My most frightening videogame experience (the essay)

[Wavelflack]

I was typing this as a response to the "fright" thread, but as I invested more and more of my personal memories into it, I decided to make it a separate topic. Not out of ego, but simply because I want to know if anyone else can identify with this particular "ridicilous fear" of mine..

Here you go:

This will probably strike you as fucking odd...but what used to scare me was:

Chess, for Atari 2600.

Why? Well, for some reason, I used to have nightmares about what would happen when you leave the phone off the hook long enough for the "BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEP!! BEEP!!.." thing to stop. I've only let it happen once or twice in my life (even to this day!), but I always had the feeling that something awful would happen if you carelessly left the phone off the hook for awhile. Have you ever done it? You get "BEEP-BEEP-BEEP" for maybe thirty seconds...then the scary woman (she sounded synthetic even back when they were human recordings) would tell you to please hang up...repeatedly. If you don't heed her warning (and it IS a warning), the line goes dead silent...except for some strange clicking noises here and there, somewhere in the background. The two times I managed to make it to that point, I felt this overwhelming sense of immediate and tremendous danger. It wasn't even something that I could put into words...not that a group would "get me", or that a "monster" was on it's way, or anything tangible like that. It was just...something terrible would happen to me and everything I knew if I defied all of those repeated warnings. The clicks on the line were (in my mind) the startup noises of whatever horrible machinations I was about to become trapped in.

Anyway, I think that this can all be traced to an "assembly" we had during my early years in grade school (1st or 2nd grade), when a guy from the phone company came in to tell us about the phone system. He told us (for reasons I never understood) to NOT LEAVE A PHONE OFF THE HOOK!.....and then he showed us a film. The guy loads up his film into the projector, and a movie starts...showing "Telly" (I remember the phone-character's name) and his costumed cohorts navigating the US phone system from the inside. It was live action, a bit like Tron (which was still a few years away), and utterly frightening to me. I think the movie was supposed to be a fun and child-comprehensible way of explaining the complexities of the phone system, but just like clowns, adults dressed up in strange ways can come off as nightmarish to children. I believe I had the added horror of thinking that such a system was actually present in my house! Most scary things can be written off like "well, I don't live near any spooky old lake!" or "I don't own any animatronic dolls!", but you can't get rid of the phone!

(Incidentally, I got a massive shiver many years ago when watching an episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati". In the episode (which was about a mad bomber terrorist), Johhny Fever starts freaking out about the "phone cops!" The phone cops!! In fact, I've got fucking goosebumps right now, just thing about that and the rest of this shit.)


Anyway, you're thinking "Well, that was a fine anecdote and all, but what does this have to do with Atari 2600 Chess?" Let me tell you:
The game is completely silent, except a slight "tap" or "click" sound when a piece is moved. Then more silence. "Click".....silence. Another click. More silence. An hour of relative silence. Then, you move your piece into check AND BEEP!!BEEP!!BEEP!!BEEP!!!! It's bringing you RIGHT BACK into the nightmare, except THIS TIME IT'S WORSE! THE PHONE IS ANGRY WITH YOU! THERE IS A SHRILL, ANGRY TONE IN THE BEEP! I know it's just a pile of sound registers being played in unison but it's VERY ANGRY! To top it all off, something about the flip-flopping King animation (which occurs in sync with the death beep) just makes it worse. I really can't describe why, but it does.

So, there you have it. I've played more than a few horror/survival games, and none of them have made me so much as twitch. That Chess game just kills me, though, and it's simply because it evokes the most frightening thing in the universe--my personal, hidden, almost insane childhood fears. All from a simple, innocuous sound effect.

[nesman85]

nothing in a game has ever scared me, but i remember when i was a little kid, in public restrooms i was scared of the toilet when it was flushing, probably because it was so much louder than the normal home toilet, i used to pull that handle and go running out as fast as i could. pretty funny now that i think about it. :D

[punkoffgirl]

Wow, Wavel, that was TERRIFIC to read! I hope this one gets saved for future Lore usage! I mean, I don't mean to enjoy your terror or anything, but very well written! :D (My, what big teeth you have!)

[qaotik]

I think you should go and see The Ring if you haven't already. ;)

[Magus]

The ring? is that the show about the tape you watch, and then die?

[GENESISNES]

its fucking scarrier than you thing my friend. I had nightmares about that movie for weeks. And to top it off, the night i saw it, i had rented the thing, and my sister was sleeping over at a friends, house, leaving me alone in the darkness in the basement.

[qaotik]

Yeah saw it a few days ago and it was hella scary. Its not out on dvd yet.

[ShinobiMan]

Hey nice story wavel... in a traumatic childhood kinda way. I used to be terrified by little things like that in games when I was a little kid. Here's a story:

I'm at my friends house playing Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego on the Sega Master System. I must have been four years old. Well, every time you'd finally get to the city where Carmen was, she'd come running at you throwing knives... all of this with "Psycho" music and a flashing red screen... it really scared the hell out of me. Very traumatic indeed.

[Keir]

When I was a kid I believed that there were ghosts in my toilet (no joke!) I thought that some day they were going to come up and grab me while I was sitting down doing my business and drag me through the pipes into the sewer.

To this day I am terrified of Super Mario Bros! Those little plumbers crawling through sewer pipes... *shiver* ;)

[digitalpress]

There are two times that I can recall being shocked by a video game. I wouldn't even call it "scared" (maybe it is), but it drew a reaction from me.

The first time was in the first Resident Evil, when the bloody hounds crash through the window. The game was eerie, creeping doom up until that point (which I like - I'm a huge fan of zombie flicks). I was NOT prepared for the change of pace and that SHOCK literally made me jump out of my seat.

Years went by and Eternal Darkness came out. Now this game has some genuinely creepy moments. It's a masterpiece, IMHO. But I got a reaction from one scene that I simply can't explain.

[BIT OF A SPOILER HERE]

There's a scene where you walk into the bathroom upstairs in the house. It's about a third of the way through the game. You approach the bathtub (you don't even click a button to inspect).... and BAM BAM BAM the camera snapshot-zooms into some dead woman in the tub. It lasts maybe a second and a half total.

It's a cool scene and a good shock, but when I first saw it my eyes began to tear. Like an incredible wave of sadness came over me. That has never happened before. When I went to play the game through a second time I did the same thing - KNOWING IT WAS THERE - and wouldn't you know it? Watery eyes again. I don't know what it is about that scene, and I've talked to other gamers about it - the most anyone else seems to say is "yeah, that was a cool ass scene".

And the person who called "The Ring" and your particular fear hit it right on the head. It's the same kind of "some sort of doom impending" - your phone line and the whole atmosphere of that movie.

[autobotracing]

There are two times that I can recall being shocked by a video game. I wouldn't even call it "scared" (maybe it is), but it drew a reaction from me.

The first time was in the first Resident Evil, when the bloody hounds crash through the window. The game was eerie, creeping doom up until that point (which I like - I'm a huge fan of zombie flicks). I was NOT prepared for the change of pace and that SHOCK literally made me jump out of my seat.

Years went by and Eternal Darkness came out. Now this game has some genuinely creepy moments. It's a masterpiece, IMHO. But I got a reaction from one scene that I simply can't explain.

[BIT OF A SPOILER HERE]

There's a scene where you walk into the bathroom upstairs in the house. It's about a third of the way through the game. You approach the bathtub (you don't even click a button to inspect).... and BAM BAM BAM the camera snapshot-zooms into some dead woman in the tub. It lasts maybe a second and a half total.

It's a cool scene and a good shock, but when I first saw it my eyes began to tear. Like an incredible wave of sadness came over me. That has never happened before. When I went to play the game through a second time I did the same thing - KNOWING IT WAS THERE - and wouldn't you know it? Watery eyes again. I don't know what it is about that scene, and I've talked to other gamers about it - the most anyone else seems to say is "yeah, that was a cool ass scene".

And the person who called "The Ring" and your particular fear hit it right on the head. It's the same kind of "some sort of doom impending" - your phone line and the whole atmosphere of that movie.



damn them dogs !!!! They spook me every damn time.Even though I know its going to happen they always get me. LOL

[Nature Boy]

Fantastic story Wavel. I bow to your story-telling abilities.

I still stick to my choice of ED as scariest vg moment. DPs mentioned moment will *not* be forgotten (although I wonder, is it possible to get through the game without experiencing it? You might skip that part of the room I'd think).

Anyway, I'm going to mention Halo as well.

[Potential Spoiler]

I don't think I'll forget playing the Flood level. The cinematic stuff leading up to it builds the suspense *really* well, and when those ballon buggers started coming at me I was absolutely paranoid. And then of course you get to experience the *really* cool members of the Flood and I think I fell in love with Halo all over again.

I actually spent six hours this past week at a friends house. He'll only play Halo when I'm around, so we played starting at level two just so I could get him to this level. And although I wasn't as freaked out the second time it was still unnerving.

[Spoiler over]

BTW: As a kid I was deathly afraid of the singing orange on Sesame Street. There was something about an orange with an elastic for a mouth that had me screaming. My mom runs into the room thinking something has gone horribly awry and it's just me pointing at the TV. Never figured that one out

[BHvrd]

Anybody ever play Shadowman?

The babies crying, and chainsaws buzzing made for some seriously spooky ass atmosphere. Also this little serial killer named "Johnny" who jumped out of a pitch black asylum's ceiling with a nail gun while shouting "HERE'S JOHNNY!"

Other moments included, zombie morticians that chased you with meat hooks with blood on them, and usually alot on the grounds near where they were :o. Headless inmates rising from a delapidated run down prison. Rotweilers from hell that chase you down while snarling. Sirens that scream hauntingly, and hurl death mist at you "in groups." Flies buzzing around strange caracases.

Other seriously deranged serial killers, and intense moments of which would make you jump, and run like a scared schoolgirl while screaming for mama.

I'm really surprised noone "especially moycon ;)" has mentioned this game. It was one of the scariest/moodiest games i've ever played, and just plain f'ed up.

Shadowman definitely gets my vote for most frights, and genuine scares in a game. That game got the best of me for sure. x_x

[ghsqb]

As a 30yr old man I almost shames me to say this but the game Silent Hill for the Playstation absolutely freaked me out.

I played it about 2 years ago now, in complete darkness with the sound cranked, my wife and my dad used to get a kick out of watching me play this if they happened to be around.

Three things in particular really shook me up.

[Potential Spoiler]

The first thing is that goddamn radio. Static most of the time and then that eerie whine as you approach monsters. You can't see them yet but you know they are close by because of that damn radio.
The sound is unnerving enough but then the anticipation of where the hell the monsters are is.....(shiver)

The second is a specific scene where you are in the school examining the lockers and the zoom in and get you all hyped and then empty.
They pan back and get you thinking everythings cool and then another locker door opens and a freakin cat come screechin out, b@st@rd! (I screamed like a little girl and tossed the controller when that happened. O_O )

The last is also in the school and its the scene when you are about to walk out of the classroom and then the phone rings, then they zoom in and you walk over and pick up the phone (meanwhile they are playing this damn freak me out music) and its your daughter and ...I aint goin there again, its just something about the music, the setting and the voice...man.

If you've never played it, try it, I hope I haven't ruined it for you, if you have, please tell me I'm not alone so my wife and my friends will stop teasing the hell out of me. :-(

[Trixie]

if you have, please tell me I'm not alone so my wife and my friends will stop teasing the hell out of me.

You're not alone. Gray, faceless children - with knives. (Shudder.)

[Vroomfunkel]

Funnily enough, I can't think of any game that has ever really freaked me out EXCEPT . . . "3D Maze" on the old BBC Master. Basically you traipse round a 3D Maze (verymuch like the one you see on some PC screensavers). You have to pick up 3 tiles, place them on a box and get a key that lets you go up in a lift to the next floor. Except there are guards patrolling. You can only see your line of sight, but when there is a guard somewhere near, you hear a soft sound effect (probably supposed to sound like a footstep). Then a pause. Then again. Then a pause. And as the guard got nearer, the footsteps got progressively louder. You could not run, you could only move at the same steady pace, and you had no idea if the guard was behind you, iin front, about to come round the corner - or behind the wall right next to you (in which case you were safe!). But the effect of that sound coming at you louder and louder was really unnerving, and when the guard suddenly pops round a corner right in front of you it STILL scares the living daylights out of you.

The only other game that came close was "The Sentinel" (also on the Beeb). Odd little game. You mooch around absorbing trees (?!?!) in order to get enough energy to make a pile of rocks high enough to see the the spot that "The Sentinel" is standing on, and thus absorb him. Whilst you are doing this, he is turing round on his pedastal looking for you. Every time he turns, there is a little grinding sound. And if you come into his line of sight, there is suddenly an intense whining sound and all that lovely energy you have been gathering in a laid back kind of way starts draining away. It could really make you jump sometimes, and somehow it really gave me the jitters. You don't even know where the damn Sentinel is at this point, only that he can somehow see you, so you go crazy trying to move somewhere out of sight, only to find that he turns again and suddenly can see you again!!

Great games, both of them! Played many dark and deep games since, but none that have unnerved me like those!

Vroomfunkel

[slapdash]

If we're talking noise, then I gotta admit that Escape From The Mindmaster could get my hackles up quick...

You see, there was a noise that acts as a sort of proximity alert for the monster in the maze with you... When the monster is far away, it's slow and quiet, but when it gets closer, the sounds gets faster and louder -- very loud in fact. So, you're traipsing around a safe part of the maze, and you wait until the monster goes away so you can sneak out a door to another part of the noise and suddenly

DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT!!!

AGH! CHRIST! HE'S RIGHT ON TOP OF ME!!!

It's even more jarring when he catches you...

[robot717]

Resident Evil 2.Second Quest.That damn monster that appears and stalks you throughout the game.The worst incident is when I first went to light two lanterns in order to solve a puzzle.The first time through I lit the lanterns,got the piece I needed and went on my merry way.But on the second quest,I did the deed started to go after the part that was revield then BOOM!!! The thing bursts through the wall.Scared the shit out of me.I must have jumped a foot.

[lionforce]

hehe I hear ya Wavel, we all have fears about something, actually there was a horror flick released years ago about the babysitter who keeps getting phone calls from a stalker and it turns out he is in the house the entire time, I have never seen the entire movie, just snippets from it, I think it was made in the late 70s or early 80s, does anyone know what the name of this movie is? Oh and when the phone is left off the hook for an extended amount of time, the reciever that is off the hook will actually reach 911 operators and a police car should be sent to your residence to investigate, at least that is how the NYPD does it:)

[fcw3]

I know this is an old thread, but the scariest game thread pointed me to it.

In case Lionforce didn't get the answer to his question about the movie title. The answer is "When a Stranger Calls"

Apparently there was a sequel too.

Here's the IMDB link

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0080130

FRED

[davidbrit2]

For some reason, when I was really young, Medusa coming to life at the end of Stage 2 in Castlevania freaked the shit out of me. I don't get it either.

And a friend of mine had a strong dislike for the skull and music that appear when you lose in Countermeasure for the Atari 5200. But he had a pretty damned big TV, so I don't blame him.

[atomicthumbs]

Okay. This is embarrasing. I was playing the original Tomb Raider (I was 19 at the time), and it came to the stage with the dinosaurs. It was pretty late at night, had all the lights off, and then the picture on the screen started shaking! I wasn't sure what was going on, so I kept Lara walking and looking around (that's when the "uh-oh" trouble music kicked in) and out of nowhere this huge freaking T-Rex came roaring, running and stomping towards me! I SCREAMED like a LITTLE GIRL! Then the T-Rex ate me. Looking back at the pretty shabby grafix (well, not so bad then, I suppose), I feel even more embarrased.
:embarrassed:

[SoulBlazer]

I know this is a old thread.....

To add the other games, I cast a vote for System Shock 2.

GREAT atmosphere in the game, that makes it totally creepy -- you need to leave the sound on so you can hear the zombies and robots, but it really adds to your fear level.

Especily when you hear those freakin midwifes coming for you..... (shudder)

Or those damn spiders..... @_@

I refuse to play that game at night, and the best I can do is a hour at a time, even though I love it.

They still sell this game at bargin prices. Great mix of a shooter with RPG elements and VERY creepy gameplay. Get it if you have'nt allready!

[atarifan]

i vote silent hill for the ps1 for scarring the @#%$ outa me. it was 3am on a friday night my wife was out with her girlfriends so i was in a dark bedrm playing when i came to the part where your in the sewer i could hear the clicking on the radio so i knew the monsters were around well next thing i knew 3 creatures dropped around me and and my wife had come in and put her hand on my shoulder at the same time @_@ well i screamed like a little girl and almost had to clean my pants. mean while my wife was rolling on the floor.

[Jorpho]

That was a very entertaining essay.

I know I'm not the only one who was spooked by the music in The Smurfs Rescue from Gargamel's Castle (Colecovision) when I was young.
________
Ipad Cases (http://accesoriesipad.com/)

[atomicthumbs]

That was a very entertaining essay.

I know I'm not the only one who was spooked by the music in The Smurfs Rescue from Gargamel's Castle (Colecovision) when I was young.

Damn Skippy! That music freaks me out!!!

[Droodroo]

Great story, and completely understandable, theres always something scarier in the lack of sound and pictures than in too much of them, its all about what you dont see and hear.

As a kid most atari games freaked me out, it was the music or something. Also on the BBC computer we had at my primary school there was a text based adventure based on popular fairy tales, with accompnying pictures. When you met the wolf in grandma's house regardless of what he did you ate him, and were stuck in his stomach. Terrible nightmares insued.

... anyone know the name of that game perchance?

D

[grayejectbutton]

Great essay and thread. Some 80's babies in the UK might remember this one - "Granny's Garden" for the BBC Micro. Whenever you took a wrong turn, this witches' face would appear on the screen, cackling. For an 8-year-old, it was pretty pant wetting.

For a more recent game, Timesplitters 2 has its moments. Like on the Wild West level when you get the time crystal then turn around to see two timesplitters materializing in front of you.

[Jasoco]

I used to get so freaking scared by the music played in Bowsers castles in SMB 1 and I would freak out when I was walking around the overworld in Dragon Warrior and all of a sudden a monster would appear. So I would turn the volume all the way down when I got to those parts.

Oh, and when I would finish playing Mario for the night I would be so scared that Bowser was gonna grab my legs I would run to my room and jump on the bed to escape his claws. This was when Bowser was new and scary.

Oh. And once I was playing Mario and was on World 2-3 (The jumping fish world) and I stood there at the start of the level for a long time just letting the time count down when all of a sudden a fish drops from the sky and kills me. It freaked me out. It literally dropped out of the cloud! I haven't been able to repeat it yet. I am wondering if it was a feature. A feature that scared the shit out of me.

[Flack]

One of the scariest games I remember playing as a "youngster" (didn't seem so young at the time) was Friday the 13th on the C64. Basically you played different characters who ran around picking up weapons, trying to kill Jason (and the other kids at the camp, if you were a twisted little guy like I was). Anyway, there were points in the game where between rooms it would flash a surprise picture (I seem to remember a severed head, and maybe another one of a skull) accompanied with a shrill digital scream. The first couple of times that it happened it caught me off guard and literally creeped me out.

When I was about ten or eleven, my mom dropped me and a friend off at the local water park. After getting tired of swimming, my friend and I went back to our locker to get our stash of quarters, and headed off to the arcade. Now, I don't know if it was the wet feet or just a bad ground, but the minute I grabbed those Battlezone grips they literally shocked the crap out of me.

Talk about fear of video games. Each time we moved to another machine, we had to flip a coin and see which of us was going to touch the game first.

Flack

[Sotenga]

Ninja Gaiden creeps me out. Specifically, one character: Jaquio. The close up on his face is pretty darned scary. I can't get a graphical link to him, as the site where I know I can get it is down. Damn. Well, anyone who's played through NG will know what I mean.[/url]

[Isometric_Bacon]

A videogaming moment of fear from childhood that I can always remember vividly was the shrieking heads of Prince of Persia 2. (PC, the nifty version with sound and speech)

I don't know if you remember them, but you'd walk into the next level, and a disembodied skull with long hair would be floating in the sky. Upon noticing you, it would give out a deafingly loud shriek, it's hair would rise in the air and it would charge at you. It always used to scare the hell out of me, and rather than fight against it (Stupid thing used to bite me, and it was almost impossible to hit) i'd just run away screens at a time.

There were probably quite a few other games that scared my little impressionable mind like this, but I can't think of any at the moment. The most recent videogame "scary" memory however has got to be the second Resident Evil, where you walk down the same corridor you have 1000 other times in the game, but THIS particular time the windows smash and zombies jump in out of nowhere, catching you off guard.

Most scary moment of recent memory however has got to be the Shining. If you haven't seen that film yet, I suggest you watch it. (Provided you are watching it at 3am with a great sound system that's up LOUD... like I did) Only this movie and "The Ring" have ever been able to make me literally jump out of my chair in shock.

[Isometric_Bacon]

Oooh!! My other childhood gaming fear just came back to me in a nauseating rush of nostalgia after seeing someone else's avatar.

The freakin Egg and Sausage from Burger-Time!!!

Those things used to scare the hell out of me as a kid, back on the ol' Commodore 64. (I would have been playing it in the early 90's too, I'm only just 18 as of this month.)

There's something about being chased by a giant wiggling sausage and egg that's so unnerving. I remember I used to wish those bastards would just leave me alone and let me make my burgers in peace.

[digitalpress]

The most recent videogame "scary" memory however has got to be the second Resident Evil, where you walk down the same corridor you have 1000 other times in the game, but THIS particular time the windows smash and zombies jump in out of nowhere, catching you off guard.

Roger that! I remember that moment well, it's the kind of direction that most games ignore but is so important in movies.

Have you played Eternal Darkness yet? It has the same kinds of scares, some of them even better than this Resident Evil moment.

[Isometric_Bacon]

The most recent videogame "scary" memory however has got to be the second Resident Evil, where you walk down the same corridor you have 1000 other times in the game, but THIS particular time the windows smash and zombies jump in out of nowhere, catching you off guard.

Roger that! I remember that moment well, it's the kind of direction that most games ignore but is so important in movies.

Have you played Eternal Darkness yet? It has the same kinds of scares, some of them even better than this Resident Evil moment.

No, but I've heard nothing but praise for that game. I'd love to give it a try sometime, along with the Silent Hill series. I just need their respective consoles :/

[TRM]

Shadowgate 64 scared me. I was playing it one stormy evening all alone, with the lights out. I thought something terrible would happen, like in the original Shadowgate game. Though they really toned things down a bit...

[rbudrick]

The sound when you lose in Missile Command for VCS used to creep the living hell out of me! ssssssss Boomboomboomboom

Also, Haunted House is pretty creepy.

In recent memory, I remember Clock Tower creeping me out in a fingernails-on-the-chaulkboard kind of way.

In the early nineties I was playin Final Fantasy II for SNES (FFIV) and there was one stage where you were in a alternate world...some world of the dead in or something (I forget), but not a scary one....it was more like purgatory, I guess. Anyway, it wasn't that scary, but the music really made that scene truly scary for me...it just really hit me in a strange monsters-under-the-bed kind of way.

Oh, and isn't there some 5200 game where you can dial the phone with it?

Beware of it! :hmm:

-Rob

[Sashanan]

Wow, good to see people freaked out by the same things that got me. Already saw two familiar ones: Friday the 13th for the Commodore 64 (was way too young for that when I first played it), and of course the floating heads in Prince of Persia 2. They are darn scary.

Some other things that come to mind for me are my first game of Maniac Mansion (not even supposed to be scary but funny, but again I was too young and the suspense of maybe meeting one of the house's inhabitants any time was too much), Leisure Suit Larry 2 (at age 8, when you've never heard of S&M, Mama Bimbo whipping Larry to death is SCARY!), and even Ace for the Commodore 64.

Ah, Ace. Just a flight simulator (good one though), nothing scary, right? Well, except if you hit the ground you hear a loud explosion and the screen flashes red. That's all. But if you're 5 and you are watching while your dad plays, and he crashes into a hill that you never saw coming, you will scream. I was scared of balloons at that age too.