Aliens in Our Food (found educational game; 1999-2002)

The interactive game's logo.

Status: Found

Date found: 07 Oct 2023

Aliens In Our Food is both an educational game and a website developed by Education and Youth Interactive Media and mainly 3T Productions, published by The Health Education Authority and funded by the European Union. It was released both as a website on the "Food Hygiene Mission Control" and as an interactive game on August 26th, 1999 as a standalone CD-ROM and bundled in an "interactive teaching pack" for schools to buy.

The website version does not have a lot of content. It shows facts about bacteria with a little quiz to see how much you have learned. There are also worksheets available both bundled in the game version and in the website files for schools to print off for cover lessons as well.^[1]

Gameplay (interactive game version)

The game is a point-and-click adventure (with a few top-down movement gameplay) that teaches the basics importance of food hygiene and how to avoid food poisoning by preparing, purchasing, storing and making food while following the food hygiene rules^[2] . Starring with an alien named Doof and a robot named Mic-Robe. Doof has been recently eating food with unsafe hygiene conditions resulting in Doof not feeling well. It is your task to find out the problems that Doof encountered and make a sandwich by following hygiene rules. First, the player starts shopping and collects a list of items for the sandwich, analyses how clean Doof is, and prepares the ingredients and the workspace to then make that sandwich.

Availability

Aliens in Our Food was both released as a website and an interactive game both in stand-alone form and bundled in an "interactive teaching pack". Both were published on August 26th, 1999. Aliens in our Food was targeted for the United Kingdom and children aged 11 to 14 for high school students^[3]. It seems that the website version was more well-received than the interactive game version and not a lot of computers that have the game installed. When The Health Education Authority (the publisher) turned defunct on March 1st, 2000, the rights to Aliens in our Food had now gone to the Food Standards Agency. In very late 2002, the website was shut down and the game along with the "interactive teaching pack" were no longer sold. The interactive game version cannot be purchased but the website version was then archived into the Food Standards Agency's website until the archive turned defunct in late 2013.

Discovery

On July 6th 2023, Internet Archive user KoopTheKoopa found the software of the game "hidden" somewhere in a school computer, The interactive game seemed to have been installed on September 19th, 2002 to that computer implying that this was bought when Food Standards Agency owned the rights to Aliens in Our Food. Nonetheless, the game was dumped and was uploaded on October 7th, 2023 on The Internet Archive.

On December 25th, 2023, the official website was found in the Internet Web Archive. The next day after the website was found, posters of Aliens in our Food were found in the website files.