A quintessential favorite of the isometric shooter world – such as it is – is the 1997 PC classic, Postal. Before it kickstarted a whole franchise of gun-blazing follow-ups, in a variety of genres (and camera angles), the humble original stood on its own as an addicting, rewarding, if not endlessly violent experience.
Reviewers at the time felt it didn’t really break much new ground, but nonetheless found themselves sucked in by the gratuitous gore and testosterone-fueled fiasco of it all. Wouldn’t you?
Spinoffs galore
Since its debut, Postal has enjoyed ports and spinoff media up the wazoo. However, given that its inevitable movie adaptation was directed by Uwe Boll, perhaps that’s less ‘enjoyed’ and more ‘tolerated.’ Re-releases have hit smartphones, the Switch, and PlayStation 4, but gamers are never satisfied with fancy stuff like that.
“What if,” asked Dan Redfield, Postal fan and coder extraordinaire, over coffee one morning, “I were to get the game running on the SEGA Dreamcast?”
Despite what it looks like, Redfield’s idea wasn’t just caffeine induced insanity. The game’s developers, Running With Scissors (who meet with the studios Putting Forks in a Toaster and Dropping a TV in a Bathtub at the annual Companies Named After Idiotic Accidents Convention) had stated in 2015 they’d give up Postal‘s source code publicly – if, and only if, someone could port it to the Dreamcast.
And wouldn’t you know it? Redfield’s only gone and done so. With the help of Chinchilla Retro, he’s put together a workable beta of the beloved shooter that can boot on the Dreamcast.
Check out the game in motion below, courtesy of YouTuber ItsMuchMore:
A disclaimer that acts as a splash screen on startup informs the player: “this will probably crash at some point during gameplay, so don’t expect it to work properly.” How very forward. If only certain other game designers could be so open and honest with us. Not naming any Cyberpunks – I mean, Sonic-ing any names – I mean… well, you get it.
The actual game, once running, appears to be in a rudimentary but playable state. The grit and grunge of the original artstyle is all there, as is the tight action and trademark isometric goon-blasting. The YouTuber observes ‘no slowdown’, which is reassuring, and notes that another build is due in early 2022. Which is less than 24 hours from now, give or take. Better get on that, Redfield.
Are you impressed with this porting work? Let us know!
Via, YouTube.
