Deactivators

Deactivators is an action puzzle video game. The player controls bomb disposal robots known as deactivators to remove bombs placed in five scientific research complexes by terrorists. Each building constitutes a level that must be completed to progress. A time limit based on fuses of the bombs is set; a burning fuse is displayed when the player picks up a bomb.

To dispose of the bombs, the player must make the deactivators throw them from adjacent rooms until they can be tossed out of the exit. Security droids reprogrammed by the terrorists act as obstacles that can destroy the deactivators. If a bomb explodes in a room, everything inside it is destroyed, making it impossible to finish the level. The player can get new deactivators after completing a building.

Deactivators was designed by David Bishop and Chris Palmer. Bishop was the co-founder of Tigress Marketing, the developers of the game; Palmer joined Tigress after leaving Argus Specialist Publications. The concept of the game arose from a brainstorming session between Bishop and Palmer for game ideas. The game was designed by hand using paper to work out the tasks in each building and the timing and routes required to complete them.

The design process took a month to complete and development took four or five months. The programming for the game was done by System Software; it was published by Ariolasoft under its Reaktor imprint, which was created to focus on arcade and action games. The original audio, 'Robot Tango', was composed by Simon PC Frost. Deactivators was the first game to be released under the imprint.

Deactivators received generally positive reviews from video game critics. The ZX Spectrum version was ranked number 28 in the Your Sinclair "Official Top 100 Games of All Time". A reviewer for Computer and Video Games wrote that it was destined to become a cult game. Andrew Wilton from Amstrad Action praised its gameplay, describing it as "excellent" and noting the room perspective changes as the most interesting feature in the game.

Critics also praised the game for its originality. Sinclair User's Taylor Graham compared it favorably with 1984's Spy vs. Spy.