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Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender

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Rex Nebular
and the Cosmic Gender Bender
Developer(s)MPS Labs
Publisher(s)MicroProse
Producer(s)Matt Gruson
Designer(s)Matt Gruson
Programmer(s)Brian Reynolds
Artist(s)Kenn Nishiuye
Composer(s)Jeffery L. Briggs
EngineMicroProse Adventure Development System
Platform(s)DOS, Mac OS
Release
  • NA: November 1992
  • EU: 1992
  • NA: 1993 (Mac)
Genre(s)Adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender is a point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by MicroProse in November of 1992. The game is the first graphical adventure game developed by MicroProse, Return of the Phantom and Dragonsphere being the other ones. It was developed using the MicroProse Adventure Development system, and made use of 256-colour graphics.[1] Tommo purchased the rights to this game and digitally publishes it through its Retroism brand in 2015.[2]

Gameplay

The game is divided into three difficulty levels. Higher difficulties have more puzzles and more death encounters. The left mouse button is used for selecting options and performing actions and the right mouse button is used to look at things (an alternative to selecting the 'look' option and selecting where). Some actions like sitting on a chair are automatically performed with just a left click. To get from one room to another the mouse pointer changes to a 'GO' icon where travel is possible. To get from one place to another, Rex will need to make use of teleporters correctly entering the code.

There are 10 different options, two of which are used to interact with people and seven of which are used to interact with objects. Items that are picked up have their own sub-options, most of which the protagonist Rex would not actually do (such as disassembling his binoculars). The player must also take care to prevent Rex getting killed which can happen in many places. Although Rex can die, the game has unlimited chances and the Rex's last safe position will be restored after death.

For the artwork, MicroProse customised their own image processing tools for 3D-rendering allowing for smooth animation with lossless quality and minimal disk space usage.[3]

Reception

Computer Gaming World opined that Rex Nebular had "impressive" sound, graphics, and rotoscoped animation. While the magazine called the plot "nothing new", it described the game as "a solid move into the adventure gaming genre [with] the same attention to detail that has won MicroProse raves in other products", and a good first attempt at competing with LucasArts and Sierra On-Line.[1]

Reviews

  • Pelit (Jun, 1992)[7]
  • PC Joker (Dec, 1992)[8]
  • Power Play (Dec, 1992)[9]

References

  1. ^ a b James, Jeff (February 1993). "Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender from MicroProse". Computer Gaming World. p. 80. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  2. ^ "Purchase Agreement between Atari, Inc. and Rebellion Developments, Stardock & Tommo" (PDF). BMC Group. 2013-07-22.
  3. ^ Matt Gruson (August 1992). "Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender manual". MicroProse: 15. Retrieved September 26, 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ "Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender review - AdventureGamers.com". Johann Walter. 16 February 2007. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
  5. ^ "Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender Review". David Tanguay. 15 March 2009. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
  6. ^ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia & Lesser, Kirk (June 1993). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (194): 57–63.
  7. ^ "Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender – Naiseksi nappia painamalla".
  8. ^ http://www.kultboy.com/index.php?site=t&id=961 [bare URL]
  9. ^ http://www.kultboy.com/index.php?site=t&id=961 [bare URL]
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