Oxyd
A puzzle game of matching Oxyds and rolling a marble.
Oxyd is a 1990 puzzle video game developed for the Atari ST and ported to several platforms by Dongleware Verlags GmbH. The player restarts oxygen generators called Oxyds by opening them in matching pairs of patterns and colors. The Atari ST version was written in the Megamax Modula-2 programming language.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Meinolf Amekudzi
- Publisher
- Dongleware Verlags GmbH
- Released
- 1990: Atari ST; 1992: Amiga, Mac, MS-DOS
- Genre
- Puzzle
- Modes
- Single-player
- Platforms
- Atari ST
- Amiga
- MS-DOS
- Macintosh
- NeXT
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The player controls a small black marble that rolls across a landscape, touching Oxyds to open them and bashing objects to move them. Oxyds must be opened in pairs of matching patterns and colors; an unpaired Oxyd closes if another pattern or color is opened. The inventory can hold items such as bombs, dynamite, spades, keys, and computer disks, which are collected by rolling over them. These items can create or destroy blocks, create or fill holes, and open doors. Landscapes also contain textual clues that can be stored and read, though some are misleading. Interactive elements include movable wooden blocks, lasers, mirrors, hidden passages, and hazards like bottomless pits, crumbling floors, slides, water, quicksand, and traps. Some levels invert controls, and later entries require controlling multiple balls that shatter on contact. Two-player cooperative levels feature one black and one white marble, playable by one player alternating mouse control or by two players on interconnected computers via MIDI on the Atari ST or serial ports on other machines.
Release
Dongleware offered the first ten levels of Oxyd for $4 shipping and handling, and the game was available from shareware CDs or bulletin board systems. From the 11th level onward, Magic Tokens blocked crucial passages, removable only by entering a code from the separately sold Oxyd Book, which cost $39. This software protection used the book as a dongle or code wheel, while the game itself was free.
Reception
Computer Gaming World in April 1993 described Oxyd as a favorite new shareware title providing numerous hours of enjoyment. In April 1994, the magazine stated that Oxyd Magnum would pull players deeper into its 100 devilish mazes. A May 1994 review noted the game had very few flaws, clean graphics, crisp mouse control, and praised its small size, concluding that Oxyd Magnum was a top notch puzzle game that would keep players up late.
Legacy
Oxyd spawned sequels including Oxyd Magnum, Oxyd Extra, and Oxyd 2. It was itself a sequel to Esprit, which derived from Bolo for the Atari ST by Meinolf Amekudzi. Enigma is an open source fangame with over a thousand landscapes that can read original Oxyd level packs, though these are not included for copyright reasons; its Dejavu packs contain similar ideas. Mad Data, with Dongleware's permission, produced an official freeware game called Oxyd extra v2.0.
More in Puzzle Games of the 1990s
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