It's a cooperative team survival game. Players become crew members of a small spaceship scanning dangerous sectors of galaxy. The missions last just 10 real-time minutes (hyperspace jump, sector scan, hyperspace jump back) and the only task the players have is to protect their ship.
On 2 CDs (or Scenario cards if you don't have a CD player available) are ten minute long soundtracks that represent central computer announcements about the presence of various threats. These vary from space battleships and interceptors to different interstellar monsters and abominations, asteroids or even intruders and malfunctions on the spaceship. Players have to agree who will take care of which task and coordinate their actions (moving around the ship, firing weapons, distributing energy, using battlebots to deal with intruders, launching guided missiles, etc.) in real time to defend the ship. Only a well-working team can survive 10 minutes and make the jump back to safety.
The game offers several difficulty levels, huge variability and a unique experience for one to five player teams. One mission lasts only about 30 minutes, including setup and evaluation.
Misprinted CDs: In some Rio Grande copies, the labels on the Tutorial and Mission CDs are switched, or one CD is missing and there are two copies of the other CD with two different labels. More information: 1234
Misprinted Cards: In the latest Rio Grande copies, the threat cards are printed on smaller cardstock than other editions. This results in not being able to shuffle the threat cards from the expansion into the deck. Czech Games will replace the misprinted cards. More information: 1
Here's a quick little reference chart showing how each action is triggered and in which phase. The rulebooks for this game made me very angry, so I distilled the game into this one page. I use it primarily to get a game running as quicky as possible without touching the rulebooks. I hope you find it useful!
EDIT: Cleaned up text in the Mission Step 2, "Charge Shields" section.
Als het een lange tijd geleden is, kan deze samenvattingskaart je helpen bij het spelen van Space Alert. Zo moet je niet hele tijd grijpen naar de spelregels!
This file contains the male computer voice in Greek for use in the Space Alert Mission Generator which can be downloaded from http://sites.google.com/site/boardgametools/SpaceAlertMissionGenerator - To install this voice pack, please unpack this zip file inside the "clips" directory of the Space Alert Mission Generator. Feel free to do any changes.
This is the insert I made for the Space Alert box that holds both Base game and Expansion.
See picture here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1051998/space-alert
This file has basic dimensions on it. If you are looking for more detailed dimensions, send me a message.
I can also provide .eps files if you are able to use those.
This the PDF file for the stickers I created for the threat tokens. They will be kinda tricky to cut around in a circle, but the results are worth it!
http://boardgamegeek.com/image/981703/space-alert
Unofficial Fan Rule Expansion. Requires two complete copies of the Space Alert! core game in order to play. Convert your cooperative experience into a team vs. team competative experience. Best played in teams of 3-on-3, 4-on-4 or 5-on-5. (Ie. 6 to 10 players)
I would like to thank BGG user Paulmond for updating the rules and board with new graphics.
If any user knows how to make custom mission MP3 from a script please let me know so we can include these as well. I currently am using Phipsisoftware?s Space Alert Flash Player (phipsisoftware.com/space_alert.html) to make missions.