''Nanosaur'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

video game developed by

Pangea Software Pangea Software is a video game developer based in Austin, Texas, owned and operated by Brian Greenstone. The company began with Apple IIGS games in 1987, then moved to Macintosh and later iOS. Pangea found its primary success with a series of 3D ...

and published by Ideas From the Deep for

Mac OS 9 Mac OS 9 is the ninth major release of Apple Inc., Apple's classic Mac OS operating system which was succeeded by macOS, Mac OS X (renamed to OS X in 2011 and macOS in 2016) in 2001. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "T ...

and

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. The player takes on the form of a Nanosaur, a

genetically engineered Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...

intelligent

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the future, sent back in time just prior to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Story

In the distant year of 4122, a

species, ''Nanosaurs'', rule the Earth. Their civilization originated from a group of human scientists who experimented with

genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...

. Their experimentation led them to resurrect the extinct dinosaur species; however, their victory was short-lived, as a disastrous

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

brought the end of their civilization itself. The few dinosaurs resurrected were lent an unusual amount of intelligence from their human creators, leaving them to expand on their growing civilization. However, as the Nanosaurs were the only species on Earth,

inbreeding Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders and o ...

was the only possible choice of reproduction. This method largely affected the intelligence of the various offspring, and slowly began to pose a threat to their once-intelligent society. The Nanosaur government offers a quest that involves

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

ing into the year 65 million BC, where the five eggs of ancient dinosaur species must be retrieved and placed in a

time portal Time portals are doorways in time, employed in various fiction genres, especially science fiction and fantasy, to Time travel, transport characters to the past or future. They differ from Time travel, time machines in being a permanent or semi-p ...

leading to the present year. Their high-ranking agent, a brown ''

Deinonychus ''Deinonychus'' ( ; ) is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur with one described species, ''Deinonychus antirrhopus''. This species, which could grow up to long, lived during the early Cretaceous Period, about 115–108 million ye ...

'' Nanosaur, is chosen to participate in this mission. On the day of her mission, she is teleported to the past via a

time machine Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...

in a Nanosaur

laboratory A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratory services are provided in a variety of settings: physicia ...

. The Nanosaur arrives in a lush

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...

, with twenty minutes given to collect the eggs before the meteor that caused the initial extinction of the dinosaur race hits the Earth. After battling various ''

Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

'''s, the Nanosaur enters a

volcanic crater A volcanic crater is an approximately circular depression in the ground caused by Volcano, volcanic activity. It is typically a bowl-shaped feature containing one or more vents. During Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions, molten magm ...

, where she must cross several stone formations in a river of

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...

in order to retrieve the eggs. After making her way across the river, the Nanosaur detects the final eggs in a

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

, where various dinosaurs, namely ''

Dilophosaurus ''Dilophosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North America during the Early Jurassic, about 193 million years ago. Three skeletons were discovered in northern Arizona in 1940, and the two best preserved ...

'' and ''

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been foun ...

'', are attempting to hinder her progress in order to protect their eggs. After evading defeat, the Nanosaur beams the final egg into the time portal, and is carried along with it back to the present. Following the completion of the Nanosaur's mission, the eggs are placed in nationwide laboratories, where the scientists intend on breeding them for their own purposes. Several months following this event, the eggs finally start to hatch.

Gameplay

The object of the game is to collect the eggs of five dinosaur and flying reptile species and deposit them in time portals to the future in twenty minutes; at the end of the countdown, the asteroid that caused the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago. With the ...

hits Earth. The Nanosaur is equipped with a "fusion blaster" (a basic multi-purpose energy weapon), a

jet pack A jet pack, rocket belt, or rocket pack is a device worn on the back which uses jets of gas or liquid to propel the wearer through the air. The concept has been present in science fiction for almost a century and became widespread in the 1960s. ...

allowing flight, a temporal compass for locating time portals, and a

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

locator for navigation. The native animals will attack the Nanosaur when their eggs are threatened; species encountered include ''

'', ''

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivore, herbivorous Chasmosaurinae, chasmosaurine Ceratopsidae, ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), period, about 68 m ...

'', ''

'' (who spits venom as in ''Jurassic Park''), and the flying reptile ''

Pteranodon ''Pteranodon'' (); from Ancient Greek (''pteron'', "wing") and (''anodon'', "toothless") is a genus of pterosaur that included some of the largest known flying reptiles, with ''P. longiceps'' having a wingspan of . They lived during the late Cr ...

''. As well as hostile creatures, the Nanosaur must also avoid water and lava, environmental hazards which slow the player down (or kill it).

Legacy

The game was being ported to

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

by Three Axis Interactive, but the port was never completed. Around 2003 the

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

of the game was made available by the developer under a restrictive

license A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

. In 2021 an open source version of the game utilizing

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

was ported to modern systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux) with the developer's blessing by Iliyas Jorio. Jorio had previously ported their other title, ''

Bugdom ''Bugdom'' is a 1999 platform video game originally created by Pangea Software for Mac OS 9. It was included with the iMac DV 2000 and later iBook models. The Microsoft Windows version, released in 2000, was developed by Hoplite Research and pub ...

'', to modern systems in 2020. ''Nanosaur Extreme'' is another version of ''Nanosaur'', released at a later time with heftier system requirements. It has many more enemies and weapons than Nanosaur, and it is described on the Nanosaur downloads page as "what Nanosaur was meant to be – a total kill-fest". '' Nanosaur 2: Hatchling'', a continuation of the original ''Nanosaur'' storyline, was released in March 2004. ''Nanosaur 2'' is the first

stereoscopic Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the depth perception, illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stere ...

game released for the Mac.

References

External links

Official website
{{Portal, Video games, Dinosaurs, 1990s 1998 video games Dinosaurs in video games Classic Mac OS games Pangea Software Role-playing video games Third-person shooters Video games about time travel Video games developed in the United States Video games set in prehistory Video games set in the future Windows games Cancelled Linux games Commercial video games with freely available source code