Alone in the Dark (MS-DOS) - Part 2

Today on Super Adventures, I'm going to try to beat the original Alone in the Dark!

This is the second and final part of my two-part article, so you'll probably want to check out PART ONE first. I wrote all about all kinds of stuff, even mentioned Resident Evil a couple of times.

One thing I didn't talk about though, and it's fairly important, is that the game came out in late 1992... so this is its 30th anniversary! It's getting a remake soon to celebrate and from what I can tell it's the kind of reimagining where they take all the stuff from the original game and put it to one side so they can make up a bunch of other stuff instead. I feel like it'll probably have better combat though.

Okay this is the last part of my Alone in the Dark playthrough and I'm playing this with the intent to finally finish it, so beyond this point the SPOILERS will be extensive. With any luck. I mean I can't make any promises here, you can count the number of true survival horror games I've completed on one hand, with all the fingers severed, but maybe this will be the first!

Alone in the Dark (MS-DOS) - Part 1

Developer:

Infogrames

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Release Date:

1992 (CD version 1993)

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Systems:

DOS, PC-98, FM Towns, 3DO, Mac, Archimedes

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing the Guinness World Record holder for "First 3D survival-horror videogame": Alone in the Dark! I mean the original one, obviously. A sequel tried to steal its name in 2008, but the original proved too powerful and the PS3 release renamed it to Alone in the Dark: Inferno, so as far as I'm concerned this is the only true Alone in the Dark.

Well, except for the classic Uwe Boll movie I mean.

I know everyone that talks about Alone in the Dark also has to mention Resident Evil, but I think it's funny how the series both started off as critically-acclaimed genre pioneers and then suffered very different fates. Resident Evil has had seven million sequels and remakes, many of them pretty great, while the Alone in the Dark games have been racing to catch up to their own movie series down at the bottom of Metacritic. There's a bit of a disparity in how the two franchises are regarded these days, and it'd take a lot more than a terrible Netflix series to change that.

But I still remember how blown away I was when I saw the first Alone in the Dark previewed on the TV series Bad Influence! back when I was a tiny baby. It looked so much more advanced than anything I'd played on the Amiga, SNES or Mega Drive. I didn't know much about PC's at that point, but I was sold, I wanted one.

Then a few years later my family actually got a PC! I loaded up Alone in the Dark on it, pushed some furniture around, got killed by a monster, and turned it off to play Theme Hospital or Sam and Max or something instead. (I'm not a big fan of horror games to be honest). So I have played through first few rooms before, I'm very familiar with them, but otherwise I'm going into the game blind. I don't know what happens next or anything about the story.

Okay, I'm going to be playing the version I just bought off GOG (which I believe is just the 1993 DOS CD version), and I'm going to be writing about it in two parts. This first part is going to be a regular Super Adventures article where I stick with it for an hour and whine about how hard it is, but in the second part I am going to try to finish it. I want to see what this game actually is! So there will be moderate SPOILERS in the first part and hopefully some extreme spoilers in the second.

Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage (MS-DOS) - Guest Post

Today on Super Adventures, guest poster mecha-neko has returned and he's brought you the perfect game for Halloween. I wrote about Sanitarium a few days ago so I thought I had Halloween covered this year (the game even has pumpkins in it), but mecha-neko's choice literally has the word in the title. I can't compete with that.

Developer:

Interactive Binary Illusions Sub Zero

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Release Date: Halloween Harry: 10th October 1993 Alien Carnage: 2nd November 1994 Freeware: 24th May 2007

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Systems:

PC

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Spooky greetings to you all! Fancy looking at some classic Apogee shareware?

As Robbie Coltrane might say: it's 'alloween, 'arry!

Resident Evil 2 (PSX) - Part 2

Hello, this is the last page of my first impressions of the survival-horrifying Resident Evil 2 (aka. Biohazard 2).

Click this link to return to the streets of Raccoon City: Part one.

Resident Evil 2 (PSX) - Part 1

Developer:

Capcom

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Release Date:

1998

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Systems:

PlayStation, Windows, N64, Dreamcast, GameCube

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I don't like Resident Evil.

I mean I like the universe and the characters just fine, I just don't generally like the games. But it's been over two years since I last played one of them and the site's been survival horror free for almost as long, so today on Super Adventures I'm going to be taking a quick look at Hideki Kamiya's PlayStation masterpiece Resident Evil 2!

And there'll likely be whining under every screenshot. Whining and analysis.

To be honest, this just isn't really my genre. I get the theory behind using tank controls, limited saves, awkward camera angles and a tiny inventory to enhance the tension, but in all the games I've played it's mostly just increased my frustration. But I'm determined to at least pretend that I'm giving the game a fair shot, for as long as it takes for me to figure out if it's any different to the first game.

(This article contains screenshots of explicit violence and gore.)

Mr. Pibb: The 3D Interactive Game (MS-DOS)

I've never tried Mr. Pibb before, but my extensive research has revealed that it's a type of drink, it has its own 3D Interactive Game, and that I'm playing it right now! I'm cautiously optimistic as interactive games tend to be my favourite type of videogame.

According to this screenshot you're looking at right now, a mad scientist has taken over the school and turned all our friends and teachers into zombies! Probably not a coincidence this was made around the same time that Buffy was starting to get popular. Another thing that was popular in '98 was Half-Life, to give this some historical context. But can a cheap fizzy drink tie-in running in DOS compete with Valve's masterpiece? The answer may shock you! Or maybe it won't. I have no idea, I haven't even played it yet.

Wish me luck... 'cause I'll need it.

Resident Evil - Director's Cut (PSX)

I was actually thinking about trying out Silent Hill today, but then it occurred to me it would probably be better if I had some perspective first, something to compare it to. So instead I decided to go back a few years further and play the true progenitor of the 3D survival horror genre. The game that started it all.

CyberMage: Darklight Awakening (MS-DOS)

Wow, that's... an unusual title screen. A guy that looks like Robocop crossed with Judge Dredd grimacing as he squats over broken glass with a smoking hole in his forehead.

Super Ghouls'N Ghosts (SNES) - Replay

Super Adventures in Gaming Replay - Game 7

It's been nine months since I last played this game, if you can even call what I did 'playing'. I mostly just wandered into zombies. I doubt I even made it more than four screens into the first level.

But that was then.

I've played a lot of platformers since then. Games like Super Meat Boy, the Castlevania games, Ninja Gaiden, Shadow of the Beast... I must have gotten at least a little better at the damn things by now surely?

So okay Super Ghouls'n Ghosts, I'm ready for a rematch.

Gloom Deluxe and Gloom 3: "Ultimate Gloom" Zombie Edition (Amiga) - Guest Post

Poor mecha-neko has apparently lost his long battle with insanity, after finally taking one too many crappy video games to the head. He claims he's receiving messages from the internet telling him to play more first person shooters on the Amiga, and worse he's actually playing them.

The SAIG postbag has been inundated with folks saying that I had Gloom on the wrong settings, played the wrong Gloom or that I didn't play it long enough. You only ever get the opportunity to steal top billing from Deus Ex once, so it's time for an amazing Gloom special!

This is the third game, Gloom 3... except it's really the fourth game. And there's another one after it, but that one isn't really Gloom and neither were the two in between Gloom and this one. And there's no version of this one that isn't a 'Zombie Edition'. And it's also called Ultimate Gloom.

And we're not playing this one first.

Castlevania Legends (GB)

Castlevania Legends, the final Castlevania released on the original Game Boy, tells the story of the first Belmont to defeat Dracula. Or at least it would have, except that it's been declared non-canon, and no longer part of the official chronology.

It's nice to know that if I fuck up, I won't be ruining the timeline or anything. The Castlevania universe will be safe from my ineptitude for once.

Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss / Dracula X (SNES)

Also known as Castlevania: Dracula X in the US, and Akumajo Dracula XX in Japan (because they already used 'Dracula X' for the title of Rondo of Blood.)

That's a damn weird looking style of writing they've gone with. Also why change the title to Vampire's Kiss anyway? Will this be a tale of Richter Belmont and Dracula's forbidden love?

Castlevania: The New Generation / Bloodlines (Genesis/Mega Drive)

A.K.A. Castlevania: Bloodlines in North America, and Vampire Killer in Japan, confusingly.

The series had already jumped to arcades, C64, MSX, Amiga, PC, X68000, and the TurboGrafx, and with this Sega's system finally got a Castlevania game of its own.

Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo / Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (TurboGrafx-CD)

Also known as... Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.

Akumajō Dracula / Castlevania Chronicles (X68000)

Another Castlevania game with the Japanese title Akumajou Dracula, retelling the story of Simon Belmont's epic struggle through Castlevania 1. So that's... five of them now, right?

For years this was only available in Japan for the Sharp X68000 computer, but it finally got a western release in 2001 on the PlayStation, under the name Castlevania Chronicles.

Isle of the Dead (MS-DOS) - Guest Post

From Rainmaker Software, the precursor to Nerves of Steel.

Yes, Nerves of Steel is the game they made when they knew what they were doing.

As always, FPS Friday readers are advised that this post contains disturbing scenes of violence, gore and MS-DOS graphics.

Haunted Castle (Arcade)

This shares the same name in Japan (Akumajō Dracula) as both Castlevania and Vampire Killer, and is the first arcade game in the Castlevania series.

There's actually at least five games just called Akumajō Dracula, annoyingly. They could have at least given them different subtitles or something.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (NES)

Another Castlevania game that has a film effect on the title screen. I suppose the developers would have gotten a lot of their inspiration from classic horror movies.

Princess Natasha: Student - Secret Agent - Princess (GBA)

This is the only game ever made with a title that starts and ends with the word 'princess'. Possibly.

Ghosts 'N Goblins (C64)

Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts publicly humiliated me, now I'm going after the first game in the series for revenge.

This is the first Commodore 64 game I've ever played by the way, so I'm not sure what to expect from it.