After 12 years, one fan has faithfully recreated the PS1's weirdest walking sim

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1998's LSD: Dream Emulator gets the fan remake treatment

Surreal polygonal landscape in LSD: Revamped
(Image credit: Figglewatts)

Walking sims might have only gained widespread attention (and a name) in the late 2000s, but non-violent artgames that focused on exploration have been around for decades. One such example was the oft-forgotten 1998 PS1 game LSD: Dream Emulator, which has now been lovingly restored in a fanmade version.

LSD: Dream Emulator came from the mind of Japanese multimedia artist Osamu Sato, who wanted to push back on the idea that games were simply entertainment products. In response, he created arguably the weirdest thingamajig on the PS1, taking players through psychedelic dreamscapes without any concrete objectives. LSD's surreal, hallucinogenic levels and uncompromising vision have since made it a cult classic, despite failing commercially upon release.

“A new version of LSD: Revamped has now been released, featuring all of the interactive objects from the original game,” Figglewatts announced on social media earlier this week. “The game is now very accurate to the original.” The project now only has two more updates left in the oven before it’s fully feature-complete, according to the project's website.

LSD: Revamped is now available to download for the affordable price of $0 over on Itch.io. I’m more than interested in experiencing the surreal gem for the first time, especially as a sort of interactive history lesson after falling in love with other walking sims and indie experiments like OK/Normal or Paratopic. 

For more games that fly under the radar, check out our upcoming indies of 2024 and beyond. 

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.