Written by Andy Panthro
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| The mysterious toy shop. |
Happy Halloween everyone! It’s time for…
What do you mean it’s December? What a strange turn of events!
Yes, while this game is set on October 31st, it was released in December of 1993, as part of a promotion for Alone in the Dark 2. Even the opening image of the toyshop has a Christmas tree outside! So it’s only fitting then that I should play this now, in the run up to Christmas, and with Alone In the Dark 2 not too far off in the future (I guess I have my work cut out for me).
A very brief introduction.
I briefly played this many years ago, but I don’t think I ever finished it. In a change from the usual Alone In The Dark games, this one has no combat, but rather is more of a traditional adventure game, albeit in 3D which was not yet common. This is packaged with Alone in the Dark 1 on GOG.com, and was available in the 90s as part of the CD releases of both AitD 1, and AitD 2.
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| The toy shop interior, with a menacing looking jack o’lantern in the upper right |
I’ll keep this first entry quite short, as this is probably going to be a short adventure (I hope so, my time right now is a little limited!). Our character, Grace, is in the now-locked toyshop, and can wander about freely, with a few objects in view to take a look at. There are only “search” and “close” options available as actions for now, but this does change when you pick up new items. We’ll get into more of the story and themes of this little adventure next time, which get revealed upon searching the area.
So we leave our young character for now. She is alone (apart from the toys), and in the dark (apart from the lights of the toy shop)... Who can guess what the rating will be?
Almost exactly the same time in the same year as The Nightmare Before Christmas was released. Not suggesting any direct connection, but it's interesting having two things at once that combine the two holidays.
ReplyDeleteboth things revolving around Jack!
Delete47
ReplyDelete53
ReplyDeleteHmm, I don't know how much its apparently very short length might punish it in the rating, but I'll use the two experienced Companions above me as orientation and guess an even 50.
ReplyDeleteI'd say 40.
ReplyDeleteOff-topic: Don't know who of the admins have a recent comments feed (RSS/Atom) on their feeder/email themselves, but some Anonymous is massively spamming entries with random comments about consoles and old films.
ReplyDelete[You can delete this comment once the issue is solved.]
Thanks! I hopefully cleaned up all of them.
DeleteThanks as well. I've been tied up with work and family, so I saw the spam, but by the time I was able to deal with it, Ilmari had already swooped in to save the day.
DeleteAnd yes, Busca, I'm working on your email. Things have just gotten crazy.
I found this game around last years of 90s, I think it came with my AITD2 CD version game, if I remember correctly it was not even mentioned in the manual or box. I found the files on the cd and try them out, to my surprise it was an extra game ! (may not have happened like this, I dont really remember the details).
ReplyDeleteThat nice music is embedded in my brain, it reminds me a lot of Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes, the specific music played when you go to the shop around mid game to get information on the hat you found (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6qHqrZBm-A&t=4926s&ab_channel=Retro365).
I will guess a 52, a nice little game, for a sunday afternoon with a cup of chocolate
I find it an amazing coincidence on it's tone with the main (and only?) song of Jack in the Dark: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg0md4wPPKw&ab_channel=canape
I remember playing this and not liking it very much, felling about it as just a little demo. My guess is 45. (Andy, if you never played Ait2 I believe you are not going to like it, is a much more action oriented game, unlike the first one, which is very good)
ReplyDeleteYou can certainly play AitD2 as if it's third-person-view Doom, and some parts of it make that style of play necessary, but other parts have alternative solutions.
Deletelol, Doom is a well done game, a masterpiece of how to balance enemy roster, weapons, situation awareness, etc. It's perfection. AITD2 is a combat disaster, the game is good and fun, despite its combat.
DeleteI played the beginning part of AitD2 and AitD3 and did struggle with both at the time, although there are tricks for dealing with all the zombies... which I'll have to figure out again
DeleteWhat I found amusing about AitD2 is that it went in the opposite direction as far as combat enjoyment goes, compared to AitD1. There shooting is dangerous and nearly suicidal, with melee combat being as close as you'll get to something safe, with it being the complete opposite in AitD2. Despite to my recollection no actual changes.
Delete42 seems the way to go here.
ReplyDelete38, it feels like we're entering the phase where they wanted to do everything in 3D but the tech wasn't ready for it yet. I like the premises and the settings do look nice though.
ReplyDeleteI did play this around the time it came out (it might have been on a magazine cover disk or something), but remember very little about it other than the scary toy shop theme. I'll guess 44.
ReplyDeleteAround 50 strikes me as the way to go, it's a nice little game IIRC, just very short.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if someone can clarify two questions of conflicting information about Jack in the Dark.
ReplyDeleteThe AiD fandom Wiki postulates this game was released also on/for the PC-98, but I've not seen this mentioned elsewhere (e.g. in the OGDB or on PCGamingWiki).
Also, while myabandonware (not linking, just in case) claims that "[t]his mini game released as a demo before developing AITD2 to prove the team can make another game with the engine of AITD1. After that they were able to start developing AITD2." (somewhat supported by the German Wikipedia page calling it a 'tech demo' (no source given)), this blog states it was "developed while production was concluding on Alone in the Dark 2".
PS: Sorry, correction: It's a commenter on the abandonware site.
DeleteI don't know if a PC-98 version of Jack in the Dark exists, but I do know that there isn't one available to us at the moment. This does not mean that it doesn't exist, since I know there are several games which have versions which are not available to us on various platforms. Preservation of Japanese titles is, from our perspective, spotty.
DeleteI would be inclined to say the latter is correct, as the game contains elements that were worked on before Raynal left Infogrames.
Thanks, Morpheus. I hadn't yet looked at the Japanese Wikipedia page and this passage (as translated by an online tool, emphasis mine) seems to indicate Jack in the Dark never saw the light (ha!) in Japan:
Delete"In addition, a spinoff story called "Jack in the Dark" starring one of the characters, Grace, was distributed overseas as a promotional piece. This "Jack in the Dark" was later included in the first English CD-ROM version of Alone in the Dark."
Maybe the PC-98 is listed erroneously in the fandom wiki because AitD 2 apparently was published on that platform, too, and JitD bundled with the main game(s) in some releases.
Here is another short (re)view of this little freebie.