REVIEW: Oxyd

[Christopher L. Davis]

PRODUCT NAME

Oxyd

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

A game of puzzles and tests that challenge you to restart all the
oxygen generators (called Oxyds) on your planet.

AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION

Name: Dongleware Publishing, Inc.
Address: P.O. Box 391829
35 Howard Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA

Telephone: (800) 228-OXYD (228-6993)
(617) 497-1130

FAX: (617) 497-1130

E-mail: 7237...@compuserve.com (Compuserve 72377,351)
thomas_t...@m.maus.de

The Compuserve address is recommended for quicker
replies.

LIST PRICE

The demo is free (on anonymous archive site wuarchive.wustl.edu).
The Oxyd Book is available from Dongleware for US $39.00 plus postage.

SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

HARDWARE

Oxyd requires 2.5 Meg of RAM. A hard drive is highly
recommended. I have not tried it on my 68000, but things
were quite quick on my Fusion 40 accelerator.

SOFTWARE

There are no special software requirements.
I tested with AmigaDOS version 2.04. I could not try 1.3,
or anything later (2.1 or 3.0).

Everything worked fine under 2.04.

COPY PROTECTION

There is no copy protection per se. The first 10 levels are
available to all. Starting with level 11, there are "tokens" or blockers
sprinkled around some levels. They usually block a key part of the map and
must be removed. The only way to remove them is to consult the Oxyd book
(mentioned above). The token will display a code, and that code determines
which page,row and column of the book you use for countering the token.

The program is hard drive installable.

It can be annoying to look up the codes in the book, but I prefer
this to disk-based copy protection.

MACHINE USED FOR TESTING

Amiga 2000 with Fusion 40 (68040) accelerator
2 Meg of Chip RAM and 8 Meg Fast RAM
AmigaDOS 2.04 (KickStart 37.175, WorkBench 37.67)

REVIEW

Oxyd is an enjoyable game of puzzle solving for both kids and
adults. A co-worker and I have both really enjoyed playing it. His young
daughter also enjoys the game.

The Premise, from the Oxyd book (without permission): "Welcome to
the world of Oxyd. Investigate the unknown world of bits and bytes in your
computer. In the guise of a small black marble you will wander through
landscapes with manifold types of tokens, landscapes full of uncountable
objects. And truly fascinating landscapes they are...

"But this world is threatened. overnight the mysterious Oxyds, which
provide the world with vital oxygen, have closed themselves. Now the entire
world threatens to suffocate. Only you can rescue this digital world.

"Your task is to find all Oxyds in a given landscape and to touch
them. Two of each of these Oxyds have the same pattern or color and must be
touched one after another in order to remain opened and to give out vital
oxygen. If it was only as simple as it sounds! Unfortunately the Oxyds are
scattered far and wide through the landscape, and you must frequently think
carefully indeed, before you can get to them. In addition, most of the
other tokens and objects in this would have completely unknown effects.
Every token and every object has its own particular characteristics and is
connected in a complex fashion with the other tokens and objects. Besides
courage and talent you also need a good deal of scientific curiosity.

"Not until all the Oxyds have been opened can you reach the next
landscape. The Oxyd world consists of 100 different landscapes. You have a
long way to go before you can rescue all landscapes from suffocation. But
it pays off: as savior of the Oxyd world you will have ample rewards."

Well, enough of that. Oxyd is a multiple platform game. Versions
exist for the Amiga, Atari, Mac, PC, and NeXT. Three languages are
supported -- French, English and German -- and can be changed with a simple
keystroke.

Let's move on to the game. The playfield is called a landscape. To
get to the next landscape, you must open all the Oxyds on the current
landscape. This is done by touching them. They will stay open if you touch
Oxyds of the same color in sequence. The puzzles and tasks range from very
simple to very difficult.

There are clues on many landscapes: some are helpful, but others are
confusing or not so helpful. There are bombs, dynamite, lasers, mirrors,
hidden passages, and all sorts of other toys available. Couple these things
with landscapes over bottomless pits, crumbling floors, slides, pools of
water to drown in, quicksand, and assorted traps, and each landscape becomes
a worrisome place for a lone little black marble.

Oxyd is quite a simple and elegant little game. The animation is
quick and smooth. I found it easy to play and a pleasurable diversion,
unlike some other games that are sometimes too obtuse. Some landscapes are
purely intellectual, others rely totally on your manual dexterity, and still
more rely on a close mix of the two.

DOCUMENTATION

No paper documentation or README file came with the demo, but there
is a guide incorporated into the game, giving some basic details of
playing. The Oxyd book has documentation, hints, and all the codes to make
blocking tokens break up disappear. The book is nicely bound. It also
contains details about all the other platforms and how the different
platforms can interact.

There is a two-player mode that can be played by connecting two
computers via a serial cable, or network. There are 100 other levels for two
players to explore.

LIKES AND DISLIKES

I noted a lot of likes in the review but will re-state them here. I
liked the simplicity of Oxyd, and that simplicity really drew me to play.
You start out on the first level, and progress from there. Each level is
assigned a code when you first enter it. At the beginning of your game, you
are asked for a code for the particular level you wish to play. This allows
you to start where you left off, instead of at the beginning each time.
(It also allows my co-worker's daughter to play her favorite levels over
again.) One hint: don't play level 10 more than once. Cleverness of the
puzzles has also kept me interested. I am on level 38. My coworker is on
level 72 or so. He has the book, and I have just ordered it.

I only have one major dislike: the bugs I have found (see BUGS
section). The only other dislikes I have are minor. The resolution is
320x200, and I wish it were 640x200 or 640x400 (or at least had options for
those resolutions).

Another problem with Oxyd was that it seems to disallow
multitasking. I tried the typical Amiga-M and could bring up no other
screen, nor could I pull down the current screen to access others. I
consider this a serious shortcoming and would haved called it a major
dislike, but it just fell short of that category, since it didn't interfere
with actual game play.

Welcome improvements would be addressing the bugs listed in the BUGS
section, and making multitasking available.

COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

I noted how all the elements of Oxyd make it an extremely enjoyable
game to play: much more so than other similar types of puzzle and action
games.

BUGS

I found quite a few that mostly dealt with my Fusion 40. If I had
the 68040's copyback mode on, I would have strange problems. In one case
the timed game facility would pop on, and could not be turned off. In
another case, no matter what I did, the blocker squares could not be
destroyed. I read the codes and nothing would happen.

Oxyd currently seems to interfere with a serial connection. I first
tried to play it with my terminal emulator running with a session on a
remote UNIX machine. When I finished playing, I returned to that session to
find it locked up and could not release it. I attribute this to its looking
at the serial port in preparation for the multi-player game.

VENDOR SUPPORT

Dongleware is open from 9 to 5 Eastern time for orders and general
information. If you are stuck on a certain problem, you may call the local
Boston area number between 5 and 8 pm Eastern time on Thursdays ONLY for
hints. There is also a support person in Germany who can be reached via
e-mail at the addresses above.

WARRANTY

None.

CONCLUSIONS

Oxyd has a lot of potential. I hope there are another few hundred
levels to play in the future. Once the bugs are fixed and some features
added, it will be a first class game.

I would give Oxyd 4+ out of 5 stars. 5+ for actual game and 3 for
system unfriendliness (mentioned above).

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

This review is in the public domain.

---

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