"Entering Inner Space"
—The omnipresent AI
So, this game is about a realm known as "Inner Space". Right?
Well, not really. It's actually about a ton of Cool Starships entering Cyberspace to collect icons in your computer. You, however, are the one who is actually fighting for a special reason; defeat the Inner Demon.
This game was released on PC in 1994. You can create your own ships using the Ship Factory. Any new installation you make to your computer adds more levels to the game. You can even rename the nine teams (one of which is not playable) to the names of your choice.
Not related to 1987 film Inner Space.
This game displays examples of the following:
- Aborted Arc:
Word of God once said there was going to be a sequel. It never saw the light of day. - Abnormal Ammo: You can launch beer bottles, donuts, snowballs, batteries and lightning, among a ton of other things.
- Animal Motifs: Makes up the majority of the Fuzzy Ones team and about half of the Predators team. There are bits and pieces of this trope in the other teams, toonote .
- Arch-Enemy: Upon starting a game, depending on which ship (and, therefore, which team) you picked, you will have at least one team that yours absolutely despises. You can actually ally with that team against the others, straight up ally with every team, or make everyone your enemy (your own team included), but whichever you choose, relations with other teams can be important to long-term survival. For example, some teams' Arch Enemies are:
- The Enforcers, for the Pirates. Given that the Enforcers are an NPC team, one cannot tell if they're mutual Arch Enemies or if it's one-sided.
- The Predators, for the Fuzzy Ones, and vice versa.
- The Knights really don't like the Pirates.
- The Renegades would be the exception in that they don't really like anybody, if the Speed Demons weren't always swiping the icons they were going after just before they reach them.
- Artificial Stupidity: Plenty, of course. This game is pretty old. Stand-out cases, however, are ships who can't collect icons but try to do so anyway. See, there's options in the Ship Editor that enable or disable certain features of a ship, as well as alter their personalities when they appear in-game as NPCs. One of the features of a ship that can be altered is the ability to collect icons. This does not affect the player's ability to collect icons; they can do this with whatever ship they choose so long as they are not cloaked or shielded. Sometimes, however, an NPC ship with the setting to not be able to collect icons will appear to have missed the memo. Alternatively, an NPC with a shield/cloak feature will at times keep that feature enabled while trying to collect icons and fail to do so when they can otherwise collect them just fine; in either case, the result is usually a damaged or destroyed icon.
- Big Damn Heroes: Knights and Avengers are prone to this, at times appearing suddenly when a ship is being bullied by a bigger, stronger ship. Depending on how you play, the bigger ship in question can be you.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: When you are playing as one of the weaker ships in the game, the heavier ones become this at first.
- Butt-Monkey: The Enforcers. Any lawbreaker will most definitely shoot back at them, and it's hilarious when their strongest ships, which are specially armed for taking down persistent criminals, lose spectacularly against weaker ships.
- Character Alignment: The ship classes are given some.
- Lawful Good: The Knights team. They can often be seen aiding the Enforcers (with good reason to do so) and helping helpless ships in general. It helps that the in-game description of this team matches what some would consider being Lawful Good.
- Lawful Neutral: Enforcers.
- Neutral Good: Fuzzy Ones, though at times they're True Neutral as well.
- True Neutral: The Speed Demons.
- Neutral Evil: Predators, with shades of Chaotic Neutral too.
- Chaotic Good: The Avengers, who have a more Loveable Rogue approach to what the Knights generally do.
- Chaotic Neutral: Pirates.
- Chaotic Evil: Renegades, who even destroy icons and attack everyone.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Pirates do this against other teams, on occasion.
- Collision Damage: All objects and ships (player included) take damage when they hit each other unless otherwise shown to be invulnerable.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Engaging the cloak or activating the shielded mode of ships equipped with such things disables the special weapon of that ship... in the player's hands. The AI-controlled ships can use their equipped special weapons just fine no matter what mode they're in.
- Computer Virus: Manifests themselves as big blue circle-things with electricity inside.
- Disc-One Final Boss: An Evil Twin of you, who has every single upgrade and weapon you have (save the ones from the Recurring Boss). Destroy him, you move straight into the True Final Boss after using one of the weapons you get from the Recurring Boss, called "Enlightenment". You use another of those weapons to start this battle, however, the game is generous enough to tell you which one.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: The Enforcers have a serious problem on their hands. If you arm yourself with donuts, they will be compelled to go after it. If they are trying to arrest you for some reason, at times this can lead to them forgetting they were chasing you to begin with. On the other hand, swiping their donuts or destroying donut dispensers spawned in the world is actually a crime, albeit a minor one.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Inner Demon.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: All three are present with Fireballs, Snowballs, and Lightning.
- Fragile Speedster: Most Speed Demon ships are blazingly fast and have low armor, with only a handful of them loaded with weapons that place them in Glass Cannon territory. Other teams have this type of ship as well, but are almost all better armored and slower than any ship on the Speed Demons team.
- Gang of Hats: Many teams are like this. Aside the fairly obvious Pirates and Enforcers, there are...
- The Fuzzy Ones, who generally mind their own business and don't get into fights unless provoked.
- The Renegades, who are not quite hostile to everyone, but anyone, including each other.
- The Knights, who are the honor-bound types who fight to protect other teams and back each other up, to the point where they can be seen helping an Enforcer who might have bitten more than they can chew.
- The Speed Demons, who are outrageously fast, and take advantage of that to screw with other teams by stealing icons from them.
- Guide Dang It!: Yeah, just try figuring out how to fight the Recurring Boss correctly. Without looking on the Internet. It's guaranteed to take longer otherwise.
- Glass Cannon: The Speed Demons team has a few of these among their ranks.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: "Pistol" might be stretching it – these are spaceships, after all – but there is nevertheless a grappling hook special weapon, which pulls items such as icons and fuel tanks toward you if it hits them. Any other movable object, be it rocks, viruses, or even other ships, will instead be swung in circles around the user, opening up the possibility of the object in question being used as a bludgeon in a fight or, alternatively, tossing the opposing ship through the exit gate. There is a second special weapon that is similar called Handcuffs, though its typically wielded by the Enforcers, and acts as little more than a tow line, though if an Enforcer enters an exit gate with another ship in tow, they take the other ship with them as part of an arrest; this does not apply to any other ships equipping this weapon, player or otherwise.
- Jack of All Trades: The Transformer, who's the only ship in unregistered versions.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: During a fight, the AI will start retreating if taking enough damage, unless you're just that sociopathic, in which case, they will keep fighting back just to get you away from them. There's also special command that allows you to do this by releasing a white flag, which usually causes attacking AI to break off, though they are also capable of ignoring it. The white flag can also be used to psyche out the AI (Repeatedly; they fall for it pretty much every time.), though, but this trope appears to be its purpose.
- Lightning Bruiser: Any ship armed with Fireballs or Lightning that has good armor. Also, your own ship can become this with some upgrades.
- Martial Pacifist: The Fuzzy Ones (usually) only attack others when provoked, either by being attacked or someone attacking their allies. This is basically their hat.
- Mega Manning: Done through "Resource Packs" collected from dead ships. It's against the law, though, so if an Enforcer is in the area, you can either fight the cops and possibly win, or turn yourself in and possibly lose some valuable tech, along with paying a fine.
- Mighty Glacier: Just like the Speed Demons have a lot of Fragile Speedster and Glass Cannon ships among them, the Renegades are mostly either these or Stone Walls. The Speed Demons know it, too; they're the team's favorite victims for swiping icons away from them just as they're about to collect said icons.
- Mirror Boss: See Disc-One Final Boss.
- Recurring Boss: The Inner Demon. You have to fight him at least 4 times throughout the game before going to Demon's Gate. Each time, you have to feed a dragon enough blaster shots to get a special weapon, which gets harder to do, each time.
- Rock Beats Laser: The Inner Demon can launch rocks at you. As the only weapon you have is the basic laser blaster during the battles against him, the most you can do is move out of the way.
- Shock and Awe: The Viruses attack with these.
- Space Pirate: The Pirates. You can even play as one.
- Space Police: The Enforcers. Unfortunately for them, due to also being the butt monkeys of the game, Police Are Useless.
- Spectacular Spinning: A ship spins when it takes a hit, a short turn with a gentle collision or a soft hitnote , or an all-out spin with a powerful hit or a hard collision. The inversion comes into play when you are on the receiving end of such attacks.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Actually a crime in-game, referred to as "excessive force". In practice, this usually seems to refer to continuing to shoot at a ship you were fighting even after they've given up. A handful of Fireball slugs can take down most of the bigger ships with ease while avoiding the crime at the cost of a lot of your fuel, thus fulfilling this trope if applied against the smaller and less-armored ships.
- Transforming Ship: Most ships have an alternate mode. Using it will give a buff to the ship's armor, but disable the special weapon, unless you're an AI player at least.
- Troll: Speed Demons like to stalk other ships and swipe items just before they can grab them, usually angering them in the process. Their favorite victims are Renegades.
- True Final Boss: The Inner Demon. This time, you have to simply tap him. With your ship.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: There are races and one-on-one battles along with "find the icon".
- Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Deconstructed. Collecting a defeated character's weapon is Video Game Cruelty Potential, but if the Enforcers are around, it becomes Video Game Cruelty Punishment as they will arrest you on the spot.
- Video Game Caring Potential: Making allies of as many of the game's teams as you can increases the chances of you getting assistance in the case that someone decides they don't like you.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: Once your ship enters the game's world, you're free to do as you please. That is, unless there are any Enforcers around. They try to keep you in line with the various laws of Inner Space. However, if you somehow find yourself too powerful for the Enforcers to stop you, you really can do whatever you want, including blowing up every Enforcer you see.
- With Friends Like These...: The Renegades will fight among themselves regularly. So will a few other teams, only much, much less often.
