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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. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Superior Software is a software publisher whose titles are mainly computer and video games. ...
The Audiogenic logo Audiogenic Software is one of the oldest United Kingdom game development companies, starting in 1985 out of the ashes of an earlier Audiogenic company that had been founded in the late 1970s, and finally publishing its last new title in 1997, after the core of the...
A game designer is a person who designs games. ...
Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ...
Video games are categorized into genres based on their gameplay. ...
An Arcade Adventure is, as the name implies, a gaming genre containing both elements of arcade games and adventure games. ...
In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ...
An original press advertisement for the Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. ...
The BBC Microcomputer System was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers Ltd for the BBC Computer Literacy Project operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. ...
The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ...
The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with various peripherals The Amiga 500 (1987) was the most popular variant of the Amiga. ...
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ...
An original press advertisement for the Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. ...
The BBC Microcomputer System was a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers Ltd for the BBC Computer Literacy Project operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation. ...
In computer architecture, 8-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are at most 8 bits (1 octet) wide. ...
forever . ...
Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ...
Superior Software is a software publisher whose titles are mainly computer and video games. ...
8-bit refers to the number of bits used in the data bus of a computer. ...
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 the OCS version to be the best game of 1991. The multi-format magazine Edge posthumously awarded it 10 out of 10, together with only 2 other games. Acornsofts Starship Command is a computer game released in 1983 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. ...
Thrust is a computer game originally for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. ...
Superior Software is a software publisher whose titles are mainly computer and video games. ...
The Commodore 64 is the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. ...
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was commercially popular from 1985 to the early 1990s. ...
The original Amiga 1000 (1985) with various peripherals The Amiga 500 (1987) was the most popular variant of the Amiga. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
The Audiogenic logo Audiogenic Software is one of the oldest United Kingdom game development companies, starting in 1985 out of the ashes of an earlier Audiogenic company that had been founded in the late 1970s, and finally publishing its last new title in 1997, after the core of the...
The Original Chip Set (OCS) was a chipset used in the earliest Commodore Amiga computers. ...
Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ...
Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) was the name used for the improved graphics chipset of the third generation Amiga computers at the beginning of the 1990s. ...
Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...
The front cover of Amiga Power Issue 49. ...
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. ...
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. ...
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 renegade genetic engineer, Triax (the Exile of the game's title), 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. Phoebus is the Latin form of Greek Phoibos Shining-one, a by-name used in classical mythology for the god Apollo. ...
Pericles or Perikles (ca. ...
Perseus with the head of Medusa, by Antonio Canova, completed 1801 (Vatican Museums) Perseus, Perseos, or Perseas (Greek: ΠεÏσεÏÏ‚, ΠεÏσÎως, ΠεÏσÎας), the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty there, was the first of the mythic heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits helped establish the hegemony of Zeus and the Twelve...
Elite is a seminal space trading computer game, originally published by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers. ...
Game Mechanics The game contains other characters to interact with as well as a physics model with gravity, inertia, 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 pseudorandom process - recreating the same world from the same seed each time - augmented with a few custom-defined areas. This structure was explained in the plot as the crew of the Pericles having set up a base in a natural cave system, with Triax having his own base in caves deep below. // A pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) is an algorithm that uses arithmetics to generate a sequence of numbers that approximate the properties of random numbers. ...
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 BBC Model B 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 BBC Micro, affectionately known as the Beeb, was an early home computer. ...
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). In computer operating systems, paging memory allocation, paging refers to the process of managing program access to virtual memory pages that do not currently reside in RAM. It is implemented as a task that resides in the kernel of the operating system and gains control when a page fault takes...
The Sideways address space, on the Acorn BBC Microcomputer and Master-series microcomputer was Acorns bank switching implementation, providing for permanent system expansion in the days before hard disk drives or even floppy disk drives were commonplace. ...
The extreme measures taken in fitting the game into a standard BBC micro meant that the main game had no on-screen status indications or text of any kind, or even load and save routines. Fuel and energy levels were sounded out by a series of chimes when a weapon was selected, and pocket contents could only be checked by putting items back into Mike Finn's hands to make them visible. Despite such measures being forced by necessity, they very much formed part of the character and appeal of the game. Saving the game entailed pressing a shutdown key, resetting the computer, and launching the loader programme again. Image File history File links Welcome_to_the_Land_of_the_Exile_(Electron). ...
Software development stages In computer programming, development stage terminology expresses how the development of a piece of software has progressed and how much further development it may require. ...
Game Locations
Locations map of Exile (BBC Micro/Electron/Commodore 64 versions) 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: Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1129x845, 82 KB)http://www. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1129x845, 82 KB)http://www. ...
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. Copy prevention, also known as copy protection, is any technical measure designed to prevent duplication of information. ...
In computer science, a subroutine (function, method, procedure, or subprogram) is a portion of code within a larger program, which performs a specific task and is relatively independent of the remaining code. ...
Authors Jeremy Smith died in a tragic accident several years after Exile was published. Peter Irvin is an active game developer.
The Amiga and Atari ST conversions of Exile were executed by William Reeve.
Gallery Unexpanded BBC Micro (in game) Image File history File links Exile_BBCMicro_Unexpanded. ...
| Acorn Electron Image File history File links This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game. ...
| Commodore 64 Image File history File links Exile_Commodore_64. ...
| Commodore Amiga (standard) Image File history File links Commodore_Amiga_Exile. ...
| Commodore Amiga (AGA) Image File history File links Commodore_Amiga_Exile_AGA.png‎ Summary A screenshot of Exile for the Commodore Amiga, AGA version - taken from [1]. Licensing This is a screenshot of a copyrighted computer game or video game, and the copyright for it is most likely held by the company that developed the game. ...
| CD32 Image File history File links Exile_CD32. ...
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