Tapochka 3D PSX

Developer: nradiowave

Release Date: TBA

Graphics: 3D

Genre: Adventure

Players: 1

 

 

Description

Tapochka 3D is an action and exploration game set inside a castle. Players must find keys, solve small puzzles and rescue fairies locked in cages scattered across the various levels. While the core mechanic sounds straightforward on paper, the developer acknowledges that many of the systems that will shape the final experience are still being defined.

 

Extra Info

Tapochka is not a character created specifically for this game. The protagonist (whose name comes from the Russian word тапочка, meaning "slipper") has been part of her creator's artistic universe for years, as he drew her frequently long before considering bringing her into the world of video games. The project was born, precisely, from that desire: to see his own designs come to life inside a console that has been captivating independent artists and developers for decades.

The development draws influence from the YouTube channel Bandwidth, widely known for his PS1 projects and for developing PSXSplash 2.0. The technical foundation relies on psn00bsdk, models are built in Blender, and the developer has written his own script to export geometry, UV coordinates, and animations directly into the game engine.

The project is already at a fairly advanced stage. What has been implemented so far:

• Player and camera controls
• Enemies (rats), keys, and several rooms.
• Trigger logic and moving platforms.
• Text boxes and their corresponding dialogues.
• Facial expressions and character animations.
• Basic lighting effects.

 

The intention is for the rats to be able to attack the player, who in turn will be able to fight back, though the attack animations and mechanics have not yet been implemented. The project includes a basic lighting system, and the developer has indicated he intends to optimise how this feature is handled.

The author himself notes that one of the biggest challenges during development was discovering that a version that appeared to work perfectly on an emulator simply displayed a black screen when run on a real PlayStation. After investigating the issue, he found that the emulator had been silently tolerating a memory access error that the original console would not allow. This experience led him to recommend that any PS1 developer continuously test on both real hardware and multiple emulators.

One of the most surprising aspects of the project is its small footprint. According to the developer, the entire game (including models, textures, sounds, and logic) takes up less than 1 MB, meaning all its assets fit comfortably within the console's memory.

The author has also confirmed that Tapochka 3D will support two languages. While the materials shown so far are focused on Russian, the developer has indicated that any future public demo will include an English translation.

 

Media

Official Download Links

Official Web - YouTube - Patreon

 

Desarrollador: nradiowave

Fecha de Lanzamiento: Por anunciar

Gráficos: 3D

Género: Adventure

Jugadores: 1

 

 

Descripción

Tapochka 3D es un juego de acción y exploración ambientado en un castillo. Los jugadores deberán encontrar llaves, resolver pequeños obstáculos y rescatar hadas encerradas en jaulas repartidas por los distintos escenarios. Aunque la mecánica parece sencilla sobre el papel, el desarrollador reconoce que todavía se encuentra definiendo muchos de los sistemas que darán forma a la experiencia final.

 

Info Extra

Tapochka no es un personaje creado para la ocasión. La protagonista (cuyo nombre proviene de la palabra rusa тапочка, que significa "zapatilla”) lleva años formando parte del universo creativo de su autor, que la dibujaba con frecuencia antes de plantearse llevarla al mundo de los videojuegos. El proyecto nace, precisamente, de ese deseo: ver sus propios diseños cobrar vida dentro de una consola que lleva décadas fascinando a artistas y desarrolladores independientes.

El desarrollo bebe de la influencia del canal de YouTube Bandwidth, popularmente conocido por sus proyectos para la PS1, así como por desarrollar el PSXSplash 2.0. Como base técnica se utiliza psn00bsdk, los modelos se crean en Blender y el desarrollador ha construido su propio script para exportar geometría, coordenadas UV y animaciones directamente al motor del juego.

El proyecto se encuentra en un estado ciertamente avanzado. Ya cuenta implementado:

• Controles de jugador y cámara
• Enemigos (ratones), llaves y algunas salas.
• Lógica de triggers y plataformas móviles.
• Cuadros de texto y sus respectivos diálogos.
• Expresiones faciales y animaciones de personajes.
• Efectos de iluminación básicos.

 

La idea es que los ratones puedan atacar al jugador y, a su vez, que este tenga la posibilidad de defenderse de los enemigos, aunque las animaciones y mecánicas de ataque no están desarrolladas por el momento. El proyecto cuenta con una implementación básica de efectos lumínicos, aunque el desarrollador ha indicado que quiere optimizar la inclusión de esta mecánica.

El propio autor comenta que uno de los mayores problemas que encontró durante el desarrollo fue descubrir que una versión aparentemente funcional en emulador simplemente mostraba una pantalla negra al ejecutarse en una PlayStation real. Tras investigar el problema, descubrió que el emulador estaba tolerando silenciosamente un error de acceso a memoria que la consola original no permitía. Esta experiencia le llevó a recomendar a cualquier desarrollador de PS1 realizar pruebas constantes tanto en hardware real como en distintos emuladores.

Uno de los aspectos más sorprendentes del proyecto es su reducido tamaño. Según el propio desarrollador, todo el juego (incluyendo modelos, texturas, sonidos y lógica) ocupa menos de 1 MB, permitiendo que todos sus recursos quepan cómodamente en la memoria de la consola.

Por otro lado, el autor ha confirmado que Tapochka 3D contará con soporte para dos idiomas. Aunque los primeros materiales mostrados hasta ahora están centrados en ruso, el desarrollador ha indicado que cualquier futura demo pública incluirá traducción al inglés.

 

 Media

Enlaces Oficiales

Web Oficial - YouTube - Patreon

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time PSX

 

Developer: Bonnie Games

Release Date: February, 2026

Graphics: 3D

Genre: Adventure

Version: Experimental Alpha 

Players: 1

 

 

Description

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time PSX was an experimental port of the original Nintendo 64 classic, developed by Bonnie Games, who is also known for bringing Celeste Classic to the PlayStation using PSYQo.

At that stage, the project was still an early prototype, but it was already playable and was accompanied by gameplay footage that showcased some promising results. While still far from complete, it represented an ambitious attempt to bring one of the most iconic 3D games of all time to Sony’s 32-bit hardware. The project has since been put on hold; more on that below.

 

Extra Info 

The prototype (made also using PSYQo) already featured basic movement and collision detection, allowing players to explore a simple 3D environment. One of the most interesting aspects was the camera system, which could be rotated freely and was controlled alongside player movement using both analog sticks. This resulted in a control scheme that felt surprisingly modern, reminiscent of dual-stick setups seen in games like Dark Souls.

However, the project was still in a very early stage. The framerate was low, and several graphical issues were present. Textures were not yet correctly mapped onto polygons, and players could see through walls, revealing parts of the level that should normally have been hidden. These issues highlighted the experimental nature of the project and the challenges of adapting such a complex game to the PlayStation.

As the developer explained at the time, this port was not just an attempt to recreate Ocarina of Time, but also a learning tool to better understand the PlayStation hardware. The knowledge gained from this project was meant to support the development of another project the developer was working on, BONNIE-32, an engine designed to replicate PlayStation-style graphics natively. That plan ultimately changed: BONNIE-32 itself was later discontinued, and the developer's focus moved on to a new project, PSoXide, covered in detail further down.

The developer had also shown interest in other similar efforts within the community, particularly the Super Mario 64 PSX project, and had studied its codebase to better understand how such conversions could be achieved. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that Ocarina of Time was a significantly more complex game, making a full and faithful port a much greater challenge — a challenge that, as it turned out, the project would not get to see through.

Despite its limitations, this prototype represented an exciting first step, and at the time it seemed like it could eventually evolve into one of the most ambitious PlayStation homebrew ports to date. Ports of this scale are extremely rare, and alongside projects like Super Mario 64 PSX or Half-Life PSX, this experiment highlighted the growing ambition and technical skill of the PSX homebrew scene. As described below, however, development did not continue past this prototype stage. 

 

What Happened Next: From BONNIE-32 to PSoXide

In the months following this prototype, development on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time PSX stalled. Bonnie Games also discontinued BONNIE-32, the fantasy-console engine that this Ocarina of Time port was originally meant to feed knowledge into. BONNIE-32 had been built as a complete toolkit for making low-poly 3D games targeting the PS1 aesthetic, with integrated tools for modeling, texturing, music composition, and level building, all running through a custom software rasterizer written in Rust. In the developer's own repository listing, BONNIE-32 is now marked as "discontinued," with a note pointing to where the work continued instead.

That work moved entirely into a new project: PSoXide, described by its developer as "the unified PlayStation 1 development platform, written entirely in Rust." Rather than a fantasy console merely inspired by PS1 aesthetics, PSoXide was built as a full ecosystem around the real hardware: it bundled an SDK for writing actual PS1 games, an emulator to run them, and a set of supporting tools, all sharing the same underlying protocol definitions so that encoding mismatches between the SDK and the emulator became compile-time errors rather than runtime bugs. As of this writing, there were no public indications that the Ocarina of Time port would resume, though its code remained available in its original repository.

 

Related News

Zelda: Ocarina of Time on PS1 Sounds Impossible…

May 11, 2026 - CyaneCornix01

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is being reimagined for the original PS1 through an ambitious homebrew project, with early gameplay footage already showing a playable 3D prototype and surprising technical progress.

 

 

Media

Official Download Links

Github - Reddit 

New Serial Experiments Lain Project Reimagines the Anime as a 3D PS1 Game

Anime has been one of the most popular entertainment media in the world for decades, and within its vast catalogue there exists a deeper, more reflective branch: the seinen genre. Unlike major action titles such as Dragon Ball or Naruto, seinen offers mature storylines that invite viewers to question reality, often bordering on philosophy. It is in this space that so-called "cult series" are born: high-quality works that flew under the radar at the time but have since built devoted communities of passionate fans.

One of the most remarkable is Serial Experiments Lain, which aired in 1998 and, nearly three decades later, is about to receive a new and surprising adaptation: an original video game for the PlayStation 1.

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Previous experiences

If you are a fan of the series, you may remember that an official game of the same name was released in Japan that very same year. That game was a 2D experience centred on navigating menus and multimedia elements. Players had to read documents and interact with files to gradually uncover the story — a singular and hard-to-find release that makes it a very special rarity within the already extensive PS1 catalogue.

Now it is time to jump to the present and see why this new project is something else entirely. In 2026, the homebrew community surrounding the original PlayStation is experiencing a moment of genuine excitement, and one of its most prominent developers has just announced something that has caught the attention of the series' fans: a brand-new 3D game based on Lain.

The person behind it is Elias Daller, already well known in the homebrew scene for his previous work on Yume Nikki PSX and Project MTP. The announcement came on 13 April through his Twitter account, with a question that said it all:

"What if Serial Experiments Lain was a 3D game on PS1?"

 

What has been shown so far looks promising. The main scene takes place in Lain's bedroom, recreated with great attention to detail: the iconic computer, Lain's bed and plushies, and above all an atmosphere that faithfully echoes the darkness and stillness of the original series. Daller makes use of lighting techniques and triangle shading to recreate that characteristically claustrophobic mood.

 

Some technical details

From a technical standpoint, the developer has chosen to largely forgo textures in favour of vertex coloring, a technique that assigns colour directly to the vertices of a model rather than applying an image on top of it. The result is a clean, flat finish that, interestingly, is reminiscent of the anime's own visual style.

According to Daller himself, modelling and colouring the computer in the scene took him barely ten minutes, and he asserts that objects built with this technique look better at a distance than conventionally textured models, which also speeds up development. 

Lain's face, on the other hand, does use a texture, though the author notes it is still in a testing phase, meaning both the model and its finish will continue to evolve over time.

 

Reception

 

The community response has been very positive. Many fans have praised its faithfulness to the visual style of the series, and several have openly expressed their wish to buy the game should it ever be released. For the time being, there is no estimated release date or confirmation regarding distribution or pricing, but the project can be followed through Elias Daller's Twitter account.

We hope the community's enthusiasm serves as motivation for this tribute to Lain to keep moving forward. For a series that always spoke of connections, networks, and identity, there is no better way to stay alive than through those who carry it with them.

Don't forget you can follow us on Twitter (X), browse our game collection on Itch.io, join our Reddit community, and watch gameplay videos on our YouTube channel!

El anime lleva décadas siendo uno de los medios de entretenimiento más populares del mundo, y dentro de su enorme catálogo existe una vertiente más profunda y reflexiva: el género seinen. A diferencia de los grandes títulos de acción como Dragon Ball o Naruto, el seinen ofrece tramas adultas que invitan al espectador a cuestionarse la realidad, rozando a menudo la filosofía. En ese terreno nacen las llamadas "series de culto": obras de gran calidad que en su momento pasaron desapercibidas pero que con el tiempo han ganado una comunidad fiel y apasionada.

Una de las más destacadas es Serial Experiments Lain, emitida en 1998 y que, casi tres décadas después, está a punto de recibir una nueva y sorprendente adaptación: un videojuego original para PlayStation 1.

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Experiencias previas

Si eres fan de la serie, quizá recuerdes que ya existió un título oficial homónimo lanzado en Japón ese mismo año. Aquel juego era una experiencia en 2D centrada en la navegación por menús y elementos multimedia. Había que leer documentos e interactuar con archivos para ir desvelando la historia. Una propuesta singular y difícil de encontrar hoy en día, que lo convierte en una rareza muy especial dentro del ya extenso catálogo de PS1.

Ahora toca viajar a la actualidad y ver por qué este nuevo proyecto es algo completamente diferente. En 2026, la comunidad homebrew en torno a la PlayStation original vive un momento de auténtica efervescencia, y uno de sus desarrolladores más reconocidos acaba de anunciar algo que ha llamado la atención de los fans de la serie: un juego inédito en 3D basado en Lain.

El responsable es Elias Daller, ya conocido en la escena homebrew por sus trabajos anteriores sobre Yume Nikki PSX y Project MTP. El anuncio llegó el 13 de abril a través de su cuenta de Twitter con una pregunta que lo decía todo:

"What if Serial Experiments Lain was a 3D game on PS1?"

 

Lo que ha mostrado hasta ahora resulta prometedor. La escena principal transcurre en la habitación de Lain, recreada con atención al detalle: el icónico ordenador, la cama y peluches de Lain y, sobre todo, una atmósfera que recuerda fielmente a la oscuridad y quietud de la serie original. Daller aprovecha recursos de iluminación y el sombreado de triángulos para reproducir ese ambiente claustrofóbico tan característico.

 

Algunos datos técnicos

Desde el punto de vista técnico, el desarrollador ha optado por prescindir en gran medida de las texturas en favor del vertex coloring (colorizado por vértice), una técnica que asigna color directamente a los puntos del modelo en lugar de aplicar una imagen encima. El resultado es un acabado limpio que, curiosamente, recuerda al trazo plano del anime.

Según el propio Daller, modelar y colorizar el ordenador de la escena le llevó apenas diez minutos, y asegura que los objetos con esta técnica lucen mejor a cierta distancia que los modelos con texturas convencionales, lo que facilita el desarrollo del proyecto. 

El rostro de Lain, por su parte, sí cuenta con textura, aunque el autor aclara que aún está en proceso de testeo, por lo que tanto el modelado como los acabados cambiarán con el tiempo.

 

Recepción

 

La recepción por parte de la comunidad ha sido muy positiva. Muchos fans destacan el parecido con la estética de la serie y varios han expresado abiertamente su deseo de poder adquirir el juego si llegara a publicarse. Por el momento, no hay fecha estimada ni confirmación sobre distribución o precio, pero el proyecto puede seguirse a través de la cuenta de Elias Daller en Twitter.

Esperemos que el entusiasmo de la comunidad sirva de impulso para que este homenaje a Lain siga adelante. Para una serie que siempre habló de conexiones, redes e identidad, no hay mejor forma de mantenerse viva que a través de quienes la llevan consigo.

¡No olvides que puedes seguirnos en Twitter (X), revisar nuestra recopilación de juegos en Itch.io, unirte a nuestra comunidad de Reddit y ver gameplays en nuestro canal de YouTube!