Alone in the Dark

Since the latest Alone in the Dark game is being released today (6/24/08), and will no doubt continue the contemporary fashion of pissing all over the history of and memory of this once-great franchise, here is some opening game play from the 1992 classic.

Despite the improper credit sometimes attributed to Resident Evil, AITD pretty much invented and established the survival horror genre. The game is genuinely creepy, in part due to the rather glacial pace of the game, creating fright by contrast. Once you explore the house and discover what is underneath the horror increases. The game uses prerendered backgrounds with polygon characters and objects; unlike the team behind Limbo of the Lost, Infogrames actually created their own. The game was a sort of dark horse release, overshadowed by all the hype surrounding the horror-themed CD-ROM puzzle game The Seventh Guest, but gamers quickly figured out that multimedia nonsense doesn't make a better game. Game publishers have yet to learn this lesson.

The system requirements for this game are 16 MHz and 640 K of RAM. There was no mouse or game pad support. The original copy protection consisted of looking up symbols in a book each time the game was launched. (more...)

Since the latest Alone in the Dark game is being released today (6/24/08), and will no doubt continue the contemporary fashion of pissing all over the history of and memory of this once-great franchise, here is some opening game play from the 1992 classic.

Despite the improper credit sometimes attributed to Resident Evil, AITD pretty much invented and established the survival horror genre. The game is genuinely creepy, in part due to the rather glacial pace of the game, creating fright by contrast. Once you explore the house and discover what is underneath the horror increases. The game uses prerendered backgrounds with polygon characters and objects; unlike the team behind Limbo of the Lost, Infogrames actually created their own. The game was a sort of dark horse release, overshadowed by all the hype surrounding the horror-themed CD-ROM puzzle game The Seventh Guest, but gamers quickly figured out that multimedia nonsense doesn't make a better game. Game publishers have yet to learn this lesson.

The system requirements for this game are 16 MHz and 640 K of RAM. There was no mouse or game pad support. The original copy protection consisted of looking up symbols in a book each time the game was launched.

The plot revolves around the owner a the mansion killing himself and you are there to check out the piano for some reason, which happens to be in the attic. You could also play as a female character, Emily Hartwood. This choice of character and gender was actually a pretty novel feature for the time. Of course, you quickly discover there's more to the house than old pianos and begin to uncover a convoluted and twisted plot about the Civil War, the occult, and zombies.

There were several sequels. AITD2 was on (iirc) a pirate ship and AITD3 was in a western ghost town. I think AITD2 and 3 only allowed you to play Edward Carnby. Shadow of the Comet was an indirect sequel, set in the same world but with different characters. The series was resurrected for modern consoles and PCs in 2001 as Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, with a younger Edward Carnby. Then Uwe Boll and Christian Slater made a crappy movie tied to the game in title only in 2005. Atari is releasing a new, updated AITD in 2008 and threatening websites that give the game a negative review.

Here is the introductory video to the game, featuring the female character:
http://www.wegame.com/watch/Alone_in_the... (less...)