I used to sell this game when it was new. I’d tell customers “go home, turn off the lights, turn up the sound on your tv, and put in the game”. They loved it!!!!
That's the only way to play these games! I like playing during winter too, I usually keep my place a bit cooler to add to the effect of horror. Yeah can't play these games during the day when birds are chirping, lol.
My first time doing LSD was also the first time playing Resident Evil. I absolutely lost my shit when the zombie looked back at me.
Ended up playing the game for 10 straight hrs after that
Me, 1000% And every time the spiders appeared later on.
Especially it one was around the corner and you couldn't see until you moved off the screen towards it
I still have not beaten the original game because of the spider boss. I did beat the sequel though.
The horrible camera angles and tank controls made it even more horrifying! Trying to run from something and end up getting hung up on part of the scenery instead... it's like the whole game conspired against you.
I still haven't played the remake but it's on my bucket list.
Same for me. I had to turn the volume down and play upbeat music like sublime. I'd make my sister stick around in the room too. That game was really terrifying at the time.
Came here to say this. And in RE:2, the big dude in the hallway after you go through it, and come back, he suddenly smashes in. And the crows breaking through the glass... I'm not good with jumpscares.
Didn't sleep the first night after seeing that.
Yep. The dog. I was watching my friends older brother play. He was sitting in a dining room style chair and the dog jumped out and he tipped back in the chair right into the floor. It was great.
The first 20 minutes or so was nightmare fuel for me as a kid. The intro FMV, going back to the front door with the dogs outside, and the first zombie you see that turns around and attacks, gave me many sleepless nights.
Yep. I remember my dad renting it and telling me it was scary. I was like 4 or 5 maybe. I asked if I could play it before he went to bed and he said sure. I played for just a few minutes before it had me crying lmao I remember thinking "why would he do this to me?!" hahahaha
Silent Hill. I was in college when the PS1 came out, so I wasn't exactly a kid, but it was the first video game I remember being legit creeped out by. It felt very immersive. A friend and I binged on it with the lights out, taking turns playing whenever we died.
I missed this one early on, and wound up playing it for the first time maybe ten years ago or so. I chose to do so on a very windy, snowy, foggy night, with the lights off and my sound system up. There was a fireplace next to the tv, and the wind made some bizarre noises as it blew over it. Definitely made for some intense gaming!
That was really very scary. A part that sticks in my mind is when you have to enter the sewers, and as you're making your way out the music starts building, the static increases, the light seems to get dimmer, and you see these shadowy *things* start to chase you...
Don't forget the sound of what seems like someone stomping after you...I never brought myself to look back and see if it was something after me, I just climb up the ladder and escape.
I also played that in a dark room on a crappy little TV. I was like 16-17 and it scared the hell out of me. I don't think I've ever been as creeped out with a game as I was with my first time through that one.
Pyramid Head is an absolutely brilliant piece of menacing horror character design. Remember thinking that was one of the first times I'd seen a character that felt like it should/could have been born into a horror film first but now that kind of imagination was starting to emerge via games as well. Another sign of the times changing a bit.
I don't think the game's an absolute classic (although the atmosphere and sense of creeping dread is still very memorable) but there's alot of moments in it that have stuck with me and I think about it often.
DOOM 3. Man this game was terrifying when it first came out.
Silent Hill 1 : I was playing this with a fever going on. The entire game was made extra creepy with that.
F.E.A.R : this game was incredibly creepy back in the day. It was like playing a horror movie.
Silent Hill for me as well. I was 13, had the flu, and was playing on a 13" TV when it was dark outside and the lights were off. Things emerging from the fog and attacking you legit creeped me out. I dropped the controller a couple times due to 'jump scare.'
It was pretty awesome.
MYST made me feel anxious, afraid, and alone. The audio and music could be surprisingly creepy and oppressive. The graphics were so realistic for the time it was easy to get sucked in.
When the rose changes to a skull, I was ready to leave. Instantly. I loved Stoneship before that. Felt at peace, wanted to stay. Imagined dangling my feet over the edge of the docks, wrapped in warm rain gear and a good wide brimmed hat. Then, when I saw that skull looking back at me, it was time to go.
That game is creepy as hell! Waaaay darker than OoT which is already pretty dark and post apocalyptic. One of my favorite games now as an adult.
Honestly just the first few hours of the game gave me so much anxiety as a ~8 year old. Your put into a worthless deku scrub body, you're trapped in this creepy town with a bunch of weirdos, and there's a literal timer at the bottom of the screen, that when it runs out you get a game over. I too, was not ready.
Super Mario Bros 2 in that one level where the mask you normally walk through to end a level flies off and attacks you. Scared the shit out of me as a kid for some reason haha.
Jurassic park on the snes is not strange - I had measles, couldn’t sleep, scratchy, I discover the rex at the top left hand corner of the map at 4am and scream - I got a pass but mum came in holding a slipper
This was the one for me, too. The music turns tense, then you get that text warning pop up saying something like "If you see a T-Rex, run!" That game built tension extremely well.
The Legend of Zelda, Level 9. Hearing Canon's theme had me on edge, especially fighting him. Same for Zelda 2 when it feels you go through Hell and finally arrive at the Final Palace. That theme was haunting, and so was Shadow Link.
The first time I played it (probably Christmas day), I walked one screen over to the big jumping spiders. The graphics were so good, and it was so lifelike, unlike anything we'd ever seen at that point, that I had to turn the game off. Had to catch my breath for a few minutes before trying again.
Banjo Kazooie. Treasure Trove Cove.
Fall in the water, and the music starts.
*Snacker the shark is behind you.*
I was terrified as a kid. Even knowing better today, he still gets to me.
Uninvited was my first thought too
That game wanted you dead and every room had multiple ways to kill you
Locked in a cell forever, giant spider that the game warns you about over and over, tasting random things in the medicine cabinet...
My brother used to make me watch him play that until I had 2 sleepless nights and my Mom found out. We were banned from renting it until we were a few years older.
That fuckin’ lady in the hall haunted my nightmares for a while. I love the game (and Shadowgate) now, but goddamn the descriptions in that game go really hard!
Mega Man 2 (seriously)
I was only about 6-7, but the first time I did Dr Wily's stage 1, I was jumping from block to block on a pitch-black background when an ENORMOUS dragon shot up through the blocks out of nowhere. Threw my controller down and ran!
Metroid II - Return of Samus. No music except for ambient noise, the metroids were everywhere, and a scare chord would blare every time one showed up. First game to ever scare the crap out of me.
Friday The 13th, Resident Evil (original), Clock Tower, Alone in the Dark (original), and believe it or not… when the dog in Duckhunt laughs at you for losing, that scared the absolute shit out of me. Idk why.
I think my first jump-scare was while playing the first Space Quest (the original EGA version). There's a spot on the desert planet map where a robotic spider drops out of the sky with a startling sound and lands near the MC. I wasn't expecting it, and I let out an Ace Frehley-like "Ack!"
Happened to me once in the SNES version. The spider didn't normally bother me, but one time it basically popped up on the screen when I exited the anthill and wasn't expecting it. *That* scared me…and it didn't help at all that, despite the crowd of ants around me, it then decided to eat me.
After that I was always careful to check the spider wasn't there before leaving the anthill.
This isn't quite as retro as we usually discuss, but Rockstar North's *Manhunt* for PS2 gave me the worst, most icky, awful feeling ever. It was too gritty, too hardcore, and even though I'd seen many a movie with the same kind of vibe, I just felt like I'd brought something cursed into my home. I ended up giving it away.
I remember being very creeped out by the atmosphere of Super Castlevania IV. It was so much more advanced than what we had seen before, and had such an intense, dark and melancholy atmosphere. It was on a whole new scale from what I was used to.
I have a vivid memory of my siblings and I lying on the bottom bunk bed watching my mum getting to the final level of Mario Bros 3, and I would be peeking from under the covers. There was just something about the final castle that got to me. I think it was a combination of the Bowser statues that shoot lasers at you, the hellish red-brick design of the castle, and the excitement of knowing that this was the first time we will meet the final boss and that he is just around the corner. I think the adrenaline of it all got to me, and I had to be a pansy about it and go undercover. 😄
I remember my friend saving our file pretty late in the game with our torch running low and it pretty much killed that file. I'm sure it wouldn't have been too bad starting over and getting back to that point but I remember being so defeated and not starting over. Super creepy game. Be sure to be mindful of your torches!
Forget as a kid, Half-Life scared me as an adult. I'll let [an old Quora post of mine](https://www.quora.com/What-was-an-unexpected-scary-moment-for-you-in-a-video-game/answer/Kef-Schecter) tell the story.
But if you insist on the "as a kid" part, I'll have to go with [the game over screen from Operation Wolf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6bTzGewyVk).
Man, it wasnt the monsters that scared me in HL. It was the MARINES. Hearing them on the radio before you see them, then they RUN in and fire at you then run away for cover. Had my heart pumping too. Thats a good one.
I mentioned Half Life recently in a similar post. For me it was the >!chase sequence because I've never been chased in a game before (at least not in 3D), so it really caught me off guard and scared me more. It was also the first time I remember not being able to shoot at a threat and having to run; which is now a huge part of most modern horror games.!<
Original Resident Evil. My step bro had a bootleg copy that would only run in black & white. Getting it to run meant I had to do a disk swap trick but even when I got it to run which took a few tries, I'd have to turn it off as I was too scared. I tried to play it in the middle of the day which still didn't help. I couldn't get past the first zombie encounter it was that bad. I was 13.
Zelda OOT hand grabby thing was f'ing scary.
Later, Resident evil remake on GameCube was amazing but I was 20 then.
Later later, Sub-nautica made me weep in fear 😂
Earliest one I can think of isn't even a scary game.
It was Punch Out. I left the game on and left the room. When I came back Bald Bull was on the screen laughing like when you lose to him. I had never even gotten to him and didn't know he was in the game so some weird guy was on the screen laughing at me when I came back in and it freaked me out.
Zelda Ocarina of Time. The dungeons were so immersive they scared me. Forest Temple was scary especially with the wolves and the music. I hated those wolves
I was 18 when I played it for the first time, well after it had been out. My roommate had a ps1 but wasn’t really a gamer. Played it every day after work as the sun was going down. Was a perfect atmosphere. Still one of my favorites.
Does anyone remember that PS2 game called Area 51?
Red Steel on the Wii. There's a crazy level during the campaign that's like out of a fever dream.
F.E.A.R. is another. Such creepy atmosphere
Half life 2 and the episodes. Dark tunnels with just a torch. Fucking headcrabs man. Especially the black poison ones. And the sounds the zombies make are pretty terrifying. That game really is special.
D for the ps1. Also, these fucking yetis in Tomb Raider 2, coming out of nowhere screaming. I'm still afraid of those creepy bastards and will have to face them again soon as I'm currently replaying the game. Honorable mention: my mother, who went through the four cds of The X-Files only to freak out to some dude standing in a room, staring at her with his large black pupils moving eerily. That game remains to be finished ever since.
Shadow of the Beast on Amiga (and Psygnosis games in general). https://youtu.be/y9BltSvKMlQ?si=hm8Wteym1GasFp68 The music, artstyle, main character, parallax... everything about this game is weird and unsettling.
Diablo 1, the butcher in particular, and his room. All the mutilated corpses, straight nightmare fuel as a 8-year-old.
Dark Seed - It was a HR Giger FMV game on the PC. Holy hell it was wild and just so bizarre, morbid, and dark.
Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time and Castle Town after you become adult Link.
Sometimes later as a young adult, 17, the hand in the Twilight zone of Twilight Princess that follows you slowly to the end.
Made me so nervous, more than scared, I couldn't handle it.
These days I zip through on the HD version.
Resident evil, dead space and silent had me quakin' in my boots. Back in like 2009 when I was 11~ I'd watch countless top 10 scariest games and I was always fascinated by them, but never had the balls to play. Now I find resident evil campy and thrilling, dead space is thrilling too, and silent hill is depressing more than anything else.
Here's an oldie: Star Raiders for the Atari 2600. Try playing that in a dark room. There's a 3-tone melancholic melody that plays at the start of the game, and when your lone refueling station is destroyed by the enemy.
Later, you end up in a battle with enemies that make horrible electrical thunder-esque sounds as they shoot at you. Your shields go down. Your firing crosshairs disappear. But, you almost, ALMOST made it, when suddenly the whole screen explodes in a cacophony of sounds and light that'll make you almost jump out of your skin. Once your heart starts resuming, you hear that same 3-tone melancholic melody.
It's a very hard game to play in the modern world if you don't read the instructions; it came with a special keypad controller and was very complex for the time. But, in the dark, it sure can be menacing.
I would wake up at 5 or 6am on Saturday morning before the cartoons started and play games. One morning I was playing Castlevania 3 and got to Alucards level. The music instantly gave me goosebumps and I was terrified. That song (Nightmare) still gives me goosebumps and brings a little of that fear back even today.
I actually vividly remember turning the volume down in the original Super Mario Bros. during the Bowser's Castle levels. The music creeped me out at age 7 lmao
Dungeon Master on DOS. My older brothers used to play it in the basement at night and I’d sit there and watch, the noises the creatures made was scary and then the scream when your party falls into a pit 😱
I was scrolling for this - the anticipation of something bad happening in that game was terrifying! The characters always sounded genuinely hurt, and you’d have one of their skeletons just laying there.
Oh boy, time to list all of my NES game childhood trauma, even though it's my favourite system 🤣
1. Air Fortress: A platformer created by HAL before Kirby, you start off each stage with a small shmup style stage in space before landing at a base you need to destroy on foot.
Whilst the game is really good, it gets rather unsettling once you blow the main core of the base, as the music gets quiet, the base is dark and if you take too long, the screen starts to shake and the longer you take, the stronger the shaking becomes.
Combined with enemies and obstacles trying to slow you, the game can be frightening, especially if you were a child playing this.
2. Alien 3: similar points to my first game choice, the music is unsettling, the overall designs of the Aliens are crude, but they move FAST.
The worst part is the use of full black screens, along with a section of the game where if you failed the stage due to time running out, it shows the locations of all the people you were suppose to save being ribbed to shreds!
3. Section Z: The music, fast paced movement and the way they throw you back to the start if you lose too many lives just gives me goosebumps just thinking about it...
The bass line for the main stage theme slaps though 👌
> Forbid Forest, C64.
Yes, this is the one game from 1980s that just outright scared me. Friends would say "It giant spiders! A big evil forest at night! Dragons! They eat you alive! Spooky music!".
When I got to play it I really didn't like those spiders and was ready to shut off the computer when they ate me.
Super Mario All Stars when my SNES got yanked off the TV stand on accident, it caused it to glitch out and play weird sounds and loop the final boss theme from SMB1 and that gave me nightmares for days
PC games are usually what terrified me. (I was easily scared)
I remember a point and click game called "Amazon" or something. When you died it would buzz some alert thing and then show a picture of how you died. The plane crash one scared the FUCK out of me.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16rHsY-P8Wc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16rHsY-P8Wc) 6:40 in this game did me in.
Laughing boss at the game over screen in Rolling Thunder scared me so much I couldn't play that one anymore.
I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them. I was a massive pussy as a kid.
Thief. In the first or second level there’s a pit you can fall in with a giant spider. First time I ended up there I screamed and had to cut the power to the PC.
Thief 1 was not too bad for me, but sneaking around in Thief 2 and then one of the robot faces creeps up on you from behind with the recorded voices...YIKES.
My friend had a Sega Saturn and we used to play 'D'.
A kind of interactive movie type game about a daughter searching a hospital for her father who was a doctor and went on murdering spree.
Scared the crap out of me back then!
Silent Hill (playing in surround sound was terrifying)
Fatal Frame (gave me nightmares for months)
The Thing (not super scary but definitely kept me on edge)
I was an adult when Dead Space came out, but the first two definitely got my heart rate going.
Uninvited for the NES. That skeletal Southern belle with the parasol still lives rent free in my head.
Also, Silent Hill (PS1) when you get to the dead end alley and those little monsters trap and attack Harry. Scary as fuck!
Alone in the Dark. The game was made with odd camera angles reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. The music was unsettling and the monsters that might suddenly attack were genuinely difficult, especially when you are surprised.
Resident Evil 1. Dog jumping in the window. I literally ran out of the room, right into a wall. I was 11 years old.
I used to sell this game when it was new. I’d tell customers “go home, turn off the lights, turn up the sound on your tv, and put in the game”. They loved it!!!!
Evil
Not just evil, RESIDENT evil!!
That's the only way to play these games! I like playing during winter too, I usually keep my place a bit cooler to add to the effect of horror. Yeah can't play these games during the day when birds are chirping, lol.
I was 16 and when that happened I put the controller down, said NOPE and returned it to the game store
My first time doing LSD was also the first time playing Resident Evil. I absolutely lost my shit when the zombie looked back at me. Ended up playing the game for 10 straight hrs after that
This is the way. Same game for me. Had to play with the lights on lol.
Dog didn't get me because i knew about it ahead of time, but the first time the spider dropped down from the ceiling it got me
I didn't even make it that far lmao.
Me, 1000% And every time the spiders appeared later on. Especially it one was around the corner and you couldn't see until you moved off the screen towards it I still have not beaten the original game because of the spider boss. I did beat the sequel though.
The horrible camera angles and tank controls made it even more horrifying! Trying to run from something and end up getting hung up on part of the scenery instead... it's like the whole game conspired against you. I still haven't played the remake but it's on my bucket list.
Remake suprisingly still holds up, but it's a really tough game.
I beat the game as a kid but for some reason can’t get far in the remake
And fuck those doors, too. Opening them just to prepare to run the fuck back out and cry
Re2 98 did me dirty with them doors had me guessing since the room with the valve
The zombie in the closet is the one that always stuck with me.
Same for me. I had to turn the volume down and play upbeat music like sublime. I'd make my sister stick around in the room too. That game was really terrifying at the time.
Exactly this, the ceiling crawling monster (mt friend had the game not me, but freaked me the heck out)
Resi 2, lickers :)
lol! When I saw this post it made me think the first jump scare I had in a game and it was this 👆
I was fourteen when I played the remake on GameCube. I’m 35 now and I still get terrified of the opening fifteen minutes of that game
Came here to say this. And in RE:2, the big dude in the hallway after you go through it, and come back, he suddenly smashes in. And the crows breaking through the glass... I'm not good with jumpscares. Didn't sleep the first night after seeing that.
The birds on floor three of the police station in RE2 though…
This is the right answer. Should close the thread now lol
Yep. The dog. I was watching my friends older brother play. He was sitting in a dining room style chair and the dog jumped out and he tipped back in the chair right into the floor. It was great.
It was the giant spiders that got me, same on the sequel.
I'm so glad they removed them from RE2 remake, it's hard to kill them with my eyes closed.
I remember opening the mansion's front door for the first time and getting that dog cutscene. "It's too dangerous to go outside!"
The first 20 minutes or so was nightmare fuel for me as a kid. The intro FMV, going back to the front door with the dogs outside, and the first zombie you see that turns around and attacks, gave me many sleepless nights.
Yeah same - I played the Japanese import. I remember it being winter and having the window open. Chilling stuff!
That damn dog still gets every time I replay. I’m 39.
Yep. I remember my dad renting it and telling me it was scary. I was like 4 or 5 maybe. I asked if I could play it before he went to bed and he said sure. I played for just a few minutes before it had me crying lmao I remember thinking "why would he do this to me?!" hahahaha
Silent Hill. I was in college when the PS1 came out, so I wasn't exactly a kid, but it was the first video game I remember being legit creeped out by. It felt very immersive. A friend and I binged on it with the lights out, taking turns playing whenever we died.
I missed this one early on, and wound up playing it for the first time maybe ten years ago or so. I chose to do so on a very windy, snowy, foggy night, with the lights off and my sound system up. There was a fireplace next to the tv, and the wind made some bizarre noises as it blew over it. Definitely made for some intense gaming!
That was really very scary. A part that sticks in my mind is when you have to enter the sewers, and as you're making your way out the music starts building, the static increases, the light seems to get dimmer, and you see these shadowy *things* start to chase you...
Don't forget the sound of what seems like someone stomping after you...I never brought myself to look back and see if it was something after me, I just climb up the ladder and escape.
I also played that in a dark room on a crappy little TV. I was like 16-17 and it scared the hell out of me. I don't think I've ever been as creeped out with a game as I was with my first time through that one.
Pyramid Head is an absolutely brilliant piece of menacing horror character design. Remember thinking that was one of the first times I'd seen a character that felt like it should/could have been born into a horror film first but now that kind of imagination was starting to emerge via games as well. Another sign of the times changing a bit. I don't think the game's an absolute classic (although the atmosphere and sense of creeping dread is still very memorable) but there's alot of moments in it that have stuck with me and I think about it often.
Ecco The Dolphin.
I believe the later levels are all kinds of messed up, but I never got that far - the earlier levels were bad enough
The prehistoric level still makes my skin crawl.
DOOM 3. Man this game was terrifying when it first came out. Silent Hill 1 : I was playing this with a fever going on. The entire game was made extra creepy with that. F.E.A.R : this game was incredibly creepy back in the day. It was like playing a horror movie.
Man, I had so much trouble with Doom 3 as a kid that I barely made it to the first demon before giving up out of fear!
Glad I wasn't the only one!
Silent Hill for me as well. I was 13, had the flu, and was playing on a 13" TV when it was dark outside and the lights were off. Things emerging from the fog and attacking you legit creeped me out. I dropped the controller a couple times due to 'jump scare.' It was pretty awesome.
Simon’s Quest was so creepy, and the Nintendo Power cover didn’t help
MYST made me feel anxious, afraid, and alone. The audio and music could be surprisingly creepy and oppressive. The graphics were so realistic for the time it was easy to get sucked in.
I just posted this as my choice as well. There is nothing particularly "scary" about it, but the atmosphere just makes me uneasy.
When the rose changes to a skull, I was ready to leave. Instantly. I loved Stoneship before that. Felt at peace, wanted to stay. Imagined dangling my feet over the edge of the docks, wrapped in warm rain gear and a good wide brimmed hat. Then, when I saw that skull looking back at me, it was time to go.
Not gonna lie Majoras Mask is a bit much even into adulthood. I was not ready.
That game is creepy as hell! Waaaay darker than OoT which is already pretty dark and post apocalyptic. One of my favorite games now as an adult. Honestly just the first few hours of the game gave me so much anxiety as a ~8 year old. Your put into a worthless deku scrub body, you're trapped in this creepy town with a bunch of weirdos, and there's a literal timer at the bottom of the screen, that when it runs out you get a game over. I too, was not ready.
Super Mario Bros 2 in that one level where the mask you normally walk through to end a level flies off and attacks you. Scared the shit out of me as a kid for some reason haha.
Jurassic park on the snes is not strange - I had measles, couldn’t sleep, scratchy, I discover the rex at the top left hand corner of the map at 4am and scream - I got a pass but mum came in holding a slipper
This was the one for me, too. The music turns tense, then you get that text warning pop up saying something like "If you see a T-Rex, run!" That game built tension extremely well.
The Legend of Zelda, Level 9. Hearing Canon's theme had me on edge, especially fighting him. Same for Zelda 2 when it feels you go through Hell and finally arrive at the Final Palace. That theme was haunting, and so was Shadow Link.
The first time I played it (probably Christmas day), I walked one screen over to the big jumping spiders. The graphics were so good, and it was so lifelike, unlike anything we'd ever seen at that point, that I had to turn the game off. Had to catch my breath for a few minutes before trying again.
Me and a friend rented resident evil when it came out. Nearly 30 yrs later I can still remember how it made me feel.
Banjo Kazooie. Treasure Trove Cove. Fall in the water, and the music starts. *Snacker the shark is behind you.* I was terrified as a kid. Even knowing better today, he still gets to me.
Uninvited Y’all making me feel old.
Uninvited was my first thought too That game wanted you dead and every room had multiple ways to kill you Locked in a cell forever, giant spider that the game warns you about over and over, tasting random things in the medicine cabinet...
Use -> Axe -> Self
My brother used to make me watch him play that until I had 2 sleepless nights and my Mom found out. We were banned from renting it until we were a few years older. That fuckin’ lady in the hall haunted my nightmares for a while. I love the game (and Shadowgate) now, but goddamn the descriptions in that game go really hard!
That lady in the hall and the cover of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark will forever haunt my dreams.
Zork...I'm older
Oh, damn. That is a deep cut. I’m Zork-1 years old.
You're likely to be eaten by a grue
The games I remember scaring me as a kid are even older — Zaxxon on the Colecovision (1982) & Hunt The Wumpus on the TI 99/4a (1980)!
Your mention of Zaxxon triggered childhood memories of yelling “up is down and down is up” frequently to save my idiot sister.
I thought Zaxxon was really cool, though I played it on PC and the CGA graphics make it extra surreal.
The creepy silent MacVenture version or the NES port with the nightmare fuel death music?
Mega Man 2 (seriously) I was only about 6-7, but the first time I did Dr Wily's stage 1, I was jumping from block to block on a pitch-black background when an ENORMOUS dragon shot up through the blocks out of nowhere. Threw my controller down and ran!
Metroid II - Return of Samus. No music except for ambient noise, the metroids were everywhere, and a scare chord would blare every time one showed up. First game to ever scare the crap out of me.
[удалено]
If I had to guess, you're thinking of *Zork*, but I could be wrong.
Friday The 13th, Resident Evil (original), Clock Tower, Alone in the Dark (original), and believe it or not… when the dog in Duckhunt laughs at you for losing, that scared the absolute shit out of me. Idk why.
Alone in the Dark, when the window breaks, music starts, and that 10-polygon monster comes at you 😁
Still have Friday 13th PTSD at 44 years old.
Let me just go into this cabin... spin to the left... spin to the left... spin to the left... ok. Nothing to see here. Spin to the l - OH FUCK!
Seriously. Nightmares as a kid.
Yeah.. That screaming still haunts me at 46.
Same. Exact same. I was stupid enough to actually own it.
The 7th Guest and the 11th Hour Funny cause play them now, and I'm like, really, this isn't any kind of scary
Resident evil, Silent Hill, certain levels in classic Tomb Raider games
None of them scared me as a kid, but Fatal Frame II scared me as a grown man.
Original Fatal frame fucked me up. Pure nightmare material.
DOOM
I think my first jump-scare was while playing the first Space Quest (the original EGA version). There's a spot on the desert planet map where a robotic spider drops out of the sky with a startling sound and lands near the MC. I wasn't expecting it, and I let out an Ace Frehley-like "Ack!"
Eternal darkness
Parasite Eve on PSX. Unsettling.
SimAnt. That fucking spider.
The picture it shows once eats you made me close the game everytime
Call all your ants to you. The spider can be killed. Edot:edit and many green food circles gained
Happened to me once in the SNES version. The spider didn't normally bother me, but one time it basically popped up on the screen when I exited the anthill and wasn't expecting it. *That* scared me…and it didn't help at all that, despite the crowd of ants around me, it then decided to eat me. After that I was always careful to check the spider wasn't there before leaving the anthill.
I loved surrounding them and destroying the spider. The lawnmower though that was a shitty way to go.
This isn't quite as retro as we usually discuss, but Rockstar North's *Manhunt* for PS2 gave me the worst, most icky, awful feeling ever. It was too gritty, too hardcore, and even though I'd seen many a movie with the same kind of vibe, I just felt like I'd brought something cursed into my home. I ended up giving it away.
Surprised how far down this is... Still looking for diablo 1 I can still hear the butcher yelling fresh meat from around a corner 25 years later
I feel so understood
I don't really know why but Captain Silver on the Master System had a creepy vibe to it.
Alone in the dark 1.2.3
I remember being very creeped out by the atmosphere of Super Castlevania IV. It was so much more advanced than what we had seen before, and had such an intense, dark and melancholy atmosphere. It was on a whole new scale from what I was used to.
Star tropics for some reason.
phantasmogoria, watched my father play it when I was far too young.
I have a vivid memory of my siblings and I lying on the bottom bunk bed watching my mum getting to the final level of Mario Bros 3, and I would be peeking from under the covers. There was just something about the final castle that got to me. I think it was a combination of the Bowser statues that shoot lasers at you, the hellish red-brick design of the castle, and the excitement of knowing that this was the first time we will meet the final boss and that he is just around the corner. I think the adrenaline of it all got to me, and I had to be a pansy about it and go undercover. 😄
What a cool memory though
Resident evil 1 for psx
Shadowgate for the NES. Hands down the music alone will creep you out …
When your torch goes out…
I remember my friend saving our file pretty late in the game with our torch running low and it pretty much killed that file. I'm sure it wouldn't have been too bad starting over and getting back to that point but I remember being so defeated and not starting over. Super creepy game. Be sure to be mindful of your torches!
Forget as a kid, Half-Life scared me as an adult. I'll let [an old Quora post of mine](https://www.quora.com/What-was-an-unexpected-scary-moment-for-you-in-a-video-game/answer/Kef-Schecter) tell the story. But if you insist on the "as a kid" part, I'll have to go with [the game over screen from Operation Wolf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6bTzGewyVk).
Man, it wasnt the monsters that scared me in HL. It was the MARINES. Hearing them on the radio before you see them, then they RUN in and fire at you then run away for cover. Had my heart pumping too. Thats a good one.
I mentioned Half Life recently in a similar post. For me it was the >!chase sequence because I've never been chased in a game before (at least not in 3D), so it really caught me off guard and scared me more. It was also the first time I remember not being able to shoot at a threat and having to run; which is now a huge part of most modern horror games.!<
Friday the 13th definitely scared me too. All of those jump scares!
Silent Hill 4 and Ghost Hunter, both on PS2. The first one specially. It’s so damn creepy (but so, so good too)
Despite the blocky graphics, Haunted House and Adventure for the 2600 had some scary moments.
Original Resident Evil. My step bro had a bootleg copy that would only run in black & white. Getting it to run meant I had to do a disk swap trick but even when I got it to run which took a few tries, I'd have to turn it off as I was too scared. I tried to play it in the middle of the day which still didn't help. I couldn't get past the first zombie encounter it was that bad. I was 13. Zelda OOT hand grabby thing was f'ing scary. Later, Resident evil remake on GameCube was amazing but I was 20 then. Later later, Sub-nautica made me weep in fear 😂
There is a jump-scare in Ecco the Dolphin that wrecked me as a kid.
>Ecco At the VERY beginning too. The most joyful part of the game, Absolutely brutal.
Dunno why but the first person dungeons in the original Phantasy Star scared me lol
It might sound stupid... Altered Beast made me cringe as child. The music, the characters, everything... I still don't like the game!!!
Earliest one I can think of isn't even a scary game. It was Punch Out. I left the game on and left the room. When I came back Bald Bull was on the screen laughing like when you lose to him. I had never even gotten to him and didn't know he was in the game so some weird guy was on the screen laughing at me when I came back in and it freaked me out.
DUDE..I forgot about that..yes. His laugh was terrifying. If I lost to him I would jump up and reset the system rather than give him time to laugh.
Anyone have nightmare creatures on n64?
On playstation, and yes, that was a dark dark game
I played it today, I can’t imagine how much scarier this was back in the day. Super 64 comes in clutch with playing games on n64 I’ve never owned
Zelda Ocarina of Time. The dungeons were so immersive they scared me. Forest Temple was scary especially with the wolves and the music. I hated those wolves
Resident Evil 2. Played in the dark. Only made that mistake once.
I was 18 when I played it for the first time, well after it had been out. My roommate had a ps1 but wasn’t really a gamer. Played it every day after work as the sun was going down. Was a perfect atmosphere. Still one of my favorites.
Does anyone remember that PS2 game called Area 51? Red Steel on the Wii. There's a crazy level during the campaign that's like out of a fever dream. F.E.A.R. is another. Such creepy atmosphere
Half life 2 and the episodes. Dark tunnels with just a torch. Fucking headcrabs man. Especially the black poison ones. And the sounds the zombies make are pretty terrifying. That game really is special.
The first time you step into Ravenholm and hear the scream... "WTF Was THAT!?!?"
Diablo 1 F.E.A.R 1 Dead Space 1
D for the ps1. Also, these fucking yetis in Tomb Raider 2, coming out of nowhere screaming. I'm still afraid of those creepy bastards and will have to face them again soon as I'm currently replaying the game. Honorable mention: my mother, who went through the four cds of The X-Files only to freak out to some dude standing in a room, staring at her with his large black pupils moving eerily. That game remains to be finished ever since.
Shadow of the Beast on Amiga (and Psygnosis games in general). https://youtu.be/y9BltSvKMlQ?si=hm8Wteym1GasFp68 The music, artstyle, main character, parallax... everything about this game is weird and unsettling.
The Fatal Frame games were pretty eerie
When that head rolls across the floor, going down that long hallway...
Super Mario Bros 3 - 8th World. The overworked map + music was ☠️.
Alone in the dark original... 13th guest
Jurassic Park on the Genesis. That T-Rex during the into still scares me to this day lol.
Diablo 1, the butcher in particular, and his room. All the mutilated corpses, straight nightmare fuel as a 8-year-old. Dark Seed - It was a HR Giger FMV game on the PC. Holy hell it was wild and just so bizarre, morbid, and dark.
Tomb Raider when the T-Rex comes out of the dark...
Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time and Castle Town after you become adult Link. Sometimes later as a young adult, 17, the hand in the Twilight zone of Twilight Princess that follows you slowly to the end. Made me so nervous, more than scared, I couldn't handle it. These days I zip through on the HD version.
Super Metroid opening sequence scared my little brothers too much so we didn't play it. I WASN'T SCARED THO.
Anyone else play Maniac Mansion on NES? That first time walking in the kitchen and meeting Nurse Edna f*cked me up
Or stealing Bernard’s Hamster while he’s out the room
Scared myself off the game for a week when I accidentally caused a reactor meltdown and killed everyone :(
Tomb Raider. Maybe not scared as much as panicked. Whenever the combat music started it just seemed to make staying alive even more difficult.
Resident evil, dead space and silent had me quakin' in my boots. Back in like 2009 when I was 11~ I'd watch countless top 10 scariest games and I was always fascinated by them, but never had the balls to play. Now I find resident evil campy and thrilling, dead space is thrilling too, and silent hill is depressing more than anything else.
Here's an oldie: Star Raiders for the Atari 2600. Try playing that in a dark room. There's a 3-tone melancholic melody that plays at the start of the game, and when your lone refueling station is destroyed by the enemy. Later, you end up in a battle with enemies that make horrible electrical thunder-esque sounds as they shoot at you. Your shields go down. Your firing crosshairs disappear. But, you almost, ALMOST made it, when suddenly the whole screen explodes in a cacophony of sounds and light that'll make you almost jump out of your skin. Once your heart starts resuming, you hear that same 3-tone melancholic melody. It's a very hard game to play in the modern world if you don't read the instructions; it came with a special keypad controller and was very complex for the time. But, in the dark, it sure can be menacing.
I would wake up at 5 or 6am on Saturday morning before the cartoons started and play games. One morning I was playing Castlevania 3 and got to Alucards level. The music instantly gave me goosebumps and I was terrified. That song (Nightmare) still gives me goosebumps and brings a little of that fear back even today.
Resident evil directors cut was the first experience of the horror genre as a kid it didn't disappoint.
Halo:CE, the flood. Parasitic space zombies that run jump and shoot guns? 10 year old me was not ready for that.
You nailed it with NES Friday the 13th. I can still hear the music. Absolutely dreadful.
I also remember Friday the 13th creeping me out. Maybe Splatterhouse too? Games didn't get very scary yet.
Granny's Garden
Resident Evil 1
I actually vividly remember turning the volume down in the original Super Mario Bros. during the Bowser's Castle levels. The music creeped me out at age 7 lmao
Dungeon Master on DOS. My older brothers used to play it in the basement at night and I’d sit there and watch, the noises the creatures made was scary and then the scream when your party falls into a pit 😱
I was scrolling for this - the anticipation of something bad happening in that game was terrifying! The characters always sounded genuinely hurt, and you’d have one of their skeletons just laying there.
I wish the SNES port wasn’t so terrible
Alone in the dark . Was creepy as f.. in the ‘93 or ‘94, when I was a kid :))
Super Metroid.
Somehow the fire snails in some Harry Potter game and a level in Alone in The Dark that you had to kill some red eyed dogs that jumped at you
Like you said , Friday the 13th for NES did it for me. I still like playing it to this day.
Oh boy, time to list all of my NES game childhood trauma, even though it's my favourite system 🤣 1. Air Fortress: A platformer created by HAL before Kirby, you start off each stage with a small shmup style stage in space before landing at a base you need to destroy on foot. Whilst the game is really good, it gets rather unsettling once you blow the main core of the base, as the music gets quiet, the base is dark and if you take too long, the screen starts to shake and the longer you take, the stronger the shaking becomes. Combined with enemies and obstacles trying to slow you, the game can be frightening, especially if you were a child playing this. 2. Alien 3: similar points to my first game choice, the music is unsettling, the overall designs of the Aliens are crude, but they move FAST. The worst part is the use of full black screens, along with a section of the game where if you failed the stage due to time running out, it shows the locations of all the people you were suppose to save being ribbed to shreds! 3. Section Z: The music, fast paced movement and the way they throw you back to the start if you lose too many lives just gives me goosebumps just thinking about it... The bass line for the main stage theme slaps though 👌
Friday the 13th on the Commodore 64
The Trex chasing Lora Croft (me) in the OG tomb raider got me by surprise and I almost pooped
Alone in the dark 1
Forbidden Forest, C64.
> Forbid Forest, C64. Yes, this is the one game from 1980s that just outright scared me. Friends would say "It giant spiders! A big evil forest at night! Dragons! They eat you alive! Spooky music!". When I got to play it I really didn't like those spiders and was ready to shut off the computer when they ate me.
Super Mario All Stars when my SNES got yanked off the TV stand on accident, it caused it to glitch out and play weird sounds and loop the final boss theme from SMB1 and that gave me nightmares for days
Gen Y here with Castlevania II, NES. The turning from day to night awed me little mind
Doom 64 I think. Maybe silent hill.
PC games are usually what terrified me. (I was easily scared) I remember a point and click game called "Amazon" or something. When you died it would buzz some alert thing and then show a picture of how you died. The plane crash one scared the FUCK out of me. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16rHsY-P8Wc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16rHsY-P8Wc) 6:40 in this game did me in. Laughing boss at the game over screen in Rolling Thunder scared me so much I couldn't play that one anymore. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them. I was a massive pussy as a kid.
I have no mouth and I must scream. it creeped the shit out of me. one of my favorite games though.
SPLATTERHOUSE HOLY SHIT
Hilariously. The ghost in Mario 3. Look. I was like 6 or 7. Something about that unceasing pursuit when you looked away.
snes wolfenstein
Doom. There’s one level where it sounds like there’s a demonic crying baby and that freaked me out.
I wasn’t exactly a kid, but you ever play F.E.A.R? You remember going down that ladder?
Gauntlet in the arcade scared me at first because it talked. Built up the nerve that I was going to play it next time I went, and the game was gone :(
Scared because it talked? Do you remember Sinistar?
Thief. In the first or second level there’s a pit you can fall in with a giant spider. First time I ended up there I screamed and had to cut the power to the PC.
Thief 1 was not too bad for me, but sneaking around in Thief 2 and then one of the robot faces creeps up on you from behind with the recorded voices...YIKES.
Resident Evil 1+2 and Silent Hill are the only games that really scared me as a kid
Max Payne
I had a buddy that got freaked out by 11th Hour and wanted me to stay on the phone while he played. Phantasmagoria was pretty scary.
Phantasmagoria is absolutely horrifying before you're old enough to realize how corny the acting is. P2 was pretty creepy too.
My friend had a Sega Saturn and we used to play 'D'. A kind of interactive movie type game about a daughter searching a hospital for her father who was a doctor and went on murdering spree. Scared the crap out of me back then!
Alone in the Dark. Played it on my 3DO in the dark.
Silent Hill (playing in surround sound was terrifying) Fatal Frame (gave me nightmares for months) The Thing (not super scary but definitely kept me on edge) I was an adult when Dead Space came out, but the first two definitely got my heart rate going.
Fatal frame
Call me a coward but that piano in Mario 64 got to me as a kid
Perfectly valid.
Uninvited for the NES. That skeletal Southern belle with the parasol still lives rent free in my head. Also, Silent Hill (PS1) when you get to the dead end alley and those little monsters trap and attack Harry. Scary as fuck!
Alone in the Dark. The game was made with odd camera angles reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock. The music was unsettling and the monsters that might suddenly attack were genuinely difficult, especially when you are surprised.
Fatal frame...that makes me sleep lights open at night for a week....