FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Tech

Watch What 'Bioshock' Would Have Looked Like on the First PlayStation

98DEMAKE gives Irrational's seminal shooter that 1998 look.

Bioshock was an instant classic. Developer Irrational Game's 2007 first person shooter pushed the boundaries storytelling and made players rethink what kinds of stories their games could tell. It wouldn't have been possible to make in 1998, but the video above shows what it might have looked like if Irrational Games had.

It's a Playstation version of Bioshock, one that reduces the original to the low-resolution graphics and simple corridors of a late 90s console shooter.

It was made by 98DEMAKE, a YouTuber who specializes in making classics games look like they came out 10 years ago. "Turning pretty games ugly again," is his tagline and he's a master. His 1998 version of Bioshock—with it's jagged polygons, simple music, and simple level design—looks a lot like the game's spiritual forebear System Shock 2.

His channel is about more than just the retro gameplay though, 98DEMAKE goes the extra mile by crafting the packaging the game might have come in in 1998. Every video starts off with a hand holding up the game's jewel case in front of a VHS camera. The cases are British, so they're a little wider than the American-style Playstation jewel case. Under the low-resolution fuzz of the tape, it's hard to tell his demake cases aren't official products.

According to his Patreon page, every video takes around 30 to 40 hours to make. That includes video production using 3D software and crafting the cases. There's no coding involved, just clever art direction and a talented artistic hand.