Rigel's Revenge is a text adventure

Interactive fiction

Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...

 published in 1987 for the Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...

, Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

 and ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

 home computers by Mastertronic

Mastertronic

Mastertronic was originally a publisher and distributor of low-cost computer game software founded in 1983. Their first games were distributed in mid-1984. At its peak the label was the dominant software publisher in the UK, a position achieved by selling cassette-based software at the £1.99...

 on their "Bulldog" label. It was written by Smart Egg Software using a heavily modified version of the The Quill

The Quill

The Quill is a program to write home computer adventure games. Written by Graeme Yeandle, it was published on the ZX Spectrum by Gilsoft in December 1983...

, an adventure-authoring package.

Plot

Harper and Elliot, two 23rd-century investigative journalists, have joined an organisation called the Alterian Corps in order to further their careers. They have been sent on a mission to the planet Rigel V which is in a state of war with one region holding out against the Federation troops attempting to conquer it. The Rigellians claim to possess a Doomsday Machine which will enact a terrible revenge if the Federation refuse to withdraw from the planet. Elliot has been smuggled in by the Alterian Corps in the guise of a Rigellian trooper with a mission to locate the whereabouts of the Doomsday Machine and report to Harper who is to follow one week later. Harper has instructions to meet Elliot at night in a certain backstreet in the occupied sector of the town.[ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/games-info/r/RigelsRevenge.txt]

Gameplay

The player takes control of Harper. The parser accepts standard text adventure commands and can understand simple sentences such as THROW RUBBLE AT THE TANK and LOOK INSIDE THE SATCHEL.
The game's interaction with the player is mainly through text output, but occasionally during the game static graphics are displayed.