Oxyd
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''Oxyd'' is a 1990
puzzle video game Puzzle video games make up a broad genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles can test problem-solving skills, including logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving, spatial recognition, and word completion. H ...
developed for the Atari ST and ported to the Amiga,
Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
,
MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...
, and
NeXT Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...
by Dongleware Verlags GmbH. It is a game of puzzles and tests to restart all the oxygen generators (called Oxyds) on the player's home planet. The Oxyds must be restarted by opening them in pairs of matching patterns, and (in colour versions) matching colours. The Atari ST version was developed with the Megamax Modula-2 programming language.


Gameplay

The player controls a small black marble that rolls around, touches things to activate them (Oxyds are opened by touching them), and bashes things to move them. The player has an inventory and can add some items to the inventory by rolling over them. The game's playfield is called a landscape. The player must open all of the Oxyds to progress to the next landscape. Oxyds must be matched in pairs. An unpaired Oxyd will close if an Oxyd of another pattern or colour is opened. Some landscapes also contain textual clues, which the player can place in their inventory by rolling the marble over them. They can then be selected and read. There are clues on many landscapes: some are helpful, but others are confusing or not so helpful. Other useful items include bombs, dynamite, spades, keys and computer disks. These items may be placed in the inventory, and can create or destroy blocks, create holes, fill holes, and open doors. There are other interactive blocks, including movable wooden blocks, lasers, mirrors, hidden passages. There are also dangerous areas, including bottomless pits, crumbling floors (which collapse if the marble has been rolled on them several times), slides, pools of water to drown in, quicksand (which the marble will slowly sink in), and assorted traps. Some levels invert the player's controls, and in the sequel games, the player has to control several balls, which shatter if they touch each other. There are two-player cooperative levels with one black and one white marble that can either be played by one player, alternating his mouse control between either marble, or by two players playing on two interconnected computers. The interconnection is accomplished by
MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...
on the Atari ST, or by the
serial port In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out sequentially one bit at a time. This is in contrast to a parallel port, which communicates multiple bits simultaneously in parallel. ...
s on other machines.


Release

Dongleware offered for $4 shipping and handling the first ten levels of ''Oxyd'', and the game was easily obtainable from shareware CDs or bulletin board systems. From the 11th level onward, at various intervals throughout the games, "Magic Tokens" blocked crucial parts and passageways of the landscapes, mostly rendering progress impossible. These stones could only be removed by entering a code. ''The Oxyd Book'' was sold separately for $39, with code tables matching the information given on the Magic Stone. This form of software protection used the book as a dongle or
code wheel {{Refimprove, date=September 2008 A code wheel is a type of copy protection used on older computer games, often those published in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It evolved from the original "manual protection" system in which the program would ...
; however, unlike other games which use the code book protection approach, the game itself was free.


Reception

'' Computer Gaming World'' in April 1993 called ''Oxyd'' "My favorite new shareware title ... an exceptional offering, guaranteed to provide numerous hours of enjoyment". The magazine in April 1994 said that ''Oxyd Magnum'' "will quickly pull players deeper and deeper into its 100 devilish mazes". ''Computer Gaming World'' in May 1994 said that it "is a game with very few flaws. The graphics are clean, and the mouse control is crisp", and praised the small size. The magazine concluded that "''Oxyd Magnum'' is a top notch puzzle game that will keep players up to the early hours of the morning attempting to solve 'just one more level.


Legacy

''Oxyd'' spawned a number of sequels: ''Oxyd Magnum'', ''Oxyd Extra'', and ' (also known as ''Oxyd 2''). Additionally, ''Oxyd'' itself was a sequel to a lesser-known game, called
Esprit
'. In summer 2019, Dongleware announced a completely new Oxyd release and a port of the classic version to the Nintendo Switch console. In March 2021, the Steam store page for the game was removed. Around 2020, Oxydgames twitter account was suspended. Only the YouTube channel and website remain. The current status of the new release is unknown, as such it is assumed that development has been suspended.
Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...
is an Open source
fangame A fangame is a video game that is created by fans. They are usually based on one, or in some cases several, video game entries or franchises. Many fangames attempt to clone or remake the original game's design, gameplay, and characters, but ...
with over a thousand different landscapes that can also read the original Oxyd level packs (they are not included for copyright reasons). Also the included "Dejavu" level packs contain levels with similar ideas to the original levels. Mad Data, with the permission of Dongleware, has produced an official
freeware Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for t ...
game with the name "Oxyd extra v2.0".


References


External links


''Oxyd''
at Hall of Light Amiga database * {{moby game, id=/oxyd, name=''Oxyd''
www.dongleware.com
archived fro

on June 15, 2006 Amiga games Atari ST games DOS games Classic Mac OS games Puzzle video games Video games developed in Germany 1990 video games Marble games