The late 90s were an exciting time for computer gaming. Not only
because of how quickly the technology was advancing, but also because
of how radically all that new tech was affecting our games. With ever
faster CPUs, more powerful video-processors, and a huge jump in the
amount of available RAM, developers could suddenly put into practice
ideas that would have been impractical -if not outright impossible -
even five years earlier.
The FPS game was no exception. What had started as a fairly simple
arcade shooting experience where you wandered around in simple mazes
was evolving into entire simulated worlds. The fantastical settings of
yesteryear were being replaced by more realistic settings, and
-shockingly!- developers were considering that maybe you could do
MORE than just madly run around and shoot things. Maybe you'd sneak
around... or sabotage installations to prevent the enemy from swarming
you. Why, there might even be STORY and ATMOSPHERE inserted into these
worlds! Where once every FPS aped "Doom", now we were seeing stuff
like "Thief" or "Rainbow Six" or (slightly later) "Deus Ex".
Still, for every successful game, there were dozens more that
flopped... and some never even made it out the door. Often, all you'd
get was some exciting press-copy and maybe a few screenshots,
promising the world and looking better than anything else you'd ever
seen on a computer screen. Sometimes, if you were _really_ lucky,
you'd get a demo.
"Private Wars", developed by TS Group Entertainment, was one such
game. It got cancelled long before it was anywhere near release-ready,
but not before a demo was made available to the public. The demo
itself was very primitive --really, nothing more than an opportunity
to show off the graphics engine-- but it looked very promising.
I was one of the people who, in 1998, downloaded and played that demo,
and let me tell you: it made an impression. Although it had no sound,
no AI, not even any collision physics (all you could do was wander
around the small level and gawk at the visuals), my brief time with
that demo has stuck with me for _decades_. Featuring a small mansion
surrounded by dark woods, it felt incredibly atmospheric. The forest
was denser than anything I'd ever seen in a first-person computer game
before. I could imagine all sorts of exciting scenarios that might
take place in such a moody, claustrophobic environment. It wasn't so
much that I was excited about the game being portrayed, but by the
potential of other, similar video games. We seemed on the cusp of a
revolution.
As I mentioned, "Private Wars" never released, and -while I for the
longest time remembered the demo- after a while I forgot about the
_game_. "That demo with the spooky forest," I'd ask myself, "Was that
for Spec Ops? Rainbow Six? Ghost Recon?" I knew it was from about the
time period those games came out, and featured a 'realistic' modern
combat environment, but the actual game? It escaped me. And any demos
for the games I did remember -or even the actual games themselves-
didn't match my memories in the slightest. It became something of a
white whale for me. Even thought I kept looking, I figured I'd never
actually re-experience that demo ever again.
Turns out, that "never" only lasted 26 years.
While perusing Google's c.s.i.p.g.action archives, I came across an
old post mentioning the demo in question. More importantly, it
provided the name of the game and the developers. With that
information in hand, it was only a quick stop at Google before I found
a link to the demo in question.*
Alas, even on retro hardware, I couldn't get the darn thing to run. So
close! (I've an even older machine in the closet that I may have
better luck with, but I didn't feel like unpacking it). Anyway, there
are other options available to us today: mainly, YouTube. Because _of
course_ somebody has made a video of it!**
And, watching that video, I'm surprised at how close my memories
matched the real thing. Like I said, it really made an impression on
me! Even though the tech is undeniably primitive compared to what
we're used to in 2024, I can still get a sense of the game's
atmosphere. That dark, shadowy forest; the brightness of the compounds
spotlights; the colorful interior of the house. I can well imagine
sneaking through those woods, trying to avoid being spotted by AI
patrols in order to get into the perfect position to launch my
assault. It's the sort of gameplay that would later be realized by
games like "Ghost Recon"... but here "Private Wars" was promising it
more than three years earlier.
Of course, I've no idea if "Private Wars" would have been anything
like I imagined. The game never came out, and nobody really knows
anything else about it. It doesn't really matter; like I said,
"Private Wars" itself isn't the issue. But it was a reflection of the
changing tide -and the promise- of the next-generation FPS games that
would soon come out.
And I'm glad that after so long, not only can I put a NAME to that
reflection, but I can re-experience that excitement again.
* the demo in question is here:
https://www.fileplanet.com/archive/p-63585/Private-Wars-Demo** the video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0chcvRi-xAE
I Found It! (Private Wars)