Repton (1983 computer game)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is written like a personal reflection or essay and may require cleanup.
Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (December 2007)

For the Superior Software computer game, see Repton.

Repton is a Defender-inspired game written by Dan Thomson and Andy Kaluzniacki and published by Sirius Software in 1983.

While the Commodore 64 computer had many different and popular games, this particular one was rather under-appreciated. Several other versions of this game were programmed, but the Commodore one is more well known.^{[citation needed]}

This game was one that lasted a long time during gameplay and had a specific plot. It involved many on-screen enemies and complex terrain. This game was made possible by fully utilizing raw machine code instead of BASIC (which was what the Commodore 64 used as a programing language). This allowed for faster running software. The way that Repton was able to accomplish such a feat was that it utilized the bitmap mode that could paint the entire screen at once. The Commodore 64 had 2 spots in memory to store bitmaps. Its mode was in 2 bit color which meant it could display four different colors at once (one being the background color). The entire game only had black, purple, green, and yellow as the colors.

The main objective was to keep the enemy from stealing your city, piece by piece, to build a base. For every piece that was formed into the base, a missile would shoot from it if you flew overhead. Your craft actually looked like an up-side-down key for a lock and it could do many things with only a one button joystick. Your power grid is also being tapped into by another kind of enemy. You must pass through the energy beam with your ship and drop off the energy you collect at the energy reserve tube.