About this project
Exile was written by Peter Irvin and Jeremy Smith and published by Superior Software for the BBC Micro in 1988: a physics-driven open world with gravity, wind, water, and a living bestiary squeezed into 32K, years before the genre had a name. It is widely considered one of the greatest technical achievements of 8-bit gaming and having spent so much time with its code I think it absolutely earns that.
This site runs a TypeScript reconstruction of that game, rebuilt layer by layer from the enhanced version disassembly. It is not an emulator, rather the landscape generator, physics kernel, creature AI, renderer, particle and sound engines are all rewritten in TypeScript but an emulator keeps it accurate as every layer is validated bit-identical against the original 6502 machine code executing in a small emulator. Whole game frames are compared byte for byte — all object slots, the world tables, the random number generator, and all 16K of screen memory — so what you play here is provably the 1988 game, not an imitation of it.
Play original is the authentic experience in the classic 4:3 view. Play enhanced keeps the original simulation — same bytes, same behaviour — and widens the view to your screen, adds a Thrust-style status bar. Both versions feature quality-of-life improvements: F1 pauses to a status page with named saves, F6/F9 quick save and load (saved in your browser), F4 shows the controls any time.
Exile © 1988 Peter Irvin and Jeremy Smith ·
published by Superior Software
Reconstructed by James Randall from the enhanced version disassembly created by level7
Presented as a tribute to its authors.