LSD: Dream Machine
October 19, 2012 7:17 AM Subscribe
In 1998, a Playstation game called LSD: Dream Emulator was released in Japan. The game had no goals except for wandering around and exploring a dream world from the first person perspective.
Environments were psychedelic, with strange, low-polygon creatures and objects wandering around. Touching one of them changed the dream.
The game's content was based off of the dream journal from one of the developers, which was later published as a book entitled "Lovely Sweet Dream."
The game creates a surreal environment, that can be boring, funny, surprising, or terrifying, much like a real dream.
Here's a Let's Play documenting an experience playing the game. Review with screenshots.
A tumblr of playthroughs.
Environments were psychedelic, with strange, low-polygon creatures and objects wandering around. Touching one of them changed the dream.
The game's content was based off of the dream journal from one of the developers, which was later published as a book entitled "Lovely Sweet Dream."
The game creates a surreal environment, that can be boring, funny, surprising, or terrifying, much like a real dream.
Here's a Let's Play documenting an experience playing the game. Review with screenshots.
A tumblr of playthroughs.
Promoting drug use! Won't someone please think of the children?
posted by Egg Shen at 7:29 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Egg Shen at 7:29 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Egg Shen: "Promoting drug use! Won't someone please think of the children?"
I do. They taste better when I am frying.
posted by Samizdata at 7:36 AM on October 19, 2012
I do. They taste better when I am frying.
posted by Samizdata at 7:36 AM on October 19, 2012
Someone should remake this with 2012 graphics. Very Myst-like concept.
posted by stormpooper at 7:36 AM on October 19, 2012
posted by stormpooper at 7:36 AM on October 19, 2012
My biggest regret about this post is that the game was released commercially for the PSX (therefore abandonware now), and thus hard to play legally. It's $350 on Ebay for a real copy. If it were free/available someplace like GOG, I'd post a link.
Googling for remakes aren't really turning up much, just a bunch of projects that look really abandoned.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:37 AM on October 19, 2012
Googling for remakes aren't really turning up much, just a bunch of projects that look really abandoned.
posted by mccarty.tim at 7:37 AM on October 19, 2012
Why, that looks just like everywhere I have ever been in Second Life.
posted by AugieAugustus at 7:38 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by AugieAugustus at 7:38 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
If you don't want to get an ISO, it is out on Japanese PSN, for what its worth.
posted by griphus at 7:44 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by griphus at 7:44 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
We all remember Yume Nikki/Dream Diary, right?
posted by Nomyte at 8:01 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Nomyte at 8:01 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
It's $350 on Ebay for a real copy.
That's crazy. Maybe it's gone up from my day but you can buy a tab of acid for, like, five bucks.
posted by bondcliff at 8:13 AM on October 19, 2012
That's crazy. Maybe it's gone up from my day but you can buy a tab of acid for, like, five bucks.
posted by bondcliff at 8:13 AM on October 19, 2012
Reminds me of this long forgotten C64 / Amiga gem: Weird Dreams
posted by 0bvious at 8:43 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by 0bvious at 8:43 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
I love all the games that have stoner variants, like Rez' Endless Mode. Just cruise along, nothing can hurt you, no pressure. Really drives in the amazing hypnogogic design. For some reason the Japanese games all seem more willing to embrace psychedelia; not just Rez, but also Child of Eden, Lumines, ... Fun games.
posted by Nelson at 8:48 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Nelson at 8:48 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Well, it was the late '90s. I remember spending...a not-insubstantial amount of time...in front of one of those screensavers that synched to music one night. IT BLEW MY MIND.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:50 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:50 AM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
We all remember Yume Nikki/Dream Diary, right?
We all wish we could forget Yume Nikki/Dream Diary, right?
posted by subdee at 8:59 AM on October 19, 2012
We all wish we could forget Yume Nikki/Dream Diary, right?
posted by subdee at 8:59 AM on October 19, 2012
Joking, but Yume Nikki is one of the most disturbing games ever made.
posted by subdee at 9:02 AM on October 19, 2012
posted by subdee at 9:02 AM on October 19, 2012
I am, as always, grateful for Japanese design and culture. I was lamenting a recent (western) dreamscape-type game featured on RPS whereby you wander a landscape of phantasmagoric imagery... and shoot things. Hey, there's something startling and surreal! Shoot it. Shoot it with your gun.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:15 AM on October 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:15 AM on October 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
Hey, there's something startling and surreal! Shoot it. Shoot it with your gun.
Have you tried Proteus? No shooting at all. Just pure exploration.
And I'd agree with you. It's a little disappointing how many games come up with an amazing environment and then center your gameplay around killing.
posted by honestcoyote at 9:45 AM on October 19, 2012
Have you tried Proteus? No shooting at all. Just pure exploration.
And I'd agree with you. It's a little disappointing how many games come up with an amazing environment and then center your gameplay around killing.
posted by honestcoyote at 9:45 AM on October 19, 2012
Nelson: I'm told that part of why Japan is more receptive to psychedelic gaming is because there's a thriving cultural expectation that people get together with their friends and play an hour or two of video games before going to the clubs, and again after. So there's a much bigger market for video games that put you in a nightclub head space.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 10:10 AM on October 19, 2012
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 10:10 AM on October 19, 2012
Nelson: I'm told that part of why Japan is more receptive to psychedelic gaming is because there's a thriving cultural expectation that people get together with their friends and play an hour or two of video games before going to the clubs, and again after. So there's a much bigger market for video games that put you in a nightclub head space.
For the longest time (though no longer), mushrooms were still legal in Japan when they were illegal in North America.
In addition to Proteus, there's also TRIP apparently.
posted by juv3nal at 10:14 AM on October 19, 2012
For the longest time (though no longer), mushrooms were still legal in Japan when they were illegal in North America.
In addition to Proteus, there's also TRIP apparently.
posted by juv3nal at 10:14 AM on October 19, 2012
For some reason the Japanese games all seem more willing to embrace psychedelia; not just Rez, but also Child of Eden, Lumines, ... Fun games.
"Japan" isn't the most important commonality to those games. They're all the work of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who also created Space Channel 5 while at Sega (and the less psychedelic Sega Rally series). And yeah, they're all super fun!
Also, I fully intend to download LSD from the Japanese PlayStation Store whenever I have time. I've been signing in and staring at the listing for a couple of weeks.
posted by jcfletcher at 10:16 AM on October 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
"Japan" isn't the most important commonality to those games. They're all the work of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who also created Space Channel 5 while at Sega (and the less psychedelic Sega Rally series). And yeah, they're all super fun!
Also, I fully intend to download LSD from the Japanese PlayStation Store whenever I have time. I've been signing in and staring at the listing for a couple of weeks.
posted by jcfletcher at 10:16 AM on October 19, 2012 [2 favorites]
> I love all the games that have stoner variants, like Rez' Endless Mode.
Somebody should build a Dock Ellis mode into a baseball game.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:30 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
Somebody should build a Dock Ellis mode into a baseball game.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:30 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]
here is a video of a pug playing soccer
WHERE IS THE VIDEO?!?!? YOU FORGOT TO POST THE LINK!!!!1!
posted by Pyrogenesis at 11:24 AM on October 19, 2012
WHERE IS THE VIDEO?!?!? YOU FORGOT TO POST THE LINK!!!!1!
posted by Pyrogenesis at 11:24 AM on October 19, 2012
Best of all, you can play for less than 8 hours at a time.
posted by msalt at 1:11 PM on October 19, 2012
posted by msalt at 1:11 PM on October 19, 2012
Exploration -- I think that Myst, Minecraft and World of Warcraft all succeed in part because you can do a lot of exploring in non-fighty mode. It's an under-used potential in games.
posted by msalt at 1:12 PM on October 19, 2012
posted by msalt at 1:12 PM on October 19, 2012
Somebody should build a Dock Ellis mode into a baseball game.
It'd be simpler to just do it this way.
posted by homunculus at 3:59 PM on October 19, 2012
It'd be simpler to just do it this way.
posted by homunculus at 3:59 PM on October 19, 2012
WHERE IS THE VIDEO?!?!? YOU FORGOT TO POST THE LINK!!!!1!
MeFi delivers.
posted by ersatz at 4:18 PM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
MeFi delivers.
posted by ersatz at 4:18 PM on October 19, 2012 [1 favorite]
Why do I have the feeling that this game would have been released in the West if it hadn't been named after an illicit drug?
posted by BiggerJ at 4:26 PM on October 19, 2012
posted by BiggerJ at 4:26 PM on October 19, 2012
This was the first LSD video I watched, and I watched it after a set of Amnesia playthroughs when it fit the mood quite well.
posted by subbes at 6:13 PM on October 19, 2012
posted by subbes at 6:13 PM on October 19, 2012
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By which I mean, of course: this is awesome, thank you.
posted by griphus at 7:20 AM on October 19, 2012 [3 favorites]