# Nexus (1986) playthrough

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but now that I am a man, I have downloaded a Commodore 64 ROM of Nexus to see if I am any better at it now than I was back then.

We got this game with an issue of Commodore Power magazine. (We usually got Commodore Format so I don't know what happened that one time.) Anyway, according to this forum post

=> https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=76975 Commodore Power Cover Tapes

what we had was "Power Tape 1", which contained the following:

Nexus (Epyx) [Novaload]

Frosty the Snowman (Commodore Disk User) [Novaload]

Bear George (Kevin Williams) [Novaload]

Street Machine (CRL/The Power House) [Novaload]

I don't know what Novaload means, but I have vague memories of these games. I think Bear George involved collecting apples. Frosty the Snowman was maybe a platformer. Primarily, I remember Nexus (which was mind-boggling to me) and Street Machine which I count among the greatest racing games of all time.

=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-k2nzw09SQ 10 minutes of Street Machine (C64) by my10minutes

How many racing games have the variety of courses of (1) English countryside, (2) English countryside covered in snow, and (3) English countryside at night during a storm? Also, when your car breaks down you have to fix it in a text-only interface where you try to decide whether to reduce the damage percentage of your timing chain or your release bearing. As a child I had no idea what a timing chain or a release bearing was. What a fool I was! Now I have several timing chains next to me as I type, in case I need to time something with a chain. And don't get me started on release bearings!

Anyway, Nexus is a spy (?) game where you play as maybe a spy who has to infiltrate a secret base (?) and log into a bunch of terminals while trying to not kick people in the head. (It will become clear later why not kicking people in the head is a difficult part of the game.)

I had no idea how to play as a child. Now I'm back, with all my years of real-life experience of logging into terminals and not kicking people in the head.

Once the tape is loaded (You read that right! Show me a game worth its salt that isn't written to magnetic tape) the main character is seen riding a jet ski from the sea into the cave entrance of some large complex. This is already the most exciting thing that has ever happened.

You have no control over the jet ski (or anything else) at this point in the game, but for 1986 this is a cinematic experience on par with Solid Snake swimming into Shadow Moses Island a mere 12 years later. I think it is reasonable to attribute all later quantum leaps in gaming to the inspiration provided by Nexus.

Anyway, you arrive on dry land by crashing your jet ski, throwing you onto the shore. I don't know why this happens. It is not cool to crash a jet ski, but it is the only not cool thing so far, so we can give it a pass. A person arrives to greet you, and the game quickly introduces its trademarked approach to scrolling, which is to jump unexpectedly and rapidly slightly to the left or right for reasons that aren't clear. This would be a nuisance if not for Nexus' banging soundtrack which makes every other part of the game more entertaining.

Oh, I forgot to mention the mysterious text message that is displayed as you jet ski into the complex, but before you crash. It says,

> Final communique. Find Tayo and free him. Confirm 32 rumours. Good luck.

Might the confirmation of 32 rumours involve going into many more than 32 rooms and logging into computer terminals? One can only hope. But the primary goal has to be to find Tayo. I don't know in what year Power Tape 1 was released on the cover of Commodore Power, but it's since then that I have been failing to find Tayo and free him. Hang in there Tayo. The time has come.
=> ../../../tags/video-games.gmi tag: video-games
=> ../../../index.gmi home