On September 9th, 1995, Sony's Playstation was released to a North American audience. I have put together a list of the Top 15 games that have flown under the radar for gamers, including some of the best rare games and some unique choices you might not have expected or even heard of! Check ou »»
Short column this week, as I'm writing this from my hotel in Chicago. I've been on a business trip since Wednesday and I'm using my only real free time to write this. But then, with Version 2.0 coming to a close, I need to be able to say I'm the only staffer to have never missed a column. This wee »»
Folklore One of the most famous cases in undead folklore is that or Arnod Paole. It happened approximately 300 years ago and shows that even as America was starting to strongly considering dumping British tea into the ocean and becoming its own nation, that on the other side of the planet, vampires »»
Odd week for me as we had a flood here in Minneapolis and my car took some damage. I spent most of the week worried that the ol' Pikachu Beetle would be totaled, but thankfully due to speed and care on my part, the only thing needed was a tranny flush and some upholstery replacement. However, this »»
You know this was one of those weeks where I just couldn't think of what to write. It was the first time since August '04 I didn't have a request for a particular topic for Nyogtha and my brain was empty of ideas I thought readers would enjoy. Originally I had planned to discuss anti-matter, but IP' »»
Ah, the Fourth of July. For some reason in America it has become linked with outdoor grilling and the basest of food. Pork lips and assholes into an oft-kilter cylindrical type shape known as a "hot dog." Sloppy Joes that taste as good as they look. Chicken and steaks that are burned on the outside »»
Nyogtha Volume II, Issue XXXIX Well, due to a snafu with uploading, I won't be able to do my original column until next week. But not a problem. This is why we writers generally have a stockpile of filler columns sitting around. The original column will be up next week and involves a hilarious tran »»
#2. Clock Tower II (Clock Tower in North America) Publisher: Human Entertaiment (Japan)/ASCII Entertainment (North America & Europe) Developer: Human Entertainment Systems Released On: Sony Playstation Release Date: 12/13/1996 (Japan), 09/30/1997 (North America) In the mountains of Romsdaaren, Nor »»
#6 Fatal Frame (Project Zero in Europe) Publisher: Tecmo (USA and Japan) Wanadoo (Europe) Developer: Tecmo Systems Released On: Sony Playstation 2, Microsoft Xbox Release Date: 03/04/2002 (PS2), 11/22/2002 (Xbox Director's Cut) Fatal Frame was a game I was salivating over since it was first announ »»
Ahoy-hoy! I'm back from a two week Eastern European vacation. And so I'm getting right back into the swing of things. Let's crack open the top ten of the Horror/Terror game countdown and start showing you the very best of the best. #10 Splatterhouse Publisher: Namco Developer: NEC Systems Released »»
#14. Realms of the Haunting Publisher: Interplay Developer: Gremlin Interactive Systems Released on: DOS Release Date: 12/31/1996 Realms of the Haunting is without a doubt the greatest first person shooter ever made. The lowest score it ever received from ANY website, magazine, or form of video ga »»
#18. Alone in the Dark Publisher: Interplay Productions Developer: Infogrames Systems Released On: DOS, 3DO, MAC, PC Release Date: 1992 Before anyone even thinks it, let's put the awful, AWFUL, Uwe Boll film out of our heads as best we can and focus on the game, okay? I'm sure there will be some »»
#22 Echo Night Beyond Publisher: From Software (Japan)/Agetec (North America)/Digital Jesters (Europe) Developer: From Software Systems Released On: Sony Playstation 2 Release Date: 01/22/2004 (Japan)/07/27/2004 (North America) Man, it seems like just last week I talked about Echo Night 1! Oh wai »»
On Thursday Feb 23rd, I attended the first of four National Geographic Live events here in Minneapolis, along with two friends, including IP's own Music Editor, Gloomchen. This particular performance was entitled, Wings Over Africa: Tracing the Human Footprint. The speaker was Michael Fay, who is b »»
We now join the countdown, already in progress. If you missed the earlier bits, here are links: The Preamble #30 & #29 (Stil Life and Night Trap, respectively) #28. Uninvited Publisher: Mindscape Developer: ICOM Simulations Systems Released On: Amiga, Commodore 64, Macintosh, Nintendo Entertainme »»
Although this is the fourth volume put out by Cyberdog (Released March 11th), it is their Psy trance compilation. Before hand the other volumes have been Electronica and Cybergoth. This was kind of an surprising choice when I first heard about the genre choice, even since the inception of this genre »»
There will be two issues of Nyogtha next week. Issue 49 hits as part of a preview of the upcoming Beyond the Threshold. Issue 50 will be the last piece of the culture section. There were 35 issues of volume I, plus the three into Daily Pulse columns Nyogtha debuted under. This puts us at a total of »»
Can you believe we've been doing Nyogtha for two years now? Generally when I write anything for over two years, I get royally sick of it, ala Retrograding, but so far this isn't the case here. This week I thought I'd focus a bit on food folklore. Even thought I don't drink, I realize most people d »»
Folklore Reader Mail query: On an unrelated topic I've recently gotten into the D&D parody comic The Order of the Stick. The main bad guy is a lich, a term I've encountered a few times in games like Nethack. It made me wonder, is there any historical/mythological basis for liches beyond their incl »»
You know, over the past few months I've received several email about the movie "An American Haunting," asking me if it really is based on a true story, or much like the Amityville Horror, was based on a true HOAX. I could have sworn I had done a column on the Bell Witch long before the movie came ou »»
This week's Nyogtha is rather a weird one. There's no folklore. Just out and out insanity. If you've been following my exploits for the last decade you know I'm been doing the whole "Folklore of Monsters" thing for almost 10 years now professionally/semi-professionally. In that time I've encountere »»
Man it feels so different (and by different, I mean GOOD) to not be talking about video games anymore. I'm glad so many people enjoyed reading the countdown on both Inside Pulse and in my Livejournal, but I can't tell you how ecstatic I am to be done talking about video games. I've been writing on t »»
#4 I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Developer: The Dreamer's Guild Publisher: Cyberdreams, Acclaim Written By: Harlan Ellison Systems Released On: DOS Release Date: 10/31/1995 Yes my friends, we are seeing an Acclaim title at #4. Good god almighty, if I hadn't bothered to look at the box, I'd ha »»
#8. Koudelka Developer: Sacnoth (Now called Nautilus) Publisher: SNK/Atari (then under the Infogrames name) Release Date: 11/30/1999 Systems Released on: Sony Playstation As I said last week, the next game on the countdown would be the only one that made it on both the RPG and the Spooky Game count »»
Folklore So far on the countdown I've been putting the folklore bits of the column either at the beginning or the end of the column, but as #12 on our list revolves around one of the most important unsolved murders in 20th Century American history, I thought I'd give you your history lesson right o »»
#16. The 7th Guest Publisher: Virgin Interactive Developer: Trilobyte Systems Released On: DOS, MAC, Phillips CD-I Release Date: October 30th, 1993 For quite some time, The 7th Guest was the best selling PC game of all time. It's no wonder really. Trilobyte and Virgin gave us not only one of the »»
#20 Dracula: Unleashed Developer: Viacom New Media Publisher: Sega (Sega CD), Viacom New Media (PC/Mac/DOS), Infinite Ventures (2002 re-release on DVD). Systems Released On: Sega CD, PC, Macintosh IIE, DOS Release Date: 09/15/1993 Dracula: Unleashed is probably my second favorite game for the Seg »»
#24 Echo Night Publisher: From Software Developer: From Software (Japan)/ Agetec (North America) Systems Released On: Sony Playstation Release Date: 08/13/1998 (Japan)/07/31/1999 (North America) You know, it always amazes me what concepts took forever to make it into video game form. A Super Hero f »»
#26. The 11th Hour Publisher: Virgin Interactive Developer: Trilobyte Systems Released On: PC, 3DO Release Date: 11/30/1995 The 11th Hour was the sequel to the amazingly successful PC game, The 7th Guest. We'll cover the first game later on in the countdown, but for now let's focus just on The 11 »»
And so the horror/terror countdown kicks off. Before reading this article I'm going to state 3 things. 1. Read the god damned Preamble! 2. No recipe this week. This is 15 pages long people! And I have 28 more games to go through. 3. There's a nice discussion started in the fan forums. I suggest »»
