Alter Ego (Browser)

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Description

Alter Ego is a game which tries to simulate life itself. The player creates a character with different personality statistics, either by assigning them randomly or by answering a few introductory questions. They then guide this character through seven life phases, from infancy to old age.

The gameplay consists of a series of situations where a decision has to be made. This is done by choosing one of multiple answer possibilities, sometimes accompanied with a mood. Then the player gets presented with the outcome and goes on to the next situation. Every decision has long-time consequences and influences the personality, health and which situations await further down the road. Some decisions may even result in an early death or instant game over.

Every life phase is represented by a life tree where the situations are lined up; the motive of the situation card shows the general theme of the situation. After reaching a certain age, additional life options can be undergone at any time. Here the player can change his lifestyle and manage his love and professional life.

The game exists in two variations which depict a male or female life.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Part of the Following Groups

• Games released as complementary versions
• Genre: Choose-Your-Own-Adventure
• Genre: Simulation - Human life
• Multiple-choice games

User Reviews

Terribly flawed, but interesting nonetheless

Asinine (1006)

Critic Reviews

There are no critic reviews for this game.

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
Graphics score?	3	Cavalary (10921) Jul 09, 2014

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Commodore 64 and Apple II versions of Alter Ego appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Explicit content

Because of the authenticity of the life experiences explored in the program, Alter Ego contains explicit material which may not be suitable for players under the age of 16. They have the option of skipping these experiences, however.

Female and male versions

The game came out in a distinct male and female version, where all the experiences are geared toward male or female players respectively.

Sales

The female version, due to the very small percentage of female gamers at the time, did not sell well and is fairly rare.

Awards

• Commodore Format
  • January 1991 (Issue 4) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
• Happy Computer
  • 1986 - Best Game Idea of the Year
  • Issue 04/1987 - #11 Best Game in 1986 (Readers' Vote)
• Zzap!
  • January 1990 (Issue 57) – 'The Best Games of the 80's Decade' (Phil King)

Related Web Sites

• Alter Ego (Play Alter Ego online through a browser.)
• Alter Ego Review by Adam Cadre (Adam Cadre reviews Alter Ego, which he played while programming his interactive fiction game 9:05.)
• Commodore 64 Boxed Sets (For C64: high quality software sets (box; digitalised manual; miscellaneous; screenshots).)
• Crap Shoot (A humorous review on PC Gamer)
• DOSBox, an x86 emulator with DOS (Statistics page of compatibility with original DOS version.)
• IMDb, the Internet Movie Database (For combined platforms: game database entry.)
• Lemon 64 (Female version) (For C64: game entry database; manual; additional material.)
• Lemon 64 (Male version) (For C64: game entry database; magazine reviews; cover art digitalizations; additional material.)
• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (encyclopaedic entry for combined platforms.)