Nanosaur

Nanosaur is a science fiction third person shooter video game developed by Pangea Software and published by Ideas From the Deep. The game revolves around a race of intelligent dinosaurs, "Nanosaurs". The species was bred by human scientists via genetic engineering; however, the human civilization ended shortly following their discovery, as a plague struck the planet and killed them. The few dinosaurs resurrected were lent an unusual amount of intelligence from the humans, leaving them to expand on the growing civilization. However, as the Nanosaurs were the only species on Earth, they were forced to inbreed, which slowly began to pose a threat to their society. In the game, the player must assume the role of a Nanosaur in an attempt to retrieve eggs 65 million years in the past in order to freshen the Nanosaurs' gene pool. The game was being ported to Linux by Three Axis Interactive, but the port was never completed.

Gameplay


The protagonist is one of these dinosaurs from the future who has been sent to this time period, and must collect the eggs of 5 dinosaur species before the giant asteroid hits Earth, wiping out the dinosaurs seemingly for good, in 20 minutes. Of course, there are complications, such as the "primitive" dinosaurs, which will attack when their eggs are threatened. Being a dinosaur from the future, the player is equipped with several pieces of technology to help the player in their mission. Some of the enemy dinosaurs encountered by the player are the Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, Dilophosaurus (who spit like in Jurassic Park), and (not actually a dinosaur, but a flying reptile) Pteranodon.

The landscape features water and lava, which slow the player down, allowing them to be caught by other dinosaurs. However, the player's avatar is not helpless, and possesses the following aids: the fusion blaster, a multi-purpose, basic weapon, the jet pack, for flying over obstacles and enemies, a temporal compass for finding time portals to deposit eggs, and a GPS locator for figuring out where the player is and where they should go. This provides the player with a wide choice of actions and objectives, all within a 20 minute period.

Story
In the distant year of 4122, a dinosaur species, Nanosaurs, rule the Earth. Their civilization originated from a group of human scientists who experimented with genetic engineering. Their experimentation led to them resurrecting the extinct dinosaur species; however, their victory was short lived, as a disastrous plague brought the end of their civilization itself. The few dinosaurs resurrected were lent an unusual amount of intelligence from their human creators, leaving them to expand on their growing civilization. However, as the Nanosaurs were the only species on Earth, inbreeding was the only possible choice of reproduction. This method largely affected the intelligence of the various offspring, and slowly began to pose a threat to their once-intelligent society.

The Nanosaur government offers a quest that involves time traveling into the year 65 million BC, where the five eggs of ancient dinosaur species must be retrieved and placed in a time portal leading to the present year. Their high-ranking agent, a brown Nanosaur, is chosen to participate in this mission. On the day of his mission, he is teleported to the past via a time machine in a Nanosaur laboratory.

The Nanosaur arrives in a lush jungle, with twenty minutes given to collect the eggs before the meteor that caused the initial extinction of the dinosaur race hits the Earth. After battling various Tyrannosaurus Rex es, the Nanosaur enters a volcanic basin, where he must cross several stone formations in a river of lava in order to retrieve the eggs. After making his way across the river, the Nanosaur detects the final eggs in a canyon oasis, where various dinosaurs, namely Dilophosaurus and Stegosaurus, are attempting to hinder his progress in order to protect their eggs. After evading defeat, the Nanosaur beams the final egg into the time portal, and is carried along with it back to the present.

Following the completion of the Nanosaur's mission, the eggs are placed in nationwide laboratories, where the scientists intend on breeding them for their own purposes. Several months following this event, the eggs finally start to hatch.

Nanosaur Extreme
Nanosaur Extreme is another version of nanosaur, released at a later time with heftier system requirements. It has many more enemies and weapons than Nanosaur, and it is described on the Nanosaur downloads page as "what Nanosaur was meant to be - a total kill-fest".

Nanosaur 2: Hatchling
A sequel to Nanosaur was introduced in March 2004 entitled Nanosaur 2: Hatchling, a continuation of the original Nanosaur storyline. Nanosaur 2 is the first stereoscopic game released for the Mac.