Exile on Acorn Electron 8 bit vintage home computer

[wayne9999999]

Steve, I think the "bricked up gate" you mention was the one that is meant to be blown up by dropping a radioactive boulder on to another one placed on the gate itself. This gives access to the lower parts of the planet. I managed to do that once but getting the boulders to that part of the map is tricky. Below that is a nightmare involving a very tough robot and some invisible birds. I gave up at that point lol.

[wayne9999999]

Great game but really unforgiving and frustrating. I never clocked it but got quite close once after 10 hours non-stop play. Always remember getting spaced out by the mushrooms below the surface lol.

[SteveBenway]

@wayne9999999 It really is a tricky one. I never finished it either. I seem to remember reaching a point where there was a bricked up gate in the floor which I couldn't open, and always running out of resources before I could make any more progress.

[taffyt120]

@SteveBenway I used to get stuck there too, I could never manage the proper method involving the radioactive boulders to blow it apart. But one day, by chance, I found a different method, I remembered a teleport position whilst stood on the gate, flew to the ceiling with a normal lying around rock, dropped it then teleported to the gate, lay down and a few seconds later the rock hit me with such force it pushed me straight through the gate! Great success! Ah... the memories... :)

[SteveBenway]

@taffyt120 Blimey... interesting method :D

I keep telling myself I'll come back to this one day and have another proper crack at it, but never quite get around to it. Maybe when I retire in another 20 years from now... lol

[davangel]

Amazing game. Took me months to complete it, and even when you know what you're doing, it still takes about 6 hours to play through.

[bcostin]

I really like the style of the graphics in this version of the game, and the artful use of the relatively small color palette. Working within the limitations of classic hardware has inspired some amazing work from game designers.

[LeShark75]

I spent hours and hours on this back in the day.

Catch a monkey put it in the ship, then grab a Maggot put that in the ship and see what happens LOL, brilliant.

[DocHackenbush]

Great game!

[julsyDCst]

That does look pretty amazing considering the electrons capabilities, sure kicks snappers arse!

[preydog1]

What is it your supposed to do on this game???

[SteveBenway]

If I remember rightly, you explore the base, rescue survivors... if there are any... and defeat the evil doctor whatever his name is.

I never completed this, back in the day... and spent most of my time trying to get past assorted creatures, gun turrets, robots, locked doors, and solve assorted puzzles etc, just to get further into the map.

[excalibur1814]

@SteveBenway Triax was the mad man who killed the original crew of the Pericles?

[SteveBenway]

@excalibur1814 Long time since I read the story, but that sounds familiar :)

[Foebane72]

I find it fascinating that they had to store game data in the memory for the screen image. Having studied the Atari XL's memory map, I too realise how precious memory space on retro computers actually is, especially if you're not using cartridges to store the game data separate from the system's memory map.

At least, I assume that's how it works?

[SteveBenway]

I don't know how it works... lol.

I only know that all that junk on the Exile screen, and a few other games, is game data stored in display memory, because I read about it somewhere.

[mcgigglish]

@Foebane72 I seem to remember Superior software did the same with Citadel, and possibly one of the Repton games as well. It looked a mess - but I didn't mind as long as I got to play great games on the humble electron

[Rockythefishman]

Damm it looks great on the Electron. I playied the game for hours on the C64. I think you are right when you say its the best game on the system well worth the £12:99 I saw on the box

[MyOtherCareer]

Not a bad looking piece of software. The more I watch these videos, the more I feel like I missed out on some sweet home computer acton in the 80s. BTW, the vid looks great with your intro and outro.

[laatmaarzien]

The coders pushed that old computer.

I believe Worms for the Acorn Electron is possible after seeing this game with all its physics and particle effects.

Plus the animation of the main character looks very good.

[SteveBenway]

This game had a great deal to do with my attitude towards the NES, in the late 80s.

I'd been playing this game for some time, having paid all of £12.99 for it, when I saw a NES in Boots, running Super Mario. I took one look at that and figured they must be having a laugh, with their simple physics, ugly character and stupidly high cartridge prices.

Not an entirely realistic perspective, given this is one of a kind on the Electron, compared to lots of quality NES games.

[chrisha100]

This game perhaps utilised the Electron to it's full potential in terms of graphics and certainly in terms of sound . But the game , for me , fell a short distance from being the most playable game that I played on the Electron .

For anyone wishing to see a fine arcade adventure on the electron , have a look at Citadel . I believe it has more to offer than Exile in terms of originality ,playability + graphics .

[SteveBenway]

I believe I have Citadel, so I'll be sure to put it up for comparison fairly soon.

[atarileaf]

That is really impressive. The physics are very good too. It has a kind of gravitar style gameplay. Great video Steve :)

[Lorfarius]

Looks fantastic considering the system its on!

[markvergeer]

Wow actually using video memory to cram the game in is quite innovative. Being able to look at the program code that is running on screen - taking a pick 'inside' the game is rather unique...

[markvergeer]

Like this intro!

[Joebeeb]

Looks pretty impressive for an Electron game.

[SteveBenway]

It's probably the best, not to mention technically impressive, game ever to appear on the Electron.

It possibly even beats Elite, in respect of getting the most out of the hardware... though that may be a controversial suggestion.

[RossPK81]

Looks like a great game Steve.

[bar77FUL]

Love your videos but not keen on intros in general, web users have no patience "show me the content"!!! hth