Repton is a video game originally developed by 16-year-old Briton Tim Tyler for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron and released by Superior Software in 1985.

[1] Compared with Boulder Dash, Repton is a much more calm and organized playing experience with the emphasis on puzzle-solving as opposed to arcade-style improvisation.

It introduces several new features: spirits (that follow walls and objects to their left and must be guided into cages, turning them into diamonds) and skulls, both of which are fatal to Repton on collision.

Once these substantial tasks have been accomplished, Repton must then negotiate the 'roof' of the entire width of the final screen, avoiding meteors falling from the sky in order to reach the starport and thus complete the game.

This part is particularly tricky, since the meteors fall in a random fashion, making it difficult for the gamer to guide Repton to safety.

[citation needed] When Repton 2 was re-written for the PC, it introduced a 'save game' feature making it considerably easier to complete.

Repton 3, released on 5 November 1986,[6] was developed by Matthew Atkinson at Superior's invitation since Tim Tyler was not interested in programming it, although he did design some of the levels for the new game.

These three titles use a slightly modified game engine, in which the algorithm for deciding on the direction spirits first move at the start of a level is improved.

[7] The game bears little relation to the rest of the Repton series, particularly in that contrary to the spirit of the original it relies on "secret" traps and passages which can only be discovered by walking onto them.

[8] The game is similar in style to Repton 3, retaining the structure of separate, password-protected levels and the map and graphics editors.

Superior Software had planned to launch Repton 3 with ports for the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC (as shown in pre-release press advertisements).

Its programmer, John Wallace, also produced a slightly expanded version of Repton 2 for the Acorn Archimedes which was released on the 1993 Play It Again Sam 2 compilation (which also included Zarch, Master Break and Arcpinball).

In the late 1990s, Superior sub-licensed the games to ProAction who released a number of RISC OS ports for the Acorn Archimedes and RiscPC.

A deliberate clone called Ripton, extremely faithful apart from different level design and several humorous digs at the original game, was written by Kenton Price and submitted to A&B Computing but the magazine never dared to publish it.

A non-scrolling 5-level type-in called Pitfall Pete written by Jonathan Temple was also described as "'Repton' style" when it was published by BEEBUG in 1986[13] and expanded to 15 levels in 1991.

It builds on the rocks-and-diamonds genre typified by Repton, extending it with features such as explosives, sliding ice and wraparound, and includes a community level designer.