The Cinemaware games from this period were minigame collections strung together with a narrative, a map and some resource management. It’s a similar formula to Sid Meier’s Pirates!

In the case of It Came From The Desert! none of the mini-games was particularly mind-blowing, but their sparsity and diversity created a special sort of tension. How am I supposed to get good at shooting off an ant’s antenna in faux-3D first person if I only get a chance to practice this shooting minigame every few hours of play?

I’d be interested to see this design model reinvestigated with modern sensibilities.