The ’90s were a great time to be a PC gamer, especially if you go in for weird shit. Some truly bizarre experiments emerged from the era, most of which I never got to play but faintly remember reading about in magazines. Whether it’s the pomo ultraviolence of Harvester, the sickly roach simulator Bad Mojo, or Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages (which I’ll let you Google yourself) the era’s point ‘n’ click adventures have a lot of strange artefacts ripe for rediscovery.
If you’re interested in oddities from the period you probably know Inscape as the publisher of the aforementioned Drowned God, but also Bad Day on the Midway, which was directed by members of surrealist rock troupe The Residents, and almost received a TV adaptation by—take a breath—David Lynch.
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The Dark Eye includes adaptations of three Poe stories: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, and Berenice. Burroughs provides narration, effectively acting as Poe. Thomas Dolby, a 1980s pop star best known for She Blinded Me With Science, provides the score.
According to publisher GMedia, very few changes have been made to The Dark Eye: when it becomes available on Steam later this year it’ll be exactly the game it was in 1995, aspect ratio and all. Except for one crucial difference: instead of The Dark Eye, it’s now called Edgar Allan Poe’s Interactive Horror: 1995 Edition.
“Due to overlapping trademark registrations with other long-standing franchises in the market, we needed a fresh identity to ensure a smooth global distribution,” the publisher said. “We chose a title that places the legendary author front and center.”
That other long-standing franchise is likely the German tabletop game The Dark Eye, which has spawned several videogame adaptations over the years.
If you want to see what you’re in for, here’s a decent walkthrough. Spoilers, obviously:
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