Animate 2600: Haunted House

haunted_house

Hauntedhouse_atariI always knew Haunted House was a classic Atari 2600 game, what I didn’t know is that it inspired a whole new genre of survival horror video games! From the Wikipedia article:

Haunted House is an Atari 2600 video game, first released in 1982, in which the player (represented by a pair of eyes) must navigate the haunted mansion of the late Zachary Graves to recover the three pieces of an urn. The game was one of the first home video games to feature scrolling graphics and a multi-level playing field, and has been identified as one of the earliest examples of the survival horror genre by a GameSpy article.

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6 Responses to Animate 2600: Haunted House

  1. Ben says:

    Man, I can’t believe how many hours I spent trying to figure out how to get those floating eyeballs out of the mansion.

    Haunted House was indeed a seminal influence on the horror genre…which currently is in a very sad state at the moment given the current consumer obsession with first person shooters and mobile gaming. If the Bava household manages to pick up a Wii U for Christmas, I would highly recommend Zombii U!

    Atari actually tried to reboot Haunted House with a cartoony facsimile that sucked really hard (http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/haunted-house).

  2. Reverend says:

    Ha, had no idea about the Haunted House reboot, good looking out. Now I want to play it. That said, there is something to be said for the 8-bit aesthetic, I am digging it these days, and damn those Atari 2600 games were hard. Chopper Command is kicking my ass.

  3. Ben says:

    8-bit is to video games, as Frank Miller is to graphic novels.

    If you havent’t played it yet, go get “Thomas Was Alone” on the Steam store. It’s an amazing 8-bit platformer with a hilarious story narrated by the guy that starred in Portal 2, Danny Wallace.

  4. Ben says:

    Sorry, Danny Wallace did NOT star in Portal 2, Stephen Merchant did. As for picking up Thomas Was Alone, it’s my gift to you, Merry Christmas.

  5. Reverend says:

    Ben,

    You are awesome, I just got it and I am gonna play it tonight. You rule, thanks. Merry Christmas, MICHIGAN! (;

  6. Ben says:

    I wasn’t sure what account to send it to on Steam as I couldn’t find your username, hence the email to what I assume is your main account. Enjoy the game!

    I spent the better portion of nap time at my mother in law’s house today playing through a TON of old Atari games, some that are much much worse than I remember, but others quite well preserved….I still own at Missile Command.

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