Story and Game Flow

A narrative and gameplay analysis based on extracted game text and the solution walkthrough.

Story Premise

The game opens in total darkness. Harper, a newsman, has survived an explosion that has left him weakened and disoriented in the rubble of a war-torn alien town. His colleague Elliot lies nearby, mortally wounded.

With his dying breath, Elliot delivers the game's central mission briefing:

"Listen! Rigellians have Doomsday Device. Will devastate planet if they lose war! Go east across town. Cross no-man's-land. Find Device, disarm it, but beware android guard..."

Elliot also hints at a critical tool:

"Find my light-guide, buried in copse, use it to..."

He dies before finishing the sentence. Harper must piece together Elliot's final instructions, cross a dangerous war zone, and ultimately find and disarm the Rigellian Doomsday Device before it can destroy the planet.

The game is split into two parts. Part 1 covers Harper's journey from the bombed-out hotel through the town, across no-man's-land, and to the Rigellian checkpoint. Part 2 continues from behind enemy lines to the device itself.

The Player Character

Harper is a newsman, a member of the Newsman's Guild (identified by their distinctive purple and gold braid uniform). He carries standard Newsman's issue equipment, including light-intensifying goggles (referred to as "night-sights").

Harper is resourceful but not superhuman. The game frequently reminds the player of his physical limitations: the explosion has "considerably weakened him," he gets exhausted from running, he collects bruises from climbing mishaps, and he can overdose on stimulants. He is also given a dry, self-deprecating personality, mumbling to himself, venturing "Nice doggies!" without much conviction when facing mutant dogs, and shouting "Whee!" when landing in dead fish.

The Setting

The game takes place on an unnamed planet caught in a war between the Federation and the Rigellians. The town where Harper begins was once covered by a dome, now largely destroyed. From the panoramic view atop the view-bridge, the game describes the full layout:

A dome had once covered the town. A piece of the frame, a dozen linked hexagons, still stood along the western edge. There was a deserted camp to the north. To the east, a wide band of devastation formed no-man's-land. Beyond this were shops, factories and just outside, the dome, a spaceport. South, across a canal, lay the suburbs. Action 78, the panoramic view

The game world is organized roughly from west to east:

• The Hotel Ruins (starting area): Dark, rubble-filled, with Elliot's body
• The Suburbs: Rows of identical houses, with a bungalow lit by a security light
• The Town Center: Streets, a view-bridge, shops, a bathroom
• The Camp and Mound Area: Deserted military camp, elevated terrain
• No-Man's-Land: A minefield separating Federation and Rigellian territory
• The Rigellian Checkpoint: A small hut guarded by Rigellian soldiers
• The Desert: Billowing sand dunes (a death trap)

The descriptions paint a picture of urban devastation comparable, as the game wryly notes, to "any devastated and war torn planet, or council estate."

Part 1: Game Flow

Act 1: Awakening in Darkness

The game begins in pitch darkness. Harper has dropped his goggles in the explosion. The player must find and wear the light-intensifying goggles, discover Elliot's body and hear his dying words, and take Elliot's satchel.

From somewhere in the darkness, he heard a low moan. Action 7

Act 2: Escape from the Hotel

After gaining visibility, Harper must navigate the ruined hotel. He finds a bathroom with a medikit on a shelf below the sink, discovers a window with security bars (one worked loose), bends the bar to create an escape gap, and squeezes through to the alley.

The medikit is introduced here: a hip-flask shaped device with two buttons. Red (STIMULANT, emergency use only) and green (HIGH-PROTEIN/ENERGY boost). Managing this resource becomes important throughout the game.

Act 3: The Suburbs

The suburbs are tense. Harper experiences paranoia:

Harper looked about nervously. The street was deserted, but he had the strangest feeling he was being watched... followed... Action 106

If he has the stun-gun, the feeling passes. If not, he is ambushed from behind.

Act 4: The Bungalow and Disguise

A critical section involves a bungalow with a man in rags on the porch. He beckons Harper, but this is a trap: he fires anaesthetic darts. The solution is to throw the medikit at the security light to shatter it, then grab a Rigellian uniform from the pile in darkness.

Act 5: The Dog Chase

One of the game's most extended sequences:

They must have been a mutated Rigellian strain. They certainly didn't look like any dogs Harper had ever seen before. Too big, for a start. Too many claws and teeth. Harper's collar suddenly felt a little tight. "Nice doggies!" he ventured without much conviction. Action 76

Act 6: The View-Bridge and Traversal

Harper must jump a gap on the walkway, requiring the stimulant for strength. Without it:

... he failed by the merest of whiskers to clear the gap, plunging instead to a messy but quick death on the street hundreds of feet below! Action 210

Act 7: No-Man's-Land and the Minefield

The most mechanically complex section. Harper must use a mine-detector to cross the minefield, trying all compass directions systematically. A loudspeaker helpfully blares:

PLEASE KEEP OFF THE GRASS! Action 95

Act 8: The Rigellian Checkpoint

Five young, inexperienced Rigellian soldiers in ill-fitting uniforms. They poke Harper with rifles and demand "Relgub?" and "Slib?" The solution: introduce the sentient talking bomb.

The bomb said: "Ib! Ig nab 30 lin boom-boom! Devo do 29..." The soldiers' faces contorted into masks of pure terror! One of them grabbed the mine-detector and, with one accord, they sprinted off across the mine-field! Action 213

Part 2: Game Flow

Part 2 continues Harper's mission behind Rigellian lines, through factories, canals, and a compound to the Doomsday Device itself.

Key Events

1. Carefully drop the bomb at a specific point
2. Find an apparatus and charge the stun-gun
3. Acquire spraypaint, flare, and documents containing an identcard
4. Find Elliot's light-guide buried in a copse
5. Spray paint on the android guard's lens to blind it
6. Insert identcard to open the gate to the compound
7. Enter ventilation shafts via the ivy wall, using the screwdriver from Part 1
8. Fire the stun-gun at a soldier through a mesh
9. Bolt the door in the device room to buy time
10. Connect the light-guide to a panel, set dipswitches 1, 3, 4 ON
11. Press execute to obtain the sphere (detonator)
12. Escape through shafts, the generator room, and into the sewers
13. Fire the flare at a sewer monster
14. Reach Japu in the flooded basement

The Sewer Monster

From out of the gloom, a vast amoeboid monster wobbled menacingly towards Harper! Its three huge eyes (huge to see in the subterranean darkness) stared at him with... hunger? Part 2 text, $3B4C

The Timed Door Sequence

While configuring the Doomsday Device, guards gradually break down the door:

1. "There was a polite knock at the door."
2. "There was another knock at the door; the handle rattled a few times."
3. "Someone started banging at the door!"
4. "Harper could hear muffled shouts coming from the corridor."
5. "Something heavy struck the door."
6. "The door was splintering!"
7. "The door collapsed and several guards charged in!"

Meeting Japu

A figure stepped from the shadows. It was Japu, his contact. "You've made it at last! I was beginning to wonder... Do you have the detonator?" Japu leaned forward eagerly... Part 2 text, $41FB

Key Items

NPCs and Encounters

Death Sequences

The game features numerous ways to die, each described with varying degrees of dark humor:

Writing Style and Humor

Rigel's Revenge is written with a distinctly British sense of dry humor that frequently undercuts the tension of its war-torn setting.

Self-Aware Genre Humor

• Describing rubble as "Completely nondescript (at least in this adventure). The sort one could find on any devastated and war torn planet, or council estate."
• "Not three pieces of rubble, surely? No one can manage three pieces of rubble!" (a joke about inventory limits)
• "No help available until Part Two. (Footnote 2)"
• The hint box containing "a clupea harengus" (Latin for herring, i.e., a red herring) and "an open hint sheet"

The Rigellian Language

The Rigellian soldiers speak in amusingly garbled pseudo-language:

• "Relgub?" (possibly "Regular?")
• "Slib?" (unknown)
• "Neb weedo!" (possibly "Need weapon!")
• "IZ FEDERAB!" ("It's Federal!")
• The bomb's "Ib! Ig nab 30 lin boom-boom! Devo do 29..."

The Footnote System

The game references numbered footnotes throughout the text (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12), a nod to Infocom-style adventures. Footnotes 3, 4, and 8 are deliberately absent: "No such footnote in Part One," implying they may exist in Part 2.

Memorable Passages

Elliot's Death Scene (Action 12)

Elliot was nearby, lying in the rubble. There was blood on his clothes. Feebly, he beckoned Harper closer. "Listen! Rigellians have Doomsday Device. Will devastate planet if they lose war! Go east across town. Cross no-man's-land. Find Device, disarm it, but beware android guard..." His voice grew weaker, yet more urgent. "Find my light-guide, buried in copse, use it to..." With these words on his lips, Elliot died. The longest single text entry in the game

The Soldiers Flee (Action 213)

The bomb said: "Ib! Ig nab 30 lin boom-boom! Devo do 29..." The soldiers' faces contorted into masks of pure terror! One of them grabbed the mine-detector and, with one accord, they sprinted off across the mine-field! The comedic payoff of the entire Part 1

The Monster Defeated (Part 2)

The flare ricochetted off the low, arched ceiling of the sewer and landed on top of the startled monster! However, like any typically glutinous globule, the monster's first reaction was to absorb the item in question. The flare promptly ignited, and the monster exploded in a shower of wet slime that spread over the walls and ceiling and thoroughly drenched Harper. Part 2, $3C9D

The Sand Worm (Action 225)

Transfixed in horror, he watched as an enormous worm-like creature rose from the sands, to tower twenty feet above him! Red ichor dripped from the gaping maw that quickly engulfed him in warm pulsating darkness... A clear nod to Frank Herbert's Dune