Mondo3D – Curse of the Pharaoh’s Gold

If you played computer games in the years before and around the dot.com era you might remember lots of promotional games. I still have a floppy disk with a racing game for the german "pocket sausage" BiFi somewhere. In 2001 the australian whatever company Massive created the multiplayer online game Mondo3D for Mars Confectionary. It was part of a bigger marketing website. The game originally required you to buy a Mondotime Lollipop to be elidgeable to download the game (...).

The game features 3D models of selected Mondo figurines and the gam-play is a competitive, team-play treasure hunt scenario. Kid’s play the game online with each other - up to 100 can play at anyone time from anywhere in Australia and New Zealand. The game also includes a chat feature to allow them to co-ordinate their team strategies.

Mondo3D is based on QuakeWorld, that's why it is interesting. It features team-based gameplay and comes with one big, interconnected and complex map in a egypt setting.

You can collect gold. The amount of gold you can carry depends on the model. If you grab the lilac bag in the center of the round room you can carry up to 10 gold. Your character will have a funky particle trail if you do. There are two "bases" where - I guess - the teams would have to bring gold to. Ammo automatically refills. Oh - and I guess you can kill the other players, what other use would the weapons have? >;)

Blue team

  • Tsu Wsi, China - 1900
  • Throws discs with a lilac trail that explode on impact.
  • Ben Baxter, USA - 1870
  • Shoots with a pistol.
  • Eric the Saxon, England - 1066)
  • Throws axes that stick to walls.

Red team

  • Sawi, Africa - 1880
  • Throws spears that stick to walls.
  • Oda Nobunaga, Japan - 1580
  • Throws discs with a blue trail that explode on impact.
  • Marcus, Rome - 1 AD
  • Throws spears that stick to walls.

Items

  • Heart
  • Refills health.
  • Gold
  • 1 gold.
  • Gold Bag
  • Enables you to carry up to 10 gold at once.
  • Something
  • I have no idea. Seems related to gold.
  • Scarab beetle
  • Your next attack will be a swarm of … something that sticks to the next player and kills him slowly.
  • Jumping boots
  • You will be able to jump further (no higher).

The map

The map is plain beautiful. Highly complex and with so much exploration (did you find the secret tunnels?). Lovely work. I took these screenshots in the software renderer.

The menu and credits

Yes, those are fribbles and Tigger-oN (..::LvL). D!ABLO was a CPMA developer.

The models, map, artwork are marvellous. The player sounds so-so but surely fitting a kid's game. The gameplay looks like a lot of fun for children and the map invites playing like if it was the greatest gold-digging archaeologist childhood dream ever.

Two years ago dirtbox over at Besmella uploaded the files. I mirrored them here: mondo3d-full.exe (8 Megabytes) and mondo3d-server.zip (170 Kilobytes). If anyone has saved the source code, please send it to me. To play you need to create a local server. To do so, simply start the mondo3d-server.exe. Then in the client (mondo3d.exe (OpenGL) or mondo3d-safemode.exe (Software)) go Join Game → Direct Connect and enter the IP 127.0.0.1. Once you are on the server press ESC → Player Setup. Choose a team and a player model and press Go.

Originally written by Spirit, 14.12.2008