Anyone else remember the Big Al game on the BBC website

Anyone else remember the Big Al game on the BBC website

So recently I was shockingly at a friend’s house and we were looking for something to do after playing many hours of Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer. Suddenly we remembered a brilliant little game on the BBC’s website about Al the Allosaurus. We went onto the internet, found the link and discovered it had been replaced by a boring game where you out a tree on the floor and then come back later to see if your Dinosaur has eaten it. Today I will reminisce about Big Al and hopefully someone from the BBC will see this and bring Big Al back. That’s likely right? Maybe …

 

 

Big Al was created in order to promote The Ballad of Big Al, a special episode of Walking with Dinosaurs. It was a text adventure/Role Playing type game where you play as Al, a baby Allosaurus newly born into the late Jurassic period. The premise was simple, survive and live the life of an Allosaurus.

 

At the start of the game you’re in a nest. You then need to go and find food you can hunt. Naturally as a baby you cannot be hunting big dinosaurs straight away but after you start hunting small insects you move onto bigger and bigger animals until you get big enough to leave the starting area and attempt to cross the river to where the big Jurassic dinosaurs live like Stegosaurus and Diplodocus (If you were thinking T-Rex when I mentioned Jurassic dinosaurs then you go to the back of the class). Chances are you’ll eventually die of starvation but the games aren’t long enough to make starting again feel like a chore.

 

My memories of the exact game mechanics are a bit hazy as it’s been so long since I played it but I remember them being easy to use and pick up. It wasn’t a long game but was highly replay-able and an excellent time filler and it would’ve been fun to play now. So where has it gone?

 

The BBC for some strange reason has taken the Big Al game away and made it completely inaccessible to anyone wanting to play it. The Planet Dinosaur game that has replaced it is by contrast a dull program (I don’t want to say game) where you pick a dinosaur and check on it every few hours. Instead of the genuinely difficult and engaging Big Al game we have a boring thing where we watch a dinosaur walk up and down.

 

Did you ever play the Big Al game when it was still available and what did you think of it. Finally are you a member of the BBC? If yes do what should be done and bring Big Al back to us.

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