Lyle in Cube Sector MD
A downloadable game
Lyle in Cube Sector is a freeware metroid-esque game for the PC from 2006. It looked like an NES game before that was what all the hip kids were doing. The original game was created by Nic DeStefano (bogosoft) and is being ported to Sega hardware over a decade later by Michael Moffitt (mikejmoffitt). The original game's style suits the system perfectly, so the conversion is a near 1:1 replica of the original game. The soundtrack has been rearranged to fit on the Genesis's FM synth hardware, and the graphics are nearly indistinguishable from the original.
A writeup of the development process is available here.
This game has been tested on the following systems:
- Sega Genesis VA3
- Sega Genesis Nomad
- Sega Genesis CDX
- Sega Mega Drive VA0
- Sega Mega Drive VA1
- Sega Mega Drive VA4
- Sega Mega Drive VA5
- Sega Mega Drive VA7
- Sega Mega Drive II VA1
- Sega Teradrive
The game should work fine in just about any software emulator or ROM emulation device (e.g. Everdrive). I will not make any attempts to support esoteric clone devices or emulation setups through modifications to the game and have only tested against real hardware.
You may burn the ROM image to a 27C160 or equivalent EPROM for use on a Sega cartridge.
The original game's description is as follows:
"STORY":
OHNO! LYLE'S KITTY HAS BEEN STOLENED AND NOW HE MUST JOURNEY THROUGH THE WONKED OUT LANDS OF THE CUBESECTOR TO RETRIEVE HIS MEOWMEOW COMPANION!
FEATURES:
* Throw cubes to defeat enemies *
* Explore to aquire new cube powers *
* Non-linear gameplay *
* Retro 80's style graphics *
* Map system *
* Many different cube types *
* Health & magic upgrades *
* Warp room *
Download
Install instructions
I recommend burning the game to a 27C160 ROM and installing it on a cartridge that maps battery-backed SRAM to the upper 2MiB boundary. Alternatively, you may play on a ROM emulation device (Everdrive, etc) or software emulator (Kega Fusion, etc).
Comments
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I just finished playing through this on emulator (Gens+), and noticed that there's some glitchy notes in the final boss music (Estrayk - No Mercy).
I might give it another try on my Everdrive at some point to see if it happens on actual hardware as well, but I figured I'd mention.
It's honestly the only flaw I've found in an otherwise amazing port, I had a blast playing through this again. =)
First, thanks a lot for this great port which allowed me to discover this cool game that I totally missed back in the days. If you set up a donation pot, I'll be sure to give a little something as a token of my gratitude.
Also (game spoilers ahead), I'm not sure, but I suspect there might be an unintentional difference between the original game and this port. From what I read (in a comment on YouTube video a5ZxR18j3WM), the monitor that is hidden in the secret room next to the elevator is supposed to be breakable after a while, but no matter how many times I hit it (by ensuring the block bounced back infinitely on top of it), it never broke. Am I missing something, or is that an oversight?
Thanks again
There's a missing flashing cube in one room - see screenshot. Also wondering if there are plans to implement throwing cubes diagonally? It might just be my emulator but it seems he can only throw cubes up/down/forward. Diagonal cube-throwing was part of a 2013 update to the PC game.
Sure enough, just entirely forgot that cube. Thanks.
As for the diagonal throwing, I played the original to death and the 2013 update felt odd to me with the diagonal tossing (and half-adjusted speed for 60fps) so I didn't really use it as a basis at all. If there's a lot of demand for it I could add it, it isn't a tremendous difficulty from a technical perspective.
Finished the Game by 100%!
Found a mistake in your game. When getting the Phantom Cube 3 upgrade you should see this screen. Instead it just says the first one Phantom Cube creation halved. Here's a picture from the original game.
Thank you! I was sure people would find little mistakes early on. I'll have to maintain a list of changes for a 1.1 update.
Lyle in Cube Sector is one of my favourite PC games and I'm very happy to see this port project completed! Thank you for your hard work! I've played a small amount so far but it seems very faithful to the original.
I want to say thank you for finishing this game! You've brought so many smiles to this man. I used to play this game all the time in Highschool. I'm going to let everyone know about all your hard work great job. Also if you're interested in more obscure Handheld Gaming devices please join the RG handheld and Retro Handhelds discords. 😉
Here's a picture of Lyle in Cube Sector running on the RG-ARC.
I'm only a few minutes in and I had to stop and let you know how much I love the music in this game. Incredible work.
I know right! I love the Sega Genesis rearrangements of all the in game music.
I'm so happy this game has finally reached a V1.0 release! I'm going to share this with multiple Retro Gaming communities!
Is this project available? I don't see a download. If not, is there at least somewhere where your Genesis versions of the soundtracks are located? I'd love to listen.
Has this project been abandoned because I'd love to see this game brought back on the Sega Genesis.
I've finally finished it enough to call it V1.0 and it can be downloaded.
Thank You sir!!! 💪😁 👌
Has this project been abandoned, or is it still going? It'd be fantastic to see this ported to MD!
Version 1.0 has just been released.
I'm happy to see you here darkfalzx!!!😁
Can't wait to play this again
How do I download this game?
You can find the original here: https://web.archive.org/web/20190811202150/http://www.bogozone.net/lyle.htm
It's so weird to be at a point in life where the Lyle in Cube Sector original page is no longer up :(
The site is back up! And it even has a new page for Bogosoft's latest game, Corn Kidz 64.
lyle in cube sector was a formative game for me in many ways. I'm super impressed by the attention to detail in your recreation, it's great to see others have been found joy in lyle as well.
Formative for me as well. And one of the best indie PC games IMO, still holds up. I also think it looks quite pretty, especially the outdoor areas. The creator's use of red was very striking. I wish I could play this remake to see what the soundtrack is like.
Wicked! This means I can stick it on my raspberry pi!