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Exile is a Computer Game for the Acorn Electron , BBC Micro , and related 8 Bit Acorn computers. It was released in 1988 by Superior Software . It was considered at the time to be cutting edge and pushed the boundaries of what was possible on 8 bit platforms. It remains probably the most complex game available for the BBC Micro. Designed and programmed by Peter Irvin (who wrote '' Starship Command '') and Jeremy Smith (author of '' Thrust ''), it was published by Superior Software and later ported to the Commodore 64 , Atari ST , Amiga and CD32 , all by Audiogenic . There were both OCS ( 1991 ) and AGA ( 1995 ) versions of Exile for the Amiga. Amiga Power magazine voted that version to be the best game of 1991. STORY The player takes the role of Mike Finn, a leading member of a space-exploration organisation called Columbus Force, who has been ordered to the planet Phoebus as part of a rescue mission. Finn is tasked with abetting Commander David Sprake and the surviving crew of the disabled Pericles ship from a psychotic scientist, Triax, who appears briefly at the very start of the game removing a vital piece of equipment called a Destinator from Mike's ship, the '' Perseus ''. As with '' Elite '', a novella (written by Mark Cullen, with input from the game's authors) was included to set up the story, and to provide some clues as to the nature of the planet Phoebus' environment. GAME MECHANICS The game contains other characters to interact with as well as a physics model with gravity, interia, mass, explosions, shockwaves, water, earth, wind, and fire. Energy is required to power the weapons and jetpack system, and needs to be collected throughout the game. Finn cannot die: when he reaches a point near death he is automatically teleported to safe locations previously reached and designated by the player, and ultimately back to his orbiting spaceship: consequently in many cases it is still possible to complete the game. A major feature to this game is the enormous and detailed world it offered for exploration. This is achieved by generating the majority of the caverns and tunnels from a compact but highly tuned random process - recreating the same world from the same seed each time - augmented with a few custom-defined areas. Exile's programming featured innovative routines like creature strategy code that knew about noises nearby, line-of-sight vision through the divaricate caves and tunnels, and enemy's memory of where the target was last seen, etc. HARDWARE LIMITATIONS The standard 32 KB Model B BBC version used a specially defined screen resolution (8 physical colours; 128 pixels across × 128 lines down = 8 KB screen memory), smaller than full screen MODE 2 . The purpose of this was to free up more RAM for the game data. This was a common technique in complex BBC games. The simplified video hardware found in the Electron did not support this technique, so the additional data remains visible around the screen border. For speed reasons, the Electron version's screen had only 4 physical colours. It did however boast a slightly larger view window of 128 pixels × 192 lines down. In the case of a BBC Micro computer that had been upgraded with a 16 KB Page of Sideways RAM , Exile detected this and the option of playing an enhanced version of the game was presented to the user. These enhancements included sampled sound effects and digitized speech ("''Welcome to the land of the Exile.''" and "''Alien die!''"), as well as a larger visible screen area (8 physical colours; 128 pixels across × 256 lines down = 16 KB screen memory). GAME LOCATIONS Aside from the ''Perseus'' and ''Pericles'' ships, the world of Exile has many cave systems and tunnels. These locations in approximate order of depth are: ''Aurora, Honeycomb, Lyre, Eridanus, Amaranth, Rune, Hamlet, Inferno, Sarawak, Puck, Nemesis, Orotund, Bigwig, Waters, Sulaco, Artesian, Carrion, Eclipse, Gemini, Madrigal, Zephyr, Pogrom, Drey, Behemoth, Yarrow, Nebulous, Loganberry, Laager, Ferro, Askance, Aquila, Nidus, Blackdown, Abscond, Diapason, Agamen, Vendetta, Scorpius, Brazil, Okhotsk, Tutelary, Eros, Palermo, Aeolus, Esplanade, Fury, Antipodes, Hades, Eyre, Pascal, Hydra, Hercules, Cassandra, Cetus, Triton, Acheron, Zeppelin, Kielder'' MISCELLANEA Cheat programs were created that took advantage of the object system of the game, allowing the character to fire, in addition to the standard bullets, boulders, grenades, and even clones of himself. Also of note was Exile's Copy Protection Routines , noted by some for their ingenuity. GAME CONTROLS BBC Micro (Keyboard) ''(Function Keys - SUPERVISOR MODE)'' f0 = Run Game, f1 = Status, f2 = See Position, f3 = Catalogue, f4 = Load Position, f5 = Save Position, f6 = Score Breakdown, f7 = Default Position ''(Function Keys - IN-GAME MODE)'' f0 = Jetpack, f1 = Pistol, f2 = Icer, f3 = Blaster, f4 = Plasma Gun, f5 = Protection Suit Cursor Up, Cursor Down, Cursor Left, Cursor Right = Move viewable screen area Tab = Turn, Q = Thrust/Walk Left, W = Thrust/Walk Right, R = Remember Location, T = Teleport, Y = Whistle 1, U = Whistle 2, I = Center Aiming, O = Raise Aiming Angle, P = Thrust Up, @ = Boost Ctrl = Lie Down, S = Store An Object, G = Get Back An Object, K = Lower Aiming Angle, L = Thrust Down Shift = Energy Transfer To Current Weapon From function key 'n', V = Volume, M = Drop Object, , = Pick Up Object, . = Throw Object Forward, Copy = Freeze On/Off Space = Shoot/Activate GALLERY |
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