Hydrocis
| Developer: Sebastian Winkel | Graphics: |
 | |
| Publisher: N/A | Sound: |
| |
| Year: 1996 | Difficulty: |
 | |
| Genre: Puzzle | Lastability: |
 | |
| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
7/10 | |
The concept seems interesting, and curiously, to my knowledge, rarely explored. I would be curious to know if there are other similar games, on Amiga or elsewhere.
The game involves channelling a water leak towards the location designated by a yellow horizontal bar, by placing and removing “barriers” (small grey vertical sticks 9 pixels high). In addition to diverting the flow, these dams can be used to raise the liquid level over a section of the route, causing floats to rise and doors to open, like a lock.
The author defines his game as a variation of Lemmings, where the rodents are replaced by water droplets, which instead of walking straight ahead, submit to the laws of fluid mechanics. It’s quite impressive to see hundreds of pixels individually animated, forming waves or torrents with realistic behaviour.
The game is downloadable as a shareware version, limited to six levels. Unfortunately, I have not found any trace of the complete version, which contains thirty. Please notify me if the author ever decides to distribute it. I cannot see myself sending liquid money (oh oh oh!) to his address in Germany, where he resided in 1996, as requested in the documentation.
From what I’ve seen (the first six levels, therefore), various elements are incorporated such as pumps, “water bombs” or sorts of lasers, but apart from the latter, which are activated by clickable switches, player interaction seems limited to placing and removing barriers. It’s a bit like playing Lemmings using only two actions: the blocker and the exploding lemming. It seemed to me that the solution was found through trial and error, more than through genuine intellectual effort. That said, I would make the same criticism of Lemmings.
Notable is the game’s lack of music and the slightest sound effect, perhaps due to technical necessity; its advanced “physics engine” requiring a significant amount of memory.
I spent a lot of time stuck on level two, to the point where I wondered if the game was buggy. A classic feeling already experienced many times when facing a tricky puzzle (and invariably incorrect). It was worth persevering, the rest proved positively witzig!
Other images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
A vaguely (oh oh oh!) similar game was released on iOS (mobile phone) in 2011: Where’s My Water.
And in a different genre, the depiction of moving liquids with individually animated pixels was replicated in Noita (PC, 2019).
|
