TNB Night Owl – LSD

It’s been a long, stressful day, and I think I know what we all need: some LSD.

Specifically, LSD: Dream Emulator, an experimental Japanese video game released for the Playstation in 1998. Despite the title, the game is not meant to simulate a drug trip; what it does instead is produce a series of dreamscapes for the player to explore. No combat to speak of, only occasional interactivity, it’s mostly just wandering through a variety of locations, with random objects or creatures generated for you to see.

The player can find themselves in an empty village, walking through an intestine, in a multicolored hall of mirrors or one of many other locations. Certain interactions can even result in the player “dying” in the dream, which just sends them back to the start screen, with another day progressing on the player’s “dream journal.”

As the player progresses, previously seen settings are steadily blended into the new locations, creating a growing surrealism in the appearance of background areas. Simultaneously the music shifts, undergoing a similar semi-randomized blending of previously encountered themes.

The result is a game which can be either boring or fascinating, depending entirely on the mindset of the player.

Maybe, just maybe, watching an attempt at the recreation of dream states might help some people get some sleep of their own tonight. I strongly suspect many of us need it.

Question of the night: What’s your favorite stress-relieving activity?