Cydonia  (Preview V2)
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Demo
Release Year: 1992
Programmer: Bernhard Burgstaller
Musician: Bernhard Burgstaller, Matt Grey, Chris Huelsbeck
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Cydonia
1992 Bernhard Burgstaller

Status: Preview, Findability: 4/5
Coding: Bernhard Burgstaller
Graphics: Robert Strunk
Sound: Bernhard Burgstaller, Matt Grey, Chris Huelsbeck

Another great finding, and this time a rather nice (if slightly buggy) Giana clone of sorts called Cydonia by Bernhard Burgstaller.

We say buggy, as this game is in its very early stages in various shapes and forms, but you can see the potential in the game from its previews that you can check out. The previews from Bernhard’s website have been tidyied up for GTW thanks to Skeletor and are now available to download along with the original sources and files from Bernhard’s website.

The earliest versions of the game almost exactly imitate Giana Sisters, but its later versions where things become more advanced and adventerous. Sadly the later levels are not too playable, but you should be able to navigate around and get a rough feel for how things could have shaped up.

We are not too sure of the background with the game just yet… The development occured for around 3 years from 1989 to 1992 on and off. It seems that potentially one of the publishers could have been Rainbow Arts, as the copyright is mentioned in the title screen of the last preview. Was it touted to them?

Imaging this game completed – try to picture something along the lines of Fred’s Back 3, and that I guess is what Cydonia is trying to achieve.

While we hope to find out much more about this game, check out the previews and sources and see what you think and imagine what could have been. Don’t expect a full playable game, as you won’t get this. It’s however a nice tech demo to display some great ideas.

Bernhard recently got in touch with GTW and informed us about some additional demos which were more advanced that he dug out, these can now be found within the download link above. There are a lot of previews to check out! Enjoy!

A nice early phase preview which is worth checking out…

Contributions: Skeletor, Bernhard Burgstaller

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"Cydonia is a unfinished game by me for the C64 written in 1989-1992. Cydonia is a jump and run game and is inspired by Great Giana Sisters for C64 (which in fact imitates Super Mario Bros). The game was significantly technically modified several times. You can download different versions of the game divided into three categories corresponding to different stages of development of Cydonia.

In the game buy the cyan "S" (Speed) in the department store; otherwise you walk very slowly. The green balls in the store are shots.

http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/cydonia/
