AN OBSCURE DOOM-INSPIRED
3D SHOOTER FROM TAIWAN
- COMMUNITY RELEASE -

The 90s were the peak of 3D-shooters. Hits like "Doom" or "Duke Nukem 3D"

dominated the genre and the PC market. Many Companies wanted a piece of the cake

and started publishing their own titles. In 1997, a software company named

"Engine Technology CO. LTD" based in Taiwan developed their 3D-shooter

named "終極戰士 / The Ultimate Fighter" also known as "MARS" or "MARS 3D".

This one was programmed in their own engine which was developed using reverse engineering the known top titles at the time. Program code had to be cloaked

and even textures were taken from other games and simply modified at most.

The game didn't see commercial success in it's home country (some rumors say
it was never officially sold, we don't know) and never found a way to the western world.

UNTIL 2018

In 2013, a Chinese user called "Newclicker" uploaded an ISO of the original CD-ROM and another user, "Player Lin", uploaded a English transcript in textform on YouTube.

2018, some retro fans sacrificed their time to translate the whole game into English,

so that it was possible to play a full English copy under MS-DOS. Additionally,

a new cover art based on the original one (which is in no good quality available)

was created, as well a new manual and an own  new setup program was designed and a physical version of the whole game was manufactured and released in small quantitie.

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MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN

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In 2025, a Chinese user named "NightsoN" bought a loose CD from a Taiwanese

shopping site, thinking it was the original Chinese/Taiwanese   version. What a surprise

— it turned out to be   a fully English version of the game! The publisher was

a company called ""PowerSource Computer Systems".

Unfortunately, not much is known about PowerSource. It appears they primarily

worked as a software publisher, but further details remain scarce.

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