The birth of Survival Horror in gaming...

jamesyfx

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Is Resident Evil, right?

Oh.. no. Those in the know... it's Sweet Home. The NES movie tie-in game Resident Evil was heavily influenced by.

End of story. .... Right? Nope. Sorry!

Sweet Home was released in Japan in December 1989. But there was another game which pipped it to the post which arguably has more survival horror elements.

So, earlier in August 1989 a game for the Commodore 64 was released called Project Firestart. And it has literally everything you'd expect in a modern survival horror game. Developed by a small team, this forgotten relic packed absolutely everything that defines survival horror today.

Scathing resource scarcity? Check. Intricate puzzles, lore-heavy computer logs, grotesque monsters that chased you from room to room, branching multiple endings? It had them all. Very ahead of its time, and arguably a more fun horror game than its contemporaries. It even had cut scenes!

Set on a space station, the game presented as a 2D side scroller but the world was drawn isometrically to give a 3D look.

The game had quite a long development for the time - three years... and right at the end of the C64s life, it received pretty much zero marketing which is why most people would never have heard of it. Well... now you know!

Longplay by Ludophiles on Youtube:
 

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