Friday The 13th: The Game?!

[crimsonquill]

I'm just in a posting mood this week it seems....

Friday The 13th is coming next week and there is also big hype about the upcoming remake of the original Friday The 13th movie from 1980...



So, being in the oddball gaming mode I decided to talk a bit about the games inspired by the Jason movies.

First up, The Commodore 64 version...


Thankfully the Atari 2600 was spared but us faithful C64 addicts were given an odd bird of a game.. You play one of 11 campers staying at Crystal Lake for a week and Jason decides to show up and deal out some deadly pain. What makes it odd you ask? Jason is hiding among the campers in disguise (when did he do that in the movies?) and you must pick up one of the weapons randomly placed on the map and attack campers until you find him.    Yes, You must take that axe over there and then chop your fellow campers until one of them gets ticked at you enough to rip off his "camper costume" and kill you. So what happens if you kill him? Jason dies and goes back into hybernation to regenerate until the next year and you take control of a new camper. What happens if you get bored with that? Well, You can decide to not do anything and watch as Jason kills the 9 other campers and finally comes after you to finish the job. And what if you get ticked off enough at the game to kill anything that moves? Each blow that you give your fellow campers fills in a hockey mask at the bottom of the screen.. when there are no campers left alive then you face Jason himself.. winner becomes the next Jason.

If you want to take a look for yourself... click here: http://www.archive.org/details/C64Videoarchive181-FridayThe13th

Then came the legendary NES version...



Those of you who watch AngryVideoGameNerd would know how BAD of a game this really is. You are stuck within a platforming game wandering around a camp ground with cabins on it. Armed with only rocks (ROCKS?!?!) when you start you must get past rabid wild animals and ZOMBIES(?!?!?!?!) moving around the camp wanting to stop you from... lighting fireplaces.  Okay, Is it me or did these game programmers watch any of the Jason movies? When an alarm sounds you must find which cabin is flashing on the map and go there as fast as possible because Jason is attacking one of the campers dumb enough to stay there. The hair pulling challenge is when you are on the completely opposite side of the map with only a few moments before the camper dies and having to navigate this maze while being attacked all the time. Then when you finally get to the right cabin at the right time you must search the cabin for Jason (where the $%#$ can a 7 foot killer hide in an empty cabin anyway?!) then duel him to the death. 

Check this out.. while I get an asprin.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X_VAsAZstw

Ahem... Thanks for waiting... Flash Games became popular and it was very easy to someone with some knowledge of the flash code and some art talent could make some simple and short games for fan sites. Among them was a game called "Friday The 13th: Return To Camp Blood". For something to kill time at work or home it was quite amusing.

Take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp_LB7wIEk8

Eventually, Independent game makers who had been playing around with 3D game engines for a long while and eventually found someone that had the courage to tackle a Friday The 13th 3D game. The coding was rough and it was not perfect but at least you finally got the chance to put on the hockey mask yourself.



Wanna see it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=258Trf9iyP8
Want to play it? http://www.download.com/3001-7492_4-10802403.html?spi=200a5de4aa3233568099fba4468d3876

But I'm saving the best for last...

At long last someone is making a VS fighting game that is a tribute to horror movies. Using an existing game engine (No, not MUGEN... It's an official and legal game maker for fighting games) he is creating each character model from scratch (and from the looks of it using action figures to base their look on) and making one background in the game fit for each character. Since I'm talking about Jason movies obviously he is in the game.....



but who else? Let's look at the cast list for the full game shall we?

* Ashley Williams (Evil Dead) * Freddy Kreuger (A Nightmare On Elm Street) * Michael Myers (Halloween) * Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) * Ghostface (Scream) * Chucky (Child's Play), Jason Voorhees Classic (Friday The 13th Part 3) * Jason Voorhees Undead (Friday The 13th Part 6: Jason Lives) * Tall Man (Phantasm) * Maniac Cop (Maniac Cop) * Candyman (Candyman) * Herbert West (Re-Animator) * Pinhead (Hellraiser)

Now, it's been a work in progress for a year now and the deadline for the finished game is Halloween 2009.

(Note: The video below is of the Demo game and features only 4 playable villians thus far.. so only they are shown in the trailer)
Want to see it? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BD1qXzHyxc
Want to play it? http://www.terrordrome-thegame.com/download.html

Thanks for hanging out... and let me know what you think of the games I've shown..

- CQ

[daerdevil]

By far the best was the NES version.  It was so lousy that it became a classic (similar to most horror movies).  IIRC I was making some headway in the game, when I was taken out by a flying bat.  Very scary stuff.  You didn't mention the complete lack of direction in the game...there appeared to be no point to it.  Thanks for the sharing though, I'm going to have to che3ck out that 3D one.

[Gremlin]

That fighter game looks pretty cool, actually. Phantasm would be fun to play as.

[yell0w_lantern]

I once read that the hitting campers with weapons was a glitch in the C64 version.
Oddly though, it is still one of my favorite C64 games.

[BWPS]

Nice topic. That fighting game looks to be really awesome ,I can't wait!*



*I can wait.