the limited nature of the included games, so we’re hoping that Nintendo is going to really get behind this new release and allow fans to truly celebrate this important landmark.

Bethesda is celebrating Wolfenstein 3D’s twentieth birthday by making the seminal classic available to play in browser form. Created by John Carmack and Jon Romero, it was not only the first example of the first-person shooter, but proved just how cutting edge PCs could be. This latest version is an excellent reproduction of the classic PC hit and is still great fun to play.

To continue the celebrations, there is also an excellent Youtube video that not only features John Carmack playing through the game, but also reveals how the cutting edge game was created. If you’re a fan of Id Software, or the first-person genre it makes for fascinating viewing.