The Spectre Files: Deathstalker

Normally I tend to skip these kinds of games, but seeing that it's by Brian Colin and from the footage shown in the Store, I had to get it. And I'm glad I did. It's so much fun and has many different paths to choose from. It will cut off some of the stuff in the top and bottom of the screen on an ultrawide monitor, but as far as I can tell it's only the bottom part of the graphic of the detective when there are choices to be made and some text at the top.

This game is sort of like a Choose Your Own Adventure but with videos instead of text. The video segments are awesome and totally over-the-top, and there are a ton of them between all of the various routes through the game. The gameplay involves a lot of trial and error and can be frustrating. There are a lot of ways to die and a lot of them feel unpredictable and unfair. I'd recommend this game anyway just because it is so unique.

I actually discovered this game when going to an arcade w a few people and thought it was such as interestingly funny game. Some aspects felt a bit bizarre or crazy. I definitely recommend giving it a try, I do hope at some point this game does gain more attention. It's truly unique and one-of-a-kind for the kind of game it is. To me, it was amazing to discover a game that had been restored or finished so people in modern day could see what certain films looked like during back in the day. I actually didn't realize this game is considered from an aspect of history, that I find interesting. I do not know much of the backstory, however, I will say at first the game feels really weird and takes a bit to get used to the different aspects. Such as you'll realize it surrounds the undead and you investigating a house for someone. Over all the game can take awhile and its quite easy to lose a heart but you get a few chances per a play through which is nice. But there's no save points or menu options. (Which I wish it had.) Although, it's still fun for an arcade low budget game.

The importance of games preservation. I am a games preservation advocate as well as a game developer and i tip my metaphorical hat off to the fine folk over at galloping ghosts who not only restored this game that would've been lost to time for display in their frankly gargantuan labyrinthine arcade, but was able to release this game on to steam for folks to enjoy. I am sure that this game stayed lost then there would've been no impact culturally, however i must highlight the work that the fine folks over at galloping ghosts have painstakingly made sure that even a game that's as obscure as this is available to the masses. This is entirely the point of saving games from being lost forever and making them available to people for study and casual gamers to play. It seems that major games companies nowadays seem happy to strip away games that people legally bought for no reason. Nintendo seems to have a burning hatred for their own legacy content that is not currently on the switch, demolishing rom sites that contain games that are either obscure, expensive or both. I must commend galloping ghosts for keeping a former vital pillar of the games industry alive in some way shape or form, even if not all people can access it. Their actual arcade does contain a machine of this as aforementioned, but i must point out that they have other games that equally would probably not see the light of day otherwise. Machines like primal rage 2, Beavis and Butthead, and judge dredd to name a few. In a way marking the birth, life, decline and shift of the games industry away from these bespoke machines to cheaper home video game consoles that could match the power of the arcade. This game acts as a symbol of those ideas of keeping games that people would not know about otherwise available despite the upfront cost, effort and layering that goes into releasing a game. I will be properly reviewing the game down here but i must underline how important the developers are in the games industry for games preservation. As for the game itself it is definitely a product of its time, being a FMV laserdisc game with the production of a low budget 80's B horror movie. It is so low effort and cheap that it wraps around to being great and rather charming. After all this, had it been released during its time, would've been a tech demo for laserdisc technology. Being able to have movie quality cutscenes was a novelty during a time when FMV was in its infancy in the games industry. The Laserdisc, for those kids who dont know what a VHS is, is a record sized compact disc, saw popularity up until the late nineties, and this game was firmly made during the north american games industry crash which explains why it was lost into the ether. Also this game has ties to what would lead to the first original midway game, rampage, who would go on to be an industry defining titan before their collapse at the turn of the 2010's. This game is a passion project. A passion project that refused to die until it saw the light of day, making the cheese, the shlock, the campiness of this game a labor of love that he and the owner of the arcade, Doc Mack, would finally see to completion decades later. as much as i want to make an essay and regurgitate points made elsewhere i highly recommend giving a read detailing the existence and restoration of this game: To the folk over at galloping ghosts who allowed this game to see the light of day, i thank every one who was there to see a passion project to the end. Regardless of the quality, passion projects are game development in its purest, most untapped form and will refuse to die. The lesson here is that passion projects will never truly die, either you resurrect an old project you swore off of, or development gets too out of hand so you have to reset, or to those who had the old footage of a game that would've been released during the second most tumultuous time in the games industry and worked with someone who dedicated their career to preserving games in the way developers intended to, so your game can finally see the light of day. Passion will never leave us, it will hide but one day that passion will return... http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/video-game-scares-the-spectre-files-deathstalker-the-16mm-80s-horror-film-you-havent-seen-really/

If you want a throwback game that only recently got released, this is the game for you. While not very scary, it's super fun to play.