1 / 5

Exolon

Exolon

Credits

Released: 1987 (39 years ago)

Publisher: Hewson

Concept: Raffaele Cecco

Creator: Nick Jones

Title Screen: Stephen RobertsonInterview

Musician: Nick Jones

Box Art: Steve Weston

Information

Main Control: Joystick (Port 2)

Players: 1 Only

Language: English

Retail Price: Tape – £8.95 GBP
Disk – £12.95 GBP

Notes: The loading bitmap was made by SIR'88 for the Rack It budget re-release of the game, however, there was no Rack It budget release of Exolon. The original tape release did not use a loading bitmap.

Tape Loader

Mega-Save Tape Entry

Used in Hewson release (1987)

Categorization

Genre: Platformer, Multi Screen

Tags: Action Fixed/flip-screen Platform Sci-fi/futuristic Shooter Side view

Magazine Reviews

Commodore Format No. 41 (feb 94), p16 No info available	80%
Commodore User No. 47 (aug 87), p50 Review by Bill Scolding. Hewson full-price release	6/10
Datormagazin No. 7 (sep 87), p26 Review by Tomas Hybner. Hewson full-price release	2.3/5
Zzap!64 No. 29 (sep 87), p28 Review by Julian Rignall, Paul Sumner & Steve Jarratt. Hewson full-price release	64%
Average magazine rating: Based on 4 magazine reviews	63%

YouTube Links

Longplay video 18:23

Myrryspeikko on Apr 14, 2023

Review video 06:43

Gansteeth on Mar 27, 2015

Report incorrect info
Help improve this entry.

Added by Kim Lemon, Nov 26, 2001.
Last updated Aug 10, 2025.

Game ID: 867 · Viewed 30,518 times.

Rating

from a total of 85 votes.

You must be logged in to vote.

Expand vote statistics

Write

Reviews

Read review by Sokratekk
Graphics: 8 ‧ Music: 7 ‧ Playability: 9 ‧ Overall: 9

Write

22 Comments

VIC1969 2025-11-21

(5/10)

A decent platformer and quite polished Henson release which although has good graphics is quite difficult play which doesn't provide any longevity

View all comments (649)

Commraym 2025-10-07

(7/10)

Just as good as the Speccy version.

View all comments (582)

Pavle Majonez 2025-03-02

(4/10)

A rather punishing game that is sprinkled and decorated with decent graphics, feels a bit too difficult and very precision reliant for me.

View all comments (135)

PARADROlD001 2025-01-07

(6/10)

A cross between a run & gun game and a horizontally scrolling shoot ‘em up, Exolon is a typically polished Hewson release. The presentation & graphics are excellent, but the repetitive gameplay, while fun at first, lacks lastability.

View all comments (18)

compnded 2024-03-01

(4/10)

Another utterly underwhelming flick-screen space shooter that doesn't try to hide it's Spectrum roots. Slow and with an annoyingly unresponsive main character - I just can't see how people derive any pleasure from it.

View all comments (500)

Thelead 2023-08-31

(6/10)

You can see its speccy roots but its a decent enough game, just overly difficult.

View all comments (745)

Dean Demon 2020-05-12

(9/10)

Exolon is not for the average gamer as they may find the challenge far too difficult but it's a game that totally rewards perseverance. Great music with bright and fairly detailed sprites, not much animation but it's functional and the ai is fairly predictable but boy does it test your patience, a really excellent alternative shooter.

View all comments (27)

Richard of TND 2015-08-28

(7/10)

Bought this game original this week on EBAY and received it yesterday along with another 2 games, I also purchased from the same seller. No loading picture was used in my version. Nice presentation, great music and playable. Good game. It had me hooked

View all comments (503)

Pyramidenkopf 2014-12-12

In this case the current score of 6. 6 and the Zzap! 64 rating match my opinion. Exolon is fun at times, but the cruel difficulty, including unfair situations due to randomized traps, hurt it significantly. While that is true for all R. Cecco/N. Jones games, at least the other ones got music upgrades on the C64. Exolon only has the Speccy/CPC music. I think multi color was a good choice, but why keep the hi-res player sprite? It looks out of place.

View all comments (29)

inphanta 2012-11-15

Looked nice enough, but very linear and repetitive with a weak title tune.

View all comments (39)

maiki 2012-03-31

(8/10)

The Commodore 64 version of Exolon has fantastic sound effects. Significantly better than Spectrum 128k. That makes the game a real joy to play. Sadly, the selection of low-res multi-color graphics mode was not the best choice. As a result the visuals are less attractive than hi-res & still very colorful Spectrum version. Overall, a very good game with excellent sound. 8/10

View all comments (28)

willy2 2011-09-04

This is one of those special games, kinda speccy but kinda attractive!

View all comments (18)

MASTER SLY 2008-09-26

(10/10)

One of my all time favorites. Excellent game with great atmosphere. Hewson was one of my favorite software houses ( just remember Uridium and Nebulus). A true Classic 10/10 all the way !!! :commodore:

View all comments (51)

Commander64 2008-09-02

(10/10)

It was the silence and loneliness I liked most in this game. I always got this special mood, especially from the background sky. The game's atmosphere is unique. Some nights in real life have that special atmosphere, too, that's why I call them "Exolon Nights".

Go to the "redefine keys" screen and type Z O R B A as game controls. It will give you infinite lives.

View all comments (42)

stooart 2005-12-21

(5/10)

Very linear flick screen blaster although it kept me occupied for a number of hours.

View all comments (983)

Predseda 2003-12-10

I like this graphic style (like Cybernoid and another Hewson games), it looks very good on B/W TV screen too. And I like title music too. It is impossible to complete the game without trainer (moreover this game has no end), but with trainer is boring...

Jan Wiberg 2003-07-03

Yep, you're right TWR, this one IS average. I still played it quite a lot with the aid of an infinite lives cheat (it was too difficult for me to play otherwise). Has anyone noticed it's impossible to get past screen 66 because of faulty design?

TWR 2003-05-14

Quite an average shoot'em up. Graphics are pretty nice and the sound/music works too. The game-play is nothing special. Not utterly boring but nothing to wet your pants over either. (and the FLT crack was quite messy, but once it worked... Trainer was installed !!! YEAH!)

ABS 2003-04-29

Some magazines (and players) overestimated Exolon, when it came out. At first, it seems very good, as usual since it's a Hewson's title. But it gets swiftly boring and repetitive. 5/10

Sir Kidd 2003-01-18

Very nice mysterious game.
I remember playing this one for a long time, getting real frustated, Did you know you can use the F-keys for cheats ?

Garak 2002-08-29

Overall this is not too bad a game. It's a bit slow but challenging. Replay value is a bit low though.

Holger Lagerfeldt 2002-08-29

A great game the first 10 times you play it - but very linear which means it gets repetitive quite quickly after that.

Nice graphical style (though very speccy).