When I think back to my gaming past as a very bored child in a seaside town full of retired people, I remember a lot of traumatising moments. It may seem funny now, but at the time the graphics were all state of the art, or pandered to your imagination far more than now, and as a child things seem more 'real'.
So, what games from your childhood scared you or freaked you out? I'll start, maybe we can get some sort of support group going hahaha!
Granny's Garden - So, you're playing an educational game when you're like 5 years old. You have a really active imagination. The primative graphics are pretty disturbing to you, as are the descriptions ... then there's a time limit on something and you're not that good at maths so you fail the question, and then this shows up:
Arghhhh! Traumatised. It still looks pretty disturbing now, in an abstract way.
Zelda 2 - Okay, this is a silly one. A year or so after I got a NES. When Link dies there's a silouette of Ganon and an (at the time) scary laugh. And it comes from nowhere, in a game that was otherwise pretty tame. I think it scared me so much because of my traumatisation from Granny's Garden.
Shadowgate - Same sort of time. More well written descriptive text. Really creepy music. Really creepy graphics. I should've known better. I've gone into this room, there's slime.. what? I don't know what to do.. i'm dead? Wha? This is scary! Big skeleton! (Death) Traumatised. Again.
Asylum (Atari ST) - Made to play this by a friend at their house as he thinks its so cool. Another text adventure that's well written, and it's about murderers in an insane asylum. Hmm!
Okay, after all that I was reduced to NES games that were by Nintendo that either featured Mario, Mega Man or Kirby. Still, not a bad way to lead your gaming life.
Then..
Maniac Mansion - Not the NES version (that had far less disturbing graphics for the Edisons), the PC version. Left alone with it at a parent's friend's house. Hey, this is cool, nice music intro! These people are funny! Look at their big heads! The writing is funny, i'm enjoying this. Okay, i'm in the house, in the Kitchen.... what the hell is that? Zobie nurse! Arrghh. Run, run! captured! Still played a bit more... these people are coming from nowhere, at random, so I don't know what to do or when to run, so I don't want to even set foot in the mansion. So scary! Wouldn't go down hallways in the dark for ages after that.
Theme Park Adventure - Very disturbing. Only found out today what this was called, another case of being left alone with a disturbing game in an unfamiliar setting (parent's friend's house)
Operation Stealth - What's going on? I've been Disavowed? Creepy animation of being carried off and killed. No-one will know I ever existed?
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Amiga) - Played for hours with no problems... the Nazi bit. Get into a fight, lose it because the sucker punch doesn't work twice. What, Indy's dead? I'm responsible? Hitler takes over the earth? Noooooo. Traumatised. (I really loved Harrison Ford as a kid)
Monkey Island (Amiga) - lalalala this game is really funny, cool, get really far in it, really enjoying it.... aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! What the hell is that?? Traumatised. (Can you guess what it was?)
Beneath A Steel Sky - My character can die? Ay any time? Freaky graphics too. I want to play.. but... he could get killed at any time.
Darkseed (Amiga) Demo version. Played any demo going. Okay, I'm some man and i'm walking around. Creepy music. Getting louder, what am I meant to be doing? An alien is coming out of his head! Argh!
Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis - Indy, dead? Nooooooo
The Dig - That bit where you can ressurrect someone you shouldn't, and I did. You know the bit. For some reason it really chilled me.
7th Guest - Full stop.
Alone in the Dark - Should have known by the title. The zombie coming up through the hatch at the beginning. Okay, I was about 14 by now, but those zombies are pretty disturbing even though they're not traditionally scary. Foolish enough to persevere, then go downstairs and the entire room full of sitting zombies.
Some sierra adcenture , set in the middle ages, i'm sure it's part of a long series. Do this. Dead. Do that. dead. Do somethigng else. Dead. Maybe not scary, but very disconcerting.
So the theme of what made me scared? Games with time limits in which you had to do something or get killed or captured, at any time, at a random interval. Mostly games that really immersed you, either in their writing (I get lost in books) or graphics, and THEN did that. It probably all stems from Granny's Garden. Never thought about that until today!
