Archived Reddit Post; r/Ireland - 14th Dec 2022

User - fullmetalpharmacist:

"Two months ago I was scrolling through eBay and stumbled across a peculiar relic of the 90's; a Playstation 1 game titled 'Spore Runner'

The item description on ebay provided a brief synopsis of the narrative of the game, which was as follows:

'Ireland 2035 - as the nation grapples with global climate devastation, a peculiar black market has arisen for the elusive and ever dwindling supply of Liberty Cap mushrooms. With the rise in prevalence of the use of this psychedelic in the early 2020's, figures colloquially referred to as "Spore Runners" began to emerge in society; their goal being the identification and procurement of the famed (yet still illegal) "magic mushrooms" from the last remaining eco-systems resilient enough to sustain them.

Taking the role of a Spore Runner by the name of "Ádhamh", you are tasked with securing and distributing Liberty Caps, all under the watchful eye of the Privatised Initiative of an Garda Síochána (also known as the PIGS).
From barren wastelands to dystopian ravaged cityscapes, you will have to navigate a broken and dangerous society where bandits and rival Spore Runners will do everything in their power to steal your mushrooms. Protect your haul!'

Taken aback by how forward thinking this game's storyline was, I decided to place a bid. I had no competition, and two weeks later I received a package from An Post with the PlayStation 1 cassette inside.

I was greeted with a cassette that was of impeccable quality; this game had obviously been stored quite well considering the copyright details on the back were dated from the year 1997.

I quickly went inside and booted up my old Playstation 1, took out the disc and loaded it into the console. As I did so, a small, folded A4 sheet of paper dropped out of the cover. In large writing were the words "READ THIS BEFORE PLAYING", so of course I did.

To my dismay, the A4 sheet contained a message from Tomás O'Leary, one of the main developers working on the game in 1997. In the message, Tomás went on to describe how the 'Spore Runner' project was scrapped 6 months into development! Apparently there wasn't much of a market for a futuristic courier game set in a dystopian Ireland, where the main purpose was to obtain psychedelic substances; can't say I'm surprised, I can already hear the sermons that would have been dished out at mass, had this game ever seen the light of day.

Tomás went on to inform me that 4 levels of the game had been in pre-developement, and that they had been working on the game's soundtrack in parallel. The disc that was inside the PS1 cassette was in fact the unfinished soundtrack containing five tracks:

Spore Runner OST:

1. Main Titles
2. Dehydration Module 35KZi
3. Razed Commonage
4. Undergrowth
5. Data Centre

There were no artists specified. However, Tomás stated that an independent music label, Faoi Thalamh Records, had been brought on board to create the aforementioned soundtrack.

Feeling slightly cheated, I sat back and let the CD play through. It's pretty good. I found myself trying to imagine each level of the game based on the intensity of the music and soon enough I had built my own dystopian Ireland, through which I navigated with my ears instead of my eyes. Anyway, just thought I'd share in case anyone had any additional info on the game developers, or Faoi Thalamh Records. Drop a DM and I'll send a link to the tunes!"