Deus Ex Machina (computer game)

The name of the game is the Latin expression deus ex machina , literally meaning “car god” and used to denote a person or an event that provides a sudden and unexpected resolution of the plot.

The game reflects the life of the “defect” that was formed in the “machine” from conception, through its growth, evolution and inevitable death. Progress is based on the “seven ages of man” from William Shakespeare’s “ How You Like It, ” and includes many quotes and parodies on its action.

“Deus Ex Machina” was one of the first games that combined narration, the voices of famous artists and music, combined into a fully synchronized soundtrack. Ian Dury , John Pertvey , Donna Bailey , Frankie Howard took part in his recordings , E.P. Thompson and Mel Croucher himself who also wrote music. The programmer of the original Spectrum version was Andrew Stagg, and Colin Jones (later known as Colin Bradshaw-Jones) became the programmer for the Commodore 64 version.

Despite the fact that the game received positive reviews from critics, it did not comply with accepted packaging and price agreements, which were required by distributors and sellers, and therefore were only sold by mail directly to consumers. There were also many pirated copies of the game.

In 2010, the game was included in the book “ 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die ” ^[1] .

In 2010, a remake of the game called Deus Ex Machina 2 was launched. As in the original, the designer and creator of the remake was Mel Croucher. Sir Christopher Lee in the role of the Programmer, China Wine in the role of the Machine, Chris Medin in the role of the Defect, Joachim de Almeida in the role of the Police of the Defects took part in the creation of the game.

• Site remake with information about the original
• Mel Croucher website
• Note in the 1985 Sinclair User about problems with the spread of the game