0.79u2 [Norbert Kehrer]
Artwork available
WIP:
- 0.160: Andrew Welburn added clone Mad Alien (set 2). Documentation improvements [Andrew Welburn]. Changed parent description to 'Mad Alien (set 1)' and clone (Highway Chase) to 'Mad Alien (set 2, alt gfx)'. Renamed (madaliena) to (madalienb).
- 0.141u1: Qwi Jibo fixed Mad Alien highlighting in tunnel.
- 0.140u1: Derrick Renaud optimized speed of DISCRETE_DAC_R1.
- 22nd February 2010: Mr. Do - ChuckH pointed out that Mad Alien uses the same type of bezel as the DECO Cassette games. This was added.
- 0.133u1: Renamed (madalina) to (madaliena).
- 0.126u5: Derrick Renaud added discrete sound to Mad Alien. Guru and Derrick Renaud fixed NMI on Mad Alien sound CPU. This fixes shot sound and various other sound glitches. Marked Mad Alien and clone as 'Imperfect Graphics'. They are missing an effect. When you shoot an enemy in the dark, the whole screen lights up. Basically the headlights fill the whole screen.
- 0.123u4: Updated Mad Alien driver to use PORT_CHANGED for coinage [Zsolt Vasvari].
- 0.123u2: Zsolt Vasvari reorganized/minor clean-ups to Mad Alien driver. Changed region user1 to user2, gfx2 to user1, gfx3 to gfx2 and palettesize to 48 colors.
- 0.120u2: Did a complete overhaul of the Mad Alien driver [Stefan Jokish]: Merged memory maps and added mirror addresses. Doubled sound chip frequency. Implemented IRQ acknowledge for the sound CPU. Added stub functions for missing discrete sounds. Re-implemented tilemaps (now the tunnel walls scroll into view). Hooked up 6845 CRT controller. Made several fixes related to color handling. Cleaned up inputs and added DIP locations. Raised main CPU speed (guesswork). Added save state support. Changed M6502 CPU1 clock speed to 1324375 Hz and AY-3-8910A to 1MHz. Changed palettesize to 32 colors and VSync to 54.744337 Hz. Fixed rom names and 'Coinage' and 'Bonus Life' dipswitch.
- 0.106u2: Stefan Jokisch added clone Mad Alien (Highway Chase).
- 0.79u2: Norbert Kehrer added 'Mad Alien' (Data East 1980).
- 21st February 2004: Norbert Kehrer submitted a driver for Mad Alien.
- 18th February 2004: Norbert Kehrer - Second driver for MAME: http://web.utanet.at/nkehrer/madalien.html. Note: As with Super Tank (Norbert Kehrer's first driver for MAME), it was very hard to find out how things work. On the one hand, this time the reverse-engineering process was easier, because I had schematics for the game, and it uses two 6502 processors. On the other hand, the video hardware of Mad Alien is rather strange and much more complicated than in Super Tank. So it took quite a lot longer to make this driver. And I am still not 100% sure if the colors are emulated correctly. I would be very interested in comments from owners of a Mad Alien machine and from people who remember the gameplay and the colors of the game. In my MAME driver the colors appear different from the colors in the game flyer for Mad Alien. One difference is e.g., that the walls in the tunnel are red in my driver, whereas in the flyer they are yellow. Another difference is the shape of the headlight. There is definitely a different shape in the Mad Alien ROMs I have (the shape is "rounder"). The headlight shape on the pictures of the arcade flyer must be from an earlier ROM version or maybe from the version for the DECO Cassette System. Additionally, in the flyer picture all the enemies are visible in the tunnel, but I am rather sure from the schematics, that they are only visible, when they are within range of the headlight (this is also what the game manual says). Can someone confirm these differences between the flyer and the actual game? Are the colors in my MAME driver correct (see screen shots)? Brian Deuel: The colors look similar to how he remembers them in the eighties.
- 27th December 1997: Malcor dumped Mad Alien. Note: The game is kind of a combination of a shooter and a driving game. You drive a car equipped with a gun on a road. The landscape around you shows different settings (cities, country side, tunnels) and scrolls by from the top to the bottom of the screen. Your enimies (mad aliens) drive in front of you in a galaxian-like formation and you have to shoot them. Watch out for mad aliens leaving the group and turning back to attack your car. Sometimes the road narrows which makes it difficult to dodge the mad aliens. Later in the game obstacle cars appear. They try to ram you, and you can destroy them by shooting their tires. From time to time you enter a tunnel. There it gets dark and you cannot see the attacking enemies until they come within range of your headlight. The Mad Alien machine had kind of a mini cabinet, which was rather uncommon for an arcade game. After the release of the dedicated Mad Alien machine, DECO made also a version of Mad Alien for their Cassette System.
LEVELS: 1 (endless)
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Recommended Games (Galaxian):
Galaxian
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Arcade Video game published 39 years ago:
Mad Alien (c) 1980 Data East.
Mad Alien is kind of a combination of a shooter and a driving game. You drive a car equipped with a gun on a road. The landscape around you shows different settings (cities, country side, tunnels) and scrolls by from the top to the bottom of the screen. Your enemies (mad aliens) drive in front of you in a "Galaxian"-like formation and you have to shoot them. Watch out for mad aliens leaving the group and turning back to attack your car.
- TECHNICAL -
Main CPU : MOS Technology M6502 (@ 750 Khz)
Sound CPU : MOS Technology M6502 (@ 500 Khz)
Sound Chips : General Instrument AY8910 (@ 500 Khz)
Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 256 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 64
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1
- TRIVIA -
The Mad Alien machine had kind of a mini cabinet, which was rather uncommon for an arcade game. After the release of the dedicated Mad Alien machine, DECO made also a version of Mad Alien for their Cassette System.
Default highscore table (BEST FIVE) :
1ST 00000
2ND 00000
3RD 00000
4TH 00000
5TH 00000
- CONTRIBUTE -
Edit this entry: https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1429&o=2
