The lost 3rd game in the Quatris series.

[AtlusFan]

Hi! I've been doing some digging around the internet and I was hoping to see if anyone knows of the existence of this game, so I've seen Quatris and Quatris II (sometimes under the name Quatris Pro and Quatris II+) online in different places, the games were made by Eugene Ignatius Kim, under the brand Citidel Corp. Well, a long time ago, I found a shareware CD. I think it was something we found and purchased in a Sam's Club, but the disc was called Game Overload, the CD was created by Expert Software, and among the several games on there, there was one in particular that caught my attention. The game was called "Sphera", a puzzle game where you would need to match spheres, sometimes they would be in halves and so you had to line up the halves to make a whole sphere. The shareware demo on the disc consisted of 2 levels, and in between them was a platforming stage, I believe this was a way to find items that could assist you in the puzzle levels.

Well, I've had no luck finding the full version anywhere online, but the full title of the game was "Super Quatris III - Sphera!", created by Eugene & Hong Kim, at this point they apparently went from calling themselves Citidel to Awesome Softworx, Inc, and the game was copyrighted 1996. I'm hoping someone can find the full version somewhere online, if it exists, or if someone with more resources or connections could reach out to Eugene I. Kim or Hong Y. Kim, perhaps this game still exists somewhere, but apparently the internet has forgotten about it since I hear it mentioned nowhere. I remain hopeful that someone can locate it and bring this to light, I remember the intro used some late 90's 3d Graphics which looked pretty cool, and there was some cartoony sphere-people in the game itself (such as in the aforementioned platforming levels). Again any help in locating the full version is much appreciated.

[emmzee]

Hello!

I was intrigued by this post since I had never heard of a third game in the series. It was a challenge but I managed to track it down. It's only the shareware version, but better than nothing.

tl:dr: Here's the shareware version download link (this will work until I post it properly with its own entry on the main website)
https://dosgames.com/SPHERA.ZIP

How it was found: My Googling eventually brought me here:
http://tetrislovers.tripod.com/features ... d_list.htm

The Sphera game is listed there!

First I tried contacting the email address at the top of the page, but not surprisingly, it no longer works.

Then I searched the name of the BBS ("Quanah's Revenge BBS") and found this ISO on archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/nova-tetris-041800

Some wonderful person made a backup of the BBS' files! Downloaded the ISO, mounted it, and yup, the file is there. Although it's a DOS game the installer needs Windows 3 to install it; the zip file above is the pre-installed version and it runs in DOSBox, at least the minimal amount that I tested it.

Enjoy! Thank you for asking about this game, otherwise it may have remained essentially lost forever! It seems like the full version doesn't exist on the web currently, your only hope might be tracking down the authors.

[AtlusFan]

Thanks! But, I already have a demo disc with the Shareware version of it. In any case, that is a HUGE help! I know I can't be the only one who remembers this, so for people who don't have the game disc like I do this would be invaluable! Come to think of it though, the game has a readme file, I wonder if Eugene and Hong Kim still live at the address? Think I should try writing a letter to them? Are they even still alive?

Edit: At the end of the readme file, there is an address for Awesome Softworx Inc, 4157 W. 5th Str Suite 222 Los Angeles, CA 90020. Further research indicated that Eugene was 19 at the time and Hong was 17, so they would likely be about... 45 and 43 years old. So there's a good chance they're still around. I'll do a little legwork and see if I can figure out where they're living now, perhaps I can get in contact with them. If they still have copies of the full version I would gladly pay them for it, heck if I obtain a copy I'm thinking I could probably do a playthrough of it for posterity's sake. I would want the permission of the creators of the game though, I should really work out the details with them since this is considered abandonware by now. Anyways, thanks for digging up those old BBS posts, and with that I think we've started a dialogue, hopefully more will come of it!

Double edit: I think I've got a lead! After looking in the game's files, I've got an address, some phone numbers, and some emails that seem to belong to the author, but I tried a couple of the more recent ones posted, sadly they have been rejected. May have to contact him by snail mail, I will post if anything new comes up!

[AtlusFan]

Hey so I found the author for the game and he emailed me back! I just responded to an email from him, he said he had to dig up some old files but he seemed a little bit uneasy that I got his email. Understandable since this was YEARS ago, but I told him a little about myself and my reasons for wanting to find the game, so hopefully he replies favorably!

[emmzee]

Hey, that's great to hear. You can even point him to this thread if that'll help. If we can get permission to post the full registered version that'll be even better.

Sorry for misunderstanding your initial post, but I'm glad this thread was helpful anyways!

[AtlusFan]

Hey man, just saw your post. He contacted me again today and I sent him a link to this discussion, here's hoping we get to hear from him here soon!

[emmzee]

I guess there was no further response from Mr Kim? I'm going to post the shareware version for now and hopefully we'll get it replaced with the full version in the future!

[AtlusFan]

Well he said he wanted control of the download link, and he asked what kind of video software I would be using for a playthrough but he said he would be busy for a while, but I haven't heard from him since, it's gone cold at this point. It was worth a try though.