Hamster box

Virtua Hamster is an action/puzzle cartridge-based game designed for Sega's short-lived Genesis 32x Platform.

Eric Quakenbush designed and produced this fast paced 3D maze game while at Sega of America. Several unique characters were created for the game which sparked licensing interest. Unfortunately, Sega discontinued the 32X platform before production could be completed.

Skuttle

Chip

The elusive robot, Skuttle.

An early sketch of Chip, the heroic skateboard ridin' hamster.

Chip

Max

Chip the hamster from the
high-res demo of the game.

Max the mole rendered in polygons.

All images and product names are copyrights or trademarks of Sega Of America, Inc.

copyright Quakenbush Design


Character Sketches
Chip
Thorn
Armadillo
Kangaroo Rat
PackRat
Mole

 

The Mechanical Snake relentlessly patrols the maze; clicking and whirling, sniffing out rouge rodents and disposing of them. After a meal he loses a certain amount of agility and speed due to the hamster size lump he’s sporting. He can’t turn around in a tube but he can find ways to get behind you if you tail him for too long. If you can trick him into dropping out of the maze and onto the floor, he is susceptible to the inventors voracious cat- the cat can’t eat him but he can pick up and carry him away for a little abuse.

Screen Shots from the 'Alpha' build of the game
Start Screen
2 Player, player on top is passing the packrat
1 Player mode
1 Player Jumping and passing the Mole
Character bio
Character bio

Design document from the game's pre-production period.