A search for a vague game memory

[Kojack]

I don't expect much to come from this, but what the hell, it's been bugging me lately.

Many years ago I played a game demo. At the time the game seemed kind of interesting, but I never saw it in stores and I forgot about it.
Since then I've been trying to remember the name of the game. (the game itself probably doesn't interest me, I just want to remember what the hell it was and what happened to it)

Here's all the clues I can remember:
- first person game, but no weapons that I could remember. It was more like an exploration / puzzle solving thing
- the demo was in some kind of underground ruins. Wet, dark, but light maybe from holes in the roof or something.
- there was a room with some kind of water cistern. The term cistern is a strong memory of the game, I think the game said that. I don't normally say cistern in general conversation. It was like a communal bathroom or something, with the cistern (made of stone) in the middle of the room.
- I have a vague memory of thinking the lighting looked good at the time.
- I think I tried the demo somewhere between 1995 and 1999 (yes, this has been haunting me for a long time).
- I think it was a software 3d engine.
- Controls may have been more like ultima underworld (keyboard based) rather than mouse look, but I'm not sure. It was 3d movement though, not prerendered backgrounds or panoramas.
- Was a PC game, probably dos based considering the time.


So, does that ring any bells? I can't be more specific, that's literally everything I remember.


(I had a similar problem trying to remember a music video. All I could remember was that it had an orange tint, there were white things and black things and beetles. Years later my sister (who also vaguely remembered bits of the video but not the group or title) found it: Eye For An Eye by Unkle. Cool but disturbingly freaky video by the way)

[TheSHEEEP]

Hmm... maybe have a look at abandonia.
You can filter the games they show you at the right sight (setting year range, perspective, etc.).
Also try 3dshooterlegends and adventurelegends.
I won't post any links (for obvious reasons), but you'll certainly find them.
Don't limit yourself to the years, though, as you might have played an older game

Do you remember how the movement was?
More like Duke Nukem 3D, where you could freely move with mouse & keyboard?
Or more like Eye Of The Beholder/RoA, where you could only move on a grid and turn in 90 degrees?

I ask because I really can't remember any game from that time where you could freely move but that was without weapons.
Only Myst (1993), actually: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myst

I also don't remember any games with a cistern from back then, other than Blood. And that one was definitely with guns
And Tomb Raider, but that wasn't first person.
Maybe Lands Of Lore had something like a cicstern at some point, can't quite remember.

Also, probably take a look at shareware titles from that time.

If it is a more well-known title, then im 90% sure I have played it (it's not like I did anything else during that time period and the years that followed), but if it was some minor shareware game, then good luck

[Kojack]

I'm pretty sure it was free movement, so Duke 3D style.

Not Blood or Lands Of Law, I remember both of those.

Adventurelegends looks like it might be useful, I'm combing it's game lists now.

[Kojack]

Damn, I found it!
Azrael's Tear, released 1996.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/azraels-tear

I found it on Adventurelegends. I owe you big time, my sanity is no longer in danger.

I'm downloading the demo, let's see how inaccurately I remembered it after 16 years.

[Kojack]

There's a gun, but only 10 bullets in the demo, and nothing useful to shoot that I could see. It's like System Shock, the gun is a cursor and you can shoot anywhere on screen.
They didn't use the word cistern, they called it a stone font, but it's there. Not quite how I remembered it though.
It did have mouse look (when holding right mouse button).
It's a dos game with a software 3d engine.

[TheSHEEEP]

I found it on Adventurelegends. I owe you big time, my sanity is no longer in danger.

I live to serve

About the game... ah... most early 3D era games don't age well, at all.
But nostalgia helps, usually