Deus Ex Machina (video game)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Deus Ex Machina" video game – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Deus Ex Machina
Developer(s)	Automata UK
Publisher(s)	Automata UK Electric Dreams
Designer(s)	Mel Croucher
Programmer(s)	Andrew Stagg
Platform(s)	ZX Spectrum, MSX, Commodore 64, Android, iOS, Ouya, Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
Release	October 1984 EU: October 1984 (ZX Spectrum) EU: 1985 (MSX) EU: 1986 (C64) WW: January 30, 2015 (Android) WW: February 2, 2015 (iOS) WW: February 14, 2015 (Ouya) WW: February 20, 2015 (Win, Linux, Mac)
Genre(s)	Art game, music game
Mode(s)	Single player

Deus Ex Machina is a video game designed and created by Mel Croucher and published by Automata UK for the ZX Spectrum in October 1984 and later converted to MSX and Commodore 64.

The game was the first to be accompanied by a fully synchronised soundtrack which featured narration, celebrity artists and music.^{[citation needed]} The cast included Ian Dury, Jon Pertwee, Donna Bailey, Frankie Howerd, E.P. Thompson, and Croucher (who also composed the music). Andrew Stagg coded the original Spectrum version, and Colin Jones (later known as author/publisher Colin Bradshaw-Jones) was the programmer of the Commodore 64 version.

The game charts the life of a "defect" which has formed in "the machine", from conception, through growth, evolution and eventually death. The progression is loosely based on "The Seven Ages of Man" from the Shakespeare play, As You Like It^[1] and includes many quotations and parodies of this. The original game would later be rereleased alongside a sequel/remake in 2015.