Specimen 134 - A Game Boy Sci-Fi Survival Horror Game About a Deadly Alien Specimen! (3 Endings)

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

This is a new game by Ben Jelter, creator of Opossum County and Decline (which I covered previously on the channel). All three games are part of the Metamorphosis Collection - a horror anthology that's available as a Game Boy ROM or as a physical Game Boy cart!

[@h67h67jh]

Can you please make a video of the best games you played in 2024? You have such good taste would be a shame not to see what you think!

[@krisisgod666]

Huh…you can’t play them natively on pc without a GBA emulator? That’s…odd.

[@etheru]

As the dog seems to have only appeared in the opening scene, I choose to believe it survived the plot.

[@reddytoplay9188]

But it "smelled" because it chased a "squirrel." The dog was the first victim

[@AneitaLT]

The dog probably met the same fate as the Mom... ... Alive and well; wondering where their family went.

[@LucidTyrant]

Finding a gas can so you can refuel a generator to mulch a tree branch to start a fire... I feel like you could just cut out the middle man on this one kid.

[@reddytoplay9188]

Thats specimen 134 to ya!

[@aisamai9448]

Translations! Starting at 57:58... 1st Slide: Specimen 134 (picture of solar system) 2nd: Habitat (pic of Cayuga Falls, the town) 3rd: Enclosure (Town in a bubble) 4th: Hologram + Deterrence Mechanism (Pic of national guards) 5th: Bioprinter (pic of blob making skunks) 6th: Specimen 134 (pic of protagonist) 7th: Active Camoflague (pic of protag's mom turning into a blob) 8th: Security Team, Sequence Docking, and Engineering Team (top left, top right, and bottom left respectively) I love this guy's work, I hope he never stops making these amazing games

[@darklightnin]

Only correction I would make would be 7 - the blob was an engineer from the other civilization (from 8) using active camo to turn into the Protag's mom since that would be the 'familiar form' for him. Since he's armed and approaching them though - they try to defend themselves and fail.

[@aisamai9448]

@darklightnin only correction I would make would be not setting the password to my spaceship as 123456 😤 goofy ah aliens had it coming

[@Flakintosh]

Thank you for taking the time to play these games from start to finish. It's really eye-opening to get so engrossed in the story, you have impeccable patience and resilience to play the games from start to finish without taking breaks. Who would've known who or what Specimen 134 was until it was too late.

[@acrj-alfasaus4825]

but i thought it was the protagonist-

[@kyosokutai]

That is a surprisingly casual child. Feral man hunting skunks? Just pop a few caps in them. Does not even take his hands out of his pockets.

[@acrj-alfasaus4825]

that’s specimen 134 for ya!

[@Mrslegder]

This atmosphere is kinda rare in these days. Glad to see this well-made game!

[@humanhuman7280]

As someone who lives on mercury i do agree that an atmosphere is rare

[@jasonsgroovemachine]

Spider skunk, spider skunk. Thinks whatever a spider thunk. Our hero walks like a Peanuts character. And also I feel like ammo management in this game is more stressful than pretty much any other game.

[@xera192]

Really cool story actually. Specimen 134 are humans themselves, and the creatures that turn into the mother are the alien engineers trying to repair the bioprinter.

[@oddbluedragonthing]

"damn these aliens, they keep killing our crew"

[@Ranzord95]

>old tech pixel art >simple animations >chiptune music >horror genre >story focused >takes advantage of simple graphics to confuse and unnerve oh yeah, it's gonna be an ABG classic and I'm down for it

[@Peaches-i2i]

It's always impressive how creative people can get with limited resources

[@WolfyFancyLads]

I love that ending 2 and 3 are just "Oh yeah, he died...". They could've gone anywhere with those, that the kid is a body snatcher or they get liquified into a mutant making goo but, nope, he just suffocates, roll credits! It's a little amusing by how abrupt it is.

[@SeonilKim-ry5lj]

It might be just me: the main character looks similar to Kevin Mccallister from Home Alone.

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

Haha, someone else in the comments said that too, so it's not just you! :)

[@sinisterlaugh872]

As simple as this game is, it manages to create a good survival horror experience. You really do want to find as many ammo as possible and avoid as many enemies as possible

[@commsmate]

Imagine a random kid comes to you and hands you a rifle. Damn.... great game

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

Haha, yeah that was wild! You go and chat to the Sheriff directly after too with that big ass rifle in your posession!

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

I imagine a north-midwesterner will come in here and say it's just a daily occurence up in the north.

[@commsmate]

@AntipaladinPedigri probably

[@leahnzastrzelecki5217]

​@@AntipaladinPedigri In rural enough areas, kinda. The deer population regularly needs some thinning out.

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

@@leahnzastrzelecki5217 Your surname fits the discussion. Do you want to know what it means in Polish?

[@francoalmiron5107]

Seriously, the atmosphere here just gets you, is impressive how this Game Boy-style game can get you.

[@burstingolem8023]

This game has so much more style than anything that's come out on a handheld in two decades.

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

14:34 Dude is just playing rake hockey with his imaginary friend. I wonder who's winning. Also hoping for a Fight Club-esque hockey brawl.

[@john.infinite78]

This generation is blessed with so many, Operating Systems, from older Consoles & Portables. 👍

[@RipperCyclotron]

Another banger Bobbert thanks for the upload.

[@CatEnthusiast-gr3cv]

Hiding in my room never worked because I could still hear my dad screaming at mom. I wish I knew about earplugs back then.

[@vakant_e]

I love the pixel art in this game. The story is also really cool - quite an unexpected twist!

[@Barro1]

For some reason this reminded me of a mobile game Nowhere. Oh boy, how I wish devs would’ve remastered it and release it on PC.

[@Toasterloaf]

Oh boy! An hour about a neat new spooky game!

[@DustTheOtter]

I tried to take a class in Extraterrestrial Studies, but I found the concepts rather alien.

[@kyosokutai]

Ah, figured out what was going on at the 51 minute mark. - This is a lot better than most AAA productions where the twist is so obvious it kind of hurts. - I do love the indy scene.

[@AlmostAeroGauge]

Aye. Triple AAA plays EVERYTHING safe at the moment. From graphics, game design, level design, writing and even genre. It's exactly why it's failing as bad as it is at the moment and why companies such as Ubisoft and Bioware are falling apart.

[@CrowSkeleton]

Nailed the late '80s vibes...I wonder if the dog was the chief technician in disguise.

[@DerivativeWorker]

Kevin McAlister really got in trouble this time!

[@Pagouri]

Is Specimen 134 the Kid or just Humans? Im confused, if it’s the kid, what made him special?

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

Hi! I don't think the kid was special. I think the aliens' original plan was to take the whole town and study them all. It's just that they singled him out when he shot the alien bioprinter thing (they thought that disguising themselvs as his mum would prevent him from attacking them).

[@tarumath319]

I think that he's Specimen 134 but they only singled out because he shot the bioprinter and causing trouble for them in general, like a warning to a zoo crew that an animal is especially dangerous and troublesome.

[@krossbow789]

To be honest, the aliens come off as almost cartoonishly incompetent; and not in a "Idiot villain" way as they're not evil, but just "I've encountered drunks smarter than you" way. The fact that a small child with a hunting rifle is seen as a horrifying threat is almost hilarious (as per their second ending where they talk about him as a terrifying bogeyman if he hadn't suffocated), and their "plan" to avoid getting shot being "Turn into a human form while still behaving incredibly weird/aggressive" is a darwin award (especially since 2 of the kids that killed them weren't even related to the missing mother). Surely they would have observed that the species had guns and were prone to using them before just grabbing a giant piece of land and taking it into space... and if not, they REALLY have bad long term planning skills.

[@Based-BunnyGirl]

The first segment is literally my home life

[@onibarubary]

Oh hell yeah! I was wondering what the Opposum County guy was up to.

[@datamouth]

what an absolute gem this is. so good!

[@LastOfTheJedi88]

Steven Spielberg's Earthbound

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

The most unrealistic thing about this is the government helping out the folk the day after a disaster. Normally they find out weeks later from TV (if lucky) and ask: "THERE WAS A DISASTER???"

[@GregoryTheGr8ster]

That is true when Republicans are the majority party. The Democrats actually care about the people and care about the country as a whole. FEMA runs like a well-oiled machine when the Democrats are the majority. The Republicans are just the puppets of the rich and the corporations.

[@GoogleStinks-j1r]

It wasn't the government, it was a hologram projected by an alien species to keep the protagonist, Specimen 134, contained. Their competency was a flaw of the illusion, due to their limited knowledge about Human society

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

@GoogleStinks-j1r There was nothing about a hologram in the game. The floating ground was ripped from the planet as shown in the ending.

[@GoogleStinks-j1r]

@@AntipaladinPedigri okay but if you paid attention, you'd realise that the National Guard came AFTER the entire town was kidnapped, which means the Army we see in-game are fakes

[@yaphetgreen0222]

@@AntipaladinPedigri think for a second, the government couldnt help them after the disaster because the disaster was the town getting stolen, they were already in the spaceship when the "government" showed up, the supplies were coming from the aliens and either holograms or their camouflaged coworkers

[@bingusbongus9807]

HOLY MOLY this isnt just a game boy styled game ITS AN ACTUAL GAME BOY GAME!!!!!!!!

[@Staeufer]

This was a great watch. What a story and game.

[@Creytc4]

Basically home alone if it was a late 80s sci-fi horror movie. Cool game thought! This is more different then the common AAA games we all used to play.

[@Ksussybaka]

this feels like an interactive movie and i love it

[@So_Toasty]

I wish the actual gameboy had had good games like this when I was a kid. There are so many great games I've seen lately made for it.

[@chowdown]

There's something in the music in the opening scene that is reminiscent of the old Unsolved Mysteries theme.

[@no-one3795]

The battle system reminds me of Resident Evil Gaiden

[@Chiavaccio]

Opossum county like!👏👍👏Finally, a game that saves on VHS😆

[@SavanBerry]

Nice atmosphere

[@ellipsis5345]

This was really great. The soundtrack was a banger.

[@BusinessDude-fi1fe]

I dad once own a gameboy, oh man, how he was so happy when see this game. Thank you, alpha beta.

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

You mean GameBoy, right? Or was it called PlayBoy in your country? Because here PlayBoy is the title of a softcore p orn magazine...

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

Did you mean GameBoy? Or was it called like that in your country? Pla yboy is the title of a s oftcore e rotic magazine here.

[@BusinessDude-fi1fe]

​@@AntipaladinPedigri oh yeah game boy, stupid autocorrect >:(

[@doofus15768]

Talk about twist ending I change how I thought was gonna happen but it turn out way diffrent

[@Draggo88]

That ending was a bit of a twist.

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

19:06 Dammit, @AlphaBetaGamer , you shoot like you drive!

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

Haha, and with either of them there are bound to be casualties!

[@AntipaladinPedigri]

​@@AlphaBetaGamer And you're quite casual about both. You know what the opposite of responsibility is? Respawnsibility.

[@manwholikescheese]

i think i've heard/read a creepypasta like this one before with the government knocking down whatever bridges there are to trap the town and a guy with a boat getting shot at

[@organs]

The music is really grating! Melodically it's appropriate, but it feels like it induces headaches.

[@bubghost3887]

I know the deer outside the butcher is dead but it looks like it had really bad taco bell cause of how they did it

[@ElangPutih45]

ed 1 : biozone 134 = Earth where the kid lives ed2 : homeworld = the alien planet ed3 : He did jump but died in the space atmosphere *as for the big piece of land that was scooped out of its surface idk how to explain

[@soothsayingProfit]

From what I gathered they basically did a Regular Show Final Season and aliens abducted an entire town by launching its landmass into space, using a fake military to keep them inside the town so they wouldn't realize they're in a dome and bioprinting resources to keep them well fed (said bioprinter, which is the black floaty blob you shoot at early on) malfunctions and starts making mutant creatures. The kid finds the docking station which he needs his friends to activate since it has a security feature that requires all 3 keys to dock the ship to the dome. Without it, he gets sucked into space (where said ship would have been docked). The Mom was never abducted since she was out of town when it happened, and the creatures that attack the 3 kids were the 3 alien crewmen disguised as his mom in order to blend in, all 3 of them are killed by said kids and drop their keys.

[@ricardolivi9158]

Pure art!

[@chrisbarnes3864]

I knew the twist as soon as the 2 cartage was deciphered. Good game though. I love these reteo gba style games.

[@moonlight_scribe]

Cool game. Loved the twist.

[@CalacaRoja]

So the Aliens thought the Humans were the Alians and so the deadly specimens?! Who would have thought that

[@GigasGMX]

Neato! Could have used a Dialogue Advance Sound, though.

[@tarumath319]

It's a nice twist on humans being super baddass against aliens, I would be worried too if even a juvenile specimen could kill an entire crew alone.

[@AirdorfGames]

Freakin awesome

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

Yeah, it's a great game. BenJelter does incredible things on the Game Boy! Opossum County, Decline and The Machine by him are all great too!

[@Yoko2462]

Hold on, are we the monster?

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

*Spoiler" I guess it depends what point of view you're coming from, but we're the Specimen 134. :)

[@ForeverLaxx]

The real question is, why are they so interested in this child that they take the entire town in order to isolate and study him?

[@quasar4780]

@@ForeverLaxx After re-reading the logs in the game, the aliens don't seem to be interested in the child specifically. They captured the entire town to use as a test subject to simulate and recreate a natural environment, using a bioprinter (the weird blob thing that tried to capture a skunk at the beginning of the game). It's just that, since the kid destroyed the bioprinter, then sent engineers to repair it and the aliens logged the events that happened with the kid.

[@ForeverLaxx]

@@quasar4780 Except they mention he escaped somehow, but was recaptured, unless I misread something. They act like he's of particular importance to their study. His father certainly acted strange the entire time, too. He's the one that tells the kid not to worry about the lights and spends the entire game just watching the TV. He's even shown at the end of the game as still doing that, so either he knows something or is part of it himself. Honestly though, I don't think the game was written very well. It asks a lot of questions but provides little in the way of answers and just kinda narratively jumps around too much.

[@johnwhatever8000]

The kid isn't a monster. He's human, but the aliens are interested in him. A specimen can be something that you collect from an environment.

[@Realcactzs]

This game is masterpiece👏

[@jorgeroblesreyes9254]

what could mean save in a vhs machine? is he recon himself?

[@ForeverLaxx]

>kid spontaneously floats in the living room >I'm sure it's nothing >immediately goes about business as usual like nothing happened This thing has narrative whiplash.

[@jamespage4809]

Game Boy Horror... Huh, how can I be nostalgic for a thing that never existed?? Great game, love this and Decline. Also, if you play the video at 2x speed, the songs are REALLY good, the motel in particular is a jam.

[@marxxplaysgames]

This gives me Resident Evil Gaiden vibes

[@izwan9958]

29:37 Valve music intensified!

[@theundecidedgirl]

Is the dog okay?

[@melkilozanolopez473]

What was the sock purpose?

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

I think that was just to distract you so that you stop shining the light on the friend.

[@messaoudimohamed2113]

Is this game fully or demo game ?

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

Hi! It's a full game. It's available as part of the Metamorphosis Collection (link in description)

[@MforMovesets]

Resident Evil Gaiden, kinda.

[@STANLEY-t3t]

I am love games ❤

[@cassandervandervalk9155]

Kevin mcallister reassigned to foster parents ,so he wont get in trouble anymore during xmas . Still wearing the clothes from home alone 2 . These foster parents must be moneypinchers.

[@jacobharryman822]

I love this game, but the soundtrack at times makes me lose my sanity.

[@jacobharryman822]

I take it back, after a while I found myself beep booping along with it.

[@jacobharryman822]

The giant centipede thing crawling across the ceiling for a few frames as the lights come on at 31:58 was very cool.

[@ravensthatflywiththenightm7319]

COOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL

[@greenbroccolistudios1275]

Gameboy Mortis edition

[@bosozoku1000]

That was crap and the monsters were boring looking as hell.

[@JesterWhoHelps]

Awful music even for game boy era standards, dont understand what the devs were going for with this. The graphics are much more advanced than anything a gameboy was capable of. Listen to robocop title theme for game boy for reference.

[@AlphaBetaGamer]

Hi. I think there's some confusion here. You said "The graphics are much more advanced than anything a gameboy was capable of" - this IS an actual Game Boy game. It's not styled to look like a Game Boy game. It's actually a Game Boy ROM and is available on a physical Game Boy cartridge.

[@deanbeany6505]

Oh boy…😅

[@DaussPlays]

Lmao dunce.

[@Sebastianmaz615]

Never wash your dog in the winter outside unless you're trying to kill it. Horror. 🦮😳