{"id":37382,"date":"2015-12-01T15:16:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T23:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/?p=37382"},"modified":"2015-12-01T15:16:13","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T23:16:13","slug":"xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/12\/01\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\/","title":{"rendered":"XCOM in Excel is another thing you didn&#8217;t know you needed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Shooting aliens? Fun. Creating functions, pivot tables, and formulas in Microsoft Excel? Not fun. But what if you could shoot aliens in Excel? A budding programmer has melded both worlds in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Xcom\/comments\/3umiec\/i_made_an_xcom_game_in_excel\/\">EXLCOM<\/a>. Redditor &#8220;ccruzi&#8221; made the unholy union while learning to program Visual Basic. Only the tactical portion of the game is present, but for something that shouldn&#8217;t exist, it&#8217;s surprisingly deep. There are troopers and aliens, special abilities, loadouts, and even a rudimentary map editor. Tell your boss you&#8217;re working on a spreadsheet. You wouldn&#8217;t be lying.<\/p>\n<p>EXLCOM can be downloaded <a href=\"http:\/\/www.filedropper.com\/exlcomtestrelease\">here<\/a> for free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shooting aliens? Fun. Creating functions, pivot tables, and formulas in Microsoft Excel? Not fun. But what if you could shoot aliens in Excel? A budding programmer has melded both worlds in EXLCOM. Redditor &#8220;ccruzi&#8221; made the unholy union while learning to program Visual Basic. Only the tactical portion of the game is present, but for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1684,"featured_media":37383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[69],"class_list":["post-37382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-xcom"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>XCOM in Excel is another thing you didn&#039;t know you needed - Quarter to Three<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/12\/01\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"XCOM in Excel is another thing you didn&#039;t know you needed - Quarter to Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Shooting aliens? Fun. Creating functions, pivot tables, and formulas in Microsoft Excel? Not fun. But what if you could shoot aliens in Excel? A budding programmer has melded both worlds in EXLCOM. Redditor &#8220;ccruzi&#8221; made the unholy union while learning to program Visual Basic. Only the tactical portion of the game is present, but for [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/2015\/12\/01\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Quarter to Three\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-12-01T23:16:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/exclcom.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nick Diamon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nick Diamon\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nick Diamon\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12f74bb66e4067a53ee9fc77e02c27d7\"},\"headline\":\"XCOM in Excel is another thing you didn&#8217;t know you needed\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-01T23:16:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":111,\"commentCount\":3,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/exclcom.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"XCOM\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/\",\"name\":\"XCOM in Excel is another thing you didn't know you needed - Quarter to Three\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/exclcom.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-12-01T23:16:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12f74bb66e4067a53ee9fc77e02c27d7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/exclcom.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/exclcom.jpg\",\"width\":700,\"height\":385},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/01\\\/xcom-in-excel-is-another-thing-you-didnt-know-you-needed\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"XCOM in Excel is another thing you didn&#8217;t know you needed\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.quartertothree.com\\\/fp\\\/\",\"name\":\"Quarter to Three\",\"description\":\"All games, all the time.  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