Mount Quaint & Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore? (y/n)

October 23, 2023 2:44 PM

In 1995, short-lived video game publisher Inscape released The Dark Eye, a point-and-click first-person adventure game based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

The Dark Eye adapted three Poe short stories - Berenice, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Cask Of Amontillado - as playable adventures that can be played from the perspective of either the narrator or the victim, surrounded by a frame story, newly composed but inspired by Poe's works.

The figures in the game are more or less photorealistic mannequins with clay sculpted heads. The effect is deeply uncanny. Adding to the weirdness is the voice talent - the game was voiced in large part by William S. Burroughs, with a soundtrack by Thomas Dolby.

Thanks to the internet archive, an ISO of the game's CD-ROM can still be downloaded and played today.

If a taste will do, take a look and a listen to the Burroughs-narrated slideshow animation of The Masque of the Red Death or Annabel Lee.
A complete playthrough video is also available on YouTube.

posted by Pickman's Next Top Model (16 comments total)

Ahh, this is the best. Early CD-ROM games were so bonkers. There was a time where the promise of "unlimited" storage led to so many truly outrageous and improbably multimedia endeavors -- who was financing these things!? -- until the reality that nobody wanted a claymation Poe adaptation narrated by Burroughs brought us back down to Earth.

Thanks for posting this!
posted by uncleozzy at 3:00 PM on October 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

the reality that nobody wanted a claymation Poe adaptation narrated by Burroughs

I'll have you know there are dozens of us!
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 3:01 PM on October 23, 2023 [27 favorites]

I loved this game so much! I try to explain it to people, that there's an Edgar Allen Poe game starring William S Burroughs that looks like a tool video where you play both the killer and their victim. The story they made up for the game is hits the Poe tone perfectly. What a neat piece of art this game is.

I played in in middle school first and it was the last thing that scared me in that childhood way where I had to sleep with the door open for weeks.
posted by Betty_effn_White at 3:18 PM on October 23, 2023 [4 favorites]

This is cool and timely, thanks Pickman's Next Top Model. (Is eponydjacent a thing?) There's a particular kind of earnest charm to these early 90s CD-ROM titles that you don't see much anymore. Or maybe it's just nostalgia.

Other standouts from that period for me: the Giger-inspired Dark Seed from Cyberdreams, Dreamweb from Creative Reality, and the original Alone in the Dark from Infogrames, all of which can be found on IA as well. (AitD is also available for sale from whoever owns the rights now, thirty years and half a dozen IP transfers/mergers/acquisitions later, but I'm not sure any of that cash makes it back to the original Infogrames folks these days.)
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 3:33 PM on October 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

Loved this game. Played it a lot, especially prepping to teach my first Gothic horror classes.


Me too, Two unicycles and some duct tape! Dark Seed was a trip, and the first Alone in the Dark was very engaging. Used to cite its camera angle changes in a multimedia lit class.
posted by doctornemo at 4:08 PM on October 23, 2023

Now I'm feeling startled to learn about new Thomas Dolby music that I might be unfamiliar with! I'm going to have to do a bit more research about this once I have the ambition.

Also, yes, there are more than dozens of us who want a claymation Poe adaptation narrated by Burroughs.
posted by hippybear at 4:09 PM on October 23, 2023

Glad to see this here! I remember playing this and being especially moved by Burroughs's reading of Annabel Lee.

Thomas Dolby also did the soundtrack for Obsidian, another CD-ROM game from that era that was absolutely spectacular.
posted by /\/\/\/ at 4:31 PM on October 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

I have a special love for claymation gaemes - The Dream Machine, The Neverhood, a strange little side-scrolling shooter called Platypus. They span the full gamut from charming and twee to weird and disturbing.
posted by pipeski at 4:31 PM on October 23, 2023

Loved this game back in the day, you haven't heard Masque of the Red Death til you've heard it read by William S. Burroughs.

If you like a playthrough with commentary, Supergreatfriend did a bumble-through not long ago.
posted by rifflesby at 4:51 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Ah ok I thought the art and vibes were reminiscent of the two Residents games and it turns out it was the same publisher! I never played this one but I played the hell out of Freak Show and Bad Day on the Midway. Thanks for posting!
posted by deadbilly at 5:14 PM on October 23, 2023

I played this during a snowy Xmas while cat sitting for some friends. Hearing Burroughs read “The Masque of the Red Death” on Xmas morning was quite the treat.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:44 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I never played this one but I played the hell out of Freak Show and Bad Day on the Midway.

I remember liking Dark Eye, but passing on Bad Day on the Midway because I had no idea who the hell the Residents were (don't think I was ever aware of Freak Show).
posted by juv3nal at 6:14 PM on October 23, 2023

Also: playing as the murderer was scary, as they were usually losing their minds. Playing as the victim was horrifying, because it was usually just some poor sap going about their day and the game made you force that unwitting character to their doom. I still remember playing as the tell tale heart victim and pacing around the room, refusing to put him to bed until I absolutely had to.

I feel like most in most games where you murder people, it’s normal align with the killer at least a little superficially. The Dark Eye trapped you at the murderer.
posted by Betty_effn_White at 6:53 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you don't want to go through the hassle of figuring out how to run an ancient Windows game, you can get a pre-packaged version for modern Windows here.

You can watch a less bumble-y playthrough, with textual commentary from our poor unfortunate protagonist, here.
posted by BiggerJ at 8:41 PM on October 23, 2023

I played this when it came out. I would have been 12. I was very confused.

(I was also, in retrospect, scarred. You have to bury a guy alive, brick by brick. Come to think of it, how do I even remember that?)

((I can't believe my parents let me play that game!))

(((I can't believe Bill Clinton let my parents let me play that game!)))
posted by rossmeissl at 9:24 PM on October 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

And if after watching supergreatfriend's commentary, you want more over a deepy weird, rare, and niche FMV game, their playthrough of MODE is a must. It might be the pinnacle of FMV strangeness.
posted by entity447b at 1:57 PM on October 26, 2023 [1 favorite]