1997 Perceptions
Platform: 3DO M2
Thanks to David Tolley and John Wells, here are some assets which were intended for use in the unreleased and incomplete Power Crystal for the 3DO M2 platform.
Within the gallery below are a number of assets showing game option screens, game icons, map tiles and sprite billboards. File: 4_ICONS1 in particular show trade items, with the rest being various different weapons, armour and power ups that may or may not have been implemented in the game.
John Wells later provided further assets, and even tools in June 2025. He had the following to say about the archive (which you can find below):
The code for editing and creating the maps (i.e., Zones) is included. The maps were created in DPaint using the “TEMPLATE.LBM” file—standard 640×480 resolution. DPaint brushes of grass, trees, and objects were used to fill in the blank spaces.
See example: \Perceptions\Trees.c\ZONE973.BMP folder.
Another great example is \Perceptions\Trees.c\973.C file. This is the file given to the programmers—Anders, Marcus, and myself—to check issues with borders not aligning. If an error was found, it would display a message telling me which Map/Zone was at fault.
Dave and I had to be very careful when creating the maps, as each of the four borders had to match adjoining maps—otherwise a height difference would be visible in the graphics engine.
If I remember correctly, each colour represented a height, so we had to be very careful not to create too much of a height difference when the player was walking or riding around. When creating objects (Buildings / Trees), a black pixel was used next to the object’s pixel colour to indicate direction—i.e., North, South, East, or West.
Another example gives a great look where dots/graphics represent each object: see folder \Perceptions\Village.c\TEXTURE.BMP.
Also have a look at Template\Perceptions\Brushes for Power Crystal\BUILDING.LBM. This helped Dave and me to place objects in the maps, and made it a bit easier instead of trying to remember coloured dots.
Dave Lago, Andy W., and Andy Noble had a hand in creating some of the code, but which part I couldn’t tell you.
Some of the files have interesting clues about what was in the game, so it’s worth having a look.
Due to the Sony PlayStation being released, it killed the 3DO off overnight. We had Panasonic down six months into the project to have a look at what we were up to. The next day, we got the bad news—it had been cancelled.
John also revealed the following roles overall on the game:
Directors
- Dave Lago, Andy W and Andy Noble
Coders
- Anders, Margus
Testers
- Dave Lago, Andy W and Andy Noble
Map/Zones and utilities
- John Carl Wells, Dave Fox
Artists
- Tina Church, Derick, Jazz, David Tolley and Richard Church
Over time it is hoped that more will be uncovered and added to the archive. In the meantime, developer Anders (via the comments) revealed the following:
“Someone asked why the game was cancelled, so it was developed mainly for the M2 console which got scrapped before it hit the market. 3DO then got cold feet even though we did make a PC version of it as well. DirectX and such were pretty recent stuff at the time, we used Renderware first but it ran too slow on a for the time reasonable machine that could run Quake.
But anyway, it was drawing nearer Christmas and it was hard to find another publisher that would take on the game and invest the money needed to keep us afloat. We didn’t really have anything else on the table out that we could live off while developing it further to release. So even if the rights for it reverted to us when 3DO cancelled the project we were unable to find the money to keep going unfortunately.
But still it was good times and it would have been an ace game. Even the test versions we had was pretty cool, the world was massive, the number of quests we had lined up were plentiful, the game logic worked, the audio worked, the in game characters had a rudimentary AI that worked, it was all gonna get there!”
So there we have it, and the question now is whether something playable could some day be found.
With thanks to David Tolley, John Wells, Anders and Ross Sillifant.
Assets
Gallery
Team photos
Lovely to see the old pictures.
Yes, I’m Anders, one of the programmers. It was a good couple of years then back in 1995-1996. Someone asked why the game was cancelled, so it was developed mainly for the M2 console which got scrapped before it hit the market. 3DO then got cold feet even though we did make a PC version of it as well. DirectX and such were pretty recent stuff at the time, we used Renderware first but it ran too slow on a for the time reasonable machine that could run Quake.
But anyway, it was drawing nearer Christmas and it was hard to find another publisher that would take on the game and invest the money needed to keep us afloat. We didn’t really have anything else on the table out that we could live off while developing it further to release. So even if the rights for it reverted to us when 3DO cancelled the project we were unable to find the money to keep going unfortunately.
But still it was good times and it would have been an ace game. Even the test versions we had was pretty cool, the world was massive, the number of quests we had lined up were plentyful, the game logic worked, the audio worked, the in game caracters had a rudimentary AI that worked, it was all gonna get there!
Thanks Anders for your recollections – i’ve just updated the page. I’ll ping you a quick message separately.
If its the person I think it is, Andy W and I went to his house to pick up the Dev equipment he
had somewhere down south.
so if it’s the correct john Preston he would have lived in stoke on trent with his wife and 4 kids, used to make the monsters like spiders etc?
Interesting; I just read about this in an old ’97 issue of Edge. Looks like it could have been a hit. I wonder why it was cancelled… 3DO not doing too well, perhaps?
Fantastic to see the art work again, got most of the code for creating the maps still, My self and Dave fox worked on the Maps, Shame it never got released, I remember Dave and I putting some easter egghs in the maps, If you was flying over the map on a Dragon, you would see a big Teddy Bear, and a sign marking ” You Are Here” with a big arrow.
All the best John.
Do you remember a John Preston working on the creatures?