One of the earliest examples this melding of mediums was Automata’s ZX Spectrum extravaganza Deus Ex Machina. This is as self indulgent and eccentric a game as you will find on any system. The brain child of Mel Croucher, it is a fusion of game, story and music into a melting pot of heavily produced multimedia uniqueness that cannot be compared to anything before or since. Whilst released on tape for the Spectrum in 1984 (and then on the Commodore 64 a year later), this isn’t really a game at all, more an interactive story told with the audio and visual eccentricity of a hundred Mad Hatters.
Deus Ex Machina (part 1 edit)
The accompanying fifty minute audio tape containing the voices of Ian Dury (without the Block Heads), Frankie Howard (oo-er missus!) and ex-Dr. Who Jon Pertwee had to played in sync with the game-play and stopped or started as requested on-screen. Its strange futuristic play-like production was light-years ahead of its time and rather than spoil the impact of such a wonderfully different game I will merely suggest you go and give it a try on your favourite emulator.
Much like Jeff Wayne’s War of The World’s could be understood by listening to the dialogue and skipping the songs, Deus Ex Machina’s audio track could be played in isolation from the game. But as with Wayne’s masterpiece, you would be missing the point and completely misunderstanding Croucher’s undeniable genius.
