VOGONS


First post, by Queen K Juul

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I had one of those moments where a memory from 20 years ago flashes into your brain for the first time in forever and now I can't stop thinking about this old game i cannot find the name of.

What I know:

- Rougly 2000-2005
- Fully polygonal 3D (not doom/duke style with sprites)
- Probably freeware or open source
- Levels looked kind of like Goldeneye 007
- I found it specifically because someone on a forum had called it either the "worst graphics of all time" or the "worst shooter of all time"
- The enemy models didn't walk, they just glided along the floors
- Enemies would just fall over when you killed them, iirc
- All graphics were very low poly - somewhere between Goldeneye 64 and Minecraft
- Some part of my brain is screaming that the name started with A, or initials AR, like ActionReal or something terrible
- Would have played it probably on XP

Racking my brain and Google is never helpful in times like these 🤣. Probably too small and obscure a project for anyone here to even remember 🤣 but gotta try. I remember thinking the enemies just gliding around and falling over was hilarious at the time.

Reply 2 of 8, by leileilol

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my guess would be X Operations

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 3 of 8, by elszgensa

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ChatGPT suggested ActionCube/AssaultCube, but that looks way too good imho. The Cube engine is actually pretty nice. The "worst graphics of all time", "worst shooter of all time" quotes made me think of this one... Pretty sure that's not it either because if you had played it you'd probably remember it for... different reasons. Still, if the general graphical style fits, looking into other games powered by the Genesis3D engine may be worthwhile. Unfortunately the G3D forums appear to have been wiped some time back, complicating research a bit...

Reply 4 of 8, by BitWrangler

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I vaguely recall discussion on another site at the time, a lot of jokes about it, but I think it was in one of those Milliways type "lounge" sections where it was common to have a rolling month or two deletion policy for not wasting storage on the BS early in the noughts. But I didn't download it myself, so only heard of it by reputation really. It is possible there were very early youtube vids on it, but trying to get anything older than 10 or 15 years to come up on youtube is a challenge in itself.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 5 of 8, by gerry

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leileilol wrote on 2024-12-07, 03:08:

my guess would be X Operations

well, that does largely fit description! i think OP needs to confirm back to us 😀

Reply 6 of 8, by Queen K Juul

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leileilol wrote on 2024-12-07, 03:08:

my guess would be X Operations

YES! thank you! sorry had friends in from out of town forgot to come back to the thread. That is definitely the one, i remember the soda can from the screenshot 🤣.

Reply 7 of 8, by Queen K Juul

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elszgensa wrote on 2024-12-07, 14:32:

ChatGPT suggested ActionCube/AssaultCube, but that looks way too good imho. The Cube engine is actually pretty nice. The "worst graphics of all time", "worst shooter of all time" quotes made me think of this one... Pretty sure that's not it either because if you had played it you'd probably remember it for... different reasons. Still, if the general graphical style fits, looking into other games powered by the Genesis3D engine may be worthwhile. Unfortunately the G3D forums appear to have been wiped some time back, complicating research a bit...

I did play the Cube- related games around the same time, primarily Cube2/Sauerbraten, but those are AAA masterpieces in comparison to X Operations

Reply 8 of 8, by RetroPCCupboard

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OMG. This was a released game? Looks terrible. Kind of like something you'd expect from someone learning to make their own 3D engine and making a demo to test it. Looks to be made by someone that has technical skills, but no graphical, animation, level design or sound skills.