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[IbizaPocholo]

The beginning of 3D Survival Horror as you know it.

I apologise for my bad French pronunciation, despite 3 years of taking the subject in school, I still suck at it.

The music throughout this video is from all 3 games in the original trilogy, and for the most part, uses the Orchestral versions instead of the original MIDI/AdLib FM versions.
Some songs are also related to the games being shown on screen: A Link to the Past, Sweet Home, Alpha Waves, Resident Evil, Alone in the Dark 2008 and Little Big Adventure.

Most footage has been edited to fit a 16:9 ratio for a better viewing experience. The game is best played in its original 4:3 ratio.

Timestamps, click to skip ahead!
Introduction 0:00

--Birthing a Genre--
The Horror Genre Before 1:41
Infogrames and Early 3D 3:45
Building a dream team 5:43
1 year of endless development 11:07
A Huge Success 17:24
The CD ROM Version 19:45

--Gameplay--
Gameplay Intro 23:01
The Controls 28:05
The Loft and Combat 34:01
The Style of Play 42:35
Ambience 49:01

--Story--
A Lovecraftian tale 55:57
The Background 57:21
The Story as we experience it 1:14:12

--Legacy--
Legacy 1:21:28
Should You Play It? 1:28:00
The Reboot 1:29:30
Outro 1:32:53

Alone in the Dark (1992): A Complete Retrospective and Analysis in text form:
“Survival horror.”
A genre dominated by Resident Evil. Indeed, that was, and still is, one of the benchmarks for survival horror throughout its many variations. But Capcom's lucrative series owes its existence to a game that created its most famous elements, 1992s Alone In The Dark.
Inspired by the stories of HP Lovecraft, Alone in the Dark took a genre that languished in the 2D plane, and brought it into three dimensions, with polygonal characters engaging with flat, pre-rendered backgrounds. This innovative approach brought gaming closer to photo-realism than any other game at that time.

Frédérick Raynal's masterpiece is the textbook that Resident Evil would follow, combined with Japanese exclusive Sweet Home, to launch the Survival Horror genre into the mainstream. Four years prior, Alone in the Dark redefined how action and adventure could be used to create suspense. Becoming a huge commercial success, and a lucrative franchise.
It has been re-imagined, rebuilt, and travelled across media, but the series has never quite matched what made this first game so special.

How did a game that was released in the same year as Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and a Link to the Past, push the boundaries of gaming so far ahead of the competition? And what about this classic game, from its presentation, gameplay and story, made it so influential to a genre whose name didn’t even exist? These are the questions we will answer in this video, grab some snacks and sit back as I present to you; the complete retrospective and analysis of Alone in the Dark.

 

[Secret of Evolution]

Nice, a game I actually want to hear the background on. Played this on 3.5 floppies back in the day. Still have a “Clue Book” that came with it that is amazing, tried to get it onto GOG but I guess they couldn’t hunt down who to get permission to/pay royalties to if they bundled it into the game. The Clue Book has a whole walk through of gradually clearer hints for each section, plus a bunch of the scary stories from the books for casual reading. And a floorplan, and letters from the game characters.

Man I wish games did shit like that again. If Deluxe Editions included amazing manual/clue books instead of shitty steel books I'd buy them.

 

[ViolentP]

Nice, a game I actually want to hear the background on. Played this on 3.5 floppies back in the day. Still have a “Clue Book” that came with it that is amazing, tried to get it onto GOG but I guess they couldn’t hunt down who to get permission to/pay royalties to if they bundled it into the game. The Clue Book has a whole walk through of gradually clearer hints for each section, plus a bunch of the scary stories from the books for casual reading. And a floorplan, and letters from the game characters.

Man I wish games did shit like that again. If Deluxe Editions included amazing manual/clue books instead of shitty steel books I'd buy them.

That little book was gorgeous. Wish I still had mine.

 

[Signal Rockets]

I used to play Alone in the Dark: Jack is Back a lot in 2002.

 

[Physiognomonics]

They should definitely make a remake of the first game.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I played Alone in the Dark around 1998. We already had RE2 by then, and yet I had a blast. AITD was not the easiest game - clunky movement, even clunkier combat, some cheap insta-death traps and, above all, the very concrete possibility of saving into an unwinnable state. Quite a far cry from the much more refined RE. But still a very fascinating, very playable game. Even if you screwed up, you could restart from scratch and redo everything pretty quickly. I think you can finish it in less than half an hour if you know everything.

Nice, a game I actually want to hear the background on. Played this on 3.5 floppies back in the day. Still have a “Clue Book” that came with it that is amazing, tried to get it onto GOG but I guess they couldn’t hunt down who to get permission to/pay royalties to if they bundled it into the game. The Clue Book has a whole walk through of gradually clearer hints for each section, plus a bunch of the scary stories from the books for casual reading. And a floorplan, and letters from the game characters.

Man I wish games did shit like that again. If Deluxe Editions included amazing manual/clue books instead of shitty steel books I'd buy them.

Also… there’s orchestral versions of the OSTs? Like, officially released ones?

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Wow, so the video is all about the first game? Being that long, I thought it would cover the whole original trilogy, but those other games are just briefly mentioned in passing.
I was too young and my English was still too crude 25 years ago to understand the whole background story of the game, so I remembered almost nothing about it. I’m glad the video explains it all.

This is a great retrospect on AITD1, well worth the watch.
And holy shit, Frédéric Raynal has one hell of a head o’ hair, lol.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

In this mini-series, Origins of Survival Horror, we’re going to explore the games that preceded Resident Evil (the game that coined the term), but that were already full-blown survival horror games through and through.

Today, we’re covering the trailblazing 1992 horror adventure Alone in the Dark, developed by Infogrames and directed by Frérérick Raynal. Alone in the Dark was both technically and game-design wise absolutely ahead of its time, pioneering the fixed-camera/pre-rendered background technique paired with pretty much all the signature elements that Resident Evil would later define as Survival Horror.
Alone in the Dark would later be awarded the first-ever 3D Survival Horror game retroactively by the Guinnes Book of Records.
Let’s talk about what makes this game such a fascinating milestone of video game history, and thennnn also explore the not-so-shiny legacy of the franchise down through the years - up until today.

Chapters
00:00 Intro: Back to The Mansion
06:05 Part 1: Alone in the Dark (- ages of 3D Gaming)
14:00 Part 2: Derelict Estate Blues
27:26 Part 3: Forest for the Trees
32:09 Part 4: The Downward Spiral

The video discusses Alone in the Dark, a 1992 horror game that is considered to be the origin of the survival horror genre. The game features a male or female protagonist exploring a mysterious mansion, solving environmental puzzles, and fighting zombies and other creatures using melee and distance weapons while managing ammunition and restorative items. Many of these features were later seen in Resident Evil, which some accused of plagiarizing Alone in the Dark. However, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami was open about the influence Alone in the Dark had on his game. The video delves into the innovative aspects of Alone in the Dark and its importance in the horror gaming genre. It also discusses the inconsistent legacy of the franchise, up until now.

Spoiler

Alone in the Dark is considered the first-ever 3D survival horror game and was awarded this title by Guinness World Records: Gamer Edition in 2008.
The game features a combination of signature elements of the survival horror genre, including exploration, environmental puzzles, fighting enemies, and micromanaging ammunition and restorative items.
Capcom's Resident Evil, released four years after Alone in the Dark, heavily borrowed elements from the game, leading to some accusations of plagiarism.
Alone in the Dark is one of the most groundbreaking titles in PC gaming history and was highly innovative and ahead of its time.
The game was inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and was one of the most important milestones for horror gaming, with a highly interesting development origin story.
The video aims to give Alone in the Dark the spotlight it deserves and examines the game's strange and inconsistent legacy as a franchise.
Alone in the Dark (1992) featured fully polygonal and animated characters and objects while delegating the environments to pre-rendered flat sprites in the background, which allowed for arguably the most "cinematic" presentation of any game to date.
Alone in the Dark is one of the first video games set in the universe of H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu mythos, and the game's developer, Frédérick Raynal, understood the importance of creating deliberate player disempowerment, mystery, danger, patience, and a constant sense of looming danger to create an unprecedented, spine-chilling horror adventure.
Despite being almost 31 years old, Alone in the Dark has aged well and is still enjoyable to play, with a comparably small old-game-acclimatization phase required for players.
The game's story takes place in 1924, in the Louisiana estate of reclusive artist Jeremy Hartwood, and players can choose between two protagonists, Edward 'Jack' Carnby or Emily Hartwood. The goal is to seek out the artist's old piano, which is said to contain hidden secrets.
The game establishes an unsafe feeling from the start, making you feel that something bad can happen to you at any time.
Sudden death traps in the game are signposted clearly to ensure they are fair, and the player has all the information to know it would happen.
The game encourages players to scan areas for cunning solutions to threatening situations, rather than just fighting.
The iconic dining room puzzle is one example of how the game encourages you to find creative solutions to avoid fighting.
The game does offer a small arsenal of weapons, but inventory space is limited, ammo is scarce, and melee weapons break easily.
The genre of survival horror was essentially created with Alone in the Dark.
The original Alone in the Dark is seen as a groundbreaking survival horror game.
Its sequels are not as successful as the original and fail to recapture its essence, with Alone in the Dark 3 being a slight improvement over Alone in the Dark 2.
Infogrames, the company behind Alone in the Dark, puts the series on hold after Alone in the Dark 3, believing that there is no market for horror adventure games.
The success of the Resident Evil series and the emergence of the survival horror genre in the years following Alone in the Dark 3 prove Infogrames wrong and lead to a reboot of the franchise with Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare.
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare heavily borrows from the Resident Evil series, leading some to accuse it of plagiarism, but is still considered an interesting and scary horror game.
The speaker is carefully optimistic about the upcoming survival horror game.
It is unlikely that the game will have the same production quality as recent remakes due to budget constraints.
The speaker believes that game designers now understand survival horror better than ever before.
The game has hired a horror writer with experience in the field.
The video series "Origins of Survival Horror" covers games that preceded the first Resident Evil.

 

[Team Andromeda]

Loved this game so much. I had to go down my mates to play this game as he was the only person I knew with a PC that could handle the game and where he had to pay for the game over the phone line when he played the game

I also have to say AITD IV is a overlooked classic, the DC version was utterly amazing too