| Rex | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | The Light |
| Publisher(s) | Martech |
| Programmer(s) | Neil Harris John Anderson |
| Artist(s) | Richard Allen |
| Platform(s) | ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC |
| Release | 1988 |
| Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Rex is an action-adventure shoot 'em up video game similar to Metroid [1] that was published by Martech in 1988 for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
The player controls Rex, a "rino-sapien" mercenary, hired to eliminate the humans that have built a Great Tower in a place called Zenith. [2] Action takes place in a flip-screen cavern complex. Rex can jump, shoot and activate a shield to block incoming attacks. Enemies include fixed gun turrets and human soldiers; shooting the latter initiates a 'multi recoil system' in which the defeated soldier's body continues to recoil until the player's bullets stop hitting it. Destroyed enemies leave behind Energy Bubbles, which can be used to upgrade Rex's weapon.
Rex was developed by a programming team consisting of Neil Harris, Richard Allen and John Anderson. After working for IBM, they all left to form The Light, choosing the Z80 as their development platform. Neil and John were coders, whilst Richard worked on graphics. [3] Rex was the only game they developed. [4]
In issue 112 of Retro Gamer Magazine , coder Jas Austin revealed that Creative Reality, authors of several titles for Martech Games, were the actual creators of Rex. They devised the pseudonym The Light because their previous game had been a commercial failure. John Anderson was Jas Austin, Neil Harris was Neil Dodwell and Richard Allen, Dave Dew. This was Creative Reality's last 8-bit game, but they continued into the 90's with PC games such as Martian Gothic and Dreamweb.
| Publication | Award |
|---|---|
| Your Sinclair | YS Megagame [5] |
Rex was a critical success, with Your Sinclair awarding 9 out of 10, [6] CRASH awarded 82% [7] and Sinclair User awarded 88%. [8] The difficulty of Rex is highlighted, drawing comparisons with Cybernoid , but reviewers were also impressed with the intricate graphics and level of action.
Sabre Wulf is an action-adventure game released by British video game developer Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum home computer in 1984. The player navigates the pith-helmeted Sabreman through a 2D jungle maze while collecting amulet pieces to bypass the guardian at its exit. The player does not receive explicit guidance on how to play and is left to decipher the game's objectives through trial and error. Sabreman moves between the maze's 256 connected screens by touching the border where one screen ends and another begins. Each screen is filled with colourful flora, enemies that spawn at random, and occasional collectibles.
Knight Lore is a 1984 action-adventure game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, and written by company founders Chris and Tim Stamper. The game is known for its use of isometric graphics, which it further popularized in video games. In Knight Lore, the player character Sabreman has forty days to collect objects throughout a castle and brew a cure to his werewolf curse. Each castle room is depicted in monochrome on its own screen and consists of blocks to climb, obstacles to avoid, and puzzles to solve.
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CRL Group plc was a British video game development and publishing company. Originally CRL stood for "Computer Rentals Limited". It was based in King's Yard, London and run by Clem Chambers.
Nebulus is a platform game created by John M. Phillips and published by Hewson Consultants in the late 1980s for home computer systems. International releases and ports were known by various other names: Castelian, Kyorochan Land, Subline, and Tower Toppler.
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Tau Ceti is a video game published in 1985 by CRL for the ZX Spectrum and converted to the Amstrad CPC, Amstrad PCW, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and MS-DOS. It was designed and programmed by Pete Cooke. The world, set on Tau Ceti III orbiting Tau Ceti, is displayed using 3D graphics with shadow effects. The planet has a day and night cycle.
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Zub is a 1986 platform video game designed by Ste and John Pickford, developed by Binary Design, and published by Mastertronic for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The game has the player control Zub, who has to travel to different planets to retrieve the Green Eyeball of Zub. A parody of the game Light Force, called Lightfarce, was added in as an easter egg. The music on all computers was composed by David Whittaker.
Cybernoid II: The Revenge is a shoot 'em up released by Hewson Consultants in 1988 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum home computers. It was later ported to the Atari ST and Amiga. It is the sequel to Cybernoid.
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In Rex, a very Metroid-esque platform-shooter sort of a game, players ... set off to rid his (their?) home-planet from a huge polluting factory-tower-fortress thing. Actually, make that a huge, cavernous, impressively non-linear factory-tower-fortress thing and you'll have managed a way more accurate description.