In 2009, Hungarian musician Peter Nagy-Miklos (NecroPolo) – with the help of iAN CooG – released several previously unheard tunes. Included among them was all the music for an unfinished game known as “Geister”.
Peter describes what happened: “My second (and last) game tune, written for an odd software developer guy called zOnE in 1994. Geister was a minimalistic and badass sci-fi horror strategy placed inside of a huge spaceship, a bit similar to Laser Squad but with very fast turns and short (1-2 minute) levels. Besides SID torturing, I wrote the story and worked on game concept. zOnE wanted short aggressive background music, so that was it. The game had no FX, I had all 3 channels to let loose the filters.”
As for the game itself, the reason it was unfinished is quite sad.
“All the source code was destroyed when zOnE’s place burnt to dust in October, 1994. He had been so afraid of being ripped off that he didn’t let a byte out of his house, not even for me. After the fire, zOnE stopped writing games and I stopped writing C64 music soon after.”
Full details of each tune:
- (#1) NAME: Intro
- (#2) NAME: Start/title screen
- (#3) NAME: Reactor level
- (#4) NAME: F’n big droid level
- (#5) NAME: Scanner level
- COMMENT: There is some off-beat “beep” for zOnE’s request as a scanner-like sound. That
was zOnE’s fav track, especially the concrete breaker part from 1:30.
- COMMENT: There is some off-beat “beep” for zOnE’s request as a scanner-like sound. That
- (#6) NAME: Abductor level
- (#7) NAME: Dreadnought level
- COMMENT: Riffs were used in the first Wackor EP in 1999 in the song “Iced”.
- (#8) NAME: Time out! /last turn/
- (#9) NAME: Level complete
- COMMENT: Riffs were used in the first RKH album in 1995 in the song “Curable”. I wrote the
whole song around that little piece.
- COMMENT: Riffs were used in the first RKH album in 1995 in the song “Curable”. I wrote the
- (#10) NAME: Weapon shop
- COMMENT: Riffs were used in the first Wackor EP in 1999 in the song “Iced”.
- (#11) NAME: Highscore
Necropolo in 2020 then got in touch to say that he had worked on the game. It was described as a sort of fast paced sci-fi horror strategy game, and Necropolo did the above tunes for this game, along with some others back in 1994.
The developer sadly passed away in December 2019, so we will never know the full story about the games. Necropolo uploaded a YouTube video of the music here:
So a tragic end with the passing of zOnE, and sadly we may never learn anything more of the game or find anything.
Case closed.
Contributions: Peter Nagy, iAN CooG, Gaz Spence, Jazzcat, Anonymous Contributor, Frank Gasking
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Music_Geister.zip (zip)
Creator speaks
NecroPolo talks about Geister (via CSDB):
“My second (and last) game tune, written for an odd software developer guy called zOnE in 1994 (not identical with anyone under that name here). Geister was a minimalistic and badass sci-fi horror strategy placed inside of a huge spaceship, a bit similar to Laser Squad but with very fast turns and short (1-2 minute) levels. Besides SID torturing, I wrote the story and worked on game concept. zOnE wanted short aggressive background music, so that was it. The game had no FX, I had all 3 channels to let loose the filters.
All the source code was destroyed when zOnE’s place burnt to dust in October, 1994. He had been so afraid of being ripped off that he didn’t let a byte out of his house, not even for me. After the fire, zOnE stopped writing games and I stopped writing C64 music soon after. Some riffs of Geister survived in my later band projects.
These tunes have the sound I wanted but they are in beta state and are not optimised – exactly where I left them in 1994, after many failed C64 projects, being fed up with all.
(#1)
NAME: Intro
(#2)
NAME: Start/title screen
(#3)
NAME: Reactor level
(#4)
NAME: F’n big droid level
(#5)
NAME: Scanner level
COMMENT: There is some off-beat “beep” for zOnE’s request as a scanner-like sound. That
was zOnE’s fav track, especially the concrete breaker part from 1:30.
(#6)
NAME: Abductor level
(#7)
NAME: Dreadnought level
COMMENT: Riffs were used in the first Wackor EP in 1999 in the song “Iced”.
(#8)
NAME: Time out! /last turn/
COMMENT:
(#9)
NAME: Level complete
COMMENT: Riffs were used in the first RKH album in 1995 in the song “Curable”. I wrote the
whole song around that little piece.
(#10)
NAME: Weapon shop
COMMENT: Riffs were used in the first Wackor EP in 1999 in the song “Iced”.
(#11)
NAME: Highscore”
Update history
03/10/24 – Deleted two duplicate entries and tidied up content and merged. Case closed too.
