What is Xenos?
Xenos is a text adventure published by the Robert Arnstein Corporation and licensed to Tandy Corporation in 1982. You play Dr. Sands, roused at 3 a.m. by a Pentagon phone call and dispatched to the deserted New Mexico town of Purgatory to investigate what appears to be an alien landing. Armed with your wits — and whatever you can scavenge from an abandoned hardware store, a ghost-town saloon, and a locked sheriff's office — you must stop an extraterrestrial threat before it reaches the rest of the world.
The dictionary meaning of the title says it all: xeno- — from the Greek xenos, "stranger" — 1. Stranger; foreigner (xenophobia). 2. Strange; foreign; different (xenolith).
| Publisher | Robert Arnstein Corporation / Tandy Corporation |
| Developer | Robert Arnstein Corporation |
| Year | 1982 |
| Platform | TRS-80 Model I & Model III |
| Part number | 26-1955 · $24.95 |
Why This Page Exists
I first played XENOS in the early 80s on our TRS-80 — probably a Model I or Model III. I was too young to get far, but a nine-foot diamondback snake guarding a shovel burned itself into my memory. When emulators arrived in 1997 I finally got back to Purgatory, shotgun in hand. I still needed help finishing the game, which is why this page was born — and why it has grown into the archive it is today.
Thanks to Jim Bakman for the original walkthrough, and to everyone who sent in their own Xenos memories over the years.
Play Xenos
Start with the manual and solution, then load the game in a TRS-80 emulator using the downloadable ROM below.
Manual & Solutions
- Read the TRS-80 game manual online
- Download the original manual PDF
- Complete Xenos solution & walkthrough
TRS-80 Emulator
Game ROM
Reviews & Remakes
Be sure to check out Gaming After 40's blog and his playthrough of Xenos: Adventure of the Week — Xenos (1982) .
Xenos Memories
Players who grew up with XENOS share what the game meant to them.
I first played this game back in the early 80s when we had a TRS-80 Model I (or maybe a Model III). I was too young at the time to really get anywhere, but the fact that I could not kill the snake guarding the shovel stayed with me — especially since that lousy snake killed me every time.
Then came the magic of emulation and I could once again take on the snake. It was surprisingly easy all those years later (it's amazing what you can do with a good shotgun) but I still needed help figuring out the game. Luckily the walkthrough helped with that.
Wow, I used to play Xenos on my old TRS-80 Model III when I was in junior high. I could get the dynamite because I dug the sand — first with hand ("Yeah man, I dig it too") then with shovel to actually dig. I could manage to kill one alien with the shotgun, but I never found a spaceship.
One of my dad's co-workers told me about a spaceship, but I wasn't sure whether to believe him. If you tried digging the sand without the shovel: DIG SAND — the computer asked WITH WHAT? — and if you answered WITH HAND the computer would respond YEAH MAN, I DIG IT TOO.
It may have been twenty years ago when I first put my fingers to a TRS-80 Model III. I was a pre-teen when my family moved to a new town. We had a Saturday habit of riding our bikes to the local Radio Shack followed by pizza — and they had several TRS models there, but I liked to play on the Model III. I could only remember one game: an adventure that began with "Xe..." featuring a dusty empty town, a hot desert, aliens, and a spaceship.
Luckily I found your site. A few emulators later, I'm in Purgatory, and this time I shoot that rotten nine-foot diamondback in two. And finally I get past the boulder and into the spaceship that had taunted me since the early 80s. Thanks again!
When I originally played the game back in 1984, it was at a friend's house and it was the first adventure-type game I had ever played. I was immediately intrigued that you could tell the game what to do by typing commands like GO NORTH or OPEN DOOR — up until that point I had only played arcade games.
I kept thinking there was something I had to do with the jeep to get it going so I could cross the desert. Boy was I wrong! I preferred the first half "old town" part — the way it was written really made the town come alive in my imagination. I could almost hear the wind blowing and see the tumbleweeds moving through the desert.
It took me a total of 16 years to finish the game from the first time I played it. To me that shows there was something special about Xenos for it to stay in my mind for so long, and to make me go to such great lengths to finally finish it.