In 1988, Japanese company Arsys released Star Cruiser, one of the first 3D first-person view games, way before games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom became the hallmarks of the genre. Originally made for the PC-88, it was ported to the Sharp X68000 a year later, becoming one of the most advanced 3D graphics games of the 80’s. Fan translation group Nebulous Translations has now released a translation patch into English of this particular version.
In the game, players explore over 30 planets with dozens of characters appearing in the story. In the city, players get to explore in first person and enter buildings to interact with NPCs. Meanwhile, space exploration involves going to different planets in free flight mode, with occasional enemy encounters where you can earn money. There are also dungeons that play like an FPS, where you need to shoot down enemies and find keys to open doors through the dungeons.
Check out some screenshots below:
Nebulous Translations also added in a small cheat where you can easily grind money. You can find more about that, as well as a more extensive introduction and the patch itself, here.
Star Cruiser was originally released for various Japanese PCs, as well as the Sega Mega Drive later on.