Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender

Infobox VG| title = Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender
developer = Microprose
publisher = Microprose
released = November 1992
genre = Adventure game
modes = Single Player
platforms = MS-DOS, Mac OS

Rex Nebular and the Cosmic Gender Bender is a "point-and-click" style graphic animated adventure developed and published by Microprose in November of 1992.

The game is the first graphical adventure game developed by Microprose. It was developed using the "Microprose Adventure Development" system, and made use of 256-colour graphics.

toryline

The bumbling bachelor, Rex Nebular, has been hired by Colonel Stone to retrieve a vase that holds some sentimental value. Stone agrees to pay Rex 75,000 galactars for the return of the vase. Rex agrees and sets out for the last known location of the vase.

He discovers that the planet where the vase was last known to reside has vanished, but his ship's sensors still detect a planetary mass and gravitational field, although none can be seen with the naked eye. Before he is given a chance to investigate further, a large warship decloaks behind him, and fires. His ship is badly damaged and careens towards the planetary mass. He crash-lands on a strange planet, seemingly inhabited by women only. He sets off in search of the vase and a way to get off the planet.

Decades ago, a vicious war between the sexes erupted on the planet. The males focused on developing mechanical and electronic weaponry, while the females focused on biological warfare. In the end, the females unleashed a biological weapon that eliminated the male population. However, at least one male survived the attack. Due to side effects caused by the biological weapon, the females were no longer able to give birth to males, so they had no way of continuing their species. So they invented a machine that would allow them to alter their sex for short periods of time. This machine became known as the Cosmic Gender Bender, or the Gender Bender for short.

The populace of the planet is divided into two classes, Keepers and (breeding) Stock. The Keepers are technologically advanced and reside underground, where they monitor the Stock. The Stock reside above ground and have a primitive culture. Their only purpose is to be impregnated by a gender-bent Keeper in order to repopulate the planet.

Characters

*Rex Nebular: Believes he is God's gift to women. Pilot and Captain of his space vessel, the Slippery Pig.
*Colonel Stone: The exact reasoning behind his desire for the vase is never fully explained, but Rex does not care about that. He is only interested in the 75,000 galactar reward.
*Bud: A large, alien male who crash landed on the planet and was held captive by the female inhabitants.
*Herman Spiltmelk: The last known, surviving, indigenous male on the planet.
*Major Karg: Captain of the large warship orbiting the planet.
*Rox: Rex's female alter-ego. Rex becomes Rox after stepping into the Gender Bender device and has his gender "bent".
*Dr. Slache: The maniacal doctor who examines Rex after his capture and imprisonment in the Keeper's underground base."'

References

* [http://www.thecomputershow.com/computershow/archives/rexnebular.htm The Computer Show information] . Retrieved 12th March 2006.