Childhood gaming frights! Share your stories!

[aaron]

i used to play alone in the dark alone... in the dark. it always fucked with me. great game.

one time a friend and i stayed up all night and beat resident evil 2 together. that was a bad idea, too.

my commodore 64 used to really creep me out. the anticipation of the loading screens and the horrific sound effects exacerbated by the awful noises coming from the disk drive. the worst game that freaked me out was definitely Amazon. the part in the beginning when you're scanning through the campsite on the camera and that freaky tribal guy gets all in your face. truly terrifying when you're 7 years old.

[StuntDouble]

It's a little embarrassing, but my earliest gaming fright came from an Atari game, Haunted House. I'm not sure what it was about the game that bothered me so much, but I could never play it for very long.

The most memorable one came from Resident Evil. I was playing, and my cousin and best friend were watching. I started walking down a long hallway in the beginning of the game, when the zombie dogs jumped in and attacked me. My mom ran to my room to see what was wrong, because she could hear us scream from the other side of the house. That game was definitely more fun to play as a group.

[MrPopo]

Not a fright per-say, but still some weirdness. When I was younger I was home alone (the family was out at something or another that I didn't want to go to) and was playing a ton of Super Metroid. Then I went to bed. But I soon woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. So I start to go down the hall and notice there was a Metroid guarding the entrance to the bathroom. And I didn't have the ice beam. Fortunately I was able to go into my parents' room and use the master bathroom.

The next morning when I was more lucid I realized just how wrong those thoughts I had were.

[Xeogred]

Not a fright per-say, but still some weirdness. When I was younger I was home alone (the family was out at something or another that I didn't want to go to) and was playing a ton of Super Metroid. Then I went to bed. But I soon woke up because I had to go to the bathroom. So I start to go down the hall and notice there was a Metroid guarding the entrance to the bathroom. And I didn't have the ice beam. Fortunately I was able to go into my parents' room and use the master bathroom.

The next morning when I was more lucid I realized just how wrong those thoughts I had were.

I love stuff like this.

I'll never forget one of my friends said one night he was playing Total Annihilation for hours upon hours, and he went to take a dump and when he was sitting there, he said all he could think about was what to do next and doing all this planning without being able to stop thinking about the game, and thought he was still playing it when he was taking a dump. lol

[Runefaust]

My very first console, the Atari 2600 and playing Adventure; never failed I'm going through a narrow corridor an' that over-sized duck (that's no dragon, it's a duck!) comes from outta nowhere!!

[jfe2]

I'll be the first of many to say it, I'm sure, but Sonic + water = NIGHTMARES!

[BoringSupreez]

I've never been scared by a game, not even the "horror" ones like Resident Evil. I remember back in 2004 watching the trailers and looking at promo pictures for Doom 3, those made my younger brothers scared to sleep with the light off for a while. But then again, they were frightened by Ghostbusters as well, so that's not saying much.

[Croooow!]

The ReDeads in LoZ Ocarina of Time always freaked me out. The high pitched scream and simultaneous screen shift/movement freeze used to get me so bad I had my brother beat the Shadow Temple for me.

[Key-Glyph]

Nothing too crazy, but I was about twelve when I first played Resident Evil 2... The interrogation room appearance was rather scary, too.

I love this game. Get this: on some subsequent playthrough I decided I was going to avoid the interrogation room, go in on the other side of the mirror first, kill the Lickers in there, then go back and take my sweet time being smugly unassaulted in the interrogation room. If they were already dead I'd have the last laugh, right? Wrong. That Licker still crashes through at you, and as I was totally caught off-guard again, I screamed. Loudly. And I was 23.

my commodore 64 used to really creep me out. the anticipation of the loading screens and the horrific sound effects exacerbated by the awful noises coming from the disk drive.

Yes! I totally agree! I have an Apple IIe, and the grinding sound of the disk drive combined with its glowing red light was really unnerving. I loved a text adventure called "The Secret of the Sphinx," and my early playing would go like this: "LOOK STATUE. (RRRRRRGRRRRRR *glowing red light* RDRRDRRDRR) THE STATUE'S EYES FOLLOW YOU AROUND THE ROOM," and I was like, okay! That's enough.

I found game glitching secrets to be rather unnerving as a kid.

Agreed. I'd love to see a compilation of these.

@Xeogred: Yes, it's an Ecco reference. After I grew up a little and went back to it, I became really engrossed. I'll admit that the final level against the Vortex queen still makes my pulse race, though. I've never quite gotten over it.

[J T]

Not from my childhood, but has anyone ever seen how creepy dear Watson is in Sherlock Holmes Nemesis.