Rescue at Rigel
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| Rescue at Rigel | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Epyx |
| Publisher(s) | Epyx |
| Designer(s) | Jon Freeman |
| Engine | Custom (probably modified Temple of Apshai) |
| Release date(s) | 1980 |
| Genre(s) | Sci-Fi CRPG |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | N/A |
| Platform(s) | Apple II, DOS, TRS-80, VIC-20 |
| Media | Various, usually one 5ΒΌ" disk |
| System requirements | No special requirements |
| Input | Keyboard |
Starquest - Rescue at Rigel, or simply Rescue at Rigel is a 1980 science fiction computer role-playing game by Epyx. The game was released for the Apple II, DOS, as a PC Booter, TRS-80 and VIC-20.
Players take on the role of adventurer Sudden Smith. Smith must try to rescue captives from the interior of an asteroid orbiting the star Rigel. Players have 60 minutes to rescue 10 human captives from the alien moon base. They must first find the captives before delivering them to the rescue ship (via a transport beam). Players must defeat or avoid the enemies wandering the base: the alien Tollahs, two types of armed robots, a six-legged "cerbanth", and a huge amoebic slug. As players forge deeper into the alien stronghold, they have the opportunity to acquire better weapons.
Although nominally a science fiction setting, the plot of rescuing hostages was clearly derived from the Iran Hostage Crisis, which was headline news when the game was written. Additionally, one of the enemies which the player must defeat is the High Tollah, a pun referring to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian religious leader whose supporters took the American hostages.
The playfield is presented as a top-down view of the current location of the hero. In gameplay and presentation, Rescue at Rigel is very similar to Temple of Apshai, a popular dungeon crawl by Epyx. Though simplistic by today's standards, this game was a pioneering game in the early home computer era.
