Trust me, Repton is not this.
Black and White Rag (Performed by the American Symphony Orchestra)… for lack of Repton 3 theme
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Back in the early 90’s, my mind was warped by many forms of Nintendo’s marketing onslaught. One second it was the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, next it was Captain N: The Gamemaster.. Before you could breath, The Wizard was forced down your throat. The intense marketing you could get away with around that period was disgusting, take the infamous McDonalds musical number in ‘Mac and Me’ for instance.
But then, I played Super Mario Brothers. My mind was blown, and I was transformed forever. I needed to own a Nintendo Entertainment System, immediately.
Unfortunatly, I recieved a BBC Micro and with it, Repton 3. In my eyes, Repton is to the BBC Micro as Mario is to Nintendo.
I dunno, always looked like he was skating to me..
I can only assume that due to the huge success of the Nintendo, old educational machines introduced in the 80’s suddenly got a billion-fold cheaper. There was a huge push to get BBC Micro’s into every school, so what with my mum working for one, I’d imagine she scored a cheap deal.
What I quickly discovered though was there was a big collection of rather good games on the BBC Micro to play. Top of the list for me was Repton 3.
Later in the game, things would be spiced up, with enemies which resemble the smoke monster floating round the perimeter of the level, searching for safes, so they would become diamonds. Then in some levels you’d have to collect what appeared like drugs, you’d walk into them and the entire screen would flash. They didn’t do anything though, they were just lying around. Strange. Even stranger though, would be teleportation tiles you could use to travel across the level. Things got trippy, and mind-bending fairly quickly.
The mother of all fucks though was a demonic six-legged green monstrosity. Resting in its egg (Physical properties like every other boulder), if you disturbed it, the egg would crack, and shortly after, this green thing would relentlessly chase you around the level. It was a robot, you cant stop it, it travels as fast as you, one tile per ‘move’, and it never stops. In my opinion, this things infinatly scarier than Sinistar, I’m dead serious.
I'm currently playing a major part in the Next-Gen adaptation of Repton
Repton was later adapted into a multi-million dollar box office smash
The game had the catchiest music in the world, you’ll have to play the video above to hear it. This was the melody that would swing in my head for weeks if I even looked at the game, and it loops throughout. In addition to its music, the game had a completely customizable level editor, where you could not only construct additional levels, but completly reskin the game. Superior Software chose to do that, using the level editor to create a couple of additional versions of the game, “Life with Repton” and “Repton Around The World”.
There were many great games on the BBC Micro, most of which were infact clones of popular games Atari had the rights to. Other games like “Magic Mushrooms” (A platformer where you collect mushrooms), “Ghouls” (A difficult platformer where you eat dots and avoid ghosts… it isn’t Pac-World), “Dare Devil Dennis” (A game where you accelerate and jump over shit) and “Manic Miner” (A game where you collect keys, rather slowly, and do stuff…). However, its Repton 3 that earns its title as my favorite BBC Micro game.
The rights to the game has now been picked up my an American shareware developer, who develops under the name Superior Interactive. Personally, I’m not a fan, the new graphics are atrocious. But the original, overall, its rather good. If you’re feeling up for a completely retro game, and are ready to give your brain a full workout, take a look at Repton 3.
Repton (C) Superior Interactive
