LGR - Corncob 3D - DOS PC Game Review

World War II never happened, but aliens sure did! Strap into an F4U Corsair and shoot down UFOs and polygonal sci-fi weirdness in one of the more oddly-named flight sims.
● Corncob 3-D and Other Worlds are now freeware!
tidegear.net/corncob/index.html
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Corncob Deluxe, Corn Cob 3D, corny corn-corn cornhole.

[@KevinStokes]

The game was a lot of fun to make. It was made up of two parts, a standalone graphical application written in assembly, and George's excellent menu stuff written in C. The flight characteristics were modeled using an old book I found on the physics of flight.

[@Slovflyer]

Wow never thought I'd get to do this often but here it is. Thanks for making the game. I had a LOT of fun playing this on my first (practical) PC back in 1996-1997, an old 386 33MHz. I believe I found your game on AOL's shareware channel. Yup good ol' 33.3k modem and AOL 3.0.

[@lordjavathe3rd]

You did an excellent job on your game. I think there are some qualities of low definition games which make them timeless. I believe it could be a genre and do well financially. Sure some areas need polish and modernization, but the imaginative aspect of that art design can tell stories and build worlds which are difficult or impossible otherwise.

[@anovaprint4713]

I guess it pays to read the comments 4 years after the fact. Now I just need to find a copy of InnerMission somewhere.

[@robertbick986]

Holy crap! You made this? I cannot even tell you how many hours I spent playing this as a teenager. Thanks!

[@WatersEdge337]

Thanks for making this game! I loved this as a kid (and even bought the Other Worlds Campaign). Lots of good memories.

[@starschwar]

Eject to an on-foot mode? Remote-control the plane from the ground? Astonishingly deep concepts by today's standards, let alone 1992!

[@LGR]

Craziness huh? Gotta love old-school innovations.

[@AssaulteedOne]

It's really too bad we haven't seen any newer games do all these things - I'd buy that game in a heartbeat!

[@raoulduke6043]

And if I'm not mistaken, you could, once back to your base, pick another plane and continue your mission. In a way, you could say that this is the grandfather of the Battlefield series. I must say, I ve been enjoying your videos, and was amazed that you knew this game! And now, thanks to you, I get to know the adlib soundtrack, since I only had the internal speaker back then :) Thanks!

[@sandakureva]

Right? I can't even think of any modern games that have all that going for it.

[@CitrusZero]

Let me just remind you guys. This game was coded in *ASSEMBLY*

[@tatsu13]

To see all of these old DOS games being developed in Assembly, Pascal, and a few others just stupefies me. Sure, programming games nowadays is still very much challenging, but whoa... This is like a whole other level, imo.

[@augaibucket2363]

***** ASSembly

[@benjamenYTDeadTheGamer]

Aüga elbüket: Noice.

[@midwestspleeno]

I can't imagine how much of a ballache it must have been debugging them!

[@MuttFitness]

Pascal is easy. Assembly is insane.

[@EmergencyChannel]

I find it funny that you fly a 1940's era airplane but the van that picks you up looks like a 1977 Chevy Vandura, I love quirky games like these.

[@jamilthemaster]

Shrek and the in game model of the plane you fly looks like a stealth bomber

[@ZorotheGallade]

Little funfact: if you shoot down allies or attack your own base, you get suspended from service. As in, the game will refuse to even start until your suspension ends (usually 1 week)

[@kylejscheffler]

Imagine the firestorm that would incite if a dev did that today. On second thought, with pay-to-wait mobile games on the market, no one would pay any attention. (note: I actually like the idea of a punitive element like that)

[@learrus]

Only for that pilot profile

[@NicoBleackley]

ZorotheGallade wow that's almost like Kojima's idea to have that game wipe its own memory if you die!

[@swesleyc7]

I remember this when I was a kid! I had really no understanding why it happened and it frustrated me so much I deleted the game!

[@PlaceholderforBjorn]

That's awesome!

[@booradley1138]

Played this game as a kid. Here is what happened to me. I accidentally shot some of my allies on the ground, which resulted in my character being punished and sent to prison. For two weeks. Two REAL weeks. The game locks you out of your profile, and won't let you play that character again until the system clock / calendar shows that two weeks have passed. Needless to say, I was pissed. I changed the system time to Dec 31, 1999, and set my pilot free. I went on a killing spree, destroying as many allies and friends in a single mission as I could. I received a thirty year sentence for my crimes. My character is still waiting for that fateful day in 2029 when he will be released. One day, my friend, you will return.

[@DjAle1]

Top kek

[@RiasatSalminSami]

bruh

[@Audioworm]

Only 6 years to go now...

[@MUMSUniverse]

An updated version of this should be done but in keeping with the look and tone of the original. I would play the heck out of this!

[@LGR]

So would I! It's such an intriguing combo of gameplay.

[@Vilde321]

@@LGR Man you are simply AWESOME !!!!! JUST THOUGHT ID LEAVE THIS HERE !

[@AlyxxTheRat]

The smoothness of the engine intrigues me. In my experience flight sims from that area had the framerate of an old man with a walking stick in heavy traffic...

[@MuttFitness]

Its cause it's written in assembly.

[@floatingchimney]

@@MuttFitness Being written in assembly has nothing to do with framerate of the game.

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

@@floatingchimney Yeah. Except it does, because you're giving the exact instructions to the processor, instead of relying on a compiler/interpreter.

[@floatingchimney]

@@DonVigaDeFierro You don't know what you're talking about, and neither have you explained anything by saying that. 90% of the low level drivers that work with instructing the graphics processors and CPUs are written in assembly - the rest is written in C. Yet, do we see any framerate problems? The very drivers that make your operating system to be able to communicate with your graphics card to read what I just wrote have been written in assembly. Framerate was low in that era because the PROCESSING POWER of the computers was low.

[@zgillet]

@@floatingchimney Wow, that's not even close to true. Directly writing the engine in assembly get's rid of compiling your code (in fact many people write in C and then edit the generated assembly). @*Steel Bean" is also wrong because compiling is a one time process before the game is played, but it's automated to generate the instructions and can contain some unnecessary or un-optimized generated code.

[@Kellmachine]

PRACTICE MOOOOOODE I want that to be my ringtone or alarm clock or something

[@DjAle1]

@Higor Ghunter • 64 years ago I'm fucking dying

[@KevinKnutson]

Wow, you completely nailed everything about this game, as experienced by my younger self. There was a complete bewilderment every time I played this game, and I was never once sure what I was doing, was what was intended. Those benders, those unshakable missiles, those textures. I seem to recall an airstrip in the sky that I took great joy in jumping off of.

[@madmacabre]

There is nothing better than coming home from a long day of work and laying in bed with a bowl of lime jello and watching a new LGR video

[@trbrtk]

These aliens give me a strong Evangelion vibe. "Get in the Corncob, Shinji!"

[@syahminorizan8064]

ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS GET IN THE DAMN ROBOT SHINJI

[@micahwhite1246]

Remember playing this for hours on my old gateway. Nothing better than getting shot down, then parachuting onto the mindbender platform suspended 1000feet in the air then planting a bomb and leaping off again

[@LateBlt]

Dude, I never thought I would see such an in-depth treatment of this classic! You're right: It really was the only realistic shareware flight simulator to ever get much attention. The one thing that did bother me about this game was that it had no option to raise or lower the landing gear; the plane would always do so automatically. This video is perfect! Thanks so much!! :)

[@EatingCtrlV]

wow. I played this game as a kid for years. I didn't know what I was doing, but I had a lot of fun. I used to love remote flying the plane.

[@marlborosilver]

Corncob 3D. Because corn or cob for that matter never looked so cool in 2D. You sir did honored one of my finest memories in gaming. This game had a great sence of humour, and had incredible effects for the time, like the alucinations you got when you were aproaching enemy bases or the effect of the sun, or even the lack of oxigen in your head given some manouvers. Thank you for giving this game (one of the most valuable sharewares I found at the time) the proper time and such and informative review

[@rharms_]

i love these abstract dos/win graphics from the early 90s , it has a very certain pleasant atmosphere due to being so simple , vast and lifeless, eg doom1+2 always had an almost melancholic atmosphere rather than horrifiying,

[@goodolddoug889]

I put so many friggin' hours into Corncob 3D when I was younger. My friend sold me on flight sims and racing games from a young age, and I came across this gem on one of those countless shareware compilation CDs I had. I was mesmerized by the UFOs and crazy colours, as well as the fact that you could get out of the plane. Absolutely crazy game that kept me playing for hours with no clue what was going on. lol

[@willt9172]

Same here, got hold of a shareware copy and played this for hours! Very cool game for the time.

[@WillKeaton]

As a kid I had this game called Aviation Adventure. One of the many, many things you can do in this game is partake in a flight simulator that looks just like this. It was set in WW2 and there were no aliens, and as far as I can tell there was just the one level, but I vividly remember the way the propeller spun in front of you and the screen that comes up when you crashed is identical to the one shown in this video.

[@_Braised]

I scrolled through the comments to check for this! I had Aviation Adventure too- and you're right, it had a minigame in it which was this EXACT simulation with the same UI, same plane, propeller, same mission end photos if you crash or get captured etc, but with no aliens. Instead it was called 'F4U Secret Sortie' and you were supposed to evade any enemies and spy on things... apparently. I'd always fly right at the (static) enemy aircraft in the sky to battle with them, and get an instant fail for being 'detected'. Booo....

[@therealkzero]

I played this for HOURS as a kid. I remember being impressed by how smooth it ran. KILL ALL THE UFO'S! EDIT: This and Janes ATF were incredible!

[@phoenixsixxrising]

The little dude flipping you off at the airport was just the best cherry on top of this awesome sundae! great game!!!

[@CommanderGrog]

It's great seeing you review Corncob! I loved that game back then and return to play it from time to time. In fact, I played it a couple of days ago and I'm with you that it holds up pretty well. At least I'm not the only one who got a little freaked out about the atmosphere as a kid. Keep up the great work!

[@onlyrealnumber]

I had no idea there were missions in this game when I played it as a kid. I'd just jump in my plane and explore the vast, bizarre landscape, causing all sorts of trouble along the way. I remember being intrigued by the different aliens, the stuff you could do outside of your plane, and what that van did (I just blew it up when it got near me, thinking it was an alien). It never really made much sense but my imagination filled in the gaps. It was probably my very first 'sandbox' experience and I'll have to make sure to relive it one of these days. Thank you for sharing this with us, Clint.

[@splodinjoe]

Played this so much as a kid. Has some of my favourite game music. Title screen rules and the music that plays in the menus from the beginning of this video is great as well.

[@ChopperCharles]

I loved this game as a kid! Thanks so much for the review. I had forgotten how complicated some of those missions were! Such great memories!

[@rheffera]

Wait, wait.. >286 >Smoooooooooth flight sim >shareware, $25 reg Where do i insert cash so show appreciation to the programmer?

[@posysajrazdwatrzy]

I really appreciate your work in bringing us all these interesting games and things from the now largely overlooked past. You're doing an amazing job and your videos are very informative and interesting to watch - genuinely, that's hard to come by nowadays. It boggles my mind how much dedication and effort you put into these. You truly deserve some recognition for that!

[@wussie7766]

I played this on my old 386DX waaaay back when. Blast from the past, thanks for reviewing it!

[@AmaroqStarwind]

0:28 I spy MechCommander. That was an amazing game... and it also had some hilarious AI: Once, I was attacking an enemy base. All of their mechs had jump jets, but when I destroyed their Gate Control on accident, they turned their attention on their own gates, trying to blow them up so they could get through (apparently forgetting that they had Jump Jets, and were even jumping over their own gates to get better shots at them). Ross Scott needs to do this game! (I do wish you could increase the resolution and colors...)

[@singleproppilot]

The common Vought F4U Corsair flown in World War II actually used a Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18 cylinder two row radial engine. The engine known as the “Corncob” was the much larger Pratt & Whitney R-4360 four row radial. Among other applications, this engine was used on the Goodyear F2G Super Corsair, of which only ten were built. None were used in World War II.

[@Lawh]

I played this a lot as a kid not knowing what any of this meant since I didn't even speak proper English. I couldn't find this game some years back when I was looking for it since I didn't remember it's name, and now this popped up in my suggestions and the name instantly rang a bell. I'd love to play this again.

[@Gildedtongue]

I remember seeing an ad on the back of a PC Magazine advertising the Pie In The Sky game development kit and thought it was such a cool idea, imagining all the games I could make with such a thing. Of course, the software was I think somewhere in the four digit range, and my folks weren't too keen on jumping on that for a teenaged flight of fancy.

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

it looks so beautifully fluid and unnervingly "alive" seeing it actually running at a high and stable framerate, which is definitely not how i played it back then, but i still loved it and it always stuck vividly in my mind all these years

[@blahza12345]

Good old memories. Nearly forgot about this one. I played it for so many hours on my 286 IBM PS/1 computer, back in the early 90s. Between being 9(?) years old and having a nearly non-existent level of English, I didn't have too much of a clue about what I was doing. And it was pure fun. Great review LGR, as always.

[@_chipchip]

Awesome video as always, interesting history too!

[@BB-nn9en]

This really takes me back. I remember purchasing this game for 5 dollars for my grandpa.. and myself lol. We both loved playing flight sims. Good stuff. Thanks for the review.

[@lc7581]

This was one of my absolute FAVORITE games when I was a kid. I loved the ability to eject and fight on the ground.

[@RenaissanceRoadTrips]

Seeing "Inner Mission" reminded me of that game where you're a ship inside your computer around protecting your files. It used file names of your drives and everything. Think it was called "Inner Space". That was quite an addictive game.

[@randywatson8347]

I had it on a shareware disc. It was so weird, the forcefields, shooting round objects and with a pistol on foot shooting lawnmower like objects. The cõntrols are amazingly good.

[@hastypixels]

Holey smokes, this sounds like it'd be an awesome modern title by your description!

[@meshugeah]

im afraid that remake would turn into a complete crap with nothing common with the original title (like Carrier Command remake)

[@ChamplainValleyRailSnapshots]

Wow, really cool.I remember having seen this game growing up, but I never played it. I wish I had, I loved DOS flight sims. Your videos really bring back memories.

[@darkinertia2]

its crazy how every game you do a video on is interesting as hell

[@QFGlenn]

Great video LGR! Awesome old game I never got the chance to enjoy it it's prime!

[@michaelhenry3570]

This was my favorite game on my 286. I must've played this thing for thousands of hours when I was 12.

[@UmbrellaAl]

Thanks for this reveiw! I spent many hours playing this game in the early 90s but had forgotten all about it!

[@zeroplanet9]

I used to totally play this game back on DoS. Awesome!

[@jaxmk1]

Woow for a free game that is very complex for that period in time. Keep it up Dude!!!!

[@TsakuraWataame]

THis one was fun! I'll have to do this game for a Game Play now. Thank you for another great video!

[@v3listube]

I loved this game as a kid. Haven't thought about it in over 20 years. Thanks for the reminder!

[@DanielConderman]

This was such a killer game. I am so happy you reviewed this game.

[@TommyCrosby]

Wow, I never expected to see one of my favorite game back when I was a kid on this channel. I assumed this game was too "trippy" to be mainstream lol.

[@daedamot]

Thanks for reminding me about this game. Totally remember playing it as a kid.

[@acefire]

I was just thinking about a game called F4U Secret Sortie I had when I was a kid and this looks exactly like it. I had it on a Windows 3.1 box. I was way too young to figure out all the controls but I remember loving it.

[@thoyo]

The two games were made on the same game engine

[@sharkfinbite]

I am impressed they used actual photograph pictures in this game in the cut scene. They even went as far to dress up and pose to represent what the text says. I expected they would just digitize the image in lower bits or draw a abstract sprite representing something with low pixels.

[@DSKiraYui]

OMFG!!!! I remember playing this years ago. Nostalgia trip!!!!!

[@SammyM00782]

Dude, I was just talking about this game the other day on Facebook!! I wanna play it now...

[@interghost]

Great review mate as always. Never heard of this game but used to love the shareware games back in the day. Thanks for sharing this with us and for putting in all the research, as it makes for a very interesting view... ;)

[@Abelon535]

I had this. I have fond memories of it. I remember it being on a disk with many games. Played it on my old 386.

[@uberxchuck944]

Loved this video. This kind of weird early game experience for me was with The Last Eichhof; I'd love to see LGR do a short look at that oddity

[@Deere55]

Always love the Extreme Rockclimbing cameos, even all these years later.

[@Jshaw71]

Seeing the thumbnail of this video, I didn't expecting much 3-d about this game, but wholly cripes, this likes pretty cool, kinda retro 3-d kinda way such an odd name, I get the reference, but I wish it was something more sensible, or theme of the game, but hey, whatever! I am glad you liked this game, and decided to do a review of it, while I myself have never played this game, I do like what I see, thanks for the creation, and upload!

[@absojake]

Whenever I hear "deluxe" it just gives me nostalgia.

[@unofficialAJP]

So so much

[@turbografx16]

Holy crap! I've been trying to find the name of this game for over a decade! It, along with Wingnuts, Gunsmoke, the Aladdin and Mario entertainment suites, were my first gaming experiences ;) Thank you, Clint.

[@InvisibleSandwichTM]

I had some version of the Other Worlds campaign as a kid downloaded from Home of the Underdogs. It ran a lot faster than it should've, crashed occasionally (especially around UFOs), and was in many ways not really the optimal way to experience the game, but I played a ton of it regardless. Cool to see a video on it! If you're ever in a '90s DOS combat flight simulator mood again, you should take another look at Dynamix's entries; I seem to remember you doing a brief look at Red Baron II because it came with a pizza coupon; could be worth a video to see what lead up to that.

[@Wario7793]

I remember playing this bizarre but fun flight simulator shoot em up game, but forgot the name for years until I spotted this video. Ahh.. old memories!

[@pruthuchauhan2159]

Never realised corncob3d had on foot gameplay. Brought back a lot of memories .

[@Bukkarooo]

This game runs surprisingly smoothly! Especially comparing it to the other flight sim early in the video, it's really smooth. The rear-view makes that extra impressive. Gonna have to give this one a try at some point!

[@madmax2069]

Man this brings back memories

[@SpeedySPCFan]

That name is perfect.

[@LGR]

Pure brilliance.

[@StarCadet]

Holy crap, I had completely forgotten about this one. The name was always so odd to me. The minute I saw the title, all the memories came back to me.

[@findtruth7]

I remember playing this game in my 386 Hyundai PC. There is an airfield road in the sky which you can land in the sky and takeoff again, this game had its secrets....

[@jim.....]

Vector graphics FTW

[@MichaelKarban]

Holly crap... I remember playing this when I was around 12. I think I had an earlier version, as I don't recall the digitised images. I do remember it talking about a unique graphical experience (or something) if you finished. I never did. Thanks!

[@CYON4D]

Great review :)

[@ChristopherTCalhoun]

I have occasionally recalled Corncob 3D ever since playing it, back in the day. I haven't played all the Ace Combat games, but the Stonehenge weapon concept in Ace Combat 4 sort of approaches the very odd qualities that I originally found, experienced in Corncob 3D.

[@mrbigmouth502]

omg, I came across a modded version of this game, simply titled F4U Corsair on the disc for Aviation Adventure back when I was 9. I never got it to work properly on my win98 PC because it was missing some file, but it had a really cool menu theme. The mission briefing offered in-game made me salivate. I wanted to play it so badly. I don't remember it having any VGA intro screens, it just went to a text-based menu.

[@fishnutter5219]

The only thing I remember from the hours we put in playing this game as kids was when I did too much friendly fire damage in a mission and had my pilot locked out of the game for a couple of days. Mate's father wouldn't let us set the system clock forward so I had to create a new pilot to play or miss out on my turn at a mission! :D

[@CanuckGod]

This was one of my favorites as a teenager on my first PC (486) 20+ years ago... and probably the only flight simulator I was good at... it handled really smoothly, and I remember getting promoted a couple times for reaming those alien bastards!

[@raptorshinryu]

I think they/someone made a modified version of this game that was simply called F4U Corsair where you just shot down planes. It was bundled on-disc with this edutainment game I had called Aviation Adventure from Knowledge Adventure.

[@nonobaOMGWEEGEE2]

Why isn't this game more popular? This is amazing for a game back then!

[@louismanet3656]

OH yeah! This, along with 'Defender of Boston' were my favourite buys on shareware.

[@insylem]

I Loved Corncob! I also had the 1938 intro with the pictures version as well, though I did eventually find another version. At 9:10 I think that guy is supposed to be giving you a thumbs up, but when I first saw it I thought it was a middle finger as well.

[@dreamspheree]

THIS game LOOKS amazing, thanks for the share.

[@TravisStewart42]

I did not play this game when I was younger, or if I did I do not remember it. But I did pick it up a few months ago and played some of it, and I really must get back to it again. The graphics really appeal to me. Maybe it is just because I really got into gaming in the early 90s but low poly styles make me feel very comfortable and bring back a lot of great memories.

[@chrisreidland]

Loved this Sim

[@MDK-fo7jw]

Lazy Game Reviews Speaking of old unknown games: Dear LGR and fellow retronauts. I'm looking for a game I remember I played perhaps once or twice, I cannot for the life of me remember what it was or what it looked like, the only thing I remember is this: The control scheme is very similar to System Shock (1), including the mouse-to-aim and the adventure-style point and click inventory management. The art reminds me of Powerslave, including photo-realistic drawings and textures. The game starts off in what appears to be a cave, or some dungeony-type area, there's not really a menu as far as I remember. The first things you see in the room are a well and a corpse of some description. You can walk around and study objects in the room, until some point something tumbles over and you find an old Winchester (or bolt action) rifle, where the ammunition mechanic comes into play. You have to fend off a bunch of rats with the system shock style aiming system and... that's about all I remember. I can't remember if it had free movement, like SS, or was more of a point and click type of action-adventure shooter. If ANYONE has any clue, please let me know.

[@ZILOGz80VIDEOS]

I totally feel you on the minimalist graphics thing. I'm a big fan of F22 Interceptor on the Genesis, something about those simplistic filled poly graphics is awesome.

[@ChongMcBong]

Awesome game.. this was definitely one of my favourites when i was a kid :)

[@Azeralas]

oh so good! I loved this game so much as a kid!

[@wjadams2]

Holy crap! I played this game all the time! So much fun!

[@txcforever]

I don't know why, but I loved flight sims growing up. I would play every single demo I got my hands on and squeeze every single drop of gameplay. I remember the demo of F22 Raptor from Novalogic, where basically you didn't had any objectives whatsoever, but I would still play it for hours finding new stuff to do.

[@LordGrandKaiser]

Holy crap, I completely forgot about this game! I played the hell out of the shareware version when I was a kid. Among other things, I loved the music in Corncob 3-D. More often than not I'd wait for the intro song to be over before I jumped to the main menu.

[@teamhex]

Man this game is pretty in depth for something that old. I'm very impressed.

[@Lunchbox6954]

Omg I remember this game on one of those 100 games Cd's back in the day

[@jimbox114]

I remember picking this game up at a local K-mart. It was the version with the Kangaroo on the Diskette. They sold alot of games with that logo during that era and while most of them were crap I really liked this one.

[@AleronWolf]

I had MIG-21 for SEGA MD2. I freaking loved that game. It was just normal jet sim from 90s. But it was really detailed as for console sim, and felt really open world. Graphics looked jsut like this.

[@nathanhaines1721]

Coded in assembly? Quite an accomplishment.

[@Slovflyer]

I remember playing Corncob 3d on my old 386 with 8MB of ram and a 123 (?) MB hdd running Win95 haha. Had a SoundBlaster Pro card installed later on and wow did that make everything sound real vs. the inbuilt pc speaker, haha. Btw there was another shareware game called Wings of Thunder or WOT. Same premise -- aliens invading or something. Mostly though it was flying around an A-10 warthog and shooting down enemy tanks and stuff. Very fun and I spent dozens of hours messing with the game's settings text file that let me change how the airplane's physics and flight qualities worked haha. Want to fly at only 80 mph? Sure just change the lift coefficient. Want to go stupid fast? Change the engine's total power output.

[@jwaffe]

I'm surprised and impressed that they allow you to get out of the plane in a game this old, I'll have to give this a try, it seems like this is one of those games were the dev really put a lot of thought into it.

[@LeFabulousDiamond]

LGR You are a a amazing person