Oysterhead Maze (found 3D Shockwave game; 2001)

One of the few images that exist for Oysterhead Maze.

Status: Partially Found

Oysterhead Maze, also titled "o y s t e r h e a d  m a z e", is a 3D Shockwave game made by Roger Jones that came out sometime in 2001 and was available online until sometime in 2005. It is themed after the musical supergroup "Oysterhead".

History

The game files were hosted on the now defunct Throbbing Media website and possibly on the original Oysterhead.com website from 2001. Little is known about Throbbing Media, other than it was ran by the game's creator, Roger Jones, who also had other Shockwave games on the site. The game uses the Shockwave Havok Xtra, which was a type of physics engine that could be used for 3D Shockwave games. The Xtra was probably mostly used for the part of the game where you break through a wall to get into the room with Mr. Oysterhead inside. Credit for the game's 3D Art is given to Chris Knoff, according to the 2001 Oysterhead website.

A user on the Lost Media Wiki Forum, TheCracksOverhead, recalled playing the game only once when it was still available on the original Throbbing Media website. After managing to find the now dead link to the original webpage, he tracked down a couple of mentions of the game online. The most important mention came from a thread on the DSLReports Forum, where a screenshot of the game was posted. User tomysshadow was able to find the name of the game's creator, Roger Jones, by looking around in the game's DCR file.

Roger Jones, who used to work for Macromedia, used Director very frequently. In an attempt to recover the two missing game files, LMW user captiveofchrist managed to get into contact with Roger on YouTube. Unfortunately, he responded very vaguely with:

"That was 18 years ago. Unfortunately none of that software works anymore. So no."

Captiveofchrist tried to clarify by asking Roger if he had the files and just couldn't give them out, or if they were deleted, but Roger never responded back. User tomysshadow managed to get in contact with Roger, but unfortunately he lost the computer it was on to a fire. He also said that the game was rejected by the band, and that it wasn't intended to be public. It's very likely that the only way the game will be found is through internet cache.

Gameplay

Not much is known about the game itself other than you play as a blue bird pulling a cart around the inside of a maze. There appears to be diamond-like objects that the player could collect, and the goal is to break through one of the walls of the maze to get into the room with Mr. Oysterhead. Based on texture files found within the game, you also have several camera options to choose from. A description of the game found on the Havok Developers Site Archive reads:

"Find Mr. Oysterhead, steer the cart with your cursor keys, pick up items and store them in your cart."

Inside of the game's DCR file there is a texture that explains the rules of the game. These rules can also be found on the original Oysterhead 2001 website where they're a little bit more detailed:

"> Find Mr. Oysterhead !
> Navigate the Bird & Cart throgh the Maze using the cursor keys to steer.
> Mr. Oysterhead is hidden behind one of the walls.
> Look for his secret door and break through."

Missing Required Files

There are only three files that are required for the game to run:

File	Description	Status
ohead.dcr	The main Shockwave file. This is the only file for the game that still exists online. When trying to run it without the other two required files, the game will get stuck on the loading screen while the song "Mr. Oysterhead" plays in the background. If running in a Shockwave Projector, a window will open up asking you to point to where the other missing files are.	Found
head_only.W3D	This is the first missing file the game looks for. The contents of the file are unknown, but it's a W3D file, and W3D files in Shockwave are used for 3D worlds/scenes. It most likely contains all the textures, geometry, models, and animations for the 3D world of the game.	Lost
walk.W3D	The second missing file. The contents of this one are also unknown, although it probably just contains the bird character's walking animations.	Lost

Gallery

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  More texture files found within the game. Another option that's not shown here is a button that reads "HEAD CAM".

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  Screenshot of the game taken by user "Aint Skeered" on the DSLReports Forum back in August 2nd, 2003.

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  Thumbnail image for the game found on the Havok Developer's Site Archive.

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  Another thumbnail image for the game that was found on the Wayback Machine.

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  The game's loading screen. This is currently the only thing that's "playable" due to missing files.

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  A texture file found within the game that explains the game's rules.