Cosmic Relief: Prof. Renegade to the Rescue

About Cosmic Relief: Prof. Renegade to the Rescue

A tricky platform side-scrolling adventure game, Terramex starts with the player asked to choose one of the five adventurers for the journey to find Professor Renegade at his secret laboratory. All the five adventurers are namely Henri Beaucoup (France), Wilbur Fortisque–Smithe (UK), Wu Pong (Japan), Big John Caine (US) and Hans Krusche (Germany).

The selected character will then be accompanied with a number of load bearing native bearers who will assist by picking up the items as the character walks over them. These items are left from the previous failed expeditions as the trail is perilous with dangers such as prehistoric birds e.g., Pterodactyl-like creatures, acid rain, poisonous snakes and mutants. One of the items called a key item, unique for each character, must be collected by the player to complete the mission. Once all the items are collected, it needs to be given to Renegade who will use them to construct the positronic asteroid deflector (PAD). If any of the items required to make the deflector is found to be missing, the player will need to go back into the map and find the missing items. When an item is collected by the player, the points are awarded and updated on screen.

An item to be used by the adventurer is held by exchanging the currently held item with the one to be used. The item in use can then be used to ward off any dangers or avoid obstacles for e.g., Vacuum cleaner can be used for spring cleaning and to fly above the clouds to avoid acid rain. All the possible items in the game are namely unicycle, flashgun, cricket ball, spurs, beer barrel, umbrella, party manifesto, bellows, cannon, vacuum cleaner, acme expanding bridge, flute, silver lining, spring, secret formula, switch, red button, battery, coat hanger, trampoline, atomic pile, anti radiation pins, cup of tea, energy crystal, balloon, gunpowder, silver cross and bucket. Also the key items for each character (in pairs) are Beaucoup (Unicycle), Fortisque–Smithe (Cricket ball), Pong (Flash camera), Caine (Spurs) and Krusche (Beer barrel).

Professor Albert Renegade (pun surname Eyestrain), the inventor of the Swiss Army farm animal, had predicted in a farewell letter that an asteroid was heading towards Earth and will complete its course in 40 years, 11 months and 3 days at 4:14 am (Rocky Mountain Time). The scientific community and rest of the world rejected his claims because of which he went into hiding deep into a desert and thus away from the public eye. A month before the asteroid's impact, a group of five people decided to contact Renegade for help as he was the only person on the planet capable enough to built something to destroy it.

Currently located in the deserted high mountains of Tibet, the person selected from the five main characters searches for items and battles different obstacles to navigate the course until they reach a secret laboratory where Renegade is present. These items are then used by Renegade to build a Positron Asteroid Detector (PAD) which is an anti-asteroid device. The PAD is then used for deflecting the incoming asteroid to a different planet, doing which successfully saves Earth.