EPT (Atari ST, Commodore Amiga) - Games That Weren't

1988 Rainbird Software

Platforms: Atari ST, Commodore Amiga

Something very special for you today at Games That Weren’t, with further long lost prototypes of Rainbird’s EPT added to the archives (a single prototype has been out there for a while already), specifically the Atari ST edition. This is a lost space exploration game where a huge amount of the intended design has thankfully survived through documentation and various builds.

Thanks to the generosity of Ricardo Pinto and preservation work by Richard Hewison, alongside prototypes, we have been able to piece together what was planned for this ambitious space opera, along with detailed documentation files that you can read for yourself.

Today’s addition into the archive has been made to coincide with the launch of the new Kickstarter for the Memories of Rainbird and Beyond Software book written by Richard Hewison (which contains the full story about EPT). This is a follow-up to Richard’s amazing Firebird book, and which is looking just as good, if not better. Please check out the Kickstarter page for more details and please pledge your support if you can!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zzap642021annual/memories-of-rainbird-and-beyond-software

Described in the documents as “a design for a space opera”, EPT was planned as a sprawling 3D science fiction adventure set across a fictional solar system of planets, moons, asteroids and space stations. Every world would move along its own orbital path, so position, timing and travel windows would all matter. This was not just a game about flying from A to B, but one where the system itself was designed to feel alive.

The scale of the design is enormous for 1988. The player would have been able to trade, fight, explore, negotiate, buy property, control fleets and move through detailed tube systems inside ships, space stations and moon cities. The docs also make it clear that there were plans for a deep economic layer too, with banks, multiple currencies, exchange rates, stock trading, cargo routes and trading houses. There was even an Astrolabe, described as a device for calculating the best time to travel by looking at planetary conjunctions.

Docking at moon cities and space stations would allow players to leave their spacecraft and explore via extensive tube systems. Banks, bars, libraries, trading centres, hotels, residential districts and spaceports were all planned as explorable locations. Larger vessels could also be explored internally, with players able to move between bridges, engineering sections, hangars, cargo bays and airlocks.

The social side of the game was just as ambitious too. Communication with NPCs was handled through a Babelpisc Translation Unit, complete with a long list of response options such as “Moderate Insult”, “Offer a Serious Bribe”, “Demand Surrender” and “Ask someone to join forces with you”. NPCs were not just random encounters either, as the design notes describe full character profiles, reaction algorithms and background systems that would shape how different people behaved. Newspapers, newsboards and historical background events were also part of the plan, helping to make the world feel connected and reactive.

With a strong military and political layer, the player could rise through the ranks, command dreadnoughts, direct fleets and even send ground forces into action. Behind that sat larger background systems, described in the docs as “historical processes”, which would simulate the ongoing conflict between Quya and Urth. Elsewhere in the design, there are secret organisations, hidden moon bases and the huge Darkseed warship, suggesting the game was intended to build towards a much larger galactic power struggle.

One particularly interesting aspect is how the game would have begun. In later documentation, the player starts life on Ontology Bay, a remote moon of Mangoran, working in a hydroponics lab. After being left a mysterious box by their uncle, containing a number of items that would also have been included within the game’s packaging, the player’s first task was simply to reach a spaceship waiting at a transit port. From there, a much larger story involving corporations, political intrigue, interplanetary conflict and hidden agendas would gradually unfold.

Alongside the prototypes, Ricardo preserved extensive design documents, technical specifications, world-building notes and even in-universe reference material such as The Moonhoppers Guide to System Sol.

With the development build 04-ept-88-21-08.stx (the last build available to us so far), we can see just how much of the concept had already been turned into a working system, even if it was far from complete. The build opens with an attract mode showing 3D spacecraft, then drops into a UI-driven interface where the player can explore ship nodes, move between bridges and airlocks, dock at ports, enter other vessels, switch to direct flight control, trigger autopilot and test the communications system.

The other available builds show a number of differences and gradual progression with the game, and there is certainly plenty there for you to explore. If you see anything interesting, please feel free to share with us via the comments!

The accompanying 15th February 1988 documentation, which you can also find below, talks us through navigation, docking, combat and the node-based interiors of ships and stations. It also confirms that the final game was being planned with a 1Mb Atari ST in mind, even though the intended release version would apparently have run on a 512KB machine. There is practically no mention or detail about the Amiga version, and all of the surviving prototype material relates to the Atari ST edition. Whether the Amiga version was actively in development or still at the planning stage remains unclear.

Some documentation places the player on Kikor, whilst other material starts the journey on Ontology Bay, showing how the game was still being refined as the design evolved. The documents provide an incredible glimpse into this ambitious space sim, trading game and adventure hybrid that attempted to create an entire living civilisation within a single game.

Looking through the design today, it is difficult not to draw comparisons with Elite and later space trading and exploration titles. EPT was attempting to combine trading, political simulation, character interaction, strategic warfare and large-scale world exploration as early as 1988. Whether all of those ambitions could ultimately have been realised is hard to know, but the surviving prototypes and documentation certainly suggest that the team was making impressive progress towards that goal.

EPT of course never sadly made it to completion (otherwise we wouldn’t be talking about it today). Although the surviving material gives us a detailed picture of what EPT was intended to become, the project was ultimately abandoned before completion. Richard’s forthcoming Rainbird history book will shed a lot more light on exactly what happened behind the scenes and a lot more.

It seems there are no surviving Amiga builds unfortunately, and only Atari ST editions have surfaced so far. If anything further comes to light, we’ll be sure to add it to the archives. For the time being, check out the prototypes, explore the surviving documentation and enjoy a detailed glimpse into this ambitious title that never was.

With a huge thank you to Ricardo Pinto and Richard Hewison for their preservation work. Please be sure to check out the Memories of Rainbird and Beyond Software book kickstarter.