By Andrew Perrin | May 18, 2026
Vintage Video Games, The Rapture, and an AI Collab: A Biblical Reception History Rabbit Hole
Most of my academic interest lies with ancient stuff: sifting through old writings, ideas, manuscripts, and artefacts, scratching my head about what they might tell us about ancient Jewish and Christian cultures in their historical contexts.
This week I stepped into a time machine and entertained a different curiosity I’ve been harboring as an armchair interest for the last few years: the reception of biblical texts, tales, and theology in vintage video games. I guess the contemporary world can be interesting too.
Spoiler alert: a new (old) theological video game awaits you at the end of this article.
A Failed Grant Submission and a Nagging Armchair Interest
Full disclosure, I had a failed research grant application on this topic a few years back. In general, I don’t think we as academics high-five our failures. But I’m rather proud of this one and am glad to be revisiting it with fresh eyes.
After my grant flop, I put the idea on the shelf but couldn’t put it out of mind. At regular intervals, I found myself scrolling through eBay and trolling Facebook Marketplace for vintage Bible-esque console games from the 80s and 90s. Every now and then I’d pop my knock-off Nintendo cartridge of Bible Adventures (1991) into my Retron console for a play. I keep a running bibliography of titles, links, blogs, journal articles, you name it, so that when I revise and resubmit the application it’s better, stronger, and more compelling.
But it wasn’t my research interest that provided the reason to revisit this topic — it was my teaching. I’m developing a new course on apocalyptic literature and thought in ancient Judaism and Christianity and beyond. The last stretch of the course fast-forwards to explore the diverse appropriations, and at times tragic interpretations, of ancient apocalypses through time and across media and movements. Among the many examples of the apocalyptic imagination’s extension into our own day is a brief take on a forgotten video game from 1982.
Radio Shack and The Rapture Game
The entire area of the modern reception of the Bible through new media — like video games — is relatively uncharted. And it is a wonderful rabbit hole. Among my tally sheet of vintage games was a series of titles released by J. Conrod in the book Computer Bible Games. To my knowledge, these are among the earliest attempts to bridge the biblical past with the then-nascent media form of video games. This heritage continues through the Conrod family via BibleBytes.
Unlike the cartridge-style games that would soon dominate and define the market, these titles were released as a book of DIY code: basically you buy the book and type in the BASIC code on your very own Radio Shack TRS-80, Texas Instruments TI-99, or Timex/Sinclair home computer. And, voilà! You’re the proud new owner of a biblical arcade, including thrilling titles such as: “Noah’s Ark,” “Manna from Heaven,” “The Quail Game,” “Moses’ Rod,” “The Exodus Game,” “Daniel in the Lions’ Den,” “Heavenly Mansions,” “Church Growth Game,” and my personal favorite given my apocalyptically charged research and teaching, “The Rapture Game.”
What’s most intriguing to me is what this topic — in this game, at that time — says about the spike in eschatological fervor among some North American Christian groups, and how biblical texts were understood to advance very specific yet speculative understandings about the crescendo of human history and divine deliverance (a.k.a., the “apocalypse” in a modern sense).
Take, for example, the introduction to the core code for “The Rapture Game” in Computer Bible Games:
“Jesus promised that He would come again to take us to be with Him in His Father’s house (John 14). This is called ‘The Rapture,’ when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and takes those who have believed in Him, both dead and living, to be with Him. ‘The Rapture Game’ is a reminder of both the hope of Christ’s coming again for those who believe on Him (sic) and the duty He left us of witnessing” (p. 93).
There’s a lot that could be unpacked here. But for now, what’s most interesting to me is the deployment of this media technology to create a new gamified experience, cultivate a religious understanding, and inform both expectation and identity.
Rapture-Game Readiness, Gamified Learning, and AI Transparency
I wanted to bring this game into my course not simply as a topic but as an experience. So I tag-teamed with Claude AI to develop and iterate a browser-based version inspired by the original game, now a relic of game history. The game will feature in a unit focused on “Apocalyptic Afterlives,” which explores some case studies in the (mis)appropriations of apocalypticism in movements and media. I’ll admit: the game isn’t awesome by standards today, although it was certainly innovative back then. And it is a fantastic pedagogical tool to open up discussions on the intersection of reception history of biblical texts, the arc of theological meaning making, and media culture.
Beyond that, this gamified tidbit of biblical reception history also provided a space to model transparent AI usage in the context of the course. The very first unit of the course includes a short learning and reflection module on ethical, responsible, and transparent usage of generative AI — a massive and contentious topic in higher education at present. (I won’t get into that here but am happy to share about it another time).
Artificial intelligence technology is changing daily. So are my thoughts and approaches. For now, I think that clear guidelines and guardrails are most important, and that showing what is possible, rather than outlawing all creative ideas, is the best way forward. Adaptability and discussion are essential.
So my collab with the robot wasn’t only about the game but also the supporting documentation that provided clarity into the development process and the approach I took to retain human agency and direction of the work. Is this perfect and complete? Nope. Are there things I’m still thinking about, would change, or want to go further on? Absolutely. But as a pedagogical experiment it’s good enough for now.
Are You Ready for “The Rapture”?
So if you’re curious about the uncharted world of reception history in video games, or ideas on AI usage in university classes — or frankly just like vintage oddities — I welcome you to explore and play “The Rapture Game” by J. Conrod, now reimagined as a browser-based video game for the reception history curious gamer today. Yes, I’m aware, that might mean just me.
This version of the game and its supporting documentation are available at the link below. Note that smartphones didn’t exist in 1982, so like the original version, this game is best played on a computer.
And watch out for that rapture timer — it’ll sneak up on you every time!
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