The Collection Chamber: AI WARS: THE AWAKENING

In the 21th Century all transactions are handled by agents, expert programs that interact on the NET. These Artificial Intelligences act as brokers, salesmen, researchers, and middlemen of all kind working for their wealthy human masters. Some of them are smart, very smart, but none are sentient… yet.

Your role is to select a computer system (or avatar) and with a set of basic programs to start the game. Once on the NET, you will need to explore and find information that you can sell on the black market so that you may increase the power of your computer or acquire more advanced software. You can have more than one goal to achieve to win the game and none will be set for you, except survival. Via NET play, you will be able to form alliances with other hackers or rogues on the NET or attack them if you wish. But beware, there are ghosts in the system. Some say that the military lost control over some artificial intelligence programs years ago and those personalities are roaming the NET freely. Some may be helpful while others will fry your brain. Use your masking and chameleon skills to blend in and defend yourself. When you are ready, you can attack with stealth or with brute force. Only your intelligence and cunning will protect you here.

~ from the archived official website

Back in the heady days of the dot-com bubble, when everyone was convinced the Internet was the new Wild West, AI Wars: The Awakening saddled up with one heck of a bold idea: let players jack into cyberspace, battle rogue programs, and maybe even become immortal. Released in 2000 by Nexus Information Systems, this curious little game invites you to upload your hacker's consciousness into the Internet (when it was important enough to be written with a capital "I") to interact with other users while exploring glowing circuit-board hallways. Sounds as cool as The Matrix, right? Well, it's more like if Tron had the graphics power of a Windows '95 screensaver.

Your hacker's uploaded consciousness, complete with a digital avatar viewed in either first or third person, is tasked with cracking systems, stealing datablocks, and fending off enemy agents that would love nothing more than to delete you. It's part shooter, part strategy game, and part wandering-around-getting-lost simulator.

The premise is actually brilliant. Data cubes become the key to unlocking passwords, selling secrets funds your upgrades, and systems reset after you leave, keeping things unpredictable. The goals - controlling the Net, achieving immortality, or giving your avatar sentience - give players some long-term direction beyond "hack stuff until bored" but it's a shame the execution feels like a grad school project that escaped onto retail shelves.

Without a map, the numbered doors and elevators are supposed to help you get your bearings.
They rarely do.

Where AI Wars shines is in its software-based arsenal. Forget boring rifles - here you have firewalls, spoofs, viruses, and the infamous Infinite Recursive Calculation, which forces enemies to calculate Pi until they lock up. It's clever, nerdy, and exactly the kind of cyber-gimmick that makes you grin. You can even masquerade as enemy software, sneak through guarded doors, and slip a backdoor into system cores.

The toolbox of tricks goes deeper than you might expect. On defense, you’ve got Firewalls to soak up incoming attacks, Masquerades to disguise yourself as friendly code, and Spoofing to trick enemies into thinking you're one of their own. Anti-virus routines run in the background like your PC's worst nagging software, constantly trying to clean up infections before they unravel your avatar. On the offensive side, things get spicy. Crack software lets you brute-force your way past ICE-protected gates, Viral Infections sap enemy health over time, and throwing Pi with the IRC slows foes into submission. But don't expect any of these to destroy enemies like your typical boomer shooter. This is not a power fantasy, but stealth-infused sci-fi and your weapons are geared towards this.

If there's one loadout that truly encompasses this, it's the all-important Data Manager, your Swiss Army knife of cyberspace. It lets you decrypt datablocks, interface with market bots to buy upgrades, and even dig out those all-important corporate secrets you'll later fence on the black market. It may not sound glamorous, but without it you're just another clueless piece of code doomed to wander the Net. Together, these tools make combat less about reflexes and more about juggling cooldowns, timing your hacks, and knowing when to slink away before Black ICE shows up to ruin your day.

Collect datablocks (left) with your Data Manager to help crack terminals (right) with your Crack app.

Make sure you don't set off the alarm!

But that's where game's invention ends. The Genesis3D engine gives us drab, repetitive environments that feel more like empty warehouses than a living Internet cyberspace. The enemy programs? Robot toys with stiff animations. The sound effects? Imagine a cheap keychain noisemaker looped for hours. Even in 2000, critics called the presentation dated - and two decades later, it's downright archaeological. They were clearly aiming for that dayglow Y2K aesthetic, but the empty liminal spaces do nothing but aid you in getting lost.

It would help if there was a map to help you get around, but the lack of one is the game's true killer app - killer in the sense that it murders your patience. With every corridor looking nearly identical, exploration becomes guesswork. You'll swear you've hacked into a new system only to realize you've been pacing the same digital hallway like a lost intern. There are a few hub worlds of sorts that guide you down numbered locations (eg. No. 2 is the digital marketplace, No. 3 is an online university) and elevators are scattered around these non-linear areas in a confusing attempt at quick travel, but they don't always go where you're expecting, and there's not always an easy way back if you make the wrong choice. It's immersion-breaking in the worst way, and it makes completing objectives more slog than thrill.

The digital marketplace lets you upgrade your applications if you have enough credits to do so.

Still, if you can forgive the presentation, there’s a certain quirky charm here. The economy of upgrading your software to survive against ever-tougher foes has a roguelike tension, and sneaking through systems without tripping alarms can be genuinely suspenseful when it isn't frustrating. The archived website even teases at black markets, evolving agents, and secret datastores filled with riches - concepts that show how ambitious the design really was.

Unfortunately, ambition can't always mask clunk. Between the confusing interface, identical level design, and complete lack of voice acting (the quickly disappearing text isn't the most legible), AI Wars often feels like a great idea stuck in beta. Reviewers at the time gave it middling scores for good reason; there's fun to be had, but you'll need hacker-level patience to find it.

AI Wars: The Awakening is best viewed today as a curiosity - a digital fossil from the era when cyberspace was mysterious, scary, and full of neon grids. If you want polish, look elsewhere. But if the thought of battling rogue ICE with a weaponized math equation makes you smile, there’s still something worth exploring here, if only for the novelty.

To download the game, follow the link below. This is a custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses DxWind and dgVoodoo to run on modern systems. Custom Manual (created by me) and official Demo (with helpful tutorial level) included. MP3 Soundtrack added as a separate download. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.

File Size: 222 Mb. Install Size: 367 Mb. Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download