Matt Chat

Alone in the Dark (1x35)

: 30, 2009

This week's Matt Chat covers Infogrames' Alone in the Dark, the granddaddy of survival horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Released in 1992, Alone in the Dark introduced a number of important conventions that would show up in many later games, particularly its mix of static and dynamic graphical elements. While the backgrounds were pre-rendered and detailed, the moving objects (characters, monsters, etc.) were rendered on-the-fly and composed of colored polygons. While this setup would be a liability in most types of games, it worked very well for horror. Have a happy Halloween!