Operation Inner Space

Exclusive for Windows 3.x and the “forerunner” of the 1997 Virus: The Game game. Its action takes place in cyberspace, or rather, inside the computer. The player acts as a pilot of an intangible fighter who must fight viruses that have infested computer files (viruses are presented in the form of funny icons or pictures).

View in the game from above. The game, released three years before Virus, was the first to have the ability to scan the surface of a computer's hard disk and create locations named after its directories, which allows the player to imagine that he is really fighting inside his own real files and folders. The gameplay cannot be called an arcade game at all - for example, a fighter has a limited fuel supply, so it must be replenished by destroying enemies or, for example, some similarities of asteroids (there are enough dangers in the game, apart from viruses themselves). There are many types of fighters from which you can choose the one you want to control, or you can even create it yourself (using the game editor). Also, as you progress through the game, your ship can be improved by buying new weapons for it, armor, and so on. Will be in the game and the boss (Inner Demon).

The game does not have multiplayer as such, but there are AI controlled bots - other fighters that can act both in alliance with the human player and against him. There is also a separate sub-mode “Arena”, dedicated only to battles between fighters in a confined space (that is, no viruses will be there). The graphics are quite minimalist, but still very beautiful: there are very few objects on the screen, but the available ones are drawn quite clearly.

This game, despite being almost completely forgotten, was truly revolutionary for its time, and first of all, not even with its subject matter, but with the ability to create “levels based on real computer folders”. Perhaps, as a shoot-em'up, it is not something surprising, but it is worth playing it, if only because the number of new levels in it can be infinite, because you create it yourself (you just have to computer new folder ...).