LSD: Dream Emulator

Lore & Background

Osamu Sato, a Japanese multimedia artist, began his career in photography and music before moving to digital graphic design and computer art in the 1990s. He experimented with CD-ROM technology, creating animated 3D videos with interactivity, though he rejected the idea of video games and sought to use game platforms as a medium for contemporary art. His first such project, Eastern Mind: The Lost Souls of Tong Nou, was funded by Sony Music Entertainment Japan and released in 1994 in Japan and the United States. For LSD: Dream Emulator, Sato drew inspiration from a dream diary written by Hiroko Nishikawa, a game designer at Asmik Ace, who had kept the diary for about a decade. Sato composed the game's soundtrack using samples to create around 200 musical patterns, influenced by music from England's Warp record label, and initially considered pentatonic scales for an Asian flair but abandoned that after seeing the international success of Japanese producers like Ken Ishii. The title 'LSD' references the drug lysergic acid diethylamide to attract hippie and psychedelic subcultures, but the acronym was given multiple interpretations in the game, such as 'in Life, the Sensuous Dream' and 'in Limbo, the Silent Dream,' to represent the chaos of dreams.

Reader's Guide

LSD: Dream Emulator was released in Japan on October 22, 1998, with a limited edition set including a bonus CD titled 'Lucy in the Sky with Dynamites' and a book called 'Lovely Sweet Dream' containing excerpts from Nishikawa's dream diary. A double-disc soundtrack compilation, LSD and Remixes, featuring remixes by Ken Ishii, Jimi Tenor, μ-Ziq, and Morgan Geist, was also issued. The game quickly fell into obscurity due to limited availability and its eccentric content, but later gained a cult following, particularly among Western audiences, through humor blogs like Cracked.com and Let's Play videos on YouTube. Its popularity led to a re-release on the Japanese PlayStation Store on August 11, 2010. Critics have praised its psychedelic and whimsical qualities, with Kill Screen calling it 'one of the most unnerving and unpredictable weird video games ever made,' and Hardcore Gaming 101 stating that 'there has never been another video game that so effectively conferred the feeling of an actual dream.' The game has been cited as one of the most experimental video games of all time. In 2011, a fan began developing an unofficial remake in the Unity engine, with a public alpha released in 2014. English indie rock band Alt-J received permission from Sato to use a screenshot from LSD for the cover art of their 2017 studio album, Relaxer.

Did You Know?

• The game's concept is based on a dream diary kept by Asmik Ace employee Hiroko Nishikawa for over a decade.
• The title 'LSD' is a reference to the drug lysergic acid diethylamide, but the game also interprets it as 'in Life, the Sensuous Dream' and 'in Limbo, the Silent Dream.'
• Sato composed around 200 musical patterns for the soundtrack using samples, influenced by music from England's Warp record label.
• A fan-developed unofficial remake in the Unity engine had a public alpha version released in 2014.