Exhaustive list of games made in DOS 3DGCS

[Mystery]

Last Update: November 9th, 2024

In August the GCS master list was completely overhauled to be more accurate and comprehensive. We went from 120+ to 140+ entries and nowadays new material is incredibly hard to find. With the help of the community and a bit of digging of my own, there were several corrections made in the latest version as well as the discovery of almost 10 previously unknown titles AND the rediscovery of 5 titles that were previously considered "lost". Several mistakes were corrected, the GCS Mega Art Pack was found and an older version (1.11) of the GCS Editor as well. A few games that were already in the archive were found again with correct file timestamps.

Check this Google Sheet for the most up to date list: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fSHmL8j_mgq4l9xiF-vD_Ye9hxzQONHPY0yFPJ3bvBI/

You can download the archive here: archive.org/details/3dgcs-archive-2.1.1
Note that all files that are still commercially available have been removed from the upload!

I think we can all agree, that our holy grail is not a game, but the "GCS for Programmers" software. Aside from getting it directly from Kevin Stokes/Pie in the Sky Software, there are four games that supposedly used this version. They might also just use a different, rarer, regular version of the GCS, but we have no way of confirming that. These games are Darkness of Space, Escape P.O.W., Life’s Battle and Subterraneans. Finding the developers might prove fruitful.

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Original Posting from 2012-2021 with Updates below, to not lose any information
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As part of my research to create a game with the GCS I've been looking for other games that were made using the DOS 3DGCS.

Why? Because I'm sure that other people had good ideas as well.
Especially the technical side is of interest to me. By looking at different games, made by entirely different people/teams, I'm hoping to find creative solutions for technical challenges, ideas on presentation, design and other things.

Most of the games I found used the standard assets, but usually in different ways, so these games are usually still worth a look.

I haven't found a single website that listed all known games made with this engine and I had to collect the games from many different sources.


Now, I'm not sure about the legal issues here, so I'm quite reluctant to put download links here, so right now I'll just list the games I've found.

For now it's just a text list, but I'll expand it with screenshots for each title and maybe a short description.


If anyone has or knows of other games using the DOS GCS that aren't on my list, let me know.


Let's get started:
(*) marked games are just known by name for now. Looking for download links

3D Cyberpuck
Area Demo
Astroreptilio
Attack of the Genetic Bugs (aka Freedom Soldier)
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
Dungeon of Terror
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
Santa's Rescue 3D
Sergeant Blood / Sargent Blood: Alien Challenge
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
Ultimate!
Vehicle of Freedom
Vendetta
Wicked Dream
Wing Do
Zone Force
Zoom
Zyr (Partially in Dutch)

Missing games:
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*
Suburbia Squad*
Terror out of the Deep*
Zombie World*

Update 1:
Included titles from this website: members.tripod.com/vr5_/GCSGames/DOSgames.htm
However, the download links are pretty much dead, so these games aren't archived and confirmed yet.
So I'm looking for download links to all games marked with an asterisk (*).

Update 2:
Added Max Resistance, Area Demo, Earth Defender, Pyramid from wikipedia and gcsgames

Update 3:
Added "Return of the Dämons" and started short informational reviews down below.

Update 4:
Added Lethal Tender Beta "Stop Nick Macki" and created hyperlinks to the game "reviews".

Update 5:
Found a couple of new games, added them to the list and recovered a few "lost" titles as well and made some corrections to the list.
Additions and changes:
New: Attack of the Genetic Bugs
Recovered: Chub Gam 3D Directors Cut
New but no Download: Deadly Technology*
New: Demon (exact title unknown)
New: Duke Screw'em
Changed: Freedom Soldier to Attack of Genetic Bugs
New: GCS XMas Demo
New: MOD-G, first demo
New but no Download: Operation one level quickie demo (same as operation web?)
Removed: Operation Area 51, is the same as "Area Demo"
New but no Download: Prezzie Hunt (there's a torrent with no seeds floating around)
New but no Download: Project Thunderbird
New: Zoom

Current Count: 79 known GCS games, 48 of them archived (at least a demo/shareware version), 31 still missing.

Update 6:
I found 4 "lost" games:
-Hover War
-Pyramid
-Soviet Prisoner
-Zyr

Update 7:
A whole bunch of previously lost or completely unknown games has been recovered!
-Swallowed
-Vehicle of Freedom
-D-Day (not 100% working)
-Elapse
-GCS Demo Levels
-Comic World
-Meltdown (Pie in the Sky Tech Demo)
-Ufo 3D
-Wing Do
-IHRMIS
-Meltdown (Robert Cureton)
-Terrorist Invasion


That brings the current number of known games to 87 with 63 archived and 24 missing.

Update 8 (March 2013):
Splitted the lists so the missing games can be seen more easily.
Two more lost games have been found:
-Siren's Chamber 3D (finally! I've spent SO much time on this until I tracked it down)
-Techno Prison

Update 9 (April 2017!):
Thanks to Technopeasant, we've got a couple of missing games and even entirely new games added to the list. Thanks a lot!
NEW: Dungeon of Terror
NEW: Sergeant Blood / Sargent Blood: Alien Challenge
NEW: Vendetta
Found: Ultimate!
Found: Santa's Rescue 3D

[Saturdaynight]

Great start. I'll find what I have and add to that list. Ther were many, many games made with this engine.

[Saturdaynight]

Here is a link to a web page with Pie GCS game links. This web site is open to the public and the game were hosted with the developers permission. Ah, the good old days of GCS.

members.tripod.com/vr5_/GCSGames/DOSgames.htm

[Mystery]

Unfortunately pretty much all download links on that website are dead.

I'll update the list with those games and note which ones haven't been found as a download yet.

[Saturdaynight]

Yeah, I forgot to menton that. Although a few web page links are still live there.

If you visit the links page on GCSarchive.s5.com open up the archive of GCSGames. There are quite a few game links that are still good but you already have most of those listed anyway.

Or simply click here.

I noticed you don't have the original Colosso on your list. It is active on this lnk.

[Mystery]

The original Colosso is on the under "Escape from Dr. Colosso"

I've added another game on the list "Return of the Dämons".


I'm going to add short reviews (just from a technical point of view) of the games in the list right here. Starting at the top.

3D Cyberpuck:
Short gameplay video:

Download link (shareware)

Ingame screenshot

Analysis:
This game is quite different from the usual 3DGCS shooter, because it's a different genre.
The developers clearly had access to the source code, as there are a lot of differences in the interface. They didn't change too much, so the original 3D GCS roots are still clearly visible.
Nothing spectacular in terms of level design, very basic layouts and no complex structures or any tricks.
The only interesting feature would be the ability to purchase items and upgrades before the game starts. Unfortunately I don't see this happening in the basic version of 3D GCS, so it's a neat feature, but nothing we can actually apply in our games.



Next up will be "Area Demo". I won't be doing these on a regular basis, just a quick look at another game every now and then.
These aren't supposed to be actual game reviews. I'm doing this both for archival purposes and to find interesting or clever uses of the game engine's abilities and that's what I'll focus on.

[Mystery]

Took a while, but here's the next short review.

Area Demo aka. Area 51

It's a pretty standard 3D GCS title, but the developer(s) at least made some effort to put unique content in the game.

A couple of screenshots (couldn't find a video online):




The level design is pretty basic, but at least somewhat coherent. At least it's better than some titles. Each level has its own unique look and there are a lot of custom graphics in the game, completely made from scratch, converted (for the intro) or standard sprites with swapped colors.

It's nothing special, but it's a pretty solid GCS title. It feels complete, has an intro, menu and basic story and the custom graphics set it apart from other games.

Other than that, there's not much going on in there. I've played through maybe 5 levels of the demo and didn't see any clever tricks or designs.

Polygons aren't used very much and the only thing that really annoyed me were the door textures, which are always those bright "shiny" ones you can see in the third screenshot.

Next Game: Astroreptilio

Edit: Forgot the download link. I can't remember where I got the demo from, so I uploaded it again: www49.zippyshare.com/v/87349236/file.html

[Mystery]

Astroreptilio

This is a really nice game. I've played the (2 level?) shareware and I was really impressed by the amount of work that went into the game.

All assets (except a few soundeffects) were custom made for the game, so you will have to look quite hard to find any standard GCS assets in here (unless the stuff is from one of those texture packs that were sold).

The level design is a lot more interactive than most run&gun GCS titles. Not by much, but it's still worth mentioning. You have to flip some switches in order to progress and every once in a while there are some text boxes.

Download Link (shareware): www19.zippyshare.com/v/80824139/file.html

A couple of screenshots:





Polygons on the floor are used with some success, but there are still graphical glitches, as usual.

What really impressed me was the architecture of some of the outside buildings (see the 3rd shot). It's not all simple boxes but they've tried to give the buildings some shape and it works pretty well.

The fourth shot also shows some interesting architecture, even though the floor texture is somewhat unimaginative.

Balancing is also not half bad. Enemies take different amounts of hits (usually slightly too much if you ask me).

Overall a nicely done game.

[Mystery]

I created quicklinks in the overview to the individual postings, because I think this thread might get a little bit chaotic after a while.

I also dug up a new/old game with the Pie3D engine: "Stop Nick Macki"
It's actually not a new game, but a beta version of the Pie in the Sky game "Lethal Tender". Quite a nice find.

[Mystery]

Huge Update!
Found a couple of new games and downloads. The list is up to 80 titles now.

Short review of the next game in Line: Attack of the Genetic Bugs aka Freedom Soldier

This game is pretty awful.
The level design is often not even functional or logic, walls have different heights, regular passages are behind hidden doors, the balancing almost non existant.
There are a couple of items and enemies scattered around the level and that's pretty much it.

The assets are GCS standard with some very light modifications. The sound effects have voices from Star Wars and Terminator in them and are either too high or too low pitched.
Music also seems to be stolen, I think I heard a tune from DOOM in level3.

There are also numerous graphical glitches. From the infamous overlapping door/wall to transparency errors etc.

A typical rushed GCS title done with no experience.

Here are a few screenshots:





From a technical standpoint theres also nothing to gain from this title other than a couple of examples of how NOT to do it

But to be fair: This was probably done as a one-man project by a young kid who just wanted to have some fun with the GCS back in the day. I guess my first experiments would've looked similar.

And at least it's "complete" with a menu, a very basic nonsensical story and some ingame dialog.

Edit: Forgot the download link to the shareware.
www61.zippyshare.com/v/62957329/file.html

[Mystery]

As you can see in the top posting, there has been a huge update! A lot of games have been recovered and even more titles that were previously completely unknown were also found! I'll eventually review each one shortly and add a download link!

Todays mini-review: BarkBark 3D

Download: www20.zippyshare.com/v/26369454/file.html

This will be a short one: I have no idea how and why this was deemed to be a compile- and releaseworthy game, because there's only half a level in there, so I'll show you the game in its entirety.


First room: Get a shotgun!


Second room: Two enemies on bikes (makes sense?) and a goo gun


Third room: A neat library with a bomb item in one of the aisles.


And after that, there's nothing else.

The library looks nice and the whole floor on the "inside" of the level is covered with black polygons, which works more or less okay.

That's it! Next up: Castaway. This should be a little bit more interesting.

[Technopeasant]

Here is Max Resistance:

archive.org/details/MaxResistance_1020

Actually, search the Internet Archive very thoroughly, as it got a lot of GCS games when it absorbed the old Demu collection.

Oh, and cheers for getting leileilol to resurrect that old site, as I had only just noticed it went down before seeing you got it brought back up! ;D

By the way, I just downloaded Continuum and was blown away - that is tremendously impressive stuff there for Pie3D! Sure, it really is more an adventure game than a shooter, but it is well written and the environments are very nice to look at. Certainly recommended and the best thing I have ever found to show that not all Pie3D games are amateurish (though cheers to all the amateur stuff too).

As for your concerns about the legal status, I do not think you should worry - I do not think I have ever come across a GCS download that was not either freeware or shareware. After all, did anyone ever actually buy a GCS-made game? Honestly?

And if they did, I doubt they would put it up on the web afterwards.

EDIT: Also, look through this list, as it contains a number of GCS games:

3dsl.game-host.org/shooter/alphabet

[Mystery]

Thanks for the link to Max Resistance, I guess it's not using the DOS version. That's good news, one game less to worry about.

There are a few GCS titles that are quite impressive, of course they're quite rare. Continuum is pretty well done, there are a handful of other (fps) titles that show what's possible with this engine.

I've already been using archive.org quite extensively to find backups of broken links, but it might be worth a shot to search for individual files, thanks for the tip.


I wish I had more time to work on this list and my own GCS game right now.

[Technopeasant]

You may also be able to find some names through here, though I admit it is a bit difficult to sift through around 3300 or so of often unimportant messages:

lists.topica.com/lists/GCSMax2/

[Technopeasant]

Here is one you are missing that I found on 3D Shooter Legends: Hamster 3D. One of the most absurd yet!

cd.textfiles.com/psl/pslv5nv03/DOS/GAMES/HAMSTER.ZIP