Undiscovered Classic PS1: Petscop

October 11, 2017 7:35 PM

Despite the first generation of 3D consoles being long since dead, intrepid archivists, thrifters, and antiquarians are still uncovering before unknown alphas, betas, and demos (e.g. The Cutting Room Floor). Recently an anonymous YouTube Let's Player found a demo for an unfinished Pokemon style game called "Petscop" for the PS1 from the unknown developer Garalina. They have been playing through the game, which is much longer than it seems like it should be, and reporting on their progress: starting with the first video here.

Although the game is interesting enough on its own, fans have some spoilerific theories running at the subreddit.

posted by codacorolla (17 comments total)

Unknown recently discovered game that gets weird?

In the words of Charlie Brown, ARG!
posted by leotrotsky at 7:50 PM on October 11, 2017 [6 favorites]

(Note that the game is fictitious and created for the purpose of the Youtube video, since the OP doesn't make that clear.)
posted by LSK at 8:00 PM on October 11, 2017 [8 favorites]

Whoever made this absolutely nailed the look and feel of PS1 games. My eponysterical hat is off to them.
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:01 PM on October 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

In the words of Charlie Brown, ARG!

It seems like the creators explicitly don't want you to treat it like an ARG, if you have the desire to go digging.
posted by dilaudid at 8:04 PM on October 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

When did David Lynch make a video game?

I am throughly intrigued and up to epsiode 5. I've never really watched any "let's play" videos, but this one is kind of relaxing. Also, the guys voice reminds me of Brendon from Home Movies.
posted by littlesq at 8:22 PM on October 11, 2017

(Note that the game is fictitious and created for the purpose of the Youtube video, since the OP doesn't make that clear.)

Kayfabe!
posted by allegedly at 9:08 PM on October 11, 2017

I hate to nitpick (this is a lie: I love to nitpick), but the PS1 has two very distinctive visual characteristics that this doesn't emulate: first, the PS1 uses very low precision math for vertex transformations, which results in the whole scene subtly jiggling around. Second, the PS1 doesn't do perspective correct texture mapping, which results in horrible texture warping.
posted by Pyry at 9:25 PM on October 11, 2017 [12 favorites]

I actually rented and played and paid overdue fines for "Eggs of Steel" on the PS1, my sister bought it for me for Christmas after getting me a Sega Saturn for my birthday, and her nerd friends kept telling her she made a terrible mistake and she should have bought me the PlayStation... She was given bad advice. Can I just say I found Virtua On and Nights Into Dreams and the throwback ortho Sonic a lot more fun than Parasite Eve and Eggs of Steel and that dragon baby?

So, yeah, Eggs of Steel, a platformer where you are an edgy anthropomorphic Egg in a steel foundry. At some point you will go up against a boss in a kilt and tam-o-shanter, with a Scots accent. A Scotch Egg. I returned the game and paid the fine and lost all interest in console gaming until the WII hit.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:27 PM on October 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

"... and lost all interest in console gaming until WWII hit."

^my brain
posted by hippybear at 9:40 PM on October 11, 2017 [9 favorites]

Pyry you are absolutely right

I stand at least partially corrected w/r/t my statement about nailing the look and feel of PS1 games
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:28 AM on October 12, 2017

A couple of neat side links -

Nightmare Masterclass's videos on Petscop (or the channel home)

A (currently edit locked) Google Doc discussing observations on Petscop


Crikey! I love enigmatic projects like this, utilizing the often abused anonymity of the net in a (IMO) good way.
posted by Samizdata at 4:17 AM on October 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

The sound of the echo of the footsteps. That's kind of all I want. It's perfect.
posted by Fizz at 7:44 AM on October 12, 2017

The Google Doc is a lovely drop. Walking in late to ARG/whatever this is (apparently not an ARG?) is like cominginto some in group late to the game, not unlike Tom Cruise overthinking at a plate of bean hamburgers.

ARG speculation is also always so strange, like everyone's pet Deckard/Replicant theory but replicant theories all the way down.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:36 AM on October 12, 2017

When I read LSK's note that this was made for YouTube exploration, I immediately lost most of my interest. I was never fan of this kind of creepypasta stuff.
posted by JHarris at 12:57 PM on October 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

For those who are into YouTube exploration, is this a well-produced example of such? What is "YouTube exploration" to an outsider from before YouTube?
posted by crysflame at 2:30 PM on October 12, 2017

By that, I meant a thing that is played, seen, heard, whatever, for the first, time, that is to say explored, within a YouTube stream, where the streamer's reactions are part of the focus.

When these things, the works being explored, are produced to be their own entities, with their own lives, I can see some of their appeal. But this seems to have been produced specifically so someone could watch it on YouTube and go WTF over it. Well, that is what killed my interest. No one else need be affected.
posted by JHarris at 3:45 PM on October 12, 2017

leotrotsky: In the words of Charlie Brown, ARG!

dilaudid: It seems like the creators explicitly don't want you to treat it like an ARG, if you have the desire to go digging.

Alternate Uninteractive Gamelike Hell.
posted by BiggerJ at 4:40 PM on October 12, 2017