[HN Gopher] Ghost in the machine? Legend of the 'haunted' N64 vi...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ghost in the machine? Legend of the 'haunted' N64 video game
       cartridge
        
       Author : fallinditch
       Score  : 61 points
       Date   : 2025-05-03 16:41 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
        
       | pxndxx wrote:
       | Inscryption captured the "videogame creepypasta" genre in an
       | actual, pretty good roguelike video game, if you want more of
       | this!
        
         | joshu wrote:
         | Inscryption is a towering achievement, especially the frame
         | story. Definitely an example of game as Art
        
       | randomtoast wrote:
       | Short Summary:
       | 
       | Ben Drowned is a viral internet horror story (a "creepypasta")
       | created in 2010 by Alex Hall, who posted under the pseudonym
       | "Jadusable." The tale revolves around a supposedly haunted
       | Nintendo 64 cartridge of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. The
       | cartridge was unlabeled, and when played, exhibited disturbing
       | behavior: reversed music, distorted graphics, and the recurring
       | presence of a statue of Link with a petrified, menacing
       | expression. The in-game ghost was said to be "Ben," the spirit of
       | a boy who drowned.
       | 
       | Related Wiki Article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Drowned
        
       | neuroelectron wrote:
       | Pretty creepy. Here's a direct link to the scenes in question:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGOJmdxdjeA&t=230s
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6D2XCJUJHY&t=65s
       | 
       | The effects are made with N64 ROM hacking in Project64 emulator
       | and video editing.
        
       | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
       | Are haunted/cursed games a common fear in children? I recall a
       | recurring nightmare where my Sim Town game was corrupted or
       | cursed. Having all of the game rules become inverted was
       | terrifying for some reason.
        
         | dafelst wrote:
         | For what it's worth, I experienced the same sort of nightmares,
         | though it typically wasn't a specific game or program, more
         | like the computer being hacked/compromised/haunted.
        
         | gs17 wrote:
         | I've always had nightmares about technology misbehaving, but I
         | blame it on my childhood Mac being one that would sometimes
         | start up with with the screen inverted, the "happy Mac" icon
         | replaced with a dead sad Mac, and the sound of a car crash. The
         | machine that usually follows specific rules randomly deciding
         | to scare you definitely builds some anxiety.
        
         | nekoashide wrote:
         | Ghostbusters on the NES was fear inducing as an 80's kid, then
         | came Resident Evil on the PSX.
        
           | MisterTea wrote:
           | Fear inducing through the anxious environment created on
           | purpose by the gameplay itself or the fear that the game
           | would do something super-natural?
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | As a child I only once remember fearing a machine - the local
         | dry cleaning machine. That thing was a tubular tentacle monster
         | to a child. I feared people a lot more and felt that machines
         | were predictable as they were not biological therefor could not
         | be possessed or haunted. I also have no fears of supernatural
         | beings nor do I have religious inclination to fear a
         | gods/demons/spirits/etc. People are the real monsters.
        
         | yazantapuz wrote:
         | Not a game, but where i live, stories of haunted smurfs toys
         | (or clothes!) that killed their owners where pretty popular,
         | and definitily scaried me when i was a child (we had a tiny
         | smurf action figure and a sega genesis cartdrige of the smurfs
         | game)
        
       | ThrowawayTestr wrote:
       | Do kids still have urban legends?
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-05-05 23:01 UTC)