Welcome to a new edition of Horror Gaming and this time I found another original gaming CP. The tale is about a man recalling a Super NES game called Conplus he used to play as a kid that was one of those variety cartridges. If those of you are unfamiliar with these cartridges, they were released in limited stock which is why most are expensive even till this day. The most well-known one is the Action 52 cart that claimed it had fifty games. Unfortunately, all the titles were Shovelware to the point they were no different than ET on Atari 2600. The reason it was ever produced was to sell Cheatar Men, the only game to have any effort out of the 52 titles. To bring you to speed, Cheatar Men was a low budget Ninja Turtles rip-off and the publisher of this collection was trying to sell using Action 52. Here’s another fun fact but the game was a glitch fest to the point not even Pokemon Red/Blue was this bad in its program. Not all multi game cartridges were bad as the Sega 6-Pak and Super Mario All Stars were the crème of the crop. The theme is about a man recalling this strange game he experienced during his youth. Now, as an adult, the guy does revisit it again while recalling previous play sessions where strange things happened. Will this be a rare game that he remembers being a unique experience? Or something the guy should have never played again? Let's begin… Like any original gaming Creepypasta, this is another good one as it had a proper build up to the climax. The story was based off those cartridges that had many games as seen from Action 52. It truly makes the story stand out as not many CPs are based on these genres. I love the mystery behind this game with its glass like bubble (which was a camera) on the front of the cartridge. That reminds me of the Theater which had a similar concept that added to the vibe of the story. However, a name of the company that made this collection was given this time and the studio was called Infinite Cycle. However, the company behind this release leaves many mysteries behind. The protagonist mentions how he couldn’t find any information on them regardless if it was through search engine or even on forums. Perhaps the author could’ve added some hints to something happening in Russia or West Europe — that involved this company doing strange things — to cause them to get erased from records. Another interesting thing is he mentions this was the last Super NES game to come out when in actuality a port of Frogger was the final one. It’s obvious this was an unlicensed release thanks to Nintendo dropping the console in 1998. The variety pack had six titles of Dino Run, Alchemy Lab (Tetris clone) and a strategy based one on the Cold War called East vs West. The other three is Stalker, which is a horror game, an adventure title called Into the Silent Forest and Dark Waters that was part of the diving genre. The author also did a fantastic job explaining the core gameplay of each title in the pack. Dino Run was a great start to his explanation as it hints to nothing being out of the ordinary at first. It’s also a game you would expect to appear here, but the only difference is the concept looked like a quality title. I truly can’t get enough of how much effort the depictions were giving compared to Super Metroid CP. The first image is from Dino Run that uses a Pac-Mania gameplay style about going through a maze that has hazards instead of ghosts. It’s the most innocent of the six games, but the concept giving us a false sense of security at the beginning was interesting. The next image of the CP is East vs West highlighting a gameplay map with blue representing NATO and Red are the Soviet territories. As you can tell none of these have any horror to them aside being games that often appeared on the market in other forms. It is by the third title where that false sense of security slightly disappears. That is because this is where things start getting darker and the strategy game using the Cold War was the beginning of the terror. Alchemy Lab was what is called a “Tetris clone” much like Dr. Mario and Columns was to the original puzzler. In hindsight, its concept was actually original, and today would most likely be an idea for a mobile title on a smartphone. Similar to the first game explained, both titles did a good job starting to plot as if this was an ordinary multicart that had no indication it was haunted. I also enjoyed his take on East vs West which was based on the United States and Soviet Union rivalry. The protagonist explained the core mechanics favored the East side more than the other. As a first player game, he finds this easy to complete but mentioned how unbalanced it was even for two players. It is funny how the guy mentions disgruntled former Soviets (potentially the developers who made this) that wished the fall went the other way. Since Starman Ghost was being observant in this part, I guess the story (just like A Figure in Grey) was being pretentious too, right? As you noticed, there is nothing pretentious about these tales that so happens to give a societal critique even in the slightest form. If that is the case, then Stranger Things falls into the same thing — literally the theme centers around conspiracy and government cover up — giving societal criticism around the main plot and in the background. The next captions highlight the beginning of the horror elements appearing due to the nature of the haunted cart. On the left is Stalker, a unique horror concept of some entity following the character in each level. Urkel also showed another image where the character goes into a menu to use an item to solve a puzzle. The only game to have such an idea was the first Clock Tower on Super NES where the Scissor Man would stalk the girl. While nothing haunting happens during the guy’s explanation, the thought of being constantly followed by something here does add to the theme. The next caption shows the sixth game’s horror element of the character encountering a large creature while diving. The protagonist provides us with three images of the gameplay showing a large shadow appearing before approaching the diver. That is a scary moment to experience for a kid because most bodies of water often have mysteries to them. It’s obvious this presents the scariest scene in the story, despite the supposed specter not appearing in any form. However, the idea of something coming out of the darkness towards you would make anyone feel scared. The fourth title is where things start to pick up since East vs West was the calm before the storm. Stalker was a horror based theme where the player is always stalked by some dark being. The player hides in a certain spot so each monster can move past them. Once the thing leaves the character can continue before the stalker comes back again until the level is finished. From what was told in the plot, the gameplay nearly resembles Clock Tower that involves solving puzzles and trying to avoid the Scissor Man until the end. That leads to the next game titled Into the Silent Forest which is part of the adventure genre. The visuals and gameplay explained appeared bare bones even compared to low tier adventure titles like Neutopia on TurboGrafx. The theme is about trying to leave a creepy woodland and along the way must find items to ensure your escape. One issue he brings up is how the game looked like it was still in beta judging by the gameplay not being consistent. An example is he had to jump down a well to automatically leave the forest to count as completed. Dark Waters was the most different out of six games because during the 90s not many diving titles existed. The only one to come remotely close to the gameplay was a 3D game called Treasures of the Deep on PS1. The difference is instead of collecting treasures, the player is simply avoiding large aquatic creatures. The next portion is the Imagery that was produced by the same artist named Urkel who did the mockup images for the Super Metroid Creepypasta. He/she this time went out of their way to produce excellent imagery that did a great job showcasing these fictional games. The theme was done nearly as good as The Theater with quality made depictions of each part of the story. I honestly felt that Stalker and Into the Silent Forest were the best mockup images designed. It captures the right mood for the environments and definitely has a creepy vibe to them. As for the depictions of Dino Run and Alchemy Lab were games that really nailed the look that most from the 16-bit era showcased. Dino Run’s concept doesn’t appear like any release from the Fourth Gen aside the isometric style in its visuals. However, it’s hard for me to recall seeing a puzzle platformer that has a character run through a maze with hazards. One of the games that looks visually similar was Pac-Mania in 1987, but the unique thing about these mockups is the challenge had more than eating pellets. While Alchemy Lab was playing off being an alternative to Tetris similar to Sega’s Columns series. Its gameplay resembles a mix between Tetris Attack and Puyo Puyo that has the player match the color of the gems to eliminate each gear set. Then East vs West resembles an old DOS text game that often appeared on PC platforms like the Amiga. As already stated, these games were nothing more than the calm before the storm and the next batch is where the horror begins. The left caption shows off the gameplay of Into the Silent Forest that illustrates an adventure type game. It is here where we get a glimpse of the Skull Face Phantom sitting on a large fallen branch. An interesting element to the systelian specter is it doesn’t threaten or slowly approach followed by a glitch but hauntingly watches the player before disappearing. The ending in the last caption shows the man’s reward as a digitized picture of his young self for completing all six games. This is where the creature appears in the image behind him like a faded ghost. After watching a series of YouTube videos that go over creepy events people experience, the picture here looks believable akin to clearly seeing a face in the darkness. Some might expect glitches to happen leading to the ending but not every systelian specter has to use a demonic design to have any disturbing value. Even the Systelian Specter CP had its ghostly being not take any form, and that actually made this entity creepier. Regardless, the Skull Phantom was still presented vaguely enough that this could be a prank by the developers or a real haunting. The depictions of the next lineup were from releases that normally didn’t appear on consoles. Of course, Into the Silent Forest does use the adventure genre of exploring areas. It was still another title that came to the Amiga while Stalker and Dark Waters’ graphical styles were often found on DOS. The last two are rare genres that hardly hit the market during the Fourth Gen—I never heard of a diving game that had the player swim down the depths of anybody of water to avoid dangerous beasts. The same thing can apply to Stalker too as no release comes to mind that describes its gameplay to a T. Except for Clock Tower on Super NES is the only 2D horror title to come close to the appearance of Stalker. Now, the rare styles used here is what makes the concepts unique based on fact almost none of these existed back then. By this point The Theater was the sole original idea to get a depiction that wasn’t an EXE software from a series like Mario. Despite being produced after the story anonymously was published, it still does a perfect job setting a standard for original gaming campfire tales. Urkel did phenomenal work creating a tense horror vibe for the rest of the lineup following that standard. Of course, Dark Waters did a good job showing off its creepy detail of some massive lake creature slowly coming at the player. It plays up to a vast body of water’s dark depths, potentially having some large beast dwelling. After all there have been tales of giant octopuses and creatures akin to the Loch Ness Monster hiding among the dark waters. The climax was not the best I have seen but was still good on its own merits. The main character discovers an image of him taken when he was younger after examining the picture and the glass bubble on the cart. He laughs at this because of the tech used for such an old system. The CP ends with the guy noticing a skull face creature standing a few feet behind him near the curtains during his youth. I did find it interesting the creature was possibly a systelian specter. If you read most CPs like Ben Drowned, these beings in the plot are a spirit that haunts machinery. It is not the best reveal from a climax I have seen when so many others like Secret Worlds have done. However, after reading the Princess CP that had an AI magically transferred itself to games using ridiculous logic while being able to harm people, sometimes it’s most crucial to keep that vague. While the Princess CP is a good story, the tale was often bogged down by logic gaps as if the Princess was Lawnmower Man. Game coding being so limited during the late 90s should’ve made it impossible for the AI to move to any media or storage format. Compared to Ben, the spirit from Secret Worlds and this Skull Face entity were ghostly beings that can easily transfer themselves even across the internet. When we look at Ben Drowned and Metroid II: Secret Worlds, their tales were written better due to something vaguely happening. I say this borrows more from Secret Worlds due to the fact the Skull entity was present behind the scenes. Just like the previous examples of spirits haunting roms, this entity was present against the protagonist without even being seen all that much. It might’ve been a while since we went over an original gaming CP, however, Starman took the gold standard from quality stories and produced another classic. The plot starts out simple with Dino Run and Alchemy Lab being rather harmless games. Then slowly escalates as he continues to play the other games once reaching the title called Stalker. The Imagery by Urkel was taken farther here than his/her work in the Super Metroid CP. Whatever skills, this person used has shined better here, and they were able to put together believable images of games that appeared in these variety cartridges. Maybe the author could’ve made the skull face shadow appear through the others like in Stalker. That would have been the perfect time to reveal this creature considering it was a horror type game. The story not having the creature appearing a couple of times is more of a nitpick. As far as cliché goes there were hardly any here as the writing was down to Earth rather than exaggerated. To those who take issue with the ending, would you rather a plushie suddenly appear like in Sonic.EXE, that is implied the doll kills the main protagonist? Or an ending that has a guy explaining his haunting experience? Starman gets props for writing an original gaming CP that had many good things going for it—At the time this was a great trend to continue after Yuber Neclod published Secret Worlds. Rating: 8.5/10 Great Sources Story Someordinarygamers.fandom.com. (November 27, 2014). Conplus. StarmanGhost. https://someordinarygamers.fandom.com/wiki/Conplus Images Someordinarygamers.fandom.com. (November 27, 2014). Conplus. Urkel. https://someordinarygamers.fandom.com/wiki/Conplus
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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