So everyone has those defining gaming moments. And I think perhaps they are all the more delible if you are of a certain age and got to see a genre redefined before your very eyes - in an era before the internet could tell you how it was being done and what to think about it. Remember seeing Doom for the first time? Your first exposure to a grainy Mark Hamill preparing to take you on a space adventure, not on some dodgy VHS of star wars, but ON YOUR PC?
Well before these and later heady moments came a quiet UK explosion of (almost) complete originality and programming genius in the form of Superior Software's greatest work - EXILE. I say almost because I realise that the release date for Exile comes 2 years after a game it shares some fundamental ideas with - Metroid.
I'm not in a position to say whether Exile got influenced in any way by Metroid. What I do know is: I saw Exile first, and my greatest compliment for Super Metroid on first playing it was "wow it feels like Exile!"
As a UK gamer in the 80s using my dads hand-me-down BBC Microcomputer, my expectations for software quality and atmosphere creation were frankly minimal. It was all about gameplay (and a half hour of crossing your fingers while the tape spools crawled round, from the BBC model B's speakers emerging the sounds of bits and bytes being dragged kicking and screaming into the 32k of memory).
With this possibly unnecessary scene-setting in place, imagine going through this tortuous process, only to find yourself suddenly looking at a fairly well rendered spaceman in a tiny spaceship. Stumbling your way to the airlock, triggering the doors, and finding yourself plummeting (in a real Physics-ey way!) to the surface of a huge, atmospheric alien planet, complete with, birds, monkeys, crashed spaceship, and tantalising glimpses of a massive underground tunnel network. No clues outside the game manual about what to do or how to accomplish it. You're on your own in this haunting world where there is sufficiently well programmed physics for you to find near-limitless solutions to the various challenges you find yourself facing. There's a sealed metal door to the underworld of the planet. How do you get in? You discover a round blue ball hiding in the nest of a native bird. Hey its a grenade (you discover after variously blowing the bird, the door, a sentry gun or yourself to kingdom come)!
Okay, scene is set, the mechanics explained, why are you on this planet? What are you here to do? Well the answer, as is often the case in life, is that an evil scientist (this ones name is Triax) has been exiled to the planet of Phoebus for crimes too hideous and too numerous to ...well, enumerate. Many years later, oblivious to his presence, or perhaps assuming that Triax must have passed away long before, an exploration ship called the Pericles is sent to Phoebus. Horrible happenings ensue when the crew of the pericles come up against "Hi I'm your evil genetic manipulating mad scientist for today" Triax. You are Flinn, intergalactic adventurer and space cop, and after having apparently just completed an exhausting mission you find yourself re-routed to Phoebus to answer a distress call from the crew of the pericles. Low on energy, low on weaponry, you venture onto.. or fall onto if you dont figure out the keys in time... this mysterious Space Island of Doctor Moreau.
One of the most amazing features of this game: you cannot die (Accept it Mcleod!). You simply teleport to your spaceship above the surface of the planet if you receive sufficient damage. You are able to record locations (up to 3) to which you can either choose to teleport, or be sent in order when you are damaged, finally ending up in the ship again if you are damaged in all 3 locations (or if you panicked and hit the "record location" button in the same place several times after being assaulted by one of the various nasties lurking in the underworld of the planet.
To expose any more of this game without allowing you to experience it for yourself would be to do it a disservice. But to qualify the metroid comparison: Exploring eerie tunnels. Below a planet. Encountering local strange wildlife. Gradual upgrades of weapons. Where this game differs and, to my mind exceeds metroid (much as I LOVE metroid) is in its open endedness. Yes some tasks are fairly proscribed in their solutions. See steel door. See grenade, add former to latter, run. But in later puzzles and problems there are emergent solutions and behaviours which can occur - convincing two heavily armed killer robots to fire on each other by firing on one and jetting away.... chasing space monkeys as they steal items you desparately need (but they didn't do that last time! This game is alive!), using a friendly bird as a bullet shield - or even better, an unfriendly bird, as the damage it does to you is less than that of some terrifying steel murderer bearing down on you in a spooky tunnel lit only by the mysterious local element known as Chromite.
I have honestly yet to see the things this game does well bettered, and I really think this kind of problem solving through physics combined with atmospheric exploration could resurface without having to be seen as too much of an homage to Metroid.
If you are able to try it - either on the BBC Micro or C64, or even on the much more detailed (and perhaps palatable to a modern audience) Amiga version, do it.
