ALONE IN THE DARK (1992) | Origins of Survival Horror

[@kosmosyche]

Just started to watch the video, and immediately stumbled upon this factually incorrect statement - 2:30. Shinji Mikami was never transparent about Alone in the Dark influences until he left Capcom. For years he claimed he had never even seen Alone in the Dark, before starting to work on Biohazard, claimed that the main influence was Capcom's old game Sweet Home for Famicom (even though there are much more similarities between AitD and RE than RE and Sweet Home). Just wanted to set this fact straight. I remember the time when there were lots of people among RE and survival horror fans who completely dismissed AitD as one of the main pillars of the genre that influenced all later games, based specifically on his claims. So, yeah, not only was Franck de Girolami right about Capcom's "borrowing of ideas" boarding on plagiarism, they were also actively denying it and Shinji Mikami was one of the guys actively participating in this.

[@RagnarRoxShow]

Thanks for straightening that out, I did miss that during my research. Gonna pin that comment for additional clarification. Sounds to me a lot like a gag-order from Capcom at the time.

[@kosmosyche]

@@RagnarRoxShow Thanks, I also suspect this was more corporate shenanigans than anything, considering how the moment Mikami left Capcom, he completely admitted that basically without AitD there would have been no RE in the first place.

[@nicolasdeneschau5321]

@@kosmosyche Fun fact. It's the same with Final Fantasy VII and Grim Fandango. Respectively Yoshinori Kitase and Jonathan Ackley acknowledged that their games took on this technical form thanks to Alone in the Dark. It's funny because we tend to say that the influence of AITD stopped at Survival Horror. But in truth, his influence was much wider :)

[@kosmosyche]

@@nicolasdeneschau5321 I mean in 1992 the first AitD was groundbreaking in so many respects, technically and artistically, so I'm not even surprised by how much it inspired. Remember, 1992 was the height of 16-bit era with sprites and 2D-scrolling games ruling the market, and in the midst of this AitD truly felt like a glimpse into the future of how games can be done in the coming years. Bioforge by Origin which came out in 1995, before Biohazard, also took inspirations from AitD. Not a very well-known game, but actually an interesting one. Basically a sci-fi take on Alone in the Dark. It was also one of the first (or maybe even THE first) to use pre-rendered backgrounds, which later became the standard. If you look closely, backgrounds in the first 3 AitD games while looking like 3D were actually hand-drawn (over the 3D wireframe carcass of a scene or extremely simplified render of a scene). In 1992 it was much easier to do it like this than render backgrounds on some fancy and expensive Silicon Graphics stations, but to me it always made that special AitD unique artistic look which I loved. When it's kinda 3D, but also hand-drawn at the same time. There was something to this technique that still looks cool.

[@nicolasdeneschau5321]

​@@kosmosyche Yes, I know the subject well (I'm writing a book on it!). It will come at the end of the year, but we can learn there that there were to be 3 playable characters originally in AITD (for example). There was also the little-known Dr. Hauzer (1994). Moreover, the latter shows how AITD was really well designed in terms of cameras. Because in Dr. Hauzer, it's a disaster. :)

[@Heyoka86]

These graphics were outstanding for 1992. Running this on a 486 as a kid made my jaw drop, I kept thinking "if this is possible, how come all games aren't like this?".

[@darkfalzx]

I first played it on my grandpa's 286 with 640k of RAM. Some scenes slowed WAAAY down, but I couldn't care less - it was such an amazing experience!

[@I.____.....__...__]

@@darkfalzx Same. Tandy 286 with Tandy color and Tandy sound. LOVED it.

[@Niemand]

@@darkfalzx A 286, really? I played it a few years after realease when all three were out allready and 486s common, but I never knew a 286 could do it as well, wow X3

[@johndodo2062]

Because Capcom hadn't stolen it yet

[@RogueDragon05]

@@johndodo2062 Capcom didn't "steal" AitD. Yes they were obviously taking gameplay and plot elements of the game but Resident Evil 1 and the rest of the series were and have become their own things. RE dosen't have the Lovecraftian or supernatural elements, the monster design of RE is very different, RE is not a pirate story, RE placed a far far greater emphasis upon combat then AitD did. RE had essentially military commandos as comparted to the average joe characters of AitD, I could go on. What your suggesting is that every single fighting game is a rip off of whatever very first fighting game there was, or that Dante's Inferno can't exist cause God of War does, or Dr. Mario can't be enjoyed cause it's not named Tetris. Even if you don't agree, you have to accept then that AitD has ripped off Resident Evil and others since The New Nightmare and Inferno games.

[@jeremycourville7282]

I was eight when Alone in the Dark released. I spotted it entirely by chance at a time when my parents were offering to buy me one new game for good behavior. They got it for me because back then they only saw games as children's toys and, really, how scary could a children's toy be? It was my introduction to horror in video games. My eight-year-old self had no idea how groundbreaking the game was at the time. I just knew I loved it, and went on to play it multiple times. I am so very glad that I never played any other game in the franchise, if only because it has kept my view of it unspoiled.

[@CabezasDePescado]

Is "dated" by today standards but you shoyld try The New Nightmare, is dark and hard and creepy, it came out in the psx

[@bigtimejones831]

I love the first game. I tried the second game but it's so different I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.

[@goopah]

I was a bit older than you when this came out. I was 33 in 1993 when I bought it, and I'll be 63 in three weeks. It was the first game I ever bought for the first PC I ever bought (and I still have both the game and the PC, a 486/66 DX2). I was blown away by the instant controls of my character. Sure, those controls were a bit unintuitive, but still I thought it was a revelation. I fell in love with this game, and even typed out all the copy protection drawing descriptions on sheets of paper so that I wouldn't have to look through that ridiculously tiny little book every time I wanted to play. This game was my gateway into so many hundreds of games to follow, of all genres. Still playing games to this day. And like you, I also never played any of the sequels, although I did buy them all.

[@cheshire2.047]

Play the remake that just came out. Really fun

[@jeremycourville7282]

@@cheshire2.047 So I have heard!

[@GeorgGreat_GameReviews]

Alone in the Dark is such an underappreciated game nowadays, too many people are too quick to dismiss it. It's great seeing someone (other than myself * lonely sobs *) showing this game some love!

[@Pinguinodechill]

I've only played Alone in the Dark the new nightmare. But upon watching this video & reading your comment guess I'm going to check it out this weekend 😎🤙

[@johndodo2062]

That's because the ripoff Capcom made had blood. That's all it took

[@MundMoriginal]

I play through it every year once.

[@RetroDeathReviews666]

I love the original Alone In The Dark and the New Nightmare

[@MarieAntoon]

I was in college when Alone in the Dark came out. Across the hall in my dorm were a couple of ROTC guys who had a copy and one of my other friends and I went over to "help" (read "watch and comment") with a playthrough. At the time we were really impressed with the graphics and taken in by the atmosphere and even had a jumpscare moment that startled all of us enough to pause the game a bit afterwards to laugh it off. That slow movement was the source of so much tension, like in the ballroom dancer puzzle, trying to dodge the dancers and all. The book "puzzle" was out least favorite, as while we knew one of the books would kill us, we didn't know which one and there wasn't really an indicator, so we'd open a book, go through it, SAVE, move on to the next. Fond memories. sidenote: AitD Illumination was hilarious to me as it missed the point SO MUCH! The title is "ALONE in the DARK", naturally, you think of 4 PEOPLE having to use LIGHT for combat reasons as much as possible. [facepalm]. The buggy playthroughs I watched were highly entertaining, but not for intended reasons.

[@DV80s]

I was in the Army in Fort Campbell and a friend and I went into halvies on a new 486sx. I bought tons of games for the pc and AITD was one of them. You would see a bunch of grunts in one room everyone trying to help figure out what to do to continue the game. We were all stuck in one spot for a very long time till I figured it out on my own and was able to finish the game.

[@jamesvivian2855]

As someone who has played Chaosiums’ Call of Cthulhu rpg, someone dying from reading the wrong book, especially out loud, is totally fitting. Accidentally summoning a Dimensional Shambler is almost always fatal

[@AC-hj9tv]

Oops

[@bjrnnielsen7552]

Ragnar is a true man of culture for featuring so many Massive Attack tracks in one video!

[@dickhandsome6579]

Seriously. I came here for Alone In The Dark nostalgia and feasted on the Mezzanine nostalgia instead,

[@dorellusthagod]

@@dickhandsome6579 I didn't even come for Alone in the Dark (I just watch every RagnarRox video). Left shivering. I had truly forgotten how much I love and used to listen to this album.

[@thedarkcloakartist]

Is that what one of the tracks that kicks in around 22:10 ?

[@dickhandsome6579]

@@thedarkcloakartist Yes, that's Risingson from Mezzanine.

[@thedarkcloakartist]

@@dickhandsome6579 Thank you!

[@HeisenbergFam]

It puts a smile on my face to see people still appreciating classics from 3 decades ago

[@alexandermorozov8593]

Heisenberg, you're in this comment section too! God damn it, why are you everywhere?

[@laughinggremlin6112]

This was the first 3D game I ever played. I bought it when it first came out... and when the collection came out... and when the online version came out... I may have a problem.

[@Kitamanjaro]

Good to see you here in yet another completely unrelated commentsecion

[@ToaHannah007]

Me too

[@Aranock]

It is endlessly fascinating to me that survival horror franchises have been doing this downward spiral of quality by making themselves more action focused. Resident Evil did it(though recovered later), Dead Space did it, some would argue Silent Hill did it, Im sure there are some I am missing and its interesting that the first franchise in the genre did it too. Fascinating that the same mistake has been made so many times. That people could keep missing what made games in this genre work. Anyway great coverage as always, I dont think the first game gets as much credit as it deserves for just how innovative it was.

[@gingermcgingin4106]

Dead Space was action-horror from the get-go.

[@LloydTavner]

​@@gingermcgingin4106yeah, but no where near to the call of duty degree it jumped into in 3 lmao

[@juanjbrieva5168]

I'm thinking of Dino Crisis 2 as well.

[@Walamonga1313]

Tbh I'd much rather have more action than no action, and let the games turn into boring walking/hiding simulators

[@Neawoulf]

I remember playing a demo of Alone in the Dark 1 in the early 90s. Played the full game a lot later though. The type of horror (supernatural/lovecraftian stuff) was a lot more intesting to me, than the "science" focussed horror in the Resident Evil series. And i really hope Uwe Boll will never make a movie again. That guy does not just burn money on incredibly bad movies, he also doesn't show any respect towards the games or their fans.

[@kamui003]

Uwe Boll did quit the film industry for several years but he's apparently decided to start back up.

[@thecandlemaker1329]

Uwe Boll is such a fascinating character. He appears to be the perfect example of a hack who's only in it for the money, yet when you start digging up more info on him, it gradually becomes apparent that his heart is really in it. And yet he can't make a good movie for the life of him.

[@spartan3924]

I would totally like a full video on the two remakes of Alone in the Dark, I was always confused about how different everything with the Alone in the dark name turns out and really would like to see more of the setting and creatures without actually playing them lol, you could mention the differences and similarities to the movies too without doing a full video and i'd be satisfied for the same reason lol

[@IntegerDevourer]

One thing I was surprised to learn is that even back in 1992, Alone in the Dark had a versions WITH VOICE ACTING in several languages, including Japanese.

[@RogueDragon05]

Infrogrames was a French company so it makes sense that they would be very interested in the European and international market and not just USA.

[@Sonicstillpoint83]

Cool. I didn’t know that. I always loved finding things like that because I used it as a great tool for vocabulary building in other languages.

[@thelegendofner0]

I looooove this origin of survival horror series! Great work as always Ragnar!

[@cord113]

"The New Nightmare" on the PS1 was actually my intorduction to the series, which I really enjoyed at the time. I may need to replay it sometime soon.

[@williamcox5126]

I played an Alone In The Dark licensed mobile phone game back in the day on my mom's flip phone. Crazily, it's one of my favorite games of all time! It managed to be scary, fun, and suspenseful, and it ended as if it was an advertisement for whatever game was coming next at the time. I've tried to find any record of this game and can't find the right Google search terms, or any mention of it in any of the retrospectives here on KZbin. Has anyone else ever played or heard of this game? Or was it all just a dream?

[@pious83]

I like that AITD tonally went from RE1 to RE5 in it's first two entries. Capcom really do have a lot of connective tissue with this series.

[@barnablaze4052]

Even though Alone in the Dark 2008 isn't a very good game, it actually does some really amazing things! It was the first game to blown my mind when I realized I had to pull a hazardous cable out of the water by using a non conductor object. It was NOT a puzzle and the object I picked was NOT a key item! That's not how games work, or so I thought! Would love to see you do a whole video on that game! Love the Massive Attack instrumentals!👌

[@radiobaked]

This brings back some fond memories of playing "Uninvited" on my Atari way back in the mid-80s... that was a wonderful precursor to the 3D horror genre

[@chucklecat6358]

Im a simple creature, I see a new Ragnar video I cease everything to listen to survival horror game history narrated by a smooth voice.

[@purr4623]

I appreciate the warning about Uwe Boll lol

[@key099able]

But also he asked for them to be covered so time to suffer.

[@cako666]

Have not watched the video yet, but it is fairly interesting that the first comment I see mentions Mr. Boll 😂

[@RubyRangerr]

Whoever voiced Carnby sounds exactly like David Harbour, and now I want an Alone in the Dark film with him in the lead. Also, excellent video, thank you for shining a light on this deeply underappreciated classic!

[@WolfHreda]

An Alone in the Dark movie featuring a Carnby with an appropriately epic mustache would be delightful. Maybe have an enemy somewhere in it that closely resembles Uwe Bohl, just as a nice Easter egg.

[@hsantanna88]

he is the VA of the remake! Your wish has been granted

[@RubyRangerr]

@@hsantanna88 I SAW THAT HOLY SHIT

[@cheshire2.047]

Well I have news for you 😂 check out the remake. It’s actually good too

[@valeroyoann8412]

You really nailed all those French names among a fully English script. Must have been a bit of a tongue twister! Incredible work, as always.

[@AC-hj9tv]

No he is a Chad

[@AgentAsh]

I'm very happy to see the original Alone in the Dark (my first horror game) get the well-deserved attention! I do have one correction though: melee weapons in AitD don't break. The *only* exception is the Old Cavalry Sabre, which isn't really meant to be used as a weapon since it's actually a puzzle item, and breaking it locks you out of completing the game.

[@KayX291]

Yea, ya need it to beat the pirate but from what i remember even if it breaks, you can still use the hilt to damage him.

[@Ali-fs7ze]

The value of polish just can not be over stated. Wolfenstein 3-D to DooM, Street Fighter to Street Fighter II, hell, even Pac-Land to Super Mario Bros. It's like playing a tune on an electric guitar without an amp as you're learning it in your room and even hitting the wrong notes every 5 seconds, versus shredding the same riffs out with a distortion pedal at 300 bpm with a full rhythm section behind you. Still tho, gotta hand it to the folks behind Alone in the Dark for writing such a banging song. I will never get sick of hearing people cover it.

[@thecandlemaker1329]

I love metaphors that make the subject more confusing.

[@tylerbarnick8750]

Ragna is such a fun KZbin creator, always making these horrifying or darkly themed pieces of media...show their more intimate sides, like yes these games are about dark monsters or eldritch monstrosities that destroy/haunt/or even ruin the characters...he shows the history, the sillier, but always respectful of how far this genre has truly come. Great video ragna.

[@laowhy86]

New to your channel, but absolutely loving it. Keep it up. Your writing skill is at the top of KZbin video essay format imo.

[@WynneL]

As a psych nerd, I was so tickled by your zombie Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs! And thanks so much for showcasing Emily Hartwood rather than just Edward. I've unfortunately seen people ignore her altogether. I recall this game from an old demo CD. It seemed very short to my child self. I was exploring a room for like a minute, and then something starts trying to break in through the window almost immediately. It looked so interesting, but that demo made me give up on it. I remain fascinated by eldritch horror and disempowerment games, so I still love hearing about it. And I loved QF4 SO much, so I laughed a lot when you showcased that book death. Oftentimes, I would save and die in those games just to see how the game would roast me.

[@Rynewulf]

Uwe Bohl is an international treasure, no one else could have pioneered the video game comedy movie genre!

[@VorkKnightOfGood]

Who else could adapt Postal to the big screen?

[@amandaf4720]

When one of the first things you see in a video is a content warning for Uwe Boll, you know it's gonna be a good one. It really is easy to forget how groundbreaking games like this were in their time - I remember being amazed by polygonal 3D graphics when I first saw them, and now they just look sort of quaint and charming. I really appreciate your breakdown of how the environments and characters were created, as this was something I only sort of vaguely understood before, and helps illustrate why this kind of game design was such a big deal thirty years ago. The history of the original Alone in the Dark game is so cool to me because the designers had a specific idea they wanted to present, a story they wanted to tell, and they went to extraordinary lengths to tell it, doing things that nobody had tried before in order to create the kind of game they were envisioning. I can't help but respect that, and it's such a shame that its sequels and remakes have failed to live up to that original vision.

[@jamesabernethy7896]

I follow a few video game reviewers and retrospectives channels but this is the first time I've seen your channel. I got my first PC in 1997 so this one skipped me by. I have heard of it but never played it. Great review, well structured and I really like your storytelling ability. I've just subscribed and will check out more of your channel.

[@NeardyThings]

I will always appreciate how you sprinkle in extra history behind the games/gaming scene at the time. It adds that extra bit of context that is invaluable for placing these games in the general timeline & understanding just where they stood at the time.

[@Skip-Towne]

The atmosphere and concept of the original Alone in the Dark is so good, I wish modern adaptions of it had even attempted to capture that same mood.

[@I.____.....__...__]

Sadly, most games go for action and try to be Doom and eschew building tension like a real horror game. 😕 Silent Hill was the real horror franchise, not Resident Evil (though even that eventually devolved into action 🤦).

[@Walamonga1313]

The newest release seems pretty good. Been playing it for a good 5h

[@Skip-Towne]

@@Walamonga1313 I just watched a bit of someone playing, it does look good! Definitely going to get it when I can.

[@rafalst]

I am also cautiously optimistic for the new remake of Alone, what was shared so far looks like it captures most of what made the first great, but with modern conforts. I renember very well the New Nightmare (first remake of the first), i played it in spanish because i didnt understood english yet and i remember barely being able to progress because it was too hard. The thing is, i renember it having two characters to chose from. The guy and the gal and the gal start was soo damn hard. I also renember they had radio chatter between them at certain points.

[@juanjbrieva5168]

Same here 😊 I played it on PSX with a friend when we were 12 (approx.) I was too difficult. The ammo was actually scarce. We learned the best way to deal with enemies (example: 2 shotgun shells + 1 revolver bullet, instead of 3 shotgun shells) anyway, we eventually quit. I was able to finish it a couple of years ago on a Dreamcast emulator. That's the best version (best graphics and best music) Being able to quick save and reload at any point is a bless :)

[@Ogrebaffley]

I don't think Carnby was ever called Jack? The antagonist of the second game was a pirate called One-Eyed Jack, hence the subtitle "Jack is Back" on some console releases. Jack in the Dark was a storywise unrelated promo game for AITD 2.

[@dommoore6180]

Yeah this is a great video but when I reached this mistake I knew there was no way whatsoever that this guy has played aitd 2 or 3.

[@axelprino]

Even tho I've never played this game (I was 2 when it released) I absolutely love its artstyle, the result of building the backgrounds by drawing pixel art on top of wireframe graphics looks beautiful to me, but the chances of any modern indie game (no AAA would dare to go for something so retro) going for it are minuscule considering how labor intensive it is when compared to just modeling it and slapping a filter over it.

[@TheUnchartedProtocol]

Don't know how I havent stumbled upon this channel until now but I'm loving the content, especially around games like this. There's just something so interesting about games that 1. Was technologically impressive and 2. Did something insanely new that influenced an entire genre

[@shanerichardson7128]

Everything you said you’d consider doing a separate video on you definitely should. Not only am I curious about your perspective on them I just love your content and always want more 🙂

[@MsamaB3]

Ragnar! You cheeky devil! That opening was perfect! *chef's kiss* Thank you for making this video. "Alone in the Dark" deserves more love and recognition!

[@maxaroni39]

I'd definitely be here for a video on The New Nightmare! You always have really interesting things to say about the more obscure and underappreciated horror games.

[@Frank_Costanzas_Lawyer]

Sorry RagnarRox, but I'd _love_ to see you cover Uwe Boll's miserable Alone in the Dark duology.

[@twinguide]

If Ragnar starts a Movie/Cinematic -central series, I want it to be called the RagnarBox.

[@cthulhluftagn3812]

While the 2008 version was apparently built from tissue and spit, the game simply FELT like a damn good horror. If you where lucky enough to miss or not notice the glitches something about it just sucked you in. One of my best moments in horror games is from AitD 2008, frantically trying to hot wire a car while a enemy i was in no position to fight was running at me full pelt..

[@captainfach]

One of the other things I love that this game did was manual saves. I was never able to beat the first resident evil because I just kept running out of saves. I'd never get enough time on the tv to be careful with the reels

[@Weaponsandstuff93]

I always liked the mechanic in the new nightmare where you can sometimes flick on lights to kill or temporarily get rid of the weaker enemies.

[@nixishierfrei]

I would absolutely be up for seeing more about The New Nightmare. All I knew from the series was the first game, the reboot and Illumination so a lot of this is news to me and quite interesting news at that.

[@Polygonlin]

Survival Horror, is one of the things in media to influence me the most growing up, well, next to Gremlins, and Lovecraft

[@pseudo6484]

Please make a video on Nocturne (1999), it is one my favorite gothic horror game that is basically all eat buffet when it comes to creatures, from vampires to werewolves to zombies to frankenstein to lovecraftian monstrosities, everything is in it, and it is such a shame on how little recognition that game gets.

[@BrentWalker999]

Loved nocturne!

[@J.E.L.2658]

Is that the one with the blair witch sequel?

[@BrentWalker999]

@@J.E.L.2658 jup

[@thunderwarriorprods]

I second this

[@MuraCasardis]

I will admit, I've never seen the OG AitD. That series took quite a turn. Thanks for the video. Informative, great to listen while at work, and always high quality.

"This is like the Money for Nothing videoclip from Dire Straits in a game!" Is what I said the first time I saw it, blown away by the 3D graphics.

[@WrestlingandFilmReviews]

I was 3 years old in 1992 and thanks to older kids, I know Alone in the Dark, Mortal Kombat, Wolfenstein 3D, Commodore 64... Back in 90s I had both N64 and PS1. I also had PC and I remember playing Doom I & II and Heretic. Here in Europe was fun game called Supaplex.

[@GeB93]

I love the way you used Massive Attack's songs from Mezzanine in the video ❤

[@abrarjunejo]

I still remember the first I played on my cousin’s 486 dx4. That moment was growing breaking and a little funny too, the way Carnby sounded like during melee combat.

[@Heyhowsitgoin999]

A buddy and I played AitD: Illumination together, and to be fair the game has some fairly solid basic systems. The real problem was all the bugs and bad netcode. A funny bug we found was on the lobby screen. To play a level you have to complete the previous level or it's locked. However if you both ready up, unlike in other games, it doesn't lock your controls while the start countdown plays. If you cycle the level select while the countdown is running, then you can get into levels you dont have unlocked yet. They're usually half loaded and pretty much uncompletable (which might be a blessing, because who knows what the game would do if you complete a mission you didn't have unlocked yet), but I thought it was fun.

[@captainfach]

Its absolutely crazy how intuitive this game is. Im just playing it now and everything just works. I got to the painting where it throws the axes at you, and I just instinctively thought of the rug that I picked up earlier, and of course it just worked. And that's how a lot of it has been so far. So if it continues like this it is seriously going to impress me. If anybody's worried about play this game because of its age, don't be. If you've ever played any classic resident evil, and maybe even if you haven't, you'll be good, because everything just makes sense. There's no weird obtuse puzzles or anything they all work very well so far for me at least

[@Satsui_No_Hado]

It took me multiple days to finally be able to enjoy this and I woke up around 10:30 alone in the dark and decided tonight's the night, it was time well invested. Notch and I truly appreciate it as many others do as well , please never stop making your content, it's tremendous ! 🔥

[@ombra711]

Notch?

[@dan77825]

Funny, I'm just playing through this gem of a game right now. Great video as always.

[@bernardorodrigues7048]

19:17 I actually thing the combo although bad is really satisfactory, like charging up that punch and hear a "pschh"

[@lznmatheus]

Like many, my first contact with Alone in the Dark was The New Nightmare for PS1, so I found it very interesting to see more of the games that came before it. Considering that it (and the 2008 one) is the only game to even try and be a survival horror, it would be awesome to see you talk more about it. Cheers!

[@rickimaru915]

The New Nightmare is one of my favourite survival horror games and severely underrated. Also I quite liked the 2008 reboot (fittingly subtitled ‘Inferno’ on the PS3). Fun fact: AitD 2008 has two very different versions, one was developed for the PS2 & Wii and vastly superior version was released for the Xbox 360 and PC, with this version later being ported to PS3 with a few improvements

[@CabezasDePescado]

Man the horror games of that time were something else, i could barely play The New Nightmare and Silent Hill because of how scary they were.

[@PersonWMA]

The change in aesthetic between the old games and the more recent attempts at reboots are so jarring I'm going to have to replay this video just to double check.

[@TheBeird]

Like the use of Massive Attack. I want a trip hop revival! Never played any Alone in the Dark, though I was tempted to get the 360 game

[@RagnarRoxShow]

To me it never died, sounds still hip and modern to me; which probably outs me as quite geriatric I assume

[@Truly12p]

Such a coincidence that you feature Continuum / Alpha Waves gameplay at the beginning of -Part I-. Last month, I searched all across the internet for any clues to identify that game. I played it as a 5-years-old in a Windows 98 machine, so I had blurry memories of it. And now, it's here like such a well-known, easy-to-find piece of classic 3D MS-DOS gaming... Anyway, about the AITD series: - I didn't know about the two sequels featuring JACK Carnby... at all! - I thought The New Nightmare was a sequel somehow related to the original. The beginning of the story makes it feel like so, when you listen to Edward Carnby's hard-boiled detective tale-telling voice. - The 2008 reboot was quite scary back when I played it. It was my first game where zombies would run towards you instead of walking to their accustomed zombie pace. - Also, I found it amazing that The New Nightmare could sort-of render dynamic lightning stemming from the flashlight, both in the PS1 and PS2 versions. It's obviously worth mentioning the latter was better and more precise, and rendered at higher framerates too.

[@Zeburaman2005]

Even if I played Alone in the Dark for the first time in the early 2000s, I couldn’t help but be completely blown away by the sheer level of creativity the game displayed. The first room alone is an excellent introduction to its mechanics, showcasing how cautious planning versus carefree exploration can mean the difference between giving yourself extra room for mistakes and “oh crap, I royally screwed up”. Also, any Lovecraftian game where a nimble, swashbuckling ghost pirate is a more dreadful enemy than Deep Ones and Dimensional Shamblers combined is a win in my book.😅

[@retro-ronin]

Hearing Inertia Creeps start at 2:45 got me all pumped up like I was just listening to Mezzanine for the first time again. Oh, and great video, as always.

[@MFGod_Hand]

Love seeing you go back to the true origins of the genre Ragna! You NEED to do a video on Signalis as a follow up!

[@Lord_Deimos]

Our home always had a computer because my dad loved playing games on it, so imagine growing up with stuff like Bomber Jack, Prince of Persia etc and eventually come upon Alone in the Dark and Doom. It looks dated by now but back then it couldn't get any more realistic.

[@cappedminer369]

Btw the team behind the reboot were going to make a remake of AITD 1 back in 2011 sadly due to financial losses it was cancelled. There is footage of it on KZbin

[@OysterBoyo]

The fact you put Risingson at 22:00 makes me love you even more

[@jesterlogic6886]

Man love your content! So nice having ya in the background doing laundry, can you make every audio book ever and from now on? haha your voice is just genuinely really nice to listen to!

[@Mankey619]

It’s incredible that 1992 these developers manage to make a game like Alone In The Dark to become a very early 3D survival horror game. This inspired to become RE, and now a new Alone In The Dark is in the works. They’re now inspired by RE’s gameplay mechanic. Talk about a reverse work.

[@carlosaugustodinizgarcia3526]

1992 also had another forefather of the genre: Dead of the Brain ,a japanese adventure game for japanese PCs like MSX and PC 9801. The game had zombies and ton of graphic content. The (now) famous Sweet Home was not even the first japanese horror game. It was predated by the action game War of the Dead,also for japanese pcs (1987)

[@oneuser688]

I remember in 1993 during winter Dad bought his computer and he set it up in his room, me and siblings were PROHIBITED TO EVEN TOUCH IT, he gave his VCR to my older sisters and my brothers and I already had a Sega...but during that winter we were all in our parents room watching my dad and mom playing this game...seemed so advanced for me..many things to have into account, but the atmosphere was amazing, rainy cold windy nights..good times.

[@Jamafly]

Super excited for the remake. I remember watching my mom play this and then renting it back in the day. It was so cool.

[@actualzafra]

I have a soft spot for The New Nightmare. Even though I've never actually finished it (probably because I was way too stupid to figure out some puzzles at the time), I think highly of it because it was the first game I've ever seen with brazillian portuguese dubs. Just so you understand, aside from that, the first time I saw characters speaking portuguese words in a game was God of War 3 in 2008 and it was EUROPEAN portuguese (it's very different, guys, I swear). So seeing an older game with characters straight up speaking MY language was mindblowing.

[@AC-hj9tv]

Bazillion Portuguese

[@coltonbunja]

big fan of that Quest for Glory cameo in there. That was the game that got me into RPG's, I still have the box the 16-bit So You Want To Be a Hero and it's 4000 floppy disks.

[@j.w.304]

The way you narrate is so soothing to me! Thanks for the awesome new video.

[@zellet7732]

Every survival-horror franchise has to go through an action-horror arc, sooner or later. Alone in the Dark was just ahead of that curve as well.

[@emulation2369]

Song of Horror game deserves more recognition...it really is a Lovecraft experience

[@donavonhoward114]

Just imagine a world without Resident Evil, and Alone In The Dark? Those two games paved the way for all future horror games whether they were a part of the survival horror niche, or what became action horror, and the horror RPG. There would have been no Silent Hill, no Forbidden Siren, no Parasite Eve, and no Haunting Ground. There would have definately never been a RE 4, or a Dead Space either. Nothing pleases me more than going back to the original Alone In the Dark, and Resident Evil. There is a purity in those games that can never be replicated in the same way again. It was a special time in gaming history, and I will always remember my first time dealing with ms dos just to play Alone In the Dark, and we all have our special memories of playing Resident Evil on the PS1, or Sega Saturn. I still go back to all of these games all of these years later. These were the games that taught me how to be patient, and take my time exploring the game worlds. Before I played survival horror, the key to beating a game was always to go straight, and kill everything in my path. Survival horror flipped everything gamers knew about video games on it's head. I remember running out of ammunition against the first zombie in Resident Evil, and my first reaction was "how do I get more ammo". Survival Horror mechanics were a completely foreign concept at the time.

[@ThaurUmarth]

What a pleasant surprise to hear my favorite album in the background. Great video!

[@UnabridgedGamer]

Also, for what it's worth, Alone in the Dark Wii/PS2 has a number of different systems and even storytelling choices, from the PS3/360/PC port. And they actually wanted to do a remake of Alone in the Dark waaaay back in 2008 - there's even some footage of the PS3 tech demo showing off an HD recreation of the fixed camera angles and everything. Unfortunately, the Infogrames/Atari propensity for burning money at the wrong time meant it never got greenlit, and so instead the developers moved on. It's a shame, really. It would've used all of the 08 reboot's tech but the story and atmosphere of the original.

[@adiveler]

I would argue that a low-poly / obscure-sprite monster that you can't tell what exactly you are looking at - is much more scarier than a highly detailed one, no matter how grotesque it is!

[@HumaneEntertainment]

I love this franchise, despite it having more downs than up. I love this video for how it also contextualizes the opinions of the audience at the time. That said, something I do want to point out is that Edward Carnby never had "Jack" as a nickname. The "Jack" mentioned in titles like "Jack In The Dark" and the alternate titles for Alone In The Dark 2 like "Alone in the Dark: Jack is Back" or "Alone in the Dark: One-Eyed Jack's Revenge" is in reference to the main antagonist of Alone In The Dark 2, which is One-Eyed Jack. One-Eyed Jack also appears as a cursed Jack-in-the-box for "Jack In The Dark", hence his name in the title. All in all it doesn't take away from your argument, which IS true in that Inforgrames really focused too much on action in Alone In The Dark 2, but I figured I'd point this out.

[@r4dios1lence92]

Holy sheet, I would never guessed that the maker of the original Alone in the Dark went to make Twinsen's Odyssey. Twinsen was my favorite game during my childhood, and the 4th entry of Alone in the Dark was the first survival horror I played and enjoyed a lot too. The flashlight mechanic, the contrast between the male protagonist having a gun from the start and the female not having it, forcing you to be defensive and evasive. Also, I remember one of the AitD movies having "I Stand Alone" by Godsmack on one of the battle scenes, and since I don't want to watch the movies again, please do a video on them so I can know whether I'm going crazy remembering this or not xD Pity the series went down like that. Hope this reboot at least will be a good game. Not even a great one, just good is enough.

[@kierandraschil1794]

Today is my 25th birthday and I’m choosing to believe Ragnarox did this just for me 😊

[@heart_eater]

32:54 I would love to see you do a video on the Little Big Adventure games! Twinsen's Odyssey was an obsession of mine as a super young kid that stuck around with me for years, even after I completely forgot what it was. It's such a bizarre game.

[@DV80s]

One of my favorite games I owned on my first computer, a 486sx. And there were a lot of great games I owned during the early to mid '90s.

[@greenhowie]

The subtitles during the Uwe Boll section absolutely sent me

[@dariyanvalentine3564]

This entire video about early 3D rendering makes me realize just how fast that technology went in the 90s think about it think about alone in the dark and then think about from softs King's field only a few years later... It's insane

[@MR-vg7yn]

That is one weird coincidence. I just watched your video on Sweet Home and wondered whether the Alone in the Dark video you talked about there already existed... and here it is, uploaded one hour ago.

[@UnicornStorm]

played through it not too long ago for the first time, and aside from some annoying trial and error, that was standard for the time, I was amazed by how gracefully this game has aged. It was blast to play and this together with some other classics opened my eyes (a bit more) to the absurdity of prejudging older games for having "outdated" mechanics, because those, that implemented their mechanics well, still work today

[@Oscar-uh7rf]

I am so glad i found your channel. You are amazing and your videos bring me a lot of comfort! ^^

[@CYI3ERPUNK]

THE GOAT ; i always hear RE mentioned but i so rarely hear AITD , which obvs RE would not exist and/or be what it became without AITD ; another excellent video Ragnar =]

[@GhaleonStrife]

Slight correction: The only weapon that breaks from use is the Old Calvary Saber. Because it's... old. Granted, the rifle's cartridges can get wet and become useless, but the weapon still works once you find more ammo.

[@HighPingDrifter1]

That was interesting to hear about the original idea with the darkness and the matches because that's exactly what White Night (2015) did. I see the creator of that actually worked on the abandoned AitD remake beforehand, so it must be more than coincidence.

[@robertschnurschuh6682]

I like your approach on looking for movies, games etc. to cover that are not...good. To say the least. But I've got to admit that it's your passionate loveletters to media you love that keep me coming back to your videos.

[@KhoaTran-md5ou]

As a child, both window in alone in the dark and resident evil 1-2 is my stop XD, Those dogs, haughted me for weeks each time

[@j0hnnyblade]

Great video! Did not know there was so much depth in the original game despite knowing it exists, and now I’m interested to play it myself (and watch the rest of the videos of course)

[@lonerdreamer92]

Glad to see this series is also getting the remake treatment and not forgotten (thank you, RE2 remake). It's had a rough few entries for the past...20 years, jeez.

[@imperatorcaesardivifiliusa3805]

I feel the Alone in the dark 2008ish reboot had some troubling foreshadowing in regards to it's option to skip whole sections and chapters. Many developers today seem be adding options that carry that same spirit under the guise of “more player options are always good” I'm not so sure that's always right. For inclusion of disability that makes perfect sense for example colour blindness or one handed control schemes. But some examples like enemies can't see you at all when crouching, removing fall damage or the option to skip sections with spiders feels like a deconstruction of a games mechanics and if somebody isn't engaging with a games core mechanics reducing it to a cinematic movie isn't going to keep them engaged.

[@KrashyKharma]

Big ups for throwing Inertia Creeps and Risingson in for background music 😍😍😍