Unfortunately there isn’t too much I can say about this game at this stage, due to it being all in Polish it seems. Thankfully, Havoc Crow via the comments has been on-hand to shed a bit of light.
The game borrows character graphics from Aliens, and has a basic interface to do some kind of interaction with the characters, but this is as about as far as I get.
It seems to still be very early days for the game, so we guess the developer just moved onto other projects and left this one to gather dust. With a developer lead though, we hope to find out soon what happened to this game.
However, Havoc Crow suggests that the game could well have been on sale at somepoint in Poland, as the magazine “Top Secret” in its December 1994 issue had a reader submitted guide and map (see scans). So it seems the game did find its way into at least one person’s hands and the guide implies that the game was finished enough to have an actual ending.
Havoc Crow described the game on MobyGames back in 2007 as follows:
“Cyberworm is an uncomplicated adventure game, where you take control of a cyborg sent to infiltrate a company and retrieve some documents. There are several maze-like levels to traverse. You move around them, trying to find necessary items and locate the exit. There are guards in some rooms who may very well kill you.
There are almost no graphics – all you get are exits written on the screen. The interface is limited to the buttons in the bottom-left corner and your face in the top-right corner.”
They didn’t get far in the game, and wasn’t sure how complete it was. Thanks to Havoc Crow, we’ve added a translation from them of the CYBERWORM article that featured in Top Secret. If you know anything more, please do get in touch!
Contributions: Havoc Crow
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Preview_Cyberworm (zip)
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From Havoc Crow: “For those curious, here’s a translation of the aforementioned guide:”
Reader Submitted: CYBERWORM
Mr. Jons grabbed the phone in despair. His debt, reaching several million dollars, was keeping him awake at night. Our hero decided to make a final, albeit less than honest, move. He quickly dialled his old friend, an eccentric scientist-inventor who had just completed work on a new cyborg model called the “Cyberworm.”
In this game, you control the “Cyberworm.” Your task is to traverse six floors of the building of the “Cybernetics Company,” Mr. Jons’s creditor, to carry out a “minor” scam. To complete the game, you must collect several items. These are: an arithmetic coprocessor, a “Hercules+” card, a floppy disk with program codes, a blank floppy disk, and a lamp and battery for the “Mark 3+,” the company’s central computer. Furthermore, on all levels (except the fourth), you must find three pieces of the code that open the door to the next level.
While wandering the rooms, you might encounter a guard. There are two options: either you kill him, or he kills you. You have no control over the outcome of the fight – it’s randomly determined by the computer. Try to avoid the guards, as many encounters will end in your defeat. But if you’re ambitious and want to get 100% points, you’ll have to kill them all. On the 6th level, if you take a wrong turn, you’ll encounter a computer programmer. He’s an exceptionally clever beast, and your Cyberworm often loses its droid life in combat with him. On this same level, you must find three numbers that create a code that will allow you to hack into the central computer, after installing the items mentioned above.
And what then? Then you’ll discreetly erase Mr. Jones from Cybernetic’s debtors list, see a congratulatory screen, and your boss will reward you generously for a job well done.
The game features an interesting solution to the problem of controlling the hero. You control him using arrows pointing in different directions [is that really so groundbreaking? – Ed.]. You can also use the arrows to check what you’ve found along the way or quit the game at any time. You’re constantly seeing messages informing you about everything (e.g., what’s on the floor, who you’ve met, etc.).
The game’s graphics are primarily comprised of your cyborg’s image (quite good, actually). When you fight a guard or a programmer, his image also appears. The music on the title screen sets the mood for the game, whereas the gameplay takes place in blissful silence. It’s worth noting that “Cyberworm” is a Polish production, developed by the Tocont group.
In summary: the game is very addictive, and completing it without the aid of maps can be challenging. I won’t repeat the cliché “everyone should play this game.” I’ll say, rather, that this game is a MUST-play for every Commodore 64 owner who enjoys maze-adventure games.
M&M’S
Update history
10/10/25 – Added new details about the game and article.
FRANK – Moved Havoc Crow’s comment into “Articles” tab above.
Hi there – since I happen to be Polish, I think I can say a few things about this game. :)
First, it’s possible the game was available in Poland at some point. The magazine “Top Secret”, in its December 1994 issue, has a reader-submitted guide and map (here: https://archive.org/details/TopSecret33/page/n49/mode/2up). So one way or another, the game did find its way into at least one gamer’s hands. And the guide implies that the game was finished enough to have an actual ending.
I described the game on MobyGames back in 2007, based on an emulator image I found somewhere on the internet: https://www.mobygames.com/game/29531/cyberworm/ But I did not get far in the game and I do not know how complete it was. From my brief experience with the game, and from reading the guide, it doesn’t seem too interesting :) – apparently, nothing more than going room-to-room like in interactive fiction (except without any descriptions more fancy that “You’re in a room.”), with the occasional combat which kills you randomly 50% of the time.
Hi Havoc Crow, thanks so much for the great inforamtion and details – just updating the page now with credit to yourself and with your translation added to the articles tab too. Really appreciated!