''Deus Ex Machina'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

designed and created by Mel Croucher and published by Automata UK for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

in October 1984 and later converted to

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice-p ...

and Commodore 64. The game was the first to be accompanied by a fully synchronised soundtrack which featured narration, celebrity artists and music. The cast included

Ian Dury Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads ...

Jon Pertwee John Devon Roland "Jon" Pertwee (; 7 July 1919 – 20 May 1996) was an English actor, comedian, entertainer, cabaret performer and TV presenter. Born into a theatrical family, he served in the Royal Navy and the Naval Intelligence Division during ...

, Donna Bailey,

Frankie Howerd Francis Alick Howard (6 March 1917 – 19 April 1992), better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian. Early life Howerd was born the son of soldier Francis Alfred William (1887–1934)England & Wales, Deat ...

, E.P. Thompson, and Croucher (who also composed the music). Andrew Stagg coded the original Spectrum version, and Colin Jones (later known as author/publisher Colin Bradshaw-Jones) was the programmer of the Commodore 64 version. The game charts the life of a "defect" which has formed in "the machine", from conception, through growth, evolution and eventually death. The progression is loosely based on "The Seven Ages of Man" from the

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

play,

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has ...

and includes many quotations and parodies of this. The original game would later be rereleased alongside a sequel/remake in 2015.

Gameplay

Players of the game are to take control of a defective machine which has taken the form of the human body. The players would experience the different stages of life, all the way from being a cell to being a senile old being. It is considered to be a visual-audio entertainment although the game itself does not have sound. It is separated into an audio cassette where the tape needs to be played alongside the game. The length of the audio cassette is 46 minutes which is also the length of the game itself. Although the game could be played without the audio cassette, it would make it easier to understand with the help of the soundtrack. The soundtrack includes songs, musical compositions, and also voices of famous actors. As the game comes with a full transcript of the speech, it could at times be played without audio.

Reception

Despite critical acclaim at the time, the game did not conform to conventions of packaging and pricing required by distributors and retailers and the game was sold

mail-order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing ...

only direct to the public. It subsequently gained cult status as an underground

art game An art game (or arthouse game) is a work of interactive new media digital software art as well as a member of the "art game" subgenre of the serious video game. The term "art game" was first used academically in 2002 and it has come to be un ...

Legacy

Croucher retrospectively viewed the game as a disappointment, saying "I should have sold the game at a sensible price. But I wanted to put a lovely poster in it and nice packaging and a double vinyl gatefold" and that as a result the price of £15 compared to the more usual £8 meant that sales were low, and the game only broke even. In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book '' 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die''. In 2014 Croucher released a book about the game's (and his) history, and the making of the new game, entitled ''Deus Ex Machina - The Best Game You Never Played in Your Life''.

Rereleases and sequel

A re-imagining of the game went into production in 2010, under the title ''Deus Ex Machina 2'', once again under the design and creation of Croucher. The new cast is led by Sir

Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...

as The Programmer, with Chyna Whyne as The Machine, Chris Madin as The Defect,

Joaquim de Almeida Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida (born 15 March 1957) is a Portuguese actor. Almeida began his acting career in theatre during the 1980s, he started his film career appearing on the 1982 action film ''The Soldier (1982 film), The ...

as the Defect Police, and original

session vocals. It was eventually released on 11 March 2015. It marked the final performance of Christopher Lee that was released in his lifetime, being released 4 months prior to his death. Alongside the sequel, a remastered version of the game entitled ''Deus Ex Machina, Game of the Year, 30th Anniversary Collector's Edition'' was released for the Android,

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

Ouya The Ouya ( ), stylized as OUYA, is an Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP of Product Management to ...

, Microsoft Windows,

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

and

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

. A second remastered version, ''Deus Ex Machina - The Final Cut'', was released in 2016 for Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

References

External links

Official website for remastered version

Official vectrLab website''Deus Ex Machina''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

*{{WoS game, id=0001373, name=Deus Ex Machina
''Deus Ex Machina''
at Lemon64

1984 video games Android (operating system) games Art games Automata UK games Commodore 64 games IOS games Linux games MacOS games MSX games Ouya games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Windows games ZX Spectrum games