Quedex

Quedex — in full, The Quest for Ultimate Dexterity — was written for the Commodore 64 in 1987 by Finnish programmer Stavros Fasoulas, the man behind the celebrated shooters Sanxion and Delta. It was published by the British label Thalamus and later reached America in a reworked form as Mind-Roll under the Epyx banner. This time, though, there is no shooting: you steer a gleaming metal ball through a game that is half puzzle, half test of reflexes and precise fingers.

The playfield is divided into ten planes which you may tackle in any order you like — an unusual freedom for its day. Each plane is a different discipline: in one you thread a maze collecting keys for gates, in another you leap across gaps, dodge electrified tiles, hunt for teleporters or simply race the clock. The ball carries momentum, so guiding it along narrow paths takes a delicate touch, and the ever-ticking timer never lets you relax for a second.

It is a game built with a care that was rare among the era's quick cash-ins: clean metallic visuals, smooth movement, and a Matt Gray soundtrack that plays only on the two most frantic planes, leaving you to concentrate in silence elsewhere. The contemporary press was delighted — Zzap!64 rated it 92 percent and stamped it with a Sizzler award.

A modern player may be put off by its austerity and stiff difficulty; several planes lean on memorisation and patience rather than instant fun, and the game forgives nothing. But if precise control and puzzles under pressure appeal to you, Quedex has aged remarkably little — concentrated, honest design without a single wasted element, signed by one of the finest programmers ever to work on the Commodore 64.

Quedex runs straight in your browser on oldgame.cz, with no emulator setup and no installation.