Level 100: Bioforge Plus (English Version)

Some time ago I set out to find out as much as I can about the
fate of „BIOFORGE PLUS“ – the official add-on
to the 1995 Origin Systems‘ action title „BIOFORGE“ which,
after a short and quite chaotic development cycle, was
unfortunately never released. Two years and one quite
convoluted information scavenger hunt later I’m immensely proud
to present to you the most comprehensive analysis of „BIOFORGE
PLUS“. Which rightfully earned itself the honour to being the
100th main episode of „Game Not Over“. And which also is the
very first episode here that I’ve double-recorded in German as
well as in English in order for our non-German speaking friends
all over the world to join the cool kids club and be in the
know about this very obscure piece of video game history as
well.

Commence enjoyment!


Heartfelt thanks to Bill Armintrout, Bruce Lemons, Jack
Herman, Eric Hyman, Billy Joe Cain, Jeff Morris, Artie
Rogers, Brendan Segraves, Joe Garrity, Jörg Neumann, Paul
Barnett, Richard Garriott, Starr Long and Ken Demarest for
answering my many questions.


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Text excerpt:


People like to say that I prefer to talk about retro games
that nobody has ever heard of. This might not be completely
wrong from time to time – but now I thought that I should
fully embrace this particular prejudice. Because is there a
better opportunity to focus on a game that hardly anyone has
ever heard of, simply because it has never been released,
than the 100th main episode of „Game Not Over“? Nah, don’t
think so. Therefore: Welcome to the big and very special
anniversary of „Game Not Over“. That’s all about „Bioforge
Plus”.


„Bioforge“… hm. I can’t seem to let go of it. I’ve played
through the game easily a dozen times since its release in
1995, and despite all its obvious flaws, it’s still one of my
favorite games of all time – I’d like to think that I know it
really well by now. Back in 2018, I did a dedicated podcast
episode about it, Level 21, for which I also talked to Ken
Demarest, the game’s lead developer, at the time. And I
really thought that was the end of the topic for me as well.
One of my last sentences in that episode was, translated to
English, „And that would be the conclusion of the „BioForge“
saga from my side.“


But now – I might be wrong. At some point that had to happen,
statistically speaking. At the beginning of 2021, I was in
the mood for „Bioforge“ once more, played through it again
over the course of a few days, got annoyed by the terribly
open ending like every time – and then started to seriously
wonder how the game and its storyline were supposed to
continue. Of course, I knew the broad strokes – it’s not a
particularly big secret that the work on „Bioforge 2“ had
started right after the completion of the original game.
Which then, after it became clear that „Bioforge“ wasn’t
going to be a big seller, was turned into the add-on
„Bioforge Plus“. Which in turn reached beta status after only
a couple of weeks of development, but was then canceled under
cloak and dagger and disappeared from the surface of this
world. For which the blame was of course put on Electronic
Arts, the parent company of Origin Systems…

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