Introduction
Back in the 1990’s our relationship with computer and gaming technology was far different than it is today. Computer and video games were still very much a mystery to gamers, it was a new branch of technology that was still being discovered – by programmers/developers as well as the end users: gamers. The industry was young and was moving into games using 3D graphics for the first time in history. With the move the 3D, the realism in games significantly jumped and so suddenly the immersion of games was becoming increasingly realistic. The difference between the player being in the game rather than controlling it externally was becoming far less recognizable. Another technology being used in games that served to increase realism on another whole level, it was called “Full Motion Video” and it was the incorporation of real filmed footage into video games. The jump from 2D games to 3D and full motion video was very significant and pronounced. Now games weren’t just kiddy-looking animations but they now had realistic looking 3D rendered models and in some cases actual real people using filmed footage just like the movies.
The Rapidly Advancing Entertainment Technology of the 1990's
Other technologies served to compliment these advanced new graphics that were increasingly finding their way into PC and console games. However at this time technology was very much a luxury and to experience the latest technology you needed a lot of money. But for the lucky few who had the funds they were able to experience games in a completely unique way that has just jaw-dropping at the time. TV technology was starting to advance, rear projection TV’s started to become available to the consumer so people could, for the first time, afford to have screens that were close to the height of a human being. Before that one of the only places the general public could see such massive screens would have been at the cinema. Unless you were a literal millionaire you would not be able to afford such a screen in your home as CRT TV’s were prohibitively expensive at a certain size, and also became insanely heavy due to the way the tubes worked.
The other technology had advanced significantly was sound, now amplifiers started to have Dolby Surround capabilities allowing for sound output through more than 2 speakers. Mainly 5.1 and 7.1 which was 5 and 7 speakers respectively along with a subwoofer for realistic sounding bass. All of a sudden it was possible to have a home theatre, expensive, but possible. When this latest technology of picture and sound was combined into a working system the consumer now had for the first time, their very own home theatre. Before DVD’s the ultimate medium was Laserdisc which is what someone with a home theatre would get, after investing all that money in getting cinema quality sound and picture it wouldn’t make much sense to play movies from VHS or BetaMax. The cost of all this hardware in the 1990’s was, of course, incredibly expensive. But for the time, you would feel like a king knowing your entertainment setup was the pinnacle of technology. Once someone had all this equipment it could be combined with the latest console that had 3D graphical capabilities resulting in a home entertainment setup so high tech that you would enter another whole world whenever you played a game.
A New Era of Immersion in Video Gaming was Born
Most people of course weren’t lucky enough or rich enough to have the money to have anywhere near this kind of home entertainment setup. My family certainly didn’t, in fact my family was so behind with technology that we didn’t even have a stereo system. To this day my mum still doesn’t have a stereo system, she spent her entire life listening to sound from TV speakers and now only using her mobile phone speakers, no longer even using the TV. Truly sad I know, I am very different from the rest of my family (my mother and brother).
However, when I was growing up I still got to experience this amazing point in time when technology started to become like another reality. This is because our neighbours had a couple of children at the same age of me and my brother and we often played with them. Consequently we hung out at their house a lot and their dad: Italo, was a massive tech head. He was the biggest tech head that I had ever known at the time, no-one else I knew even came close to owning the kind of technology that he had at his house. He had the 6ft rear projection TV, the surround sound, the giant speakers, the laser disc player, the entire 1990’s home theatre setup. Additionally, to our absolute delight, he was also into the latest and greatest consoles and video games. We experienced 16-bit games on his home theatre and when the first 3D console came out – the Panasonic 3DO my little 10 year old mind got completely blown away!
It’s very, very difficult to describe what it felt like to experience this crazy level of technology during the 1990’s as a 10 year old gaming obsessed kid. It was literally like nirvana, there was no better experience in life at the time for me and it truly felt like we were living in the future. Our minds were being transformed as we grew up with the video games industry and in a time when home entertainment technology was gaining in momentum and advancing exponentially. To say that it was completely amazing and blew our little minds is still a gross understatement to describe how it affected us. My first experience with these new, realistic games was playing Mad Dog McCree for the 3DO on a massive rear projection TV with the light gun. The game was tough and unforgiving, but the fact that it was a real interactive movie more than made up for it and we would play it over and over again, constantly dying barely deterred us.
The next level of immersion was experiencing survival horror games with this cutting edge home theatre setup. The first game of this genre which I played was Alone in the Dark on the 3DO on this giant screen, with the lights turned down and the surround sound blaring on massive speakers. We were no longer playing a game; we were now INSIDE the game. It truly felt like being inside the haunted mansion, all the technological and environmental elements: the big display, the 3D graphics, the surround sound, my 10 year old imaginative mind, the thick atmosphere created by a carefully crafted survival horror game combined synergistically to transport me into the world that I was seeing on the screen.
One moment that sticks in my memory was when a wolf-monster bursts through the window at the very start of the game. The player is tasked with first exploring the attic in the creepy mansion to eerie music inducing a distinct feeling of unease. While searching for useful items, the atmosphere is thick enough to cut with a butter knife, the tension heavy enough to wet yourself from the person next to saying “boo” when suddenly you hear the window break as a wolf-like monster crashes through the glass and immediately sets his sights on attacking you. It’s a jump scare right when you least expect it and immediately demands you to engage in combat or face your death. The game gives you no time to work out the combat controls it just throws you into the deep end and forces you to swim. The normal player would panic at this point, or if they were lucky enough to find the rifle in time they could kill the monster easily enough with that.
The Birth of the Modern Survival Horror Genre
The experience of playing Alone in the Dark on the 3DO for the first time was just incredible, it has stuck with me all these years and probably contributed significantly to my lifelong gaming obsession. If I weren’t playing the game in a group with my brother and our two friends, with their dad watching over us I wouldn’t have had the courage to play the game – it was far too scary for a 10 year old child to handle on his own. Even so the game still scared me every time I played it, however it was an enjoyable kind of scary experience. Though realistic, we obviously knew it wasn’t real so it was a completely safe and controlled horror experience where we could feel what it would be like to live (and die) through a horror scenario that stimulated our imagination in such a way that it was enjoyable.
The next horror game I experienced was Night Trap on the 3DO on the very same home theatre setup. You are probably thinking, “Night Trap isn’t a horror game – it’s a B-grade movie game” and you would be correct. Playing it as an adult the B-grade movie vibes and acting are undeniable. But imagine playing it with the home theatre setup I described as a 10 year-old boy, experiencing all this new gaming and home theatre technology for the first time. The game really scared us as kids; we didn’t pick up on the B-grade movie-ness of the game at all. To us it actually seemed like a serious movie, with a few jokes thrown in here and there. My brother in particular was too scared to even play the game, he would just watch me and my friend take turns in playing the game, completely refusing to touch the controller himself.
The camera angles were limited and were placed in an abstract position that emphasized the cinematic aspect of the game which added to horror vibe. Usually the camera angles were not the best in terms of being able to see all around you and served in building the atmosphere rather than having any practical purpose. The combat system was very awkward in both games, whether this was intentional or not just served to increase the panic during each confrontation. The character would not respond how you would expect which would cause your panic to rise as you realized the time to defend yourself was drawing closer to an end when you still hadn’t even figured out how to punch yet. There was also the feeling of spatial dread, you felt like you were actually inside the haunted mansion especially on a big screen with surround sound that provided ambient noises coming from rear and centre speakers.
Alone in the Dark had creepy music while Resident Evil was musically silent which emphasized all other sounds such as the player’s footsteps. Both of these approaches added to the tense, horror-filled atmosphere of the haunted mansions brilliantly. While all these elements were enough to provide an extremely scary, horror-filled experience for the player there was also the backstory that was slowly uncovered as the game progressed. The sordid backstory became increasingly disturbing as the player uncovered new information from books, notes and other clues left around the mansion.
Final Thoughts
The combination of all the unique survival horror techniques used in programming the game, the new 1990’s audio and visual technology taking game immersion to a new level, the story-telling borrowed from horror films and experiencing it all while a young mind was still developing and dealing with a new technological reality for the first time left an incredible impression in my memory that I’ll never forget. Even in this long and descriptive article, there are a lot of elements that I haven’t even touched on which also served in emphasizing the immersive horror vibe these genre pioneering games managed to invoke in the player’s mind. Hopefully this will give you an appreciation of just how many different elements combined symbiotically to create a truly special and un-equaled experience for the time. It was a unique time to grow up in and I feel privileged to have lived through a unique moment in time that very few people were lucky enough to experience.
Since these titles came out which birthed the modern survival-horror genre, some notable classics using the same formula emerged and were very successful and effective in their execution. These games included Alone in the Dark 2, Resident Evil 2 and Silent Hill among others. After that people started to get used to survival horror games and the formerly impressive home entertainment technology became cheaper and much more accessible. Thus the modern gamer’s relationship with the survival horror genre changed, what was terrifying before was no longer even scary for the player. Eventually graphics became so realistic that in many cases they were hard to distinguish from real footage. However the one thing that remained was the survival horror genre in its modern form and the scariest part wasn’t the monsters or the jump scares, it was knowing how to SURVIVE.
Relevant Links
- 3DO ZONE Forums [http://www.3do.cdinteractive.co.uk/] 3DO forums which have been online for a very long time
- Games that Defined the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer [https://racketboy.com/retro/games-that-defined-the-3do-interactive-multiplayer] A guide to the defining games of this classic system, also online for a long time
- HowToGeek.com article on RPTV’s [https://www.howtogeek.com/rear-projection-tvs-were-terrible-but-we-all-wanted-one/] Explains what the RPTV was about very well
