The first game was followed by two numbered sequels, three Mission Pack Sequels for Repton 3, and a final game titled Repton Infinity because it included an editor allowing you to reprogram the way objects behaved, essentially allowing the creation of entirely new games. Each subsequent game added a selection of new objects, the most important being "spirits" that follow the walls and have to be guided into a cage, allowing for the creation of ever more intricate logical puzzles. Repton 3 is the most popular game of the series, as it strikes just the right balance in terms of bite-sized puzzles and variety of obstacles, and also allows the character sprites to be redesigned. Many of the Mission Pack Sequels take advantage of this by placing Repton in a completely different setting, ranging from the American West to the far future.
Beginning in 2003, the games (so far not including Infinity) have been re-released for the PC by Superior Interactive
, followed by a handful of Expansion Packs. An additional BBC Micro game, Repton: The Lost Realms, originally written in 1988 and lost, was rediscovered in 2008 and published in 2010.
Repton's adventures so far:
- Repton (1985)
- Repton 2 (1985)
- Repton 3 (1986) and its Mission Pack Sequels:
- Around the World in 40 Screens (1987). Repton travels to America, the Arctic, the Orient, the Oceans and Africa.
- The Life of Repton (1987). Featuring Repton as a baby, at school, as a teenager, at work, and as an OAP note
- Repton Thru Time (1988). Repton travels to the prehistoric era, Ancient Egypt, Victorian England, the present day and the future.
- Repton Infinity (1988), containing four sub-games: Repton 3 Take 2, Repton 4, Robbo and Trakka.
- EGO: Repton 4 (1992). A separate game from the Repton 4 included as part of Repton Infinity.
- Repton Spectacular (2006). An Expansion Pack for the PC remakes, including levels for all three games. The new Repton 3 scenarios take Repton to the worlds of Greek mythology, Ancient Rome, the Arabian Nights, medieval England and the Aztec empire.
- Repton: The Lost Realms (2010). The last BBC Micro game in the series.
- Repton's Mystic Challenge (2014). An Expansion Pack for PC Repton 1 only.
- Repton's Journeys (2018). An Expansion Pack for PC Repton 2 only.
The games provide examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: According to the comic strip cover of The Life of Repton, other characters in Repton's world have familiar names like Fred and Becky.
- Animal Theme Naming: The levels of the first game are all named after reptiles and molluscs.
- Anti-Hero: Repton's task is always to collect diamonds (sometimes replaced with another valuable), with no regard for who owns them. Some scenarios imply that he is on the shady side of the law; for instance, in "America" he must obtain a gun to rob safes, and in "Victorian" he is pursued by police.
- Big Eater: Several scenarios replace the diamond with something edible, for instance plates of food in the "Orient" scenario or pineapples in "Africa".
- Block Puzzle: Many levels require shunting rocks to link a cage to the wall so a spirit will enter it.
- Build Like an Egyptian: The "Egypt" scenario in Repton Thru Time has walls shaped like the pyramids and Sphinx, diamonds replaced with papyri, and so forth.
- Checkpoint Starvation in Repton 2:
- The BBC Micro original has no savepoints or passwords at all, and is thus the only game of the series that requires completion in one sitting.
- The PC remake adds a savepoint to the Hub Level. Most levels return you to the hub once completed; the exceptions are Levels 15—20, which must be completed in a chain, with only one savepoint, at the start of Level 17.
- Cradle To Grave Character: The Life of Repton focuses on different stages of Repton's life, from babyhood to old age.
- Critical Annoyance: Repton 3 flashes the screen to warn you when the timer falls below 15 seconds.
- Crossover: Thanks to the level editor, unofficial Repton 3 scenarios exist based on media ranging from ThunderCats and Coronation Street to Sailor Moon. Repton the character also appears in Trakka as a hostile entity — according to the manual, he is angry at his game being taken over!
- Dolled-Up Installment: EGO: Repton 4 was originally an unrelated game called Personality Crisis, and has very different gameplay from the rest of the series.
- Endless Game: The original BBC Micro versions of Repton and Repton 2 looped after completion, although you did get a congratulatory message. Averted in the PC remakes (and in all other games of the series).
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: The first screen is called "Screen one".
- Fake Difficulty:
- The "Oceans" scenario represents diamonds as pearls in shells, and skulls (which are deadly on collision) as empty shells, so they require care to tell apart. Safes are hidden pearls, making them invisible until a key (torch) is collected.
- In the "Future" scenario, blank space looks like earth (representing space dust) and skulls look like blank space (representing the deadly vacuum of space).
- Fungus Humongous:
- The fungus in Repton 3 can grow to cover entire levels unless you keep it contained.
- The Lost Realms takes it further: each level has a hidden "fungus speed" variable ranging from 0 to 7. Speed 0 is so fast that the fungus can grow to flood the level in seconds!
- Guide Dang It!:
- The "Repton shuffle", stepping aside from under a rock and immediately pressing the opposite horizontal direction so you push it in mid-fall. There's no hint of this being possible before you reach the first puzzle requiring it. (Still, it's possible to reach the solution on a "when you have eliminated the impossible" basis.)
- The Superior Interactive re-releases have slightly different gameplay; in particular, on the remakes of Repton 1 and 2 (but not 3) you aren't killed by an egg landing on you, a fact it's important to know for some puzzles (which can be disconcerting for those familiar with the original versions).
- Hammerspace: The diamonds, crowns and so forth that Repton collects simply disappear, giving the impression that he is carrying them around for the rest of the level.
- Hub Level: On Repton 2, all levels except the last two are accessed via transporters on the first level. In the PC remake, additional scenarios often have more complex structures, but having one or more hub levels is still common.
- 100% Completion: In the PC remake of Repton 1, each earth tile dug is worth 1 point, so getting a good place in the online high scores requires digging as much as possible. Averted in Repton 2 (in which digging all earth is a required completion goal) and Repton 3 (in which earth is not worth points).
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: In the BBC Micro games, levels are referred to as "screens".
- Instant-Win Condition:
- In Repton 1, collecting the last diamond instantly wins a level, even if it's in an inescapable trap. In fact, this is sometimes used deliberately to force a particular diamond to be the last to be collected. Repton 3 averts this trope by adding the timebomb as a Level Goal.
- The Lost Realms allows levels to have multiple timebombs, so defusing the last timebomb is now an instant win.
- Invisible Block: Three scenarios make the safes invisible; fortunately, this only lasts until you collect a key.
- Level Editor: Present in Repton 3 and The Lost Realms. Repton Infinity takes it a step further by including a miniature programming language, allowing you to edit the behaviour of objects.
- Level Goal: The timebomb in Repton 3 (but not The Lost Realms, where it's an Instant-Win Condition instead).
- Literary Allusion Title: Around the World in 40 Screens, a pun on Around the World in Eighty Days.
- Luck-Based Mission:
- Some levels of Repton 2 have a "planetary surface" at the top of the level. Repton can emerge and walk along the surface, but has to dodge falling meteors. It's possible for bad luck to drop meteors in an inescapable pattern.
- Fungus in Repton 3 grows randomly unless it's contained. On levels where this is impossible, the fungus can sometimes just decide to grow where you don't want it.
- Marathon Level:
- The last level of "Work" is the longest level of Repton 3. Connecting one cage requires shunting a large number of rocks, with spirits going round the level the whole time that have to be dodged and waited for.
- But that pales in comparison with the longest level of Repton Infinity, RobboB Level 1. This level is a maze of grass that has to be gradually mowed away, with objects stuck in the grass that have to be carefully freed and transported. The current record for this level is 23 minutes.
- Match Three Puzzle: The magiblocks on Repton 4 must be brought together in groups of three, when they will all transform into jewels.
- Meaningful Name: "Repton" sounds like the word "reptile".
- Musical Theme Naming:
- The level sets of Repton 3 are titled Prelude, Toccata and Finale.
- The level sets of The Lost Realms are named after tempo markings: Largo, Adagio, Allegro, Presto, with the faster tempi corresponding to harder levels.
- Must Have Caffeine: In the "Work" scenario, the time capsule (giving Repton more time to complete the level) is represented by a cup of coffee.
- No-Damage Run: In the PC remakes of Repton 1 and Repton 3, completing a level awards 1000 points for each life remaining, so to get a competitive place in the online high scores, all levels have to be beaten without dying.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: In every game of the series, Repton dies in one hit from any hazard.
- Pacifist Run: Possible on the first game. Later games require you to kill all monsters.
- Phony Veteran: In the "OAP" scenario of The Life of Repton, Repton collects war medals instead of diamonds. The comic strip cover implies that he tells stories at the local pub about his military career in order to get free drinks. Then a fellow drinker notices that one of the medals is from the Battle of Waterloo!
- Plunger Detonator: In Trakka, your assistant "Kevin" can be pushed next to sticks of dynamite, which are then triggered by the player using a detonator.
- Pun-Based Title: Some of the level titles in the Superior Interactive re-release. For example, a level whose objects are arranged so that the map looks like a picture of a medal is titled "Do Not Medal in the Affairs of Lizards."
- Selective Gravity: Inverted. Rocks and eggs fall, but Repton has complete freedom of movement.
- Shout-Out:
- Stopped Numbering Sequels:
- The fourth game is Around the World in 40 Screens.
- Repton Infinity included a subgame called Repton 4, acknowledging that the previous games were Mission Pack Sequels and this was the first game since Repton 3 to add new objects. However, EGO: Repton 4 reused the same number.
- Repton: The Lost Realms also had Repton 4 as a working title, but this was changed to avoid confusion with the other two Repton 4s. It couldn't be Repton 5 either because it wasn't the fifth game, so numbers were abandoned entirely.
- Tagline: Repton 2 has "More than just a sequel, a new experience!"
- Tele-Frag: Avoiding this (by clearing the destination squares of transporters) is a common puzzle element in Repton 3. Averted in Repton Infinity and The Lost Realms, where transporting into an occupied square just removes its contents without killing you.
- Teleportation: Introduced in Repton 2 as the means of getting from the Hub Level to other levels and back. Later games retain transporters, but now they take you from one location to another within a level.
- There Is Another: Collecting a key opens all the safes on a level, so a second key has no effect, and so there will usually only be one. However, sometimes (e.g. the fourth level of "Encore") there will be an unobtainable key early on as a Red Herring, and There Is Another later in the level.
- Timed Mission:
- In the first game, every level has a time limit of 6 minutes, after which Repton instantly loses one life.
- Repton 3 and The Lost Realms also have time limits, but how much time varies from one level to another. The early levels of a scenario usually give enough time that it's hard to notice the time limit, while on other levels, time is a major factor in the level's difficulty. Also, collecting a time capsule resets the level's clock.
- Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: All objects occupy one tile, so the diamonds Repton collects are as big as he is.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: A mild case. Knowing where each transporter goes is often essential to the puzzles (and can only be discovered by trying them), but there are at most four per level.
- Under the Sea: The "Oceans" scenario in Around the World is set underwater, although the gameplay is identical to every other Repton 3 scenario.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: In some levels, such as the last level of the "Prehistoric" scenario, Repton is chased by spirits throughout the entire level, until he unblocks their cages. These levels tend to contain no or very few rocks, normally the games' main puzzle element.
- Unintentionally Unwinnable: The first release of Repton 2 required collection of one more diamond than actually existed.
- Unwanted Harem: In the "OAP" scenario in The Life of Repton, the monster is replaced with Repton's wife. There can be up to four of them per level.
- Unwinnable: Repton 2 becomes impossible to complete if some of the sub-levels are tackled in the wrong order, or if you overlook a diamond before transporting out of a level, since each can only be accessed once.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: Some scenarios replace the monster with people of the same species as Repton, such as the teacher in "School" and the boss in "Work". Repton has to kill them just like any other monster.
- Video Game Long-Runners: Thirty-three years separate the first game from the most recent. The BBC Micro games alone span twenty-five years, which is a record for that platform.
- Violation of Common Sense:
- In Repton 2 you can run through an egg while it is hatching. Needless to say, one puzzle requires this.
- Repton 2 also awards points for colliding with a skull (which kills you). The maximum score therefore requires completing a No-Damage Run so that you have two spare lives you can deliberately lose.
- A Winner Is You: Completing the first game simply brings up the message "Repton has been finished!" Repton 2 says "Congratulations! You have completed Repton 2. Now try again." Both games then put you right back at the beginning with your accumulated score.
