Hydrogenese C64 Preview (X-Ample)

Long lost game-preview from X-Ample's Hydrogenese from 1989
00:00:07 - Sprite Set 1
00:03:34 - Sprite Set 2
00:06:32 - Sprite Set 3
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1989 Digital Marketing

Coding: Helge Kozielek
Graphics: Michael Detert, Thomas Heinrich
Sound: Thomas Detert

Hydrogenese was yet another game to come from the excellent X-Ample, who produced many stunning games.

ASM magazine issue 7/89 had a short news feature that stated that Mario van Zeist and X-ample were hired to make games for Digital Marketing, followed by some information on both Hydrogenese and Bamboo. However, the BWB link was a red herring, and it was Joachim Fraeder who confirmed that it was X-Ample behind the game. Coder was Helge Kozielek, with graphics by Michael Detert and Thomas Heinrich. The sprites and backgrounds we later recycled and used in Parsec.

According to ASM, Hydrogenese was to be a shoot’em up similar to Armalyte or Menace and it was about four “heroes” with different strengths and weaknesses. The player could choose between these heroes and the task was to “clean up” the weapon systems of a space ship. The player was also supposed to also be able to remote control cleaning robots.

The original plan was to have a shoot em up section and then sections where you would have a full 4 way platform/scroller, like Hawkeye 2 (which Mario Van Zeist showed Helge how to do).

So what happened to the original game and why was it cancelled? Originally the game was planned to be part of a 25.000 DM contest by disk magazine “Game On”, but it wasn’t finished in time. As a result, Helge didn’t get to finish the game and it was split up into several other games and finished by other programmers.

Tales of Boon, Darksword and Greystorm used the jump and run levels. Parsec used some of the shoot em up levels, and Hyper Agressive used the puzzle sequences and some of the music. Thomas’ music was split across many other games in the end, but now thanks to Se7en/Digital Excess – you can download the original music demo that Thomas produced.

Sadly it is believed that the original incarnation of the game is fully lost, but we hold out hope that it may show up some day. But it seems that most of it did manage to sneak out in the above games, so check them out for a glimpse! And also check out Creator Speaks for words directly from the author!

https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/hydrogenese