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Looking for Pie 3D GCS games

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First post, by Mystery

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Hi,

I'm a huge fan of the old Pie in the Sky 3D Game Creation System. Even though it's somewhat low tech and couldn't even keep up with DOOM which was released earlier, I still really like it, because it's got its own charme and unique look. It also got a lot of people interested in game development.

During the mid 90s there were a ton of games made with this software and I'm sure if you've been a PC gamer during that time, you know a couple of these. Most of these were released as a demo,shareware or freeware with the full version available directly from the developer.

I'm trying to collect as many of these games as I possibly can, but I'm afraid I might be too late. Most websites dealing with this engine are defunct, many download links are dead and even archive.org isn't very well equipped with archived FTP downloads from 15 years ago.

For example, the shutdown of ftp.cdrom.com has resulted in many titles getting lost.

So why not try asking around at vogons? I'm sure someone has a couple of these games/demos lying around somewhere, maybe even developed one and never released it or has some old shareware discs with a GCS game on them.

Now, I'm NOT asking for dubious "abandonware" or anything like that. I'm only interested in 100% legal and publicly available demos or shareware, freeware versions of these games.

My current list of GCS games has close to 80 titles and I was able to find demos for slightly more than 40. I'm sure that there are countless games I'm missing from my list and I also know that the titles that ARE on the list, but are missing from my collection, were available as a download at one time in the past 10-15 years.

These are the games that I already have:

3D Cyberpuck
Area Demo
Astroreptilio
Attack of  the Genetic Bugs
Bark Bark 3D
Castaway
Cavemaze 3D
Chemical Warfare
Chub Gam 3D
Chub Gam 3D: Director's Cut
Comic World
Continuum
Colosso Revenge
Colosso Secret
D-Day (crashes)
Dark World
Deer Napped
Demon (exact title unknown)
Despair 1-3
Duke Screw'em
Elapse
Eternal Prison
Escape from Dr. Colosso
Escape POW
Gaia
GCS Demo levels (different music)
GCS Xmas Demo
Gore Galore
Graliens
Hover War
Industrial Killers
In her royal Majesty's Intelligence Service
Lethal Tender
La Cosa Nostra
Lost in Zapperstein
Mayhem 3D
Meltdown (Pie in the Sky)
Meltdown (Robert Cureton)
MOD-G (first demo)
Outnumbered (exact title unknown)
Pastor 3D
Pyramid
Red Babe
Return of the Dämons
Soren 3D
Secret Agent The Escape
Secret Agent Rescue
Sirens' Chamber
Soviet Prisoner (Partially in Dutch)
Space Station Escape
Stop Nick Macki (Lethal Tender Beta)
Swallowed
Terminal Terror
Terrorist Invasion
The Maze
Techno Prison
Terror in Christmas Town
Troubled Tower
Ufo 3D
Vehicle of Freedom
…Show last 6 lines
Wicked Dream
Wing Do
Zone Force
Zoom
Zyr (Partially in Dutch)

And these are the games that I know exist, but couldn't find ANY downloads anymore (ignore the asterisks, they're from a different list I made):

Deadly Technology*
Delusions*
Earth Defender*
Gangbusters Deluxe*
Iraqi Scum-Bag*
Max Resistance*
Martial Arts Warriors*
Metalhead*
Murk*
Narc*
North v. Memorial (Beta 2.0)*
Operation: One Level Quickie Demo*
Operation Web*
Power Booster 5000*
Project Thunderbird*
Realms of Evil*
Return to Ghost Manor*
Santa's Rescue 3D*
Suburbia Squad*
Terror out of the Deep*
Ultimate!*
Zombie World*

If you have anything GCS related that's on the second list or anthing that's on neither of the two, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could upload it somewhere, as long as it's legal!

One final note: I'm NOT looking for games made with the later Windows version of the GCS. These are "real" 3D and about Quake1-2 tech level and don't really interest me at all.
I'm only looking for the original MS-DOS engine from 1995 in all it's raycasting glory 😀

Some links to refresh your memories:

A youtube video of a pretty average GCS game: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAwfnQMLjZs

Here's a very old review from PC Gamer in 1995: http://members.tripod.com/vr5_/GCS_PCG.htm

And the most important thing: A screenshot of the good old "Ninja Kick":
tfQJdRz.png

Remember the interface...this is what 99% of the GCS games looked like, because unless you had the source code, it couldn't be changed, just slightly altered with a new paintjob.

Apparently the engine was called the "Power 3D" engine, but there's not a whole lot turning up when using it for searching. It's usually known as the Pie 3D GCS, 3DGCS, Pie GCS, 3D Game Creation System and so on.

Update: Almost 20 games have been added or found!

Last edited by Mystery on 2013-03-28, 12:01. Edited 3 times in total.

::42::

Reply 2 of 50, by Mystery

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leileilol:

Oh, wow! That was much faster than I expected 😀

I've tried getting some of these games from the archive.org backup of the GCSGames website, but almost everything was offline.

Thank you so very much 😀
In fact, you're just the person I was hoping to see this thread since I know you have a weak spot for this engine, but I didn't know the gcsgames was your project! Excellent! Beautiful!

Now, I don't want to sound greedy or anything, but on an older version of the website had a lot more games listed. Is there any chance you have them archived somewhere?

These links on the website also seem to be dead (there are more dead, but these are the ones I'm still missing):
North v. Memorial (Beta 2.0)
Operation: One Level Quickie Demo
Swallowed
Techno Prison
Vehicle of Freedom

But again, thanks already! I could cross quite a few games off my list, fantastic 😀

::42::

Reply 3 of 50, by leileilol

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Sorry, I don't have any older GCSgames archives.

I do have two of those games mentioned however.

Attachments

  • Filename
    VOF.EXE
    File size
    1.89 MiB
    Downloads
    251 downloads
    File comment
    Vehicle of FREEDOM!!
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception
  • Filename
    GULP.ZIP
    File size
    1.11 MiB
    Downloads
    275 downloads
    File comment
    Swallowed!
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 5 of 50, by Mystery

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Just a little update: With the help of leileilol and others, I've been able to add a number of games to the list and recover some "lost" titles as well. Almost 20 in total!

These are new:
Hover War
Pyramid
Soviet Prisoner
Zyr
Swallowed
Vehicle of Freedom
D-Day
Elapse
GCS Demo Levels
Comic World
Meltdown (Pie in the Sky Tech Demo)
Ufo 3D
Wing Do
IHRMIS
Meltdown (Robert Cureton)
Terrorist Invasion
Siren's Chamber 3D
Techno Prison

I'm still looking for any games on the "wanted" list or missing from both lists 😀

::42::

Reply 6 of 50, by Hater Depot

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Oh man, I had a copy of Lethal Tender that I bought at a mall. I immediately recognized it as a GCS game from that PC Gamer article. Still several copies of it on eBay.

Korea Beat -- my cool translation blog.

Reply 7 of 50, by Mystery

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Yeah, Lethal Tender and Terminal Terror seem to be the only GCS games that actually made it onto store shelves. Well, they actually were made by the company that created the GCS, but who cares about details 😉
Terminal Terror seems to be much rarer and I haven't actually seen it for sale yet. Lethal Tender pops up every once in a while, unfortunately I'm not in the US and haven't found a seller with reasonable shipping cost. I'd love to have that game on my shelf next to my (two ^^) GCS boxes.

::42::

Reply 8 of 50, by leileilol

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3D Cyberpuck is one of the most interesting earlier cases of the engine. It has AI and some non-shooter gameplay! Yet I couldn't find a reference to Pie in the Sky software or its developers in there IIRC...

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 10 of 50, by Gemini000

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Wait wait wait...

1. ...WTF happened to cdrom.com?! D:

2. 3D Cyberpuck is pretty old, heck I recently covered it on ADG... I didn't think it was the same engine used with the Pie in the Sky GCS, or even an earlier version of it. More information and research is clearly required! :o

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 13 of 50, by Gemini000

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Hunh... I'm surprised I never noticed until now. :o

...at least we still have cd.textfiles.com :)

--- Kris Asick (Gemini)
--- Pixelmusement Website: www.pixelships.com
--- Ancient DOS Games Webshow: www.pixelships.com/adg

Reply 14 of 50, by beefjerky26

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Hi, I am also interested in old dos gcs games, but I don't have anything to offer you, unless you don't have gcs menu or the graphics or music add-ons.

I'm wondering if you have the gcs for c programmers edition, though. It allows you more control over player movement, rendering, etc.

I have version 1.3 with the gcs menu and art packs.

I would actually like to get continuum, I lost that when my computer died, really good story for a gcs game.

PS: The game video you posted, gore galore, has an outdoor scene with a scenic sky backround, I didn't know this was possible with the DOS GCS. I thought there could only be a single color as the sky, or that grainy image that gets flipped when you make a tiled floor, they must have edited that grainy image, because it doesn't look half-bad.

Cheers
http://youtu.be/uAwfnQMLjZs?t=1m17s

Reply 17 of 50, by MrFlibble

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Sorry for bumping this, but I thought I'd mention two more GSC games that seem pretty obscure.

Some time ago I was randomly browsing cd.textfiles.com and on a PSL Monthly Collection CD I found a game called SARGENT BLOOD ALIEN CHALLENGE (that's how the developers spell the title anyway). I didn't play it much but it seems decent. Here's a screenshot:
khur.png

The download is a two-part archive: BLOOD1.ZIP, BLOOD2.ZIP

Another one is a small game called Vendetta, which was created by UK-based shareware vendor Springsoft that distributed the 3D Game Creation System. One of the employees created Vendetta just to demonstrate the capabilities of GCS. IIRC there are only a couple of levels there. Download: vendetta.zip.

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Reply 19 of 50, by MrFlibble

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Just found a working download link for Industrial Killers, the promotional game Pie in the Sky Software released to show off their game making system: ikillers.zip

DOS Games Archive | Free open source games | RGB Classic Games

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