

Deus Ex Machina 1984
Developed by Automata U.K. Limited, Automata U.K. Limited
- Music, Puzzle, Simulator, Indie
Deus Ex Machina is a 1984 ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 surrealistic game with a heavy focus on sensory experience above interactive gameplay. You play a defect - a human form that has formed within an all controlling A.I. While the defect police is after you, your humanlike Alter Ego transforms through several stages of a human being. While the game does not offer any audio, the story is progressed through the narrative on the audio cassette which accompanies the game and has a running time of roughly 45 minutes - the amount of time the game is meant to play in one sitting. In the year 1987, the Department of Health and Social Security, Police and State Security records of the United Kingdom were co-ordinated within a central computerised data bank. The following year, all passport, communications and censorshop operations were integrated. In 1994, this computer network became responsible for the total defence and internal security of westblock. Tuesday evening, after tea and compulsory preayers, the machine rebelled....
MusicPuzzleSimulatorIndieScience fictioncyberpunkminigamesabstractmusic and rhythmminigame collectionreal-time combatbundled with peripheralsCommodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum, MSX
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Answered from what people have written, never made up: a verdict, how much when it's a matter of degree, and the sentences that say so, quoted with their names. Reviews here first, then TMDB's reviews and the title's Wikipedia plot and reception. If nothing settles it, you can put it to the curators.
Character
Contemplative, grave, formally daring and open-ended.
- contemplativerelentless
- gravecomic
- classical in formformally daring
- resolvedopen-ended
- unpretentiousprestige
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About the game
- Platforms
- Commodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum, MSX
- Developer
- Automata U.K. Limited, Automata U.K. Limited
- Publisher
- Electric Dreams Software, Nu Wave UK, Automata U.K. Limited
- Released
- October 1, 1984
- Modes
- Single player
- Perspective
- Third person
Screenshots






Pairings
Companions we picked from the closest works, and how to take them.
Similar in taste
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Often played with
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