Certainly unique, but not definitively interesting.
Don't expect too much, it's not that 'profound' as an art piece and it doesn't have much worth as a game however it's undoubtedly an important and interesting piece of the history of electronic arts.
at some point i thought i was watching a dont hug me i'm scared episode
Having "played" this now, it's very easy to look at other games released in 1984 and 1985 and see this "game" stick out like a sore thumb. The cover art goes hard, and the concept itself is very cool.
Deus Ex Machina is not a good "game," and I found myself dozing off during a few sections of it. But it is a very cool experience overall. I will never play it again.
Weirdo shit (complimentary).
Deus Ex Machina is not a good "game," and I found myself dozing off during a few sections of it. But it is a very cool experience overall. I will never play it again.
Weirdo shit (complimentary).
‘If it be true that good wine needs no bush, ‘tis true that a good play needs no Epilogue. And [yet] good plays prove the better by the help of good Epilogues.’
– Rosalind, in William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Epilogue, 4-7.
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (11th Apr. – 17th Apr., 2023).
Already accustomed to paraludic experimentation with PiMania (1982), a video game that doubled as a real-world treasure hunt and foreshadowed contemporary alternate-reality games, Croucher became convinced that the ZX81 was above all a creative platform for art with unlimited potential. In 1981, Welsh women protested against the storage of nuclear missiles at Greenham Common airbase, leading to a long escalation of the movement in the months and years that followed. The establishment of the Greenham Common camp was a key event in the English protest register of the 1980s. Mel Croucher, who was close to these circles and married to one of the protesters [1], imbued his artistic project Deus Ex Machina with the typical themes of the time: the game tells the story of a man's life under a dystopian and totalitarian regime through a sensory and artistic experience.
The title must be played together with a tape containing the title's soundtrack. From the start, the player must follow the audio instructions and synchronise the two components before immersing themselves in a psychedelic universe. The music takes full inspiration from Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa, mixing sung passages with theatrical narration, while the script takes Shakespearean passages and alters them to fit a dystopian aesthetic. Deus Ex Machina, for example, quotes Jaques' 'Seven Ages of Man' monologue in As You Like It (c. 1599). Misinterpretations have seen the famous monologue as a moralising critique of Orlando's behaviour in foolishly falling in love, rather than demonstrating the moral excellence of the Duke Senior. This overlooks the fact that As You Like It is a comedy, and that the passionate winds of love blow through the play: Orlando is not a character merely in love with romance, but a complex figure driven by authentic emotions. Most of the characters in the play are also imbued with genuine personalities.
On the contrary, Jaques is the only 'character', as he resembles the malcontents of Elizabeth I's reign, whose dissenting thoughts and potentially subversive actions are feared by the royal power. A great traveller, he is convinced that there are no universal values and that belief in anything – including love – is a sign of immaturity and folly. He shows little inclination to denigrate the foreigner, something Rosalind criticises him for – since xenophobia was a characteristic feature of English identity under the Tudors. Jaques is a counterbalance to the romanticism of the other characters in As You Like It. He is never sentimental or idealistic, preferring to wallow in cynical dilettantism. Yet Jaques, the eternal witness, is nowhere near as unpleasant as Shakespeare's other villains, far from the vile and contemptible Thersites (Troilus and Cressida, c. 1602) and Iago (Othello, c. 1603). One explanation could be that Shakespeare put himself into Jaques. Perhaps the playwright was bitter about his inability to conjure poetic magic outside the stage; Elizabethan society looked down on artists, and Jaques's tirades and his belief that the world is a stage should be seen as a self-effacing expression of artistic regret. [2]
Mel Croucher seems to have had the same creative drive, seeing potential in all forms of expression and believing that the world is indeed a playground for artistic experimentation. It is not surprising, then, that he also uses Prospero's speech in Act IV of The Tempest (c. 1610) before he decides to renounce magic. Just as the disappearance of magic in The Tempest allows Prospero to see the world more clearly, the end of the sensory experience in Deus Ex Machina invites the player to consider it in a broader context. This is not a simple video game, but a lively, vibrant and boundless artistic production, as the recommencement at the end of the title demonstrates. In Shakespeare's time, the baroque meraviglia took precedence over the supernatural miracle. In The Tempest, the idea of wonder is ever present, but it shifts from Prospero's magic to the possibility of social harmony and gentle human relationships. [3] Similarly, Croucher moves from the wonder the player can experience in Deus Ex Machina to a wonder for art in general, which is consubstantial to existence.
waverly_khitryy insisted on the transient nature of Deus Ex Machina, an analysis that I fully share. Croucher embraces the poetic and artistically curious voices of Jaques, Prospero and Shakespeare, blending them with his own experience and the cultural imagination of a protesting 1980s Britain. Orwellian accents sit alongside a veritable panorama of visual and auditive ideas: Croucher creates contrasts and uses mock interactivity to capture the player's attention. This ode to the ephemeral is above all an artistic statement whose contours are inevitably political. Because it makes no concessions, Deus Ex Machina is a unique avant-garde experience whose roughness is matched by an unusual creative exuberance.
__________
[1] Mel Croucher, Deus Ex Machina: The Best Game You Never Played in Your Life, Acorn Books, London, 2014, p. 45.
[2] William Shakespeare, Comédies, vol. II, ed. Jean-Michel Déprats, Gisèle Venet, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 2016, pp. 1534-1535.
[3] William Shakespeare, Comédies, vol. III, ed. Jean-Michel Déprats, Gisèle Venet, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 2016, pp. 1682-1683.
– Rosalind, in William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Epilogue, 4-7.
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (11th Apr. – 17th Apr., 2023).
Already accustomed to paraludic experimentation with PiMania (1982), a video game that doubled as a real-world treasure hunt and foreshadowed contemporary alternate-reality games, Croucher became convinced that the ZX81 was above all a creative platform for art with unlimited potential. In 1981, Welsh women protested against the storage of nuclear missiles at Greenham Common airbase, leading to a long escalation of the movement in the months and years that followed. The establishment of the Greenham Common camp was a key event in the English protest register of the 1980s. Mel Croucher, who was close to these circles and married to one of the protesters [1], imbued his artistic project Deus Ex Machina with the typical themes of the time: the game tells the story of a man's life under a dystopian and totalitarian regime through a sensory and artistic experience.
The title must be played together with a tape containing the title's soundtrack. From the start, the player must follow the audio instructions and synchronise the two components before immersing themselves in a psychedelic universe. The music takes full inspiration from Pink Floyd and Frank Zappa, mixing sung passages with theatrical narration, while the script takes Shakespearean passages and alters them to fit a dystopian aesthetic. Deus Ex Machina, for example, quotes Jaques' 'Seven Ages of Man' monologue in As You Like It (c. 1599). Misinterpretations have seen the famous monologue as a moralising critique of Orlando's behaviour in foolishly falling in love, rather than demonstrating the moral excellence of the Duke Senior. This overlooks the fact that As You Like It is a comedy, and that the passionate winds of love blow through the play: Orlando is not a character merely in love with romance, but a complex figure driven by authentic emotions. Most of the characters in the play are also imbued with genuine personalities.
On the contrary, Jaques is the only 'character', as he resembles the malcontents of Elizabeth I's reign, whose dissenting thoughts and potentially subversive actions are feared by the royal power. A great traveller, he is convinced that there are no universal values and that belief in anything – including love – is a sign of immaturity and folly. He shows little inclination to denigrate the foreigner, something Rosalind criticises him for – since xenophobia was a characteristic feature of English identity under the Tudors. Jaques is a counterbalance to the romanticism of the other characters in As You Like It. He is never sentimental or idealistic, preferring to wallow in cynical dilettantism. Yet Jaques, the eternal witness, is nowhere near as unpleasant as Shakespeare's other villains, far from the vile and contemptible Thersites (Troilus and Cressida, c. 1602) and Iago (Othello, c. 1603). One explanation could be that Shakespeare put himself into Jaques. Perhaps the playwright was bitter about his inability to conjure poetic magic outside the stage; Elizabethan society looked down on artists, and Jaques's tirades and his belief that the world is a stage should be seen as a self-effacing expression of artistic regret. [2]
Mel Croucher seems to have had the same creative drive, seeing potential in all forms of expression and believing that the world is indeed a playground for artistic experimentation. It is not surprising, then, that he also uses Prospero's speech in Act IV of The Tempest (c. 1610) before he decides to renounce magic. Just as the disappearance of magic in The Tempest allows Prospero to see the world more clearly, the end of the sensory experience in Deus Ex Machina invites the player to consider it in a broader context. This is not a simple video game, but a lively, vibrant and boundless artistic production, as the recommencement at the end of the title demonstrates. In Shakespeare's time, the baroque meraviglia took precedence over the supernatural miracle. In The Tempest, the idea of wonder is ever present, but it shifts from Prospero's magic to the possibility of social harmony and gentle human relationships. [3] Similarly, Croucher moves from the wonder the player can experience in Deus Ex Machina to a wonder for art in general, which is consubstantial to existence.
waverly_khitryy insisted on the transient nature of Deus Ex Machina, an analysis that I fully share. Croucher embraces the poetic and artistically curious voices of Jaques, Prospero and Shakespeare, blending them with his own experience and the cultural imagination of a protesting 1980s Britain. Orwellian accents sit alongside a veritable panorama of visual and auditive ideas: Croucher creates contrasts and uses mock interactivity to capture the player's attention. This ode to the ephemeral is above all an artistic statement whose contours are inevitably political. Because it makes no concessions, Deus Ex Machina is a unique avant-garde experience whose roughness is matched by an unusual creative exuberance.
__________
[1] Mel Croucher, Deus Ex Machina: The Best Game You Never Played in Your Life, Acorn Books, London, 2014, p. 45.
[2] William Shakespeare, Comédies, vol. II, ed. Jean-Michel Déprats, Gisèle Venet, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 2016, pp. 1534-1535.
[3] William Shakespeare, Comédies, vol. III, ed. Jean-Michel Déprats, Gisèle Venet, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 2016, pp. 1682-1683.
~ Juegos que Hay que Jugar Antes de Morir ~
Juego 65: Deus Ex Machina (1984)
Me duele la cabeza después de haberlo jugado, y no solo por los colores o el nivel del bebé (gente ha muerto ahí, estoy convencido), sino también porque no he entendido ni media. Y aún así, con su confusión y su dolor de cabeza, no podía apartar la mirada del monitor ni quitarme los cascos. Este juego te hipnotiza como pocos. Y, aunque es cierto que hace poco o nada a nivel jugable y es confuso hasta el extremo a propósito (ingleses, supongo), te mueve por dentro. Eso trata de hacer el arte, al fin y al cabo, hacerte sentir, y Deus Ex Machina lo consigue.
PD: Ha sido como ver un capítulo de 'Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared' puesto de alucinógenos. Espero no tener terrores nocturnos xd.
Juego 65: Deus Ex Machina (1984)
Me duele la cabeza después de haberlo jugado, y no solo por los colores o el nivel del bebé (gente ha muerto ahí, estoy convencido), sino también porque no he entendido ni media. Y aún así, con su confusión y su dolor de cabeza, no podía apartar la mirada del monitor ni quitarme los cascos. Este juego te hipnotiza como pocos. Y, aunque es cierto que hace poco o nada a nivel jugable y es confuso hasta el extremo a propósito (ingleses, supongo), te mueve por dentro. Eso trata de hacer el arte, al fin y al cabo, hacerte sentir, y Deus Ex Machina lo consigue.
PD: Ha sido como ver un capítulo de 'Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared' puesto de alucinógenos. Espero no tener terrores nocturnos xd.
totally unhinged. very ambitious and not very successful, but id rather it be that than neither
minus half a star for almost giving me a seizure
the graphics are interesting but [its obvious to me that this gamez ambition is severely hampered by the fact that 80s graphics are limited n basic af. i respect what they were trying to do tho, n the concept, music, etc. are awesome
What a weird game, if you can even call it that. It really is more of a electronic, visual experience, I guess.
I didn't play this game, as I had difficulties finding it online and I don't think my bosses at work would be too thrilled if I downloaded whatever this is onto the company computers, so I opted instead to watch RZX Archive play through it, while also reading through the provided manual and different British nostalgia pieces on it.
Deus Ex Machina is weird, but it's definitely not boring, always keeping your attention with flashing visuals and the iconic ZX Spectrum color palette. The cassette tape that comes with it gives the game a full stereo soundtrack and voice overs, all from some of England's favorite actors and creators. It definitely puts the game above and beyond in sound design from other games at the time, but I imagined the extra cassette tape would be annoying to try and get matched up to the game. According to fans who grew up with the game though, they had no issue with the sound matching up, and many have fond memories of how immersive it all was, especially at the time.
I don't really know what to say about Deus Ex Machina, nonetheless. It's definitely something... fun? No... Philosophical? Well... as much as stepping on giant words that say WAR and EVIL can be... Interesting? Not really... as its discussion on what it means to be a part of mankind has been discussed a million times before, most doing a much better job at it too, but the idea of analyzing mankind through a way in which the player can interact with the media itself is pretty unique. Unfortunately, I feel Deus Ex Machina was a little too early in trying to achieve what it does, as the gameplay elements are either barely existent or too advanced to properly do what the game wishes of you (I don't know what they were thinking doing a jumping segment from a face forward perspective...). The manual has sections where they're supposed to describe the gameplay you need to do in order to match the story, and even they have parts where they essentially say, "Just follow along until the next part" keeping players in the dark about whatever they're supposed to do as the screen produces seizures in front of them.
The music on the cassette tape is awful, I'm sorry, all I could think about was they had the ability to put any variety of music on that, with some of England's best artists to their disposal, and they chose to put whatever THAT was. Ugh.
I really can't be too mean to Deus Ex Machina though, as it genuinely is one of the first of its kind, and it IS interesting seeing how they were able to portray different things to try and help immerse the player. People online who talk fondly about growing up with the game like to talk a lot about how crazy the audio was to play with when it came out, and how it was never like something they had seen before, taking more from it on how different it was than about the actual game itself. It really is an experience over being a game, and I can see how it could be fascinating to come across. At the end of the day though, I would much rather spend my time playing Marble Madness or something with more gameplay than go through Deus Ex Machina again, no matter the graphically difference. I'm glad to say I experienced it though!
2/5
I didn't play this game, as I had difficulties finding it online and I don't think my bosses at work would be too thrilled if I downloaded whatever this is onto the company computers, so I opted instead to watch RZX Archive play through it, while also reading through the provided manual and different British nostalgia pieces on it.
Deus Ex Machina is weird, but it's definitely not boring, always keeping your attention with flashing visuals and the iconic ZX Spectrum color palette. The cassette tape that comes with it gives the game a full stereo soundtrack and voice overs, all from some of England's favorite actors and creators. It definitely puts the game above and beyond in sound design from other games at the time, but I imagined the extra cassette tape would be annoying to try and get matched up to the game. According to fans who grew up with the game though, they had no issue with the sound matching up, and many have fond memories of how immersive it all was, especially at the time.
I don't really know what to say about Deus Ex Machina, nonetheless. It's definitely something... fun? No... Philosophical? Well... as much as stepping on giant words that say WAR and EVIL can be... Interesting? Not really... as its discussion on what it means to be a part of mankind has been discussed a million times before, most doing a much better job at it too, but the idea of analyzing mankind through a way in which the player can interact with the media itself is pretty unique. Unfortunately, I feel Deus Ex Machina was a little too early in trying to achieve what it does, as the gameplay elements are either barely existent or too advanced to properly do what the game wishes of you (I don't know what they were thinking doing a jumping segment from a face forward perspective...). The manual has sections where they're supposed to describe the gameplay you need to do in order to match the story, and even they have parts where they essentially say, "Just follow along until the next part" keeping players in the dark about whatever they're supposed to do as the screen produces seizures in front of them.
The music on the cassette tape is awful, I'm sorry, all I could think about was they had the ability to put any variety of music on that, with some of England's best artists to their disposal, and they chose to put whatever THAT was. Ugh.
I really can't be too mean to Deus Ex Machina though, as it genuinely is one of the first of its kind, and it IS interesting seeing how they were able to portray different things to try and help immerse the player. People online who talk fondly about growing up with the game like to talk a lot about how crazy the audio was to play with when it came out, and how it was never like something they had seen before, taking more from it on how different it was than about the actual game itself. It really is an experience over being a game, and I can see how it could be fascinating to come across. At the end of the day though, I would much rather spend my time playing Marble Madness or something with more gameplay than go through Deus Ex Machina again, no matter the graphically difference. I'm glad to say I experienced it though!
2/5
i dont know what ive played....but i like it
Played during the Backloggd’s Game of the Week (11th Apr. – 17th Apr., 2023)
There is a joke I have heard here in Spain, essentially so called Art Films are usually called "Cine de Arte y Ensayo" , essentially experimental art cinema. This is then twisted into the similar sounding "Cine de Fraude y Engaño" essentially 'fraud and deception cinema'. Of course the joke does come from a place of anti-intellectualism, it can also be seen as saying that the emperor has no clothes when something is given undue praise.
I'm not going to say that Deus Ex Machina is fraud, I guess for what it was it was an interesting experiment in audiovisual art (very confused by steam calling it the first interactive movie?! If anything its the first interactive concept album) but in a revelation which I'm sure will lose me whatever respect I have accrued on this site, I hated every second I played this game.
I didnt really get this game in all honesty. I got the basic outline of being a retelling of the 7 stages of life with varying degrees of sort of minigames, of the life of some sort of "Brave New World" government planned artificial baby, presumably our control of them from birth mirroring the control of an all seeing dystopian force?
I was very confused and frustrated, despite being very artsy the actual game parts seem pretty token to me and I did very poorly at them. I don't think there is a failure state but I was nevertheless annoyed at these sections frequently and just hoping they would end. The game lasted 45 minutes and to me felt twice as long. I'm not going to give it a score, I guess I appreciate it for the experimental nature and for the era in which it was made (nowadays this shit would be made in bitsy and posted on Itch.io to receive like 10 downloads tbh) but I honestly would have enjoyed it more just listening to the music.
There is a joke I have heard here in Spain, essentially so called Art Films are usually called "Cine de Arte y Ensayo" , essentially experimental art cinema. This is then twisted into the similar sounding "Cine de Fraude y Engaño" essentially 'fraud and deception cinema'. Of course the joke does come from a place of anti-intellectualism, it can also be seen as saying that the emperor has no clothes when something is given undue praise.
I'm not going to say that Deus Ex Machina is fraud, I guess for what it was it was an interesting experiment in audiovisual art (very confused by steam calling it the first interactive movie?! If anything its the first interactive concept album) but in a revelation which I'm sure will lose me whatever respect I have accrued on this site, I hated every second I played this game.
I didnt really get this game in all honesty. I got the basic outline of being a retelling of the 7 stages of life with varying degrees of sort of minigames, of the life of some sort of "Brave New World" government planned artificial baby, presumably our control of them from birth mirroring the control of an all seeing dystopian force?
I was very confused and frustrated, despite being very artsy the actual game parts seem pretty token to me and I did very poorly at them. I don't think there is a failure state but I was nevertheless annoyed at these sections frequently and just hoping they would end. The game lasted 45 minutes and to me felt twice as long. I'm not going to give it a score, I guess I appreciate it for the experimental nature and for the era in which it was made (nowadays this shit would be made in bitsy and posted on Itch.io to receive like 10 downloads tbh) but I honestly would have enjoyed it more just listening to the music.
So, I'm just gonna go ahead and be 100% honest with all of you... I have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE what I just witnessed in this game. It is without a doubt the weirdest and most abstract game I have ever played or seen, and I have seen a lot of weird shit. Hell, I never even heard of this game until earlier today. However, with that being said... just because I don't understand something doesn't mean I hate it, and if I were to give any thoughts on it, I would say I weirdly enjoyed this.
This game is more so an experience than anything. From what I can gather, you are basically experiencing the creation, life, and death of a defect, playing a part in what "percentage of life" you live throughout the many stages of its life, paired along with music and voice tracks throughout the experience that are just as confusing as everything else. With that being said, I did enjoy a lot of it. The presentation is very unique, especially for a game released around this time, and the music and voicework is extremely well done.
As for the gameplay itself, while it may seem inconsequential, it does provide a bit of insight into what's going on with this defect, even if I myself couldn't see it, and despite the little impact you have, what you do does feel like it has a genuine effect on the subject itself. Throughout the entire thing, you can tell that there was love and care put into this, and it has shown, given the rereleases and legacy this game has had throughout the almost 40 years that it has been a thing.
Overall, while I will probably never properly understand it, I did find it to be a very unique and unforgettable experience that is definitely worth remembering and preserving for years to come.
Game #65
This game is more so an experience than anything. From what I can gather, you are basically experiencing the creation, life, and death of a defect, playing a part in what "percentage of life" you live throughout the many stages of its life, paired along with music and voice tracks throughout the experience that are just as confusing as everything else. With that being said, I did enjoy a lot of it. The presentation is very unique, especially for a game released around this time, and the music and voicework is extremely well done.
As for the gameplay itself, while it may seem inconsequential, it does provide a bit of insight into what's going on with this defect, even if I myself couldn't see it, and despite the little impact you have, what you do does feel like it has a genuine effect on the subject itself. Throughout the entire thing, you can tell that there was love and care put into this, and it has shown, given the rereleases and legacy this game has had throughout the almost 40 years that it has been a thing.
Overall, while I will probably never properly understand it, I did find it to be a very unique and unforgettable experience that is definitely worth remembering and preserving for years to come.
Game #65
que quilombo
im a fertilizing agent, my brothers are all wriggly 😖
a fertilizing agent, my brothers are all wriggly 🥴
touch us with a digit, make us go all giggly 😄
a fertilizing agent, my brothers are all wriggly 🥴
touch us with a digit, make us go all giggly 😄
El primer videojuego con una banda sonora que se reproduce a la vez que los acontecimientos del juego, había que reproducir un casette a la vez que lo jugabas.
Por esto y por las pretensiones del juego yo creo que lo más avanzado para su época que he jugado en la vida, esto es de 1984 madre mía.
Por esto y por las pretensiones del juego yo creo que lo más avanzado para su época que he jugado en la vida, esto es de 1984 madre mía.