📉𝙇𝙤𝙬-𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙮 📈𝙃𝙞𝙜𝙝-𝙍𝙚𝙨

That's so lovely! Seeing 3D spaces like this was just magical back in the day.

Mine was probably Mercenary on the C64 which has some similar labyrinthine underground hallways but also an open world and also a giant cheese you can pilot like a space ship!

Yeah it was a very pleasant surprise to see them supported and seeing them in high res like this. I've never gotten far in any of the Freescape engine games but loved the fact that you could explore these mysterious 3D worlds!

Kind of, meaning that the Virtual Reality Studio (aka 3D Construction Kit) is using the same Freescape engine and came out after the games made by the same company, Incentive Software (Driller, Dark Side, Total Eclipse, Castle Master).

It's playing through ScummVM since it has support for the Freescape engine games and has additional options like higher resolution and smooth mouse control and such.

A look at the wizard's hut in it's original low resolution with a chair with a six-pronged star, a table and a tasty triangle of cheese on top.

Well the original has a way lower resolution on them polygons, it's just very simple graphics! (taken from mobygames)

Although finding the wine cellar lifted my spirits (haha, get it, spirits because ghosts but also alcohol) with a shelf with two bottles, one with a green and the other with a yellow label and two full barrels of wine and the one with the XXX written on it is, I'm assuming, the king's porn stash.

A cave hiding one of the pink pentacles you need to gather and also a lovely little flower growing from the ground. When you interact with the flower, your character says "MMMMMMMM!" obviously reminding them of that Crash Test Dummies song.

The castle kitchen with a big fireplace, a nice little pot hanging over it and a big blue table with some CHEESE on it oh hell yeah gimme that cheese!

The castle's great hall, the center of many a drunken party with two long tables, a giant fireplace and another long table perpendicular to the others with a tall chair and two banners behind it, obviously meant for the king, who is now probably turned into a frog or a bat or something.

Castle Master (DOS) (1990)

4/4

Approaching the golden cross a bit closer and touching it writes out a message saying "NO EFFECT". Yeah, figured as much.

A dark red cave with a g-g-g-ghooooost floating about, looking like it took a wrong turn from Pac-Man and gained a few polygons in the process. Another square hole can be seen on the ceiling, I guess because there's perverts all around this castle that like to peep on others' business.

Yup, there's some kinky business going on in here as you enter the torture chamber with a table or rack, some hanging chains and even an iron maiden! Ooooh, fancy!

Going through the north passage, a long and narrow corridor faintly lit by a couple of torches, which I tried to touch and burned my hands and now I'm annoyed.

Castle Master (DOS) (1990)

3/4

The castle courtyard full of salmon-colored huts and a church, a tall flagpole, one of the four corner towers and a small well further on.

The Smithy's hut full of hammers, an anvil, bellows and a bench with some CHEESE! Blowing the bellows heats up the coals and sticking your hand in hurts you (no shit) but you can also cool off in the little pool of water in which the smith also bathes no doubt.

Or perhaps everyone bathes in the hot baths, though now not so much as they're haunted by the spirits, which in this case is like a tiny yellow bird. They even went and built a diving board over the pool, such wealth and depravity, no wonder the Magister was all pissed off when he saw what they did with his quaint old hill.

The castle's own little church with some nice pillars, a few rows of benches and a podium with a large golden cross on the wall behind it. There's also a peculiar square hole on the very center of the church's ceiling, possibly there for god to keep an eye on you.

Castle Master (DOS) (1990)

2/4

"Then earth and fire and air and watery rage Then tree and flesh and stone did understand And know the law of Magister, shaman and sage Lord of the Old Time, ruler over beast and man." Castle Master has some deep lore written fully in verse by the odd and enigmatic Mel Croucher (often best know for the 1984 Deus Ex Machine), talking of ancient times in England where the omnipotent Magister ruled over everything, then the rise of mankind and their many civilizations that never last, and the Normans who built a mighty structure named Castle Eternity, made out of the very rock and soil that is the epicenter of the Magister's power while he slept for centuries and, after waking up, unleashing his magical fury and turning the king and all subjects into ghosts and beasts to haunt the halls of the castle. You choose your character, a prince or princess, as your sibling is imprisoned in Castle Eternity and your first task is to figure out how the hell you're supposed to enter the castle and avoid the deep moat with no more than a shark swimming in it!

Entering one of the huts full of hay bales, a pitchfork and a spirit in the form of a cute black bat with triangular red eyes. The earth shakes (or perhaps that's just you) when you encounter one of the inhabitants turned ghost and critter by the Magister with the message "SPIRITS!!" shown in the bottom part of the screen, and the only way to be victorious is to sling a rock with your slingshot at the spirits, probably because they're just not used to the idea and just flee.

Outside the castle is the Wizard's Hut, the home of a dirty and smelly old wizard that everyone ridiculed but in eventually learned was the Magister himself, risen back from his slumber. We see a the lowest of polygons (this game has very primitive but charming graphics) with a table and a chair with a six-pronged star and some cheese on the table. Let me tell ya, this game has A LOT of cheese to much on throughout the castle.

The castle stables, with a beautiful pinkish-red horse made out of like ten polygons, being a good boye. You open the gate of the stable so the horse can go free if it wants, but it kinda just looks like it wants some food and a pat on the head.

Castle Master (DOS) (1990)

1/4

A nice little easter egg in a somewhat hidden area - a bunch of walls and platforms in the distance, arranged in a way to spell out the words "Go Bug". There's also a curious blue blur on the very left of the screen, standing at the edge of the letter B. Maybe we should get a better look.

It actually is THE blue blur, the blue dude with the 'tude, Sonic the Hedgehog! Bug is starstruck at the sight of the handsome hedgehog who in turns just looks annoyed and disinterested, looking away and tapping his foot while holding his hands on his hips. Moments later, Bug jumps on Sonic's head and phases him out of existence. I guess it's true, never meet your heroes.

If you loose all your lives, you're presented with Bug's rear end, sporting ample tight cakes and the word "THE END?" spelled out cheekily over the butt cheeks.

Bug! (Saturn) (1995)

5/5

A fiery inferno with a distant active volcano and a little bug called Bug being burned to a crisp by a red fire ant that's also a fireman fire ant that's also firing fire instead of extinguishing them.

Bug arriving at a full ribcage of some dead animal with some wooden signs saying "BUG WAS HERE!", "BADLANDS" on the left and "WORSELANDS" on the right. Whichever way you go, it's all bad! That's Hollywood, baby!

Bug looking confused while standing on a little square patch of grass in the center of a big lake and some kind of giant water snake with purple and green stripes, yelling and growling with its mouth fully agape and its lush, sensual red lips looking oh so kissable. I think I now understand why Bug is confused.

Bug finding himself in another predicament, jumping into an air bubble that's just carrying him over into the sky, possibly to never be seen again.

Bug! (Saturn) (1995)

4/5

The little green bug riding a sleigh in a wonderful winter wonderland, arriving at his destination with a silly little snowman with a silly little top hat on its head. Very cute!

This other snowman, or rather snow-bug is a bit more abominable and fuzzy, currently smiling in delight as he's grabbing Bug with both hands and squeezing the life out of him, popping his eyes out.

An underwater kingdom full of seaweed and corals and a very dopey looking orange fish (not to be confused with the Dopefish) with a unibrow, slight strabismus and possibly no active brain cells, making Bug jump out of its skin (or chitin exoskeleton).

Getting into a tennis match with a giant squid that's flinging unsuspecting dopey fish at Bug who is swinging his trusty tennis racket and basically missing all of the fish. Bug's terrible tennis skills are also one of the reasons he's never gotten anywhere in Hollywood.

Bug! (Saturn) (1995)

3/5

Bug about to be hit by a ball of dung, flung by a dung beetle who looks very satisfied and happy to sling poop at other bugs. Bug looks surprisingly unperturbed at the prospect of being covered in poop, and dare I say seems kind of excited about it.

A lovely dirt-patch arena with some audience stands filled with snails and bugs, holding signs like "BUG SUCKS", "STOMP BUG" and "SNAILS ARE SLIME" while a giant snail with a cowboy hat (with its eyes going through said hat) with fake mustachio and two big silver revolvers, firing actual guns as Bug is jumping over them, praying for dear life.

A desert area with some cacti and what looks like a gazebo built out of copy-pasted rock PNGs and a nasty little yellow lizard jumping at the camera with his little teethies out.

The desert boss fight with a giant rock demon with horns and teeth and a purple wiggly tongue with a spiky ball at the end, looking at our hero with a hungry smile. Bug looks like he's starting to doubt some of the safety regulations on this set. Just what kind of movie IS this!?

Bug! (Saturn) (1995)

2/5

The titular bug, named Bug is a Hollywood actor that's landed a big role in a new film somehow confusingly starring his entire family who's kidnapped by the Queen Cadavra, a giant spider who is actually evil and has actually kidnapped them but they're also making a movie about it. Bug is a shrewd business-bug, capable of creating a reality show about putting his family in danger, just to get his big break in the business. Not sure that's all going to plan as Bug finds himself in a lovely grassy area with lots of dung beetles and a wrinkly perverted snail that's leaning down to look at Bug's crotch. Bug looks visibly uncomfortable and looks at the camera, breaking the illusion of cinema.

A lovely underwater kingdom with a central road and some rock arches towering over oceanic flora and fauna, consisting of some rather mean looking red eels with green eyes and sharp teeth, looking for an opportunity to chomp on a bug.

Bug visiting a beautiful green and purple jungle area full of mosquitoes and abusing his ZAP ability to fire a rod of electricity from his schlong, hitting the tongue of an incoming frog who looks very surprised and/or eager to munch on that lightning. These bugs are into some freaky shit!

Bug flying on his trusty dragonfly through some inexplicably levitating fiery rings made out of rock, with some beautiful static images of 90s clouds in the background, perfect for a Windows 95 wallpaper.

Bug! (Saturn) (1995)

1/5

I just realized I never bothered to see if one Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg played by Gary Oldman appears in the game at all and I am happy to report that he is and I'm here to rectify that omission with a few more screenshots.

Just a hacked camera closeup of Father Vito Cornelius played by Ian Holm, whose face has been expertly mirrored and tacked onto the few polygons that make his face, currently floating in complete darkness as the graphics break if you get too near as you're not supposed to see him this up close.

The Fifth Element (PS1) (1998)

5/5

Leeloo swinging her arms wildly in the streets of New York, freaking the hell out of three policemen as they're cowering in fear and covering their heads, begging not to be punched. Leeloo punches them anyway.

Korben in his new fancy outfit with suspenders and a white ripped off and sleeveless shirt, shooting his gun at a Mangalore soldier while glowing blue rings radiate from the point of the bullet's impact, in this case being the alien's crotch. In the distance to the left, Father Vito Cornelius is being suspended in some kind of force field, probably just basing in his god's light which just happens to be neon-green.

A nice, cozy room with a fuzzy blue carpet where Leeloo just woke up from her hyperspace travel with the entire wall to her right is filled with little capsule sleeping pods where the passengers have been sleeping in.

Leeloo arriving to an ancient temple in Egypt, greeted by a one-eyed bipedal alien robot thing so naturally she starts wailing at him with her fists and it turns out it's pretty effective!

The Fifth Element (PS1) (1998)

4/5

The redhead Leeloo doing a backwards roundhouse kind of kick aimed at a cop's face but managing to hit his bollocks, followed by a loud pop sound.

A closeup front look at Korben's orange shirt and pretty face that's much younger and barely resembles Bruce Willis, looking more like a young blonde Jimmy Fallon.

Leeloo running through an ominously dark corridor lit by a deep red light, going through a clutter of little furry and/or fleshy crumples who are seen to clog up the exhaust ports of interstellar space ships, which is the case here as well.

Korben being a right bastard by startling a Mangalorian who is just taking a poop in the toilets, wielding some kind of laser gun, shooting rays of electricity at the pooping guy and blowing up his face.

The Fifth Element (PS1) (1998)

3/5

Korben finding himself in a well lit light blue elevator, startled by a shriveled little humanoid with flayed off skin revealing the red muscles and a wrinkly gray face, with some green tubes sticking out of its back, slowly entering the elevator and walking towards Mr. Dallas. Upon closer inspection, Korben realizes it's Keith Richards and calms down.

Leeloo sneaking through some low ventilation shafts, arriving at a dark, closed off corridor with a spidery robot fellow as they both lock eyes, neither moving and inch. The spider-bot decides the kneeling Leeloo is just another spider so it moves along on its merry way.

Leeloo, now with an outfit change she found at Cornelius' home, strolling through the filthy, 23rd century New York, grabbing a police officer by the hand and doing a backwards face punch, dislodging both his arm and jaw.

Leeloo aboard the expensive interstellar cruiser on course for the Fhloston Paradise resort, being harassed by a dark poopy gray alien Mangalore with a butt face, droopy pointy ears and a stillsuit straight out of David Lynch's Dune. Leeloo is thinking of all the ways she'll break every bone in this guy's body in a moment.

The Fifth Element (PS1) (1998)

2/5

A close look at the back of the slick blonde hair of one taxi driver Korben Dallas steadying his right arm as he's shooting a gun at a round security officer wearing a white onesie his mom bought him with a cool futuristic writing on it saying "SECURITY 69". NICE!

The character select screen, showing a blue and purple hangar with a fabulous leopard fur body suit wearing Ruby Rhod, leaning on his leopard fur walking cane next to a giant hovering LEELOO DALLAS MULTI PASS ID card.

Korben arriving at the regeneration chamber where Leeloo is being held (the game very vaguely follows the plot of the film), entering from a deeply dark blue lit hallway into a golden yellow room with a sci-fi incubator looking device and one medical technician unaware of Korben's arrival.

The alien martial arts expert Leeloo arriving at a computer station with many purple monitors and doodads, wearing her signature revealing white thermal bandages outift designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, swinging some hard punches at a heavily armored police officer that looks halfway between Judge Dredd and the Michelin Man.

The Fifth Element (PS1) (1998)

1/5

The Sound Test option shows our protagonist, a cool girl with a short green top and denim shorts and also green gloves and knee pads, looking like a member of the roster of a fighting game. She's just arrived at Las Vegas (population 12, a dingy post-apocalyptic little town) while driving her silver pickup truck with a logo saying "CASINO QUEEN" with some cards on the side. The Sound Test option currently plays the track "KISS THE HACKER" which is hacking your emotions with smooth jazz.

Our hero finds the hidden entrance to the casino in this dusty old town of Las Vegas, pushing the steel door and finding a genuine castle inside full of ways to steal money from you.

A lady in a sexy dark purple swimming suit with bunny ears welcomes you to the Baccarat table, looking kinda sad and confused as she sees you randomly throwing stuff around and loosing all of your money without even asking how the game is played.

A polished steel background with giant black letters spelling out "DATT JAPAN", which is a perfect description of this game. One little tidbit though is that this company also later developed the photo editing game/software for the Nintendo 64 called Mario no Photopi. How about that!

Virtual Casino (Saturn) (1996)

2/2

Playing a Seven-Card Stud Poker, I kept raising for $100 after each card (I think that's how it's played) and got to this state of affairs at the moment... I think I'll be fine? I mean I got a pair of sixes, right? The best part of playing poker in this game is the chill jazz and a woman's soft voice whispering sweet nothings to my ear, stuff like "one pair", "two pair", "three of a kind", "you win", "you loose" as if they're just random lyrics to this freeform jazz.

I threw a few blue tokens randomly on the roulette, but as soon as I saw it spin I just left the table. It was making me dizzy.

I was really hoping the slots would be 3D as well but they really went cheap with it and left it 2D. Hey, at least there's an adorable little hamster drawing in there and that's enough.

I tested my luck on the Blackjack table and have been constantly doubling down and didn't notice the numbers have been going into the minus. The screen displays the word "INSURANCE?" with a Yes/No choice. I guess there goes my insurance money!

Virtual Casino (Saturn) (1996)

1/2

I've known about the game (and the previous original on 32X) but I've never played it before and I was honestly blown away at how well it holds up, how good the controls are and the production values and cinematic feel of the whole thing. I'll definitely play through it now!

A close up shot of the gang made out of three blue Feather-I Type As as they're preparing to jump, leaving green swooshes and circles and sonic boom shockwaves in space because they're cool like that.

Visiting an asteroid field that's used as the harvesting station for all the Accel Gates, shooting down the harvester ships and destroying their four engines aligned in a plus-shape in beautiful chunky explosions.

A closeup of the red Feather-I Type B ship carried by the Kite support craft, a special two-seater and has an additional turret, enabling two players to play together, one flying the ship while the other manning the weapons.

A sweet distant shot of your ship just flying by and destroying large frigates like it's no big deal, doing drive bys and flying through the inferno that ensues.

Stellar Assault SS (Saturn) (1998)

4/4

A cockpit view at a large purple enemy ship, looking kinda like a sci-fi key, accompanied by a few smaller alien fighters as they're all about to be rained upon with rockets and lasers and cool anime shit.

Your squadron is being supported in the nick of time by a green Feather-III, carrying a giant rocket payload, unleashing it at the asteroid that's currently being flung at our dear ol' Earth with the hopes of destroying it into a thousand pieces.

On the other side, the red Feather-I Type B approaching the Accel Gate for a fierce and devastating attack, trying to destroy the gravitational weapon once and for all.

The payload manages to destroy the asteroid but creates a new problem! Hundreds of large asteroid chunks are still on a collision course to Earth so you need to play a good ol' game of Asteroids and destroy all the pieces until there's nothing large enough to not burn in our atmosphere.

Stellar Assault SS (Saturn) (1998)

3/4

Your ship being loaded onto the Kite support craft as you're preparing to disembark from your mothership. Did I mention this game is cool as all heck?

Doing a hyperjump to your next destination within the confines of our solar system, with space becoming light gray and completely covered in white and gray speed lines swooshing and rotating all around you while your wingmen are cracking jokes and trying to stay cool.

Not a lot of time for joking and japing as the enemy fleet is ganging on you as you're flying towards the blinding sun, unleashing a swarm of seeking missiles about to blow up a little alien ship.

A cool behind-the-ship view action shot of your blue Feather-I Type A furiously descending into an enemy frigate, a purple arrowhead-shaped ship with two spikes in front, shooting one of the spikes as it flashes and is about to explode. Another cool thing about this game is that you can gradually destroy bits and pieces of larger enemy ships and structures, with end spikes like these being the weakest and easiest to destroy.

Stellar Assault SS (Saturn) (1998)

2/4

The Earth fleet with a giant gray battleship that looks like an upside-down aircraft carrier with two smaller blue frigates, vigilantly defending our home planet from an unknown alien invader that keeps reappearing every two years with stronger and more advanced tech, so this time we managed to track their fleet in our solar system and are preparing for a recon mission. I should add that this game renders in a smaller, wide-screen window so I've cropped the images accordingly. Also, this game rules, is incredibly cool and controls surprisingly well, and also there's an English patch that includes full English voice acting (which is really well done) because there's A LOT of chatter in this game.

A cool hero shot of our fighter wing, the Feather-I Type A, a blue and gray fighter ship with neon-blue sharp wings on the sides and top and bottom, flying through an explosion after blowing up a purple enemy ship.

A giant alien structure, basically a ring with four red spikes going outward, like a sideways crown, commonly knows as an Accel Gate, which uses gravitational force to sling entire asteroids at Earth as a cheap but effective weapon, with the giant rock being equipped with additional nodes to adjust the trajectory.

A first person cockpit view of the Feather-I Type B (indicated by the red HUD), currently being held by the Kite support craft (its red nose poking out at the top of the screen), a slender carrier vehicle capable of high speeds, hyperjumps and reconnaissance sensors. You're following your wing of two additional Feathers and are currently briefed on the mission at hand.

Stellar Assault SS (Saturn) (1998)

1/4

A cute little low-poly rat from Metal Gear Solid (PS1).

An adorable little rat from Street Fighter EX2 Plus (PS1).

An awesome long ratso from Nightmare Creatures (PS1).

I wish I knew how to make a game but I've taken some screenshots of low-poly rats over the previous months so maybe it can serve as an additional inspiration because I wholeheartedly support this endeavor!

Creating more diversions to divert from the previous diversions by shooting down enemy helicopters over some snowy mountains and bringing some warmth to the unwelcoming icy landscape.

One of the final missions bring you again closer to home, tasking you to "DESTROY CRACK HOUSES" in a possibly South American urban area. The twist is that you're fighting video game piracy.

You track down the house of one x!xB0N3RM4ST3R420x!x who bragged on Xbox Live chat one day that he's "modding" Xbox360 consoles so you unleash like a dozen rockets and blow up his house and half the neighborhood.

The final mission, a flight above the clouds, gunning down weather balloons and flying through an orgy of airplanes and helicopters, a fever dream of your own making as you battle it out to leave the best chopper standing. There can be only one!

Black Dawn (PS1) (1996)

3/3

Turns out, the hostages you needed to save were the entire floor of Pierce & Pierce, Mergers and Acquisitions from the business card scene in American Psycho. You contemplate unleashing your machinegun at them...

Another mission in the cold snowy mountains with big orange letters saying "CREATE DIVERSION", so obviously you unload the entire Norwegian Olympic skiing team right in the middle of enemy territory.

An aerial view of your chopper just blowing up some enemy radars and helicopters in the middle of Central Park with the rest of the city looming in the distance beyond a thick gray fog.

Flying suuuuper low under the radar, just over a wide jungle river, your mission being the recovery of Corporate HQ's missing GoPro cameras they just littered all over the untouched wilderness.

Black Dawn (PS1) (1996)

2/3