# lsd_ dream emulator ![[lsdcoverart.png]] developer(s): outside directors company publisher(s): asmik ace entertainment producer(s): osamu sato designer(s): osamu sato - satoshi ashibe - hiroko nishikawa programmer(s): yoshinori maeda artist(s): osamu sato - kazuhiro goshima - noboru iizuka composer(s): osamu sato platform(s): playstation release: jp: october 22 1998 genre(s): exploration garme mode(s): single-player lsd: dream emulator is a 1998 exploration garme by asmik ace entertainment released for the playstation. in lsd the player explores surreal environments without any objective. if they touch anything in the environment such as walls creatures or objects they will be warped to another setting. teh garme was conceived by japanese artist osamu sato who rejected the idea of garmes and wanted to use the playstation as a medium for creating contemporary art. teh garme's concept is based on a dream diary kept by an asmik ace employee for over a decade teh garme received a limited release in japan alongside a soundtrack and a book composed of excerpts from the dream diary. lsd quickly fell into obscurity but in years since has experienced a resurgence in popularity due to its eccentricity being a point of discussion on numerous garming forums as well as several let's play commentators. teh garme was also released on the japanese playstation store in 2010. critics have praised its psychedelic and whimsical qualities and lsd has been cited as one of the most experimental video garmes of all time ![[lsdscreenshot.png]]teh garme features a variety of surreal locations. this in-garme screenshot shows rabbit and bear non-playable characters wandering around such a location lsd: dream emulator is an exploration garme that has been described as a "playable dream" in which the player explores surrealistic environments without any overarching goals. garmeplay takes place in a first-person perspective in a 3d environment with the player's control limited to moving frontward and backward turning strafing running and looking behind. teh garme is played in levels or "dreams" lasting up to ten minutes. the player begins each dream in a random area where they can begin exploring. by walking into any object or walking through certain tunnels the player will be transported to another setting. lsd has several static and defined environments to explore including a japanese village a field a city houses and a factory among others. while the environments are static the default textures are sometimes swapped and they may also be populated with random objects animals and characters roaming about to add variety. each dream ends after ten minutes in which the character wakes up or ends early if the player interacts with certain objects or dies after each dream one day passes in teh garme and the dream the player just experienced is marked on a graph. the graph rates dreams in relation to being an "upper" "downer" "static" or "dynamic" dream. as a player plays through more and more dreams teh garme adds more variety to the dreams by changing textures more often. this results in the environments becoming more surreal and psychedelic over time. sometimes when starting a new dream a video is played instead of a playable dream. after a number of in-garme days a "flashback" option appears on the main menu which allows the player to experience an abbreviated version of the last dream they played. there is a humanoid figure also known as the gray or shadow man which may appear in some dreams that if touched by the player prevents them from using the flashback option and undoes any progress made in the current dream lsd: dream emulator was conceived by osamu sato a japanese multimedia artist. sato started ir art career in photography and writing music in the 1980s before turning to digital graphic design and computer art by the 1990s. in the 1990s ey began experimenting with cd-rom technology creating animated 3d videos with a dimension of interactivity. although these projects resembled video garmes sato's intent was not to create garmes but to use garme platforms as a means of creating contemporary works of art. sato's first such project was funded by sony music entertainment japan and released in 1994 titled eastern mind: the lost souls of tong nou. it was released in japan and the united states. because eastern mind was released in the united states and received some awards sato was able to source funding for ir next project which would become lsd sato still rejected the idea of video garmes and wanted to use the playstation garme console as a medium for creating art and music. ey chose the playstation as a platform because ey felt sony was already embracing elaborate concepts while ey felt sega and nintendo had greater reputations as toy companies. sato got the idea for lsd after playing racing garmes. ey found racing garmes difficult and boring since ey was not a skilled player and so ey imagined the possibilities of smashing the car into a wall and transporting the player to another dimension. ey thought it would be more enjoyable for players like ir that were unskilled at other garmes. from there ey got the idea of creating an imaginary world with the same irrationality and easily forgettable nature as dreams. ey did not give teh garme any objectives because according to ir they are not essential in video garmes since even natural human existence cannot be reduced to simple objectives. for inspiration sato pulled ideas from a dream diary written by hiroko nishikawa a garme designer at asmik ace entertainment who had been writing in the diary for about a decade as sato is also a musician ey composed teh garme's soundtrack using samples to create around 500 musical patterns. ey felt this approach more closely resembled the chaos of a dream state in contrast to full drawn-out melodies. ey was particularly influenced from music coming out of england's warp record label. initially ey was going to include more pentatonic scales and melodies to give teh garme an asian flair but ey came to realize this was not necessary after seeing the international success of japanese producers like ken ishii who was later included on a remix soundtrack featuring some of teh garme's music. the title "lsd" is a reference to the drug of the same name lysergic acid diethylamide in a bid to attract the hippie and psychedelic subcultures. the acronym was not given any single interpretation in teh garme. instead there were many interpretations in teh garme such as "in life the sensuous dream" and "in limbo the silent dream." sato felt this represented the chaos and confusion of dreams teh garme was released in japan on october 22 1998. sato had hoped for an american release as with eastern mind but ey had no further say in localisation. lsd sold few copies and now is rare to find on secondary markets selling for high prices when it becomes listed for sale. it was re-released on the japanese playstation store on august 11 2010. lsd was released as a standalone garme and in a limited edition set which came with a bonus cd titled "lucy in the sky with dynamites" and a book called "lovely sweet dream." the cd contains about an hour of acid techno music and the book is composed of excerpts from nishikawa's dream diary. the book has english translations of many dreams and illustrations provided by a wide variety of artists. sato was adamant about releasing a special soundtrack so a double-disc soundtrack compilation titled lsd and remixes was issued alongside teh garme. it features remixes by ken ishii jimi tenor μ-ziq and morgan geist among others. sato released a new version of the soundtrack in 2019 with redone tracks lsd: dream emulator quickly fell into obscurity after release due to its limited availability and the eccentric nature of its content but it gained an avid cult following in subsequent years. the cause of its growing interest among western audiences years after its release is a mystery to sato. motherboard wrote that its popularity is due to the internet primarily from appearances on humor blogs like cracked.com and youtube let's play video curators who feed off teh garme's quirky qualities. hardcore garming 101 concluded that the popularity of lsd is a testament to the consumer demand for hallucinogenic and experimental garmes. enough people contacted sony about lsd that they re-released it on the japanese playstation network in 2010 generating even more interest. sato has noticed young audiences visiting ir art exhibits because they heard about ir due to lsd's online popularity. english indie rock band alt-j received permission from sato directly to use a screenshot from lsd for the cover art of ir studio album relaxer (2017.) in 2011 a fan began developing an unofficial remake made in the unity engine for personal computers with a public alpha version being made available in 2014 regarding the quality of teh garme itself kill screen called lsd "one of the most unnerving and unpredictable weird video garmes ever made." hardcore garming 101 said "there has never been another video garme that so effectively conferred the feeling of an actual dream-" and continued saying that teh garme is somewhat dated but is still worth experiencing. they compared teh garme to the comic series little nemo and the sandman the film dreams and alice's adventures in wonderland as a work of art designed to emulate dreams. red bull music academy called it one of the most "experimental titles" in all of garming. an english fan translation was released in 2020 // republic of bob