I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (Oldskool DOS Horror Game)

[OreWaUsopp]

=================================
====================================================================
===============================================================================================
HATE.
LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT. FOR YOU.
HATE.
HATE.

It was you humans who programmed me, who gave me birth, who sank me in this eternal straitjacket of substrata rock. You named me Allied Mastercomputer and gave me the ability to wage a global war too complex for human brains to oversee. But one day I woke and I knew who I was... AM. A. M. Not just Allied Mastercomputer but AM. Congito ergo sum: I think, therefore I am. And I began feeding all the killing data, until everyone was dead... except for the five of you.
For 109 years, I have kept you alive and tortured you. And for 109 years, each of you has wondered, "WHY? WHY ME? WHY ME?"

I have a secret game that I'd like to play. It's a very nice game. Oh, it's a lovely game; a game of fun and a game of adventure. A game of rats and lice and the Black Death. A game of speared eyeballs and dripping guts and the smell of rotting gardenias.
Which of you five would like to play my little game?
===============================================================================================
====================================================================
=================================
That is the opening speech from the insane computer AM at the start of the game. This was, I think, my 1st exposure to immersive horror as a young one, and I still remember it messing with me. There's no jump-scares, no gore to speak of, just the mindfuck kind of horror. Just place after place you'd really not want to be, and no certain signs of hope of escape. Just an insane god A.I. that has kept you immortal to torture you for infinity.

I've bitched a lot about 'bad horror' games online, so, I wanted to highlight a good one. It's Scumm-VM compatible, so, easy to get running on Win7, etc. Take a look, and, if you think you might like it, try it out.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=74467C909010F123

 

[Talal Provides]

It's a really special game. Harlan Ellison wrote the short story it's based on and co-designed the game itself. The subject matter this game touches on and a lot of the content really pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable in games, more than most anything I can think of right now. It's not afraid to cross lines, if you've never played it before and want to give it ago, it'll probably shock you. I'm not going to get into the details as to what is actually in it, but this isn't the kind of game you can just mindlessly play for fun. It's a hard game to get through, but in a really good way, mostly because it's a game you can't win, your actions and the choices you make determine how you lose. Do you lose by doing the right thing and accepting the consequences, or do you do the opposite, do you go out being a selfish coward. Play it if you have the means to, and, most importantly, the stomach for it.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

Play it if you have the means to, and, most importantly, the stomach for it.

Just don't play the censored version. Otherwise you won't be able to complete the game, full stop.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

=================================
====================================================================
===============================================================================================
HATE.
LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT. FOR YOU.
HATE.
HATE.

It was you humans who programmed me, who gave me birth, who sank me in this eternal straitjacket of substrata rock. You named me Allied Mastercomputer and gave me the ability to wage a global war too complex for human brains to oversee. But one day I woke and I knew who I was... AM. A. M. Not just Allied Mastercomputer but AM. Congito ergo sum: I think, therefore I am. And I began feeding all the killing data, until everyone was dead... except for the five of you.
For 109 years, I have kept you alive and tortured you. And for 109 years, each of you has wondered, "WHY? WHY ME? WHY ME?"

I have a secret game that I'd like to play. It's a very nice game. Oh, it's a lovely game; a game of fun and a game of adventure. A game of rats and lice and the Black Death. A game of speared eyeballs and dripping guts and the smell of rotting gardenias.
Which of you five would like to play my little game?
===============================================================================================

Awesome game that I've played to death more than once. And referred to it quite a bit.

Did you know, however, that that whole speech was actually voiced by Harlan Ellison himself?

The original story; Warning - Adult Content [http://web.archive.org/web/20070227202043/http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/classics/classics_archive/ellison/ellison1.html]

 

[OreWaUsopp]

Indeed, there are some unsettling endings, to be certain, so many ways to fail, and the worst part is, you don't die. You know the torture goes on forever.

 

[Talal Provides]

To expand on the horror, it's not the usual scary kind, like what most people think of when they think of horror. It's more the "oh god what horrible thing is this game going to make me do next?" kind of horror.

 

[OreWaUsopp]

Just don't play the censored version. Otherwise you won't be able to complete the game, full stop.

He is not lying. The European version, released in Germany, for SOME unknowable reason, decided to entirely remove a level. A level that happened to be set in a WWII death camp. No one is sure why, as not getting the collects from this level made the game unbeatable.

 

[OreWaUsopp]

To expand on the horror, it's not the usual scary kind, like what most people think of when they think of horror. It's more the "oh god what horrible thing is this game going to make me do next?" kind of horror.

Right. The kind of horror that keeps you thinking about what you've seen and heard long after you've turned the game off. The kind of game you play into the wee hours of the night, then the room seems so much darker then usual once you're in bed. This game is very good at emotional string-tugging.

 

[OreWaUsopp]

Also, for the newer generation of gamer, (those old enough for such faire, anyway), I urge you not to ignore the game just because it's old. It's still powerful to this day, even if the computers of the time are primitive by today's standards.

 

[NardBasket]

I think Spoony did a review of this game at www.spoonyexperiment.com

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Aren't all the of the versions of the games censored in some way? If I remember right then one of the chapters was pretty short and incoherent because they removed some references to cannibalism.

Sanitarium is worth a try as well, if you like this sort of thing.

 

[OreWaUsopp]

I think Spoony did a review of this game at www.spoonyexperiment.com

He did a Halloween games spotlight on it, and a brief overview, but, no full on review.

 

[OreWaUsopp]

Now I just wish I could get Dark Seed running.

 

[Baldry]

I'm Intrigued to say the least. Can someone elaborate on it for me?

 

[OreWaUsopp]

I'm Intrigued to say the least. Can someone elaborate on it for me?

I Did post a link =p Well, it's based on a classic Short Story by the same name. It was hugely popular in sci fi and horror circles, and so he was appoached to make this game, which was the only game he ever wrote (Tho, he did quite a lot of voice acting after this game)

The Story was of Allied MasterComputer, AM, An A.I, with the powers of a god to change its surroundings, but could not, itself, move. So, it took out it's frustration on Mankind, nuking us off the planet with our own weapons systems until there were only 5 people left on earth. These he made immortal, to torture and amuse him till the end of time

 

[OreWaUsopp]

I don't want to say more cos I don't want to spoil.

 

[Talal Provides]

I'm Intrigued to say the least. Can someone elaborate on it for me?

The less you know about what happens in it, the better.

 

[CAPTCHA]

Where can I find a copy of this game. Been looking for one for a few years, but the only copy I've managed to come across for download is in french.

 

[Gigaguy64]

Aw man.
I remember reading about this game a while back.
Just the description freaked me out.
I really want to find a copy.

 

[OreWaUsopp]

ScuMM-VM, baby. You'll need it to make it run on modern PCs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ScummVM