A Most Successful Countdown...(+ A Look at Some Other Countdowners)

Well, after worrying about not getting things done for Halloween this year, this has turned out to be my most successful Countdown yet! Not giving myself any deadlines or numbered posts has helped a great deal, as has my discovery of Blogger's scheduled posts! I"m not even here right now, having gotten a last minute Halloween call-to-severed-arms!!

As It's not quite the end of Halloween yet, I'll point you in the direction of some of the other great bloggers who have been posting all throughout October as part of the Countdown, who you should have been looking at anyway if you paid attention to my post at the start of the Countdown....

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First up, to see posts about all things Halloween and some awesome decorations go to Maple Grove Cemetery! Where you'll also find funnies such as the one below...

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For toons, tunes and a great A-Z of of alien invasion movies, check out The Goods!

"D"

is for 

DESTROY ALL MONSTERS

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For a look at some cool spooky toys, like this Dybbuk, check out Action Figure Barbecue...

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And to check out what sorts of amazing Halloween related stuff you can find if you rummage around Garage Sales, check out Garage Sale Finds! Always amazing stuff to be found here....

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For a whole host of Halloween short movies, head over to Halloween Short Films!

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And that's just a few of the 140+ blogs that have been taking part. so you can't use the excuse that there's nothing to do this Halloween! 

As for me, I'm going to take a break for a few days at least, and go catch up on some of the other blogs myself! If you head over to Deadpan Flook's Gruesome Games you'll find daily reposts of previously covered games though! And I'll see you back here soon for some non-Halloween-type comic bits and looks at games, etc.

Oh, and if you can't wait till next year for more spooksomeness, remember there's always Creepmas in a month or so! ;-)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Another Earful Of Eerieness - Spooky Old Radio Shows

It's been a while since I put up some old radio shows! If you'd rather settle back and let your imagination paint the pictures instead of  watching the TV shows in the previous post, then this is the post for you! Just click on the videos below, turn away from your screens and let your imagination run away with you....

The Devil Doctor (The Witch's Tale 1934)

After purchasing an historic manor house in England, an American discovers that one of the promised 106 de Caseract family portraits is missing. He summons a local expert, the Reverend Mr Roberts, for an explanation and discovers the portrait isn't missing... it is hidden. For a very good reason.

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Valse Triste (Lights Out 1942)

Two city women vacationing in the country lose their canoe and seek help within the dark woods. Coming upon a cabin, the women are then terrorized by a mad fiddler obsessed with chance who is intent on making one of them his bride and murdering the other.

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Three Skeleton Key (Escape 1953)

Three men are besieged in a lighthouse when a ship wrecks on the shoal and releases a horde of starving rats. Narrated by our old friend Vincent Price......

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Behind The Locked Door (The Mysterious Traveler 1951)

An archaeological expedition to the Vermillion Cliffs of Arizona seeks to uncover ancient Aztec artifacts... but, instead, finds a cave with a bizarre and deadly legacy.

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Possessed By The Devil (CBS Mystery Theatre 1974)

A young boy who happens to be a minister's son is admitted to a hospital with fatal wounds. Though his health improves, he has lost his soul forever.

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(With thanks to Plot Spot - Plot Archives, The Nitrate Diva and The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre for plot details and inspiration....)

Cinema Of Stuff Presents....More '70s TV Horrors

Here's a host of spooky stories from more '70s TV shows.....this should keep you entertained if there's nothing on TV tonight!


Ghost Story is a great series from Screen Gems and Columbia Pictures in 1972, that later became Circle Of Fear...Circle Of Fear lost the host, an eccentric gentleman called Winston Essex, which is a bit of a shame as he gives the series a nice old fashioned feel!

Anyway, it's stories from when it was still Ghost Story that I'll be posting tonight....First up is a rather familiar tale of a lady feeling somewhat uncomfortable in a new home........

Next we have a TV that predicts the future, some zombies and a huge dose of guilt......

And then we have this tale of a woman who finds her husband has checked out of their hotel without telling her...but that turns out to be the least of her worries....



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Beasts is an ATV series I discovered thanks to a comment on the Shadows post by Two Headed Boy, and I can see what he means about the series not quite clicking....still, here's a couple of episodes so you can see if you like it yourselves! This one where a shop's mascot seems to have suddenly sprung into life....

And this one, which is another tale of a pregnant woman who doesn't like a new house! Estate agents must have really had to work hard in the seventies trying to please all these newly married, pregnant young couples.....



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From the BBC's 1977 series Supernatural we've got giant puppets that might have inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein.....



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And it just wouldn't be Halloween without a visit from blog regular, Vincent Price, who has a few tales to tell in this 1979 treat, Once Upon A Midnight Scary from CBS!

Return Of The Gruesome Games - Zombo (ZX Spectrum)

Artwork by Henry Flint

Zombo (ZX Spectrum) : 

Last year, my brother made another ZX Spectrum game...but this time it wasn't a Freescape game like Dead By Dawn, but an arcade adventure created using AGD! And this one is based on the character Zombo from the comic 2000AD!

Seeing as I'm short of time, and as it would probably be a bit wrong for me to tell you how awesome the game is (yes, even the "feature" when you get trapped in the scenery) I'll just copy and paste the info about the game straight from his blog!

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"You've read the comic, you've bought the action figure, now play the brand new game for the ZX Spectrum!

Not a dream! Not an imaginary thing like what someone does for a joke or something! This is the real thing - an actual thing that you can download right now, right here.

FEATURES

Predefined keys!

The ability to fire in two different directions - left and right!

Roughly ten whole minutes of semi-challenging gameplay!

Random teleportations into different areas, becoming trapped in the scenery for all eternity!

More stuff from the comic. © 2015 Rebellion.

THE PLOT

When Flight 303 crash-lands on the proto-sentient and highly lethal deathworld known as Chronos, it does not bode well for the surviving passengers. Only one well-mannered zombie/man hybrid can save the day. He is Zombo, the result of a top secret Government™ experiment to create the ultimate soldier or weapon or something. Trust your Government™.

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GAMEPLAY

You must rescue 6 survivors and defeat the secret end of game baddy to win. Colour coded keys are scattered around the planet, as are several other items, some of which may help, others of which may not, but there's a gun somewhere which'll probably come in handy. However, please bear in mind that the Shootybang 2000™ can only fire horizontally. To fire vertically, you'd require an upgrade to the Shootybang 3000™ and that's not available to you within this game.

CONTROLS

Kempston Joystick

Sinclair Joystick

Keyboard 

Q - Up

A - Down

O - Left

P - Right

SPACE - Fire

H - Pause

3 - Instantaneous Death Button (Quit Game)

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BADDIES

      Killer Space Fruit - Bounces, requires 1 shot to kill.

        Killer Space Scorpion - Moves erratically, requires 1 shot to kill.

      Killer Mutant Space Hillbilly - Moves vertically, unkillable.

        Killer Space Zombie - Moves horizontally, unkillable.

        Killer Rogue Death Shadow - Follows player, requires multiple shots to kill.

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WHY HAVE YOU MADE A ZX SPECTRUM GAME ABOUT ZOMBO?

Because the plot of the 2000 AD comic strip is exactly the sort of bizarre premise that a lot of those old 8-bit games used to have, and I knew there was software available that meant that I could if I wanted to, (in this case, Arcade Game Designer by Jonathan Cauldwell). Add to that the strangely British sensibilities and twistedly nostalgic pop culture references, and a slightly buggy game for the Spectrum just seemed a perfect tie-in.

This is a completely unofficial, not-for-profit fan-game by Malcolm Kirk.

Programmed in Jonathan Cauldwell's Arcade Game Designer.

Zombo™ Rebellion A/S, © Rebellion A/S.

Splundig Vur Thrigg, as they say on Quaxxan."

DOWNLOAD THE GAME HERE!

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So there you go! A nice wee homebrew gem for you to play this Halloween!

Here's what some other retro-inclined folk made of it.....

You can find a walkthrough, a map and more info at my brother's blog, where hopefully later today you'll also be able to find the latest issue of Hallowscream, the comic put together every year by my brother and other Scream fans! You can also find links to the old issues, like last year's which you can see the cover of below!

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That's probably not it for Gruesome Games quite yet this year...there's still Creepmas to look forward to...and if you head over to the new blog you can find a re-post of the Freddy vs Jason special I did, with the added bonus of some extra stuff about the new Friday The 13th game due out next year! 

I'll see you for a few more posts later today...yes, more posts! It is Halloween y'know!! ;-)

The Parting!

Time for another trip to the Digital Comic Museum, where Cimmerian32's scan of  Fiction Comic's Ghost Comics No.1 (1951) gives us another reason to be wary of ventriloquists dummies!

Gruesome Games Gets It's Own Blog!

Heya people! Just a quick heads-up that I'm finally doing something that I've been pondering over for a while, and setting up a seperate blog where I'm going to repost all the Gruesome Games I've covered so far!

Now don't worry...this doesn't mean that I won't be posting Gruesome Games posts on the Blog Of Stuff! This other blog is just for people who aren't interested in Cinema Of Stuff, or old comics or any of the other non-spooky games and other stuff I write about on here, and can also be a seperate resource for horror game enthusiasts....

I'll be making it easier to find specific games, by giving them their own post each, unless it's a special post like the Gegege games or the Evil Dead special.

Another thing I'll be doing is updating any images or videos that have since disappeared from sources, and maybe fleshing out posts about games that I was a bit rushed with at the time, or have since played a bit more and have a bit more info on...

For the most part though, it will just be me reposting old stuff and making it a bit shinier, and any new games I cover will always be posted on this blog first, so you don't need to go anywhere! But it'll be worth following the other blog too for the extra stuff, and for an easier way of finding any of the games I previously covered!

You can find the blog at http://deadpanflooksgruesomegames.blogspot.co.uk/ 

So yeah, just to double-triple confirm nothing will change here, but follow the other blog too if you like! Right, I'm off to get back to work on another post for this blog now...laters! :-)

Cinema Of Stuff Presents....La Nave de los Monstruos (Ship Of Monsters)

A special treat for you Cinema Stuffers tonight, as we take a look at a Mexican Western/Sci-Fi/Comedy/Horror/Musical from 1960!

A Venusian Senorita, her adopted sister from the Shadow Planet, and their amazingly sound-effected robot need to stop off in Mexico to fix their ship after being on a tour collecting male specimens of various different species of aliens with which to repopulate Venus. Local cowboy and yarn-spinner Lauriano stumbles upon these ladies after singing a song and being berated by his horse, and is quizzed by the pair about love and circuses....

Then it gets even crazier, and one of the girls, Beta, turns out to be a vampire, who subsequently gets threatened with termination for drinking blood and decides to get all the other aliens to help her take over the world, while the other girl, Gamma, falls in love with Lauriano...as her robot falls in love with a jukebox!

It's a great movie that doesn't take itself seriously at all, and with five monsters roaming around it's one you can't afford to miss if you're a Sci-Fi or Horror movie buff! So here it is in all it's splendour.....get your popcorn, get comfy and get watching! :)

Remember to put on the English captions, unless you can speak Mexican of course........

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Return Of The Gruesome Games - Another XBLIG Special

With only another year or so guaranteed of being able to play Xbox Live Indie Games on Xbox 360, I thought I should probably mention a few more on the blog, to save any of you looking for an rainy afternoon's entertainment sifting through the literally hundreds of titles in the 360's library. Almost all of these cost under a pound, or a dollar in the US, so it's worth checking out the better ones if you're looking for something to play this Halloween...

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Medieval Zombies

This game plonks you way back in days of yore, facing hundreds of the undead as you search crates and hunt for better equipment to destroy them with, whilst also trying to keep your fellow AI zombie fighters alive. As you can see, the graphics are somewhat rubbish, but this gives the game a certain appeal...

Unfortunately, it also gets very, very repetitive after the first 10 minutes or so. Somehow, despite it's obvious crapness, I still really like Medieval Zombies, but i can't really recommend it or you'd think I'd gone completely mental!

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After Dusk

Ah! This is a bit better! In After Dusk, you, as captain of a starship, answer a distress call from a Space Station to find out what went wrong and maybe claim some salvage. Once you get there though, you find things have gone a bit bitey-bitey, brainy-chompy Dead-Space-style, and the space station crash lands onto a nearby planet! Skulking around the dark, you fire up generators to keep the light-fearing nasties at bay and try to get back to your ship and get away from all this death!

It's quite a groovy little game, with some nice light effects (your bullet lights up a trail as it shoots off towards the nasties), some decent platformy-puzzlements and a suitably unsettling soundtrack. Well worth a go if you're looking for a good creep around in the dark....

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Dead Kings

I really like this one! Apparently a sequel to game called Bloody Checkers (which focused a lot more on playing checkers, obviously), this one has you creeping about a castle at night looking for loot and battling dead kings and queens by examining their paintings and then taking on their challenges, which come in the form of a few mini-games like Breakout, Asteroids or, indeed, checkers...

You'll also struggle to keep your candle alight to see where you're going and access the paintings, as various ghostly happenings occur to scare you pantless and put out your flame! This game oozes atmosphere, and was quite a surprising find for me on XBLIG...It reminds me of Dark Souls, the old TV series Knightmare and a random crappy-but-good covergame you'd get on the front of an old Spectrum mag! Definitely give this one a go for a unique blend of freakiness this Halloween! Oh, and you can bring a friend for a co-op playthrough too! So yay! 

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Press X To Not Die 

Another one of these Live-Action-Video style games now, that everybody thought was the future of gaming back in the early nineties. This one actually tries to be funny, unlike the ones I reviewed in my previous XBLIG post, and it sometimes succeeds. 

As you've probably guessed from the title, the game consists almost entirely of QTEs and you have to bash the buttons at the right time or you'll fail whatever task you happen to be doing. If QTEs are a personal bugbear of yours, you'd better steer well clear....

Plot-wise it seems pretty similar to Sean Of The Dead, with you trying to get to your girlfriend and escape the random outbreak of whatever virus is causing people to go a bit doolally and violent! Like I said, there's a few laughs to be had, and it's just about the right length for you to not get bored of just pressing random buttons. So yeah, again worth a go if you're after something a bit different....

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Demon House

Lastly today, we look at the rather okay Demon House, where you wander around a spooky mansion in FPS mode, trying to put a stop to an evil scientist plans for world domination using an army of undead creatures and robots!

It's fairly standard budget FPS stuff, but has a nice spooky atmosphere with lots of Haunted House style creepiness, and decent enough AI that it's pretty enjoyable to roam around. You'll also need to find keys hidden in secret areas to open doors so there's a fair bit of exploration too! It's pretty decent for the price you'll pay, so I recommend you give it a go.

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So there you have it, another five games covered so you know what to expect! If I've time, I'll look at some more soon, as like I say there are literally hundreds of Indie games on XBLIG! If you only download one from this lot though, I'd go for Dead Kings...definitely the best of the bunch!