Welcome to Fear Coded, a podcast where we talk about media from the horror genre to get queer reading of a single book, video game, film, podcast, or TV show to explore just how queer horror can be.

All month long we've been talking about horror that was made for children, and we have a particularly interesting adaptation with that theme in mind as we continue to be assigned seating at the kids table, taking a break before dessert with our 1991 video game Uninvited, originally designed by Icom Solutions and ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System by Kemco.

I'm David.

I'm Marilee.

And I'm Tyler.

And we want to thank all the bats in our belfry for being part of our amazing community.

By supporting our fear coded Patreon.

Thank you to Will, Knight of Cups, Doug, Jacob, Alyssa, Blake, Puckishrogue, Tyler, Derek and Maureen.

Now before we shout Thundidi as loudly as possible, I want to say hello and check in with my Co host to find out how things are going for them in our landscape of horrors that the real world has to offer.

What is making y'all feel scared or what is making you feel prepared?

But gain I am so serious about this one that I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it.

Wow, preparation for a podcast.

This is exciting.

I'm here for it.

Tyler, what have you got?

So last night I'm hanging out with my friends and we're playing D&D and I get asked Tyler.

You're from the South.

Did you live there all your life?

And of course I said yes.

And they said how are you feeling about the winter and gain?

My answer to that question is that I am both prepared and scared.

Nice, let's.

Let's let's start on the plus side of this one.

What makes you feel prepared about winter?

So Marshall and I enjoy cold weather.

I have been in the snow before.

I've been in Michigan in February and that was, that was fucking cold.

Yeah.

And then I've, I've been, I've been in a cabin when it snowed and then had to drive.

Well, I didn't do the driving, but I've been driven through the snow before.

So I do feel like, OK, it, it gets cold, but if I'm improperly bundled up, I'm ready.

And even then, I, I don't think it gets as cold as I was raised to fear the cold as in like the feeling like I know it's going to get like temperature wise really cold.

But eventually it gets to a point where it's like it's just cold.

It can't feel much worse than than how it already does.

And then thankfully I'm not close to the, to the Great Lakes or anything like that.

So I don't have to deal with lake effect snow.

We're kind of in like a warm pocket here in my part of Ohio.

So I'm feeling prepared in that sense, but I'm also feeling kind of scared.

OK and I'm scared because I feel like I'm still needing to get the proper accoutrement so I'll be ready.

I do have a coat.

I have a scarf or a couple scarves.

Beanies.

I have those.

Do you got boots?

Boots are one of the things that I'm still struggling to get.

You've got to get good footwear, man.

I do like wellers or actual snow boots.

I've been told Docs, Doc Martens are good.

They have like a, a snowy, snowy version.

Yeah.

I was raised on LL Bean, like when my family was like wealthy before, well, not wealthy.

We were never wealthy, but like had more money before, you know, the Great Recession O seven O 8.

We used to get LL Bean clothing and every once in a while and the duck boots that they have.

I've been told those are really great.

So I thought about those, but I'm still kind of struggling to find like a really good pair of boots that are not going to kill me when I try to break them in and then are going to keep my feet warm.

And then also are good for like a big boy.

Because I don't want like something skinny.

I don't want something that's going to be like really difficult to break in.

I want something that's like chunky but so that I'll feel like comfortable walking around, but not to the point that I'm going to be like, Oh, my leg.

Yeah.

We need to evaluate what, what, what interaction with snow do you anticipate having?

Are you going to go out into it or are you just going to be prepared to be in it if it is around you?

I suppose the latter.

I don't plan on doing any like big snowy activities at the moment, like I'm not skiing.

Snowboarding shovel snow.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, maybe the little snowman is the opportunity arises.

I've never done that before.

You could build a snowman in sneakers, you just might have to throw them away afterwards.

They're just going to get wet.

I like real big, big boots.

Tyler, you need for like, I'm going to go be in the snow.

Incidental snow might ruin a pair of shoes, but it's not going to kill.

You, you just got to.

I would take a look at all of your closed toed shoes and make sure to examine the bottom to see what the grip is like.

Because the number one thing you have in particular have to be worried about, especially if you're not planning on doing outdoor activities, is traction.

Because there's going to be ice and if you slip that's going to be your issue.

You need to make sure you have traction on your shoes.

This is my #1 concern because my clumsy ass will fall on my butt or worse.

And my family has noted for two things, being planned counselors and falling and hurting ourselves.

I love it, I love it, I love it.

My poor mother broke her, broke her left arm falling down and it was a time and I don't want to repeat that process.

And I'm also concerned about Marshall because Marshall is leaving the house way more often than me.

And bless their heart, they're always just like, I'll be fine.

I know what I'm doing.

And I, and I trust them implicitly in that regard about my, my brain, which has like funny thoughts sometimes is just like, but what if you're not though?

I have to be.

Anxious.

Yeah, yeah.

OK.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And my other thing that I didn't hear in your list was gloves.

I do have gloves, yeah.

Do you have gloves?

I have a couple pairs of gloves.

OK, but like opera gloves or like snow gloves?

Opera gloves, of course, David.

No, no, no, I do have.

Snow, listen, I love an outfit, Tyler.

I got those fingerless gloves so I could do my hacker thing.

That's.

OK, Well, that's cool.

That's.

Cool.

No, no, no, I do have like proper like snow gloves.

So I'm I'm feeling OK there.

That's to me that merrily got it right with one which was boots because if your if your toes get too wet and cold, you could lose a toe.

The second one that I was worried about his fingers because if your fingers get too wet and cold, you can lose a finger.

I'm not ideal either.

Yeah, no, that both options.

I didn't even go that far.

Again, I was more worried about slipping and falling because I was not expecting Tyler to go out into the wilderness.

Like, forgive me, that didn't seem like the read.

That was a read, but it was not an inaccurate read.

Have I not told both of you that when I grew up in Michigan, they made us take outdoor wilderness survival classes?

That was a requirement in school.

No.

Yeah.

So I think it was 3rd or 4th grade.

We all had to go and stay overnight as if our car had broken down.

And all we had was our emergency pack from the back of the car, which was a blanket, a tarp and matches and a few packets of like instant soup.

And we had to learn to melt water or melt snow to make water, to eat the soup.

We had to learn to build fires.

We had to learn to make shelter and we had to learn to survive the night.

Wow, you know that seems a insane but B honestly not a bad idea, especially in a time before cell phones.

Well, that's what it is.

I surely don't do this anymore, right?

Yeah, just call 9/1.

One, especially in Ethania, I don't think that's happening too often.

Specifically, you're part of Ethania.

Right.

And also don't call 911 because it's 112 here.

Good to know.

I had to break that news to someone recently that like over in Europe it's not 911 it's but it or in the UK it's not 911 either.

I I think most disappointingly is that the EU can't even get everyone on the same page as to what the number is, so it is different in different countries.

So kind of a bummer.

That's that is a bummer.

But you know what's not a bummer?

You both telling me if you're prepared or scared.

So merrily I'm putting you in the hot seat.

Are you feeling prepared or scared?

The seat is very toasty.

Thank you so much for the hot seat.

I appreciate it.

So I'm so prepared right now, you guys.

Wow.

Why are you so prepared merrily?

There's been some very good video game news for me in particular, and I'm just.

For Mary.

I'm eating just so good.

Tell us more what I I've seen some news, but let's let's narrow it down a little bit merrily.

What news has brought you such a smile, such a joy, such a preparedness?

Well, so there are two things that again, this is going to be old news to listeners because we are recording of course, in the past for you.

But last week they announced that we're getting new Animal Crossing content, Animal Crossing Horizon.

We're so back, baby.

I saw somebody comment, dad came back with the milk.

And that's like the feeling right now, because I cannot believe we're getting more Animal Crossing New Horizon content after they swore they'd never do it again, which was so dumb because this, this, this title has the potential to go on forever.

It's just you.

Animal Crossing.

Is it just the last DLC?

But again, yes.

Does that matter?

No.

Hey, listen, we're going to we're going to take it.

We're going to buy they it looks like this comes the update will be free and alongside a a visual upgrade that you can purchase if you have a switch to so you don't even need to buy anything, which I think is pretty exciting.

The only words that I needed to see was multiple crafting at once.

Oh my God.

Take everything, David.

That was exactly what stuck out in my brain too.

Yeah, and what it what it really, what it really pretends to me is that even if I didn't go back to Davenport named for me, David, then I am hopeful for future iterations of the series to to take whatever multiple crafting at once means and apply it moving forward.

Because crafting slowly in Animal Crossing is so much fun for the first week.

Yes, and then it is not.

Yep.

And multiple crafting at once, I hope starts to address a little bit of the the barrier to fun that gets in the late game of Animal Crossing.

I love that it's well said.

And then my other piece of really exciting video game news.

Maybe you guys hadn't already heard, but Capcom just accidentally confirmed a very popular fan theory.

Yeah, you, you have seen this.

Sell this, yes.

They when they were promoting the new version of their new game Resident Evil Requiem in the pre-order bundle, somebody looked at the details and it accidentally confirmed that Leon Scott Kennedy is going to be in the fucking game folks.

Yes.

Yes, I saw this news and was like wow, this Reddit thread has 6000 comments on it.

This must be very exciting for people who know what these words mean.

And I continued on into other content that I look at at Reddit.

For more information, see our bonus episode.

Merrily, I actually had like heard rumblings a couple months ago that Leon could be in the game, which I felt was like that.

That seemed kind of natural considering we had the two remake that was huge.

The four remake that was huge.

Of course, Leon is one of the most popular characters in the series.

Let's bring him back.

So having that, having that confirmed, I'm very, very excited.

I'm so excited to see older Leon and I'm like that Chris can have a break, he can go lift weights and please go to therapy.

Please, please go.

Here's my thing is I am furious that they are not addressing the elephant that they put in the room at the end of eight.

Like what is this going to be in the past or like, how are we not going to follow up on what they did at the end of eight?

I'm desperate for more lore there.

But like ever since 9 was announced and we saw what it was, which is going back to Raccoon City, which was destroyed at the end of two, which is where we first introduced Leon, people have been like, oh, so like, is Leon going to be in this game?

And and people have been speculating the whole time about it and then them accidentally confirming it in a fucking costume information thing I'm so excited about.

Incredible, very exciting news.

Yes, it's a little scary for me personally because this means I'm going to have to really figure out and like budget and find a way to get APS fucking 5 because I got to see my boy.

But it's going to be worth it, even if just I'm so excited that we're going to get more Leon stuff because we haven't seen him in a game since 6:00.

So can't.

I cannot wait to see my guy again.

That's right.

I'm I'm excited for you and eventually for me to understand what any of this is.

Yeah, I, I there's so many.

Things I understand merrily.

I understand merrily.

Great, great.

You and I are holding our Resident Evil brain cell and we're sticking.

My gosh, we're skipping through the fields together holding it.

We're gonna get David in here with us someday.

Well, I know that he's the I know that he's floppy haired.

That's what I know about Leon Kennedy is he's got a little flop and I do like that.

I like his design.

I have seen Leon Kennedy.

I'm not like, you know, inhuman and haven't been exposed to the Internet.

I just don't know anything about him.

Is is Resident Evil the Jill sandwich one or is that the other one?

I guess yes.

OK, OK.

OK.

OK, great.

The other one I assume being Silent Hill.

Silent Hill Yes, yes, yes.

I think I've asked this question on this podcast before.

Yes, you have.

We should play only.

Whatever game which?

Is.

We should play.

We should play whatever game that is, the Jill Sandwich game.

The first one, well.

Yeah, the first one and I.

Know that's not the best 1, so that's OK.

That's why I went oh, That's why I went oh.

It's the classic, we'll just say that.

It's classic, it's classic, it's classic, it's classic.

Well, David, I need to know, are you feeling scared to prepare today?

You know, I'm feeling prepared and about a topic that normally would set my teeth on edge and make me scared.

But instead I come to you prepared.

Because this morning I had brunch with the girls.

Last night I had some scintillating conversation at a bar.

And y'all, I'm winning.

David is winning.

And that means we're all winning because I am changing the minds and hearts of people in my life about so-called generative AI.

There's a time, my God, David, I could cry.

Yeah, there was a time in which people would say it and I would glower.

They'd be like, oh, let's chit GPT this.

And I would just, I would stare daggers across the table at them.

And so I became known as a bit of a scold.

And I would follow up that reputation by appropriately scolding people and giving them all of the reasons that things weren't going well.

Well, the tables they have turned and now people are interested in my perspectives.

And the more I talk, the more committed they are to stop using these products and services.

And that is really warmed my heart and made it really beautiful and allowed me to also forecast the financial disaster that will be coming if more people do not stop using these products quickly.

Because in 18 months, if we keep on our current course, we will be seeing another economic downturn the likes of which 08/09 we wish could happen again.

And so I think if you're listening to this and you're like, I like to make things on open a eyes or a product because I can't draw, like you can literally learn to draw.

It is it would be better for you to draw a stick figure than to use that service, which will ultimately 'cause people to be very, very hurt.

And I'm not talking about like it steals art, which it does.

And you should feel like a shithead for that.

But it literally is about to cost people their livelihoods, their houses and their ability to access services.

So if you haven't stopped already, now is the time to stop.

The best time to stop using AI was to never start.

The second best time to stop using AI is today.

Yeah.

Precisely.

And here's another thing of David Laur, I don't know if you know this, but I, I won an award for programming in LLM when I was in college.

I, I programmed the, the dishes.

We, we took the doctor DOCTOR protocol and we revised it to be used in prevention counseling and partner elicitation for the department, the state Department of Sales, the Texas State Department of Health Services.

And that got me an award from my university and from a national nonprofit that looks at HIV prevention because this was an HIV prevention protocol and it was to test your skills with.

And it uses the exact same infrastructure with a much, much, much, much smaller data set.

In fact, it was, it wasn't really like an AI.

It was like I was programming Undertale.

It was like 1,000,000 if then statements.

So Toby Fox, call me because I know your struggle, Toby.

Fox, come on the podcast.

Yeah.

Toby Fox come on the podcast talk about how terrible AI is and how all programming should just be if then statements because honestly girl, it's the better way to go.

We won't even talk about like the content of Undertale and Delta Room.

We'll just talk about how they're made.

Yeah, just.

Perfect.

Wait, that would be sick actually.

Yeah, so I, I, I don't know it, it just feels nice that people are listening and, and taking seriously some of the things that I've been saying for a while.

It makes me feel good and it makes me feel powerful.

As it should.

Yeah.

I'm a tastemaker and that taste is a distaste for AI.

You're distaste maker.

You're genuinely a delight.

I'm treasure you.

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And now that this ad is done, you have plenty of room on your plate for potatoes and molasses.

Well, we've got lots to distaste today if you are so unfortunate as to drink any of the bottles that we find in today's game.

Because today we are discussing Uninvited, developed by ICOM Solutions under the leadership of Darren Adler as the sophomore effort of their Quote Mac Venture series of adventure games, which began with the game Deja Vu released in 1985.

Uninvited was released in 1986 and then ICOM worked with Chemco to port it for Japanese.

Audiences on the NES in 1989.

Kemco would go on to localize the game for the North American NES audience in 1991.

The story follows the player character, who regains consciousness after a car accident.

Upon waking, you find yourself without your older sister, and the only place where she could be is in a big, creepy house.

Upon entering, the player is beset by horrors and must determine the house's back story or face, being trapped there forever.

The game was well received upon its release, with contemporary reviews calling it a truly horrifying adventure game and mystery that leaves you shivering in the dark.

That imagery, while limited by its technology, went a long way in horrifying players, even after the adjustments for the port were made to allow this to meet the kid friendly requirements of Nintendo for America.

What are your experiences with Uninvited and how did we play this classic game?

I'd never heard of it before.

Yeah, like David told us about this game.

I Googled it, saw one of the scariest images of my life.

And then I was like, obviously this is we should cover this.

I did not play it, but I did watch a YouTube video.

Yeah, Mary Lee, I also did not play it.

I watched the YouTube video, but I did also watch a compilation of all the different deaths that could happen.

But other than that, like the only experience I had before actually watching the game was watching like a YouTube video that just listed all of the impossibly difficult games.

And Uninvited was on that list, specifically focusing on the very beginning of the game, which we will get into because wow, it's a doozy.

Yeah, so I, I, I of course recommended this game to Tyler Merrily.

And as you heard Merrily discuss, like in our planning session, both of you googled the name and saw the cover art that like was the box that I saw and rented this as a child, me, a person who didn't.

And the only reason I did because very, very small on that box, it said from the makers of Deja Vu and y'all, I fucking loved Deja Vu because you play API who's lost his memory and there's this like sort of jazzy score that goes through this adventure game.

And it is a very achievable game.

And so I got this thinking like, oh, this will be like more Deja Vu.

And this I would describe as less achievable.

There are some, there's some big leaps that we are going to have to take in order to solve some of these puzzles and get things done.

But I had a lot of fun with this.

I played it enough as a child that emulating it for this podcast, it was like putting on an old pair of shoes.

I remembered how to achieve every death sequence.

I remembered how to solve every esoteric ass puzzle.

And I sailed through this and it was a little bit, most of the music and the visuals was like putting on a little bit of a warm blanket.

I loved the series and I'm really excited to be talking about this one here today.

Well, that's incredible, David.

I think on that note, we should just go ahead and jump into our themes.

So our very first theme for the video game uninvited is come on in, you're uninvited.

This, of course, is not our first foray into the big scary house, not even our first video game covering the trope.

But this house is actually big and actually scary.

It contains A catacomb planetarium, a chefs kitchen, and four spacious bedrooms.

Zillow, I would love to see this thing on you.

With all of that, however, comes a spectrum of horrors.

The first Mac Venture game was a sprawling detective story as David exlained the game Deja Vu and uninvited mirrors that by making this big scary house as big as we need it to be to fit all these scenarios.

And I think, I think playing this again as an adult with a keen eye for media critique, I was like, oh, this house is like architecturally impossible.

This is, this is, this is, this is putting the Hill House to shame.

This thing is this thing's a nightmare scenario of, of unintelligible.

Why am I going outside a second time?

Like just what is happening?

Like, listen, I feel like there's a perfectly cromulent read of this house is like everything past the first room isn't actually there and it's just all like in your head because genuinely, how are these things supposed to string together at one point?

Like genuinely not architecturally possible is a great way to put it.

I have to assume that our character is concussed if that were the case.

I mean, they did wake up after a car accident, so you never know.

That's right.

No, it's entirely possible.

I think on that note, David, like a house is such a great setting for a game like this and just a game in general.

Like we love Gone Home.

That's one of our favorite games that we've covered.

I think it's one of our best episodes ever.

So definitely check that out if you haven't listened to it yet.

But this house is so different because as as you wrote in our theme discussion, David, like this is like insane.

But at the same time it like in terms of layout and geography and everything.

But it also kind of makes sense because a house is a confined space, but it also can be like as big as you need it to be.

So maybe the house is like impossible to put together.

But like, I think as the player, I'm not really thinking that.

I'm thinking, how am I going to get past this ghost?

Right?

So kind of on that note, I think the the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1, which we just touched on, I think it's probably like the most iconic haunted house in video games.

There's no ghosts, but obviously lots of monsters running around.

But I think games like Resident Evil 1, the original Alone in the Dark, they owe a lot of inspiration to games like Uninvited because that is kind of our standard bearer for like a classic early age of video games, kind of like haunted house.

And for that, like I, I love that.

Yeah, I mean, it, it, it's also pretty cool because it's like a history of gaming thing.

We didn't talk about this when we talked about Gotten Home, but one of the like, literal first visual adventure games put out by Sierra Online, where we're still putting A-IN the middle of online because we thought no one would know what this meant, was called Mystery House.

And it, it, it looks like, you know, when we talked about faith, we didn't really talk about some of the visual inspiration outside that.

It was like an Apple two situation.

But if you look at like, like individual scenes from Mystery House, you should get some faith vibes off of it.

Because it is, it is like we just learned to have the computer draw things for us to the point that like we can only have the computer draw a rectangle.

So if the rectangle ends up overlapping with something else, it's just going to overlap and you're going to have to do it in your head.

But the actual game, Mystery House, is about like a possessed little girl and you have to murder her with a gun.

Like, it is an intense first foray into what would then be King's Quest, which is like, fucking huge for Sierra.

That's rad.

Yeah, that does sound quite faith inspired or inspired, you know, inspiring.

Yeah, exactly.

Inspiring for faith.

So very interesting.

Our follow up to this theme would be Epic Fail State.

Or if you give a somewhat cute abstract creature a cookie.

So Uninvited has been described as easily one of the most difficult puzzle games on the Nintendo Entertainment System, the NES.

There are some real significant jumps in logic, but most of the death sequences are so well telegraphed the players are more likely to quit in frustration for not knowing what to do next, then quit after being bitten by a zombie when you are confronted by 1 and idiotically try to find it.

The death sequences are the most horrific sequences of the game.

Even after being altered some from the original, many remain completely intact, translations aside, meaning that whoever was checking may have simply never encountered them.

I just many many many points into this game.

As I was watching it I just I thought to myself how the hell was anyone ever supposed to figure this out Because I genuinely like the trial and error that must have gone into this is insane.

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of, it was pretty important to pick up that months Nintendo Power because there was a walkthrough that was included in the Nintendo Power magazine.

And I think without that truly how are you going to find some of these solutions?

One puzzle is incredibly well detailed in which there are two scrolls with different information and you've got to put them together to solve something.

And then one is like you have a sealed jar, how do you open it?

I have an axe I guess.

Sure on that.

Honestly, on that note, though, I find that so funny and like, like we'll get into it when we're discussing like the actual walk through the game, but like there are some really funny lines delivered by the narrator in the game that are just like really sarcastic or really like dry witted.

And I really enjoy that, especially because like so much of the game is like quite fraught.

It's it's pretty intense.

Like these puzzles, as we've discussed, they're to me, they're pretty impenetrable.

You know, I had the exact same experience as you merrily where I was watching and I'm like, what the hell?

Are we going to have to melt like all these different elements together to make a key from gold, silver and mercury?

How the fuck is that going to work?

And then it ends up being something else to solve that I had no fucking idea would be the answer.

So again, pretty impenetrable to me.

And the death scenes are very shocking, like for a game this old.

And this is actually toned down from the original version of this game too.

There's, there's not a lot of well documented history around this game.

And I did, I did reach out to some of the developers because they are working on uninvited 2 and I was like, I do have some questions.

They didn't respond, which is fine.

They're busy guys and they're, they're doing this thing.

But I, I am curious in if, if things were not altered from the original Mac Mac venture, It seems like the consensus online is that the sensor never got to that death sequence.

So the most violent things we see are just things that that whoever was supposed to be checking for is this too much?

Just never got a chance to see.

They all entered the church and was like, get this crucifix out of here.

We can't have this in a Nintendo Entertainment System video game.

But there are a few deaths on here that are pretty gory and terrible.

Even the description of use acts on self is pretty violent.

And so I think that I think I kind of agree with the the general consensus, which is that they just never got seen and that's why we're able to to still play them in this original version.

Do we think that the the person who is testing is just the best video game player in the world?

Like how did they avoid some of these deaths?

They would have been given a script of what to do that would that would be very common of how to finish an adventure game in this era because quality assurance and censorship folks only have so much time and they have all these video games to look at.

So they usually ask for How am I supposed to play this?

Is that the case today too?

Yeah, generally.

Generally, if you're asking somebody to help with, like if I hired someone to help test a game, I would give them a general idea of how I expected them to play the game, depending on the scope and the contract that we go through.

I would also hope that they would play the game in unexpected ways to find bugs or errors or anything.

But for a port of an 86 game that's going to Japan and then being retranslated back into English, this is probably a pretty low priority thing, which is surprising because it's sold pretty well.

Interesting.

Well, let's let's talk about that port.

So our third and final theme for today's episode is any port in the storm.

So we're playing a port of the game, which is a term used to describe games that have been brought onto different consoles or platforms than they were originally designed for.

The etymology is the same as where we get the word for someone who carries your bags, a Porter.

When code is not directly compatible with a new system or software architecture, it must be carried into that system.

So a PC game cannot play an NES game, and NES game cannot play a PC game.

Therefore, we have to make the NES version of this PC port so that we can then play the game on the NES.

So this port for uninvited on the NES added colors and music.

Really great music by the way, as well as translated the story for memory containers and or.

Yeah, memory containers.

So you can only hold so many words in a memory container, otherwise it goes over the limit.

Makes sense.

So say were translated for these memory containers and then to make the scenarios kid friendlier.

Which is part of why I wanted to bring it for our our conversation because I truly and honestly I think if you if you watch this game be played, you might be like why the fuck are we talking about this in kids horror?

This is a terrifying experience and yet this is the kid friendly version of this game.

Sure, insane to me that like so David Merrily and I did not play or I personally didn't watch any of the original Mac Venture version of this game.

Merrily, did you look up any stuff from the original?

I tried, but I had an insanely busy week, so I frankly didn't have time to look deeper into finding original versions, especially because I knew that that's not what we were going to be talking about.

So yeah, I didn't think it was as important as making sure I really watched the video and understood the game and what we were actually going to be talking about.

That's very fair.

The original version that icon made the Mac venture, which was for Macintosh, wasn't even for PC.

Tyler was for Macintosh and it used Macintosh's revolutionary Windows system where you could have different information stored in Windows.

And so it was the first adventure game to utilize a visual inventory for the player.

So when you pick up the axe, there is an axe in this window.

It it gives liminal space.

So I do think that you all might have liked playing it, but but wow, having no music makes it a a much different experience.

It's it's I don't want to say boring, because I do think it's a very good game even on and you can buy the Mac venture version on steam today if you would like to.

But I think it's actually a little bit less enjoyable to play.

There's a lot more dialogue, which I think is fun.

And that sassy narrator is like turned up to 11 Tyler, but without the like kind of fun background music.

It does lose a significant part.

And that is why I definitely wanted us to talk about the NES version, not just for the children part of this because this is the kids version, but the I think that this is also like a better version of the game because of the music and the colors.

But all the art's the same when you get these close-ups.

Those close-ups were in the Mac Adventure game as well.

Nice SO.

So this game is allegedly kid friendlier.

Can you?

And you're, you're an expert on this, David.

So can you tell us like what about this game they might have done to make it kid friendlier?

They did change some of the dialogue to make things a little bit less occulty.

They did, I mean, as as the Nintendo Entertainment System of America was doing of, of the North America, a sort of branch of this.

All Nintendo of North America would strip out crucifixes or devil worship or anything like that out of all of their games and anything that got close to it.

Especially because of where the United States their primary market was, was dealing with like the post Satanic Panic, which we talked about back in January, I guess with my best friend's exorcism with Satanic Panic at the Disco, possibly one of our greatest themes that has ever existed.

So they have to do all that.

That's part of what makes a kid friendlier.

There's a few other things like removing some of the other violent imagery.

There's a little bit less blood, but what's interesting is that the blood you do see here is red versus like grey in the Mac Venture.

And so I almost think that like, if you wouldn't have added color, it wouldn't have been a big deal.

And then a big change on this.

But I can't understand why it happened.

And so maybe we can talk about it, but instead of saving your little brother, you are saving your big sister.

And that meant they had to draw brand new sprites for this.

And that was done for the Japanese market.

And so when it was translated back for the United States, they just had to translate the big sister into all of it.

Interesting.

You know, I I have been thinking about the the the the sister change of it a lot.

And I do think the game pretty explicitly was written with a younger person you're saving in mind, if only because in the beginning of the game, you are clearly the driver of the car.

And by the end of the game, it seems like the protagonist is much younger, having this older sister who probably should have been the one driving, right?

So like, I do think that you can tell that a change happened at some point, but I, I, I don't know why they would have done that.

I I definitely want to get into that when we get to our is it queer section because I have some thoughts to me though, like kind of going back to the kid friendlier aspects of this it.

This whole scenario reminds me of the Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom controversy that happened.

So that movie is pretty famous for having a PG rating in spite of a guy having his heart ripped out of his chest.

And it's fully depicted using practical effects if you've never seen Temple of Doom.

So that obviously raised a lot of eyebrows when that released.

And it is what generated the PG13 rating in the United States.

I'm kind of curious if this was like this was before the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the ESRB, If this was like before they stepped in, it could like label a game as being like T for teen or M for mature or E for everyone.

So David, do you have any like knowledge about that?

The only thing that I have that's specific to this game is it was on a list of games that Joe Lieberman did use in his defense of more regulation for the gaming industry because of violence in video games.

But that is frankly a very long list, and this should not have drawn the same attention that like Mortal Kombat drew.

Not that I don't think there should be that sort of censorship in video games, but I think that Mortal Kombat is more violent than uninvited for the NES.

And I, I feel really, I feel really good saying.

And you should.

It's a correct and true statement.

Yeah, yeah, But like obey.

But like a giant spider can RIP you in half.

You just have to read about it versus seeing about it.

And I think I think that's where a lot of the conversation about censorship in this era of gaming comes from, is how much can you put in writing because a child can pick up, as we have discussed on this podcast, Stephen King's it and read it cover to cover 1 summer.

And for some reason, we're all kind of like, well, that's fine.

But if you show somebody a heart being pulled out, which is one of the best parts of Temple of Doom, and there aren't a lot, then like that's too far.

And I think the whole, like visual versus imagination is a part of the conversation that's going on right now.

And we'll continue through.

When did that all sort of come to head?

That was like in the 80s, early 90s, I would say, yeah.

Yeah but when did Lieberman get off his shit?

Because it was like mid 90s when he finally like gave up the ghost on that shit.

I think so, yeah.

And then he, I don't know, did he switch to?

No, That's Harry Reid.

I was going to talk about Harry Reid and aliens, but no.

Is German German Lehrman's dead too, right?

I.

Think so?

He's dead to me.

Well.

There you go.

Perfect.

Barely.

He's dead to me.

Old old white Democrat in the in Congress.

Get them out of here.

Out of here, can I throw a quick stray at a temple of doom because this genuinely since they were talking about it.

I just personally think that learning that both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg just went through a divorce really explains Temple of Doom to me, frankly.

Oh my God, yeah.

I think, I think we could argue that.

We could talk about Temple of Doom.

Honestly, probably all the Indian Jones is on this podcast.

And perhaps someday we'll do that and return to the well.

My, my argument is good job merrily for making that comment, because if we do cover Indiana Jones, we will not be picking Temple of Doom.

No, we should pick.

We should pick a better Indiana Jones.

I think we should cover Temple of Doom to RIP it apart.

Oh Oh yeah, bonus episode.

Bonus episode, Bonus episode, Bonus episode.

Yeah.

Maybe that's my declaration for 2026 only.

Only bad movies and bonus I don't.

Know if I could Co sign that David?

For the sake of our patrons who literally send us money, I think we should throw them a bone every once in a while.

For the for the brave souls who are helping Merrily get APS 5 so that she can play the new Resident Evil, we will talk about Temple of Doom on the Patreon.

Oh, well, then we'll also have to talk about Resident Evil on the podcast or on the Patreon so that.

As a celebration.

It's a whole tax, yeah, right off something.

Something well, well, this is wildly cyclical.

So instead of staying here, I'm going to move us into our next segment, which is where we ask the same questions that we do for every media that we consider for the podcast, starting with is it horror?

Did you think that Uninvited was horror?

Were you scared watching someone else play this game?

I mean, I, I was horrified by what I saw.

Yeah.

Girl.

Yes, yes, yes.

Like in every sense of the of the word, because like the puzzles were were horrifying to me as someone who really struggles with like bizarre esoteric riddles like that, that's not great.

And then of course, the actual scary shit that was happening, the zombies, the ghosts, the way you could just die from anything so easily.

And we're probably like, I don't know, 16 years old maybe, like crazy stuff happening in this game.

Crazy stuff, you know, can we talk about the kid horror of it all?

Because I do think that this is the perfect test case for I do think kids are drawn to horror, even if it's not necessarily for them, you know what I mean?

Because this really sure, it's a kids game, I guess.

But I do think that this is the kind of game, if this wasn't diametrically opposed to the kinds of games that I enjoyed, that I would have liked as a kid, because it is.

Deeply.

Horrible and kids love that shit.

Yeah, yeah, I I think that and I also think all the scares are done to such an almost part of it's the art style, but it's almost comedic every time one of them happens.

So I don't, I mean, I think that the close up imagery of almost every death sequence that you get close up imagery for is pretty terrifying either at a psychological level or a just like back of the brain lizard reaction sort of thing going on.

And yet the narration that goes along with it is a little funny.

At one point of time, you can get yourself locked into a coffin and the narration is like, yeah, normally you would need oxygen to breathe and you are no different.

You are now dead.

It's it's all handled with the right amount of of horror and humor that I think makes it work a little bit more for children.

But I'll also offer that all that humor is written in a very adult way.

So I think it works for kids, but it has to work for a very mindful and intelligent type of child.

I think that I think this is a lot different than other kids horror where it's just sort of horror, but we we turned it down a little bit or we put it into their perspective.

And so I think it's a really unique entry for us to consider for the month.

I also think like the time period that this game came out in is something to consider when we're talking about like, is it meant for kids?

Can kids play?

This is a kids horror, you know, 19911987 when this when these different ports were out, you know these they don't have Resident Evil yet.

They don't have side hill.

They don't even have a loan in the dark.

Like somewhere in this time period they will.

But like either way, I, I kind of feel like a loan of the dark is even scarier than this because you are a three-dimensional creature in a three-dimensional space trying to move around with tank controls.

I find that more horrifying than than this.

So I think in that sense, it's a little bit easier for a kid to consume.

I think also just the fact that games are kind of a novelty.

I don't think there's a lot of adults out there that are like part of the target audience for late Nintendo of America.

I think they're focused on like kids and families and the families are the ones who are buying the game so that the kids can play it.

So I I think in that sense, like this would absolutely qualify as children's horror because our kids playing it, yes.

Is is parts of it intended for children to be able to play it?

Yes, I think this is what the point of video games are at that time and this is part of that core audience.

Like it's only I think the idea that adults are gamers and are constantly playing games is a much more recent discovery than than perhaps we were giving credit to.

So I think this absolutely still qualifies as kids horror.

Yeah, I think what's also kind of interesting is that this is the end of the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Well, it's the, it's the beginning of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System lifestyle.

And so this is coming, the Nintendo will continue to make titles for another five to six years because it's not like consoles today like you've got you got a hot three months and then the old consoles not getting games anymore.

Goodbye, Nintendo dragged this out a lot longer, but this was the beginning of the end.

And so it's interesting that Nintendo made an investment with this porting company Kemco to go back to Icom and be like, oh, actually we'd like to get these these two games Deja Vu and uninvited on to the NES because we need some more titles on here and Kemco was a great partner in doing that.

They brought over a few other things as well.

This is an interesting history of video games and all of this.

And I just like that Nintendo picked a horror title.

I like that they said.

This is one of the things that we want is this horror game that is pretty successful on the Macintosh we think can do and was and was successful in Japan.

It could be successful in North America as well.

I love that.

Well, listen, let's throw all that in the garbage.

What horror That's that's one thing.

Is it queer is the other question that we ask about every media that we cover.

What do you think about Uninvited in terms of queer theory?

I think the younger brother saving the older sister angle is really refreshing.

I think it's neat that it's just kind of like it's happenstance because of translations and localizations.

So I think that is like a fun happy accident.

I think you could probably make the argument that a younger brother saving an older sister is kind of queer because that's not a traditional gender sort of display.

In which case I think you could also say that's really more of like a feminist sort of theory, or maybe just more of like a gender theory type of thing.

But I think all of these are part of the same dish of feminism and queer theory.

So in that regard, I think that this could be a little queer, but I'm not super buying into it beyond that.

You know, I can cosign some of that, but I gotta say Tyler, the like I think the younger brother, older sister dynamic is a little bit more unusual.

But at the end of the day it is a girl being damseled.

So I do not know how much feminism you can put into that personally.

However very true, I got to say with the change, that does mean that this game does now count in our cinematic universe of possessed little girls, which as previously discussed, is a very queer thing for that little girl to to be it's.

Pretty queer.

Pretty queer, I think.

I think we're looking past the idea that this house originally was sort of Master Crowley's emporium of like magicians who came here and one of them grew too powerful and that's the reason that there all these ghosts to begin with.

So and and was it was it master and apprentice dragon or was it like 2 gay lovers and they had a breakup and one of them summoned demons like come I mean.

We've all been there.

There's a note that you said later in the car thing about the full address.

And when I saw that, like my eyes got huge because are you telling me that the master Crowley at Loch Ness, that's for this is, is that supposed to be Aleister Crowley, the actual historical British magician and sex fiend?

Because like, if that is true, then yes, this is queer because lots of weird stuff happened at that house for sure.

Yeah, yeah.

How did how did they get this Scarlett O'Hara ghost?

Were they just watching on with the wind too many times?

Because that's what gay people do.

And then she just manifested because it's magic.

I hate gay Halloween.

What do you mean You're the entire house and its residence from the video game uninvited?

They're all gay.

Hey, one of them doesn't like spiders.

Gay people hate spiders.

We're not into that.

That's true.

Yeah, this Gay people hate spiders.

I do think I'm excited for what this sort of venture goes on to do with Uninvented 2 because it does seem like this was also pretty limited.

Like there are what?

Like there's 3-4 characters that you interact with as part of this.

Like it is not a deep and robust world, but they do.

There are like 6 Diaries to find and read, there are scrolls, there is background information.

It it all feels like it should be important, but none of it is.

It's just a little bit like back story and it's not even like really good back story.

So it is kind of like for nothing.

And I think that adventure gaming has progressed so much into immersive simulators that we would have a little bit more of a gone home experience where we would get a full narrative told in another telling of this story.

And that's what I'm excited about.

Well then, are we ready to jump into the plot beat by beat for the 1991 port of the NES game uninvited?

Let's do it.

All right?

The game begins with the player having crashed their car after seeing a shadowy figure appear in the road before you.

You figure your older sister must have gone to ask for help, and you smell gasoline leaking.

Escaping just in time, the car explodes and you stand in front of an old mansion.

The doors are barred until the player opens the mailbox to find a letter.

And a pendant.

Upon taking the pendant, the door to the mansion opens and dares you to enter.

Once inside, the door slams and locks.

For better or worse, you are now uninvited in the house.

Yeah, Tyler teased us a little bit, but this is this is your first opportunity for death if you take too long examining parts of the car which all have text written about them.

So if you look at the speedometer, you get some flavor text about it.

If you try to open the glove box, you open it and there's nothing inside.

But if you do any action that is beyond open door leave car, a giant fire starts and the car explodes with you in it and you get your first possible death.

I'm really glad that I watched a playthrough because I would have died immediately.

I because.

You would have looked around.

I love looking around in the games.

Yeah, I do lots of clicking.

We're slipping with something.

You and me, we got to look at all of the things I.

Marilyn and I will Snoop around all over the place.

We're going to open our own private detective agency.

Yeah.

Well, you would have.

You would have preferred the other game that Deja Vu would have been more of your speed.

Damn it, David.

Yeah, I also, I'm really glad I watched a playthrough because I was causing absolutely.

Like, am I worse at video games than I thought I was?

Or is this game and possibly hard?

And I still do not have an answer to that.

As Marilyn mentioned, when we read that letter, that is where it says Master Crowley.

Originally it said Master Crowley, 666 Blackwell Rd.

Loch Ness, Scotland.

We can probably assume that 666 was taken out for obvious reasons, but Blackwell Rd.

Loch Ness and Scotland were also taken out and that was that has been cited because people have asked the developers about this.

That was taken out for disk space.

So the 666 was taken out for censorship.

Everything else was just a container issue.

That's so funny.

Classic Nintendo container issue.

Hey, listen, if you're not familiar with container issues, by the way, they are fascinating, especially I bet this happens in Resident Evil.

So when I play it, I will think about container issues at that moment.

But it especially occurred in in voiced video games very early in voicing because there would only be so much space for the the data.

And so if in Japanese it was shorter and it's longer in English, you have to have the actor speed up their given dialogue to an incredible pace in order to get the line to be delivered.

It makes some pretty hilarious translation issues in early video.

Games.

That's so fascinating.

I'm I'm suddenly being reminded of Speed Racer dubs.

Yeah, yeah.

Very similar.

Very.

Similar, you got to go fast.

I genuinely, I'm not a huge Resident Evil 1 game fan.

I want David to play this game so bad because some of the quirks of that game I want to know everything about.

I know that you would have a great time with it.

Put it on the list.

Put it on.

I mean, it's on the list, but put it on the schedule.

Well, we're not on the schedule right now.

Instead, we are in this creepy ass house.

So specifically, we are in the foyer.

This foyer opens to 2 doors, so despite the way players actually engage with options, we'll go right into the library and pick up a spell block.

Then back in the foyer, we will go to the door on the left that leads to a hallway.

Upon opening any door, a strange woman dressed like Scarlett O'Hara appears.

We aren't ready for her yet, so instead we can go upstairs and explore some of the bedrooms or even go further upstairs where we could get the helpful Axe.

Off of the second floor is a supply closet with lots of goodies, including a bottle of No Ghost and a Spider Cider spray.

The No Ghost lets us get past our Southern Belle and the Spider Cider gets us a spider added to our inventory.

Hooray.

So we are, of course, if you would like to like actually know how to play this game, you should watch a walkthrough.

We are going to, we're going to blaze through this for story beats.

But I, I love this very beginning because the appearance of the Southern belle is so frightening.

And if you do anything to her except talk, if you talk to her, you just get dialogue that says she has nothing to say.

But if you hit her, if you use an item on her, if you use the no ghost on her but forget to open it first, you will be treated to a death sequence where she rips you apart and laughs hysterically.

The fact that you have to take the lid off of items.

You have to prepare the item before you can use it.

Oh this would make me so mad.

I'm so happy I didn't.

Play it.

Yeah, You know, for.

Real.

Oh, you sweet modern gamer who's like we're we're gonna design things to like be functional instead of be realist.

Hey, you know David, you know how much I love Lara Croft.

I tried playing the Tomb Raider like 123 remaster and I got so mad because I couldn't get a health pack in the very first cave.

I just quit, Yeah.

So, you know, this, this game, I would have just dropped it like a bad habit.

I I see people going back to old Pokémon games all the time and you, you couldn't pay me to go back to a game in which I can't sort my inventory automatically.

I have to manually sort my inventory.

Get the fuck out.

Of it go directly.

To hell out of here.

Which is exactly what I would tell the ghosts of Scarlett O'Hara allegedly floating around.

Which actually just makes me think, like I was so caught off guard when they said that she looks like Scarlett O'Hara.

Because that is such a specific reference that I don't think video games today really make.

I think when you do that, it draws just all the attention on the fact that you just made that reference and it detracts from the story that the developers and the writers are telling.

So it, this was such like a very like early days of, of popular video games and home entertainment that like, we don't really see that anymore.

I, I was kind of thinking like, maybe it's a copyright thing.

Although maybe Scarlett O'Hara is in the, you know, she's royalty free.

God knows what she is besides the Confederate sympathizer.

But you know, I, I, I still am very entertained that they ended up switching her over to like a Southern belle and she's just this creepy ghost with a skull for her face who rips you apart.

Yeah, yeah, while laughing hysterically.

Good for her, all laughing hysterically.

Good for her.

I support women's wrongs except for the ones that are Confederate sympathizers.

Yeah, there's a there's a few other deaths in this section, including if you go upstairs from where the axe is, you find a jail cell and a man is like, don't go in this jail cell, you'll be locked in here forever.

And if you decide to go in, you are locked in there forever.

And it's like you starved to death.

Congratulations, you're now one of the dead people in the house.

Game over.

This game's insane.

What?

Happens when you game over.

Is it like a?

Do you start all the way over or there Is there like a checkpoint system?

So first of all, there is a pretty robust save system in which you can save at any point of time and instantly reload that save.

But there are checkpoints that are hard coded into the game.

When you interact or do something, the game knows that you're making progress and remembers that point.

So if you die, it takes you back to that point.

So the deaths are extremely forgiving.

OK.

Like the reason I got all the screen caps of these deaths as I walked right into them and then it pretty much takes you back to immediately the moment before you got the death, if not maybe the room before.

Interesting.

Interesting.

OK.

Well, that's good to know.

Yeah, for.

Sure, For example, one of them that is, I mean it was just as forgiving as all the others, but like there is no, there's no thing that you do right before doing this.

So if you there are tons of bottles around the house and there are other things that you'll find, knives, axes, if you use them on yourself, you will either die from poisoning yourself or die from slicing yourself open.

The Mac Venture version of slicing yourself open does intone that you have died by suicide because you have just sort of given up the will to fight the house.

This version is oops Butterfingers.

You dropped the axe and cut yourself open.

Now you are dead.

I think that's a good kid friendly way of trying to express that that death sense.

Yeah.

Yes, way, way less intense way.

But I think on that note, like like oops, Butterfingers, like we talked about the humor.

I think about this point in the game is when we start to see the narrator have a lot more of that sarcastic and dry wit that I really, really enjoyed.

I feel like if I were to die, like the narration is a good way to like it kind of make me laugh it off.

So even if it were to happen quite a lot, I feel like the game is kind of remembering that it's a game and it's trying to remind me that it's a game and to not take it too seriously.

So I appreciate that.

Oh I love that.

What a great read.

And it also helps with the with making it more kid friendly too, because oh great, that great silly things have happened.

It feels very like goosebumps.

Or Are you Afraid of the dark that coded before you know we got either of those properties?

I love that.

Well, continuing on, the ghost being gone lets us move into the dining room, kitchen and pantry and lots more inventory to find.

We also get into the servants quarters where a chained servant prohibits us from finding out more about our circumstances.

So we throw a spider at him and it works.

Hidden inside the diary he is guarding there is a clue that we need.

Darken Star is hidden in a box that cannot be opened, but in a fire it freezes and in ice it burns.

With this clue and some puzzle shenanigans, we can find the box and throw it into the fire to reveal Darken Star.

I think this was a.

This was a reasonably I can figure it out puzzle.

Not the spider thing.

That's insane.

That was very obtuse to me.

Yeah, I don't understand it.

I but the diary saying that in fire it freezes and an ice it burns does tell me, oh I can put this box into fire and I can get the star that that that worked for.

Me.

Yeah.

I will say that I didn't realize that the servant was alive.

I thought that was a ghost.

Oh, I didn't realize it until we were doing the notes.

Oh, OK.

I mean, I, I think it's, I think it's AI think it's a servant who is now a ghost.

Horrendous.

He's died and still has to work.

I that's how I he was like covered in chains.

So that's how I interpreted like he's like chained to this, this employment horrendous.

Why a why a spider sets him free or or allows him to leave or whatever?

That does not make sense.

To be fair, if you threw a spider at me I would also flee.

So like I got that part.

Yes, yes.

Well, he should really be thanking us because we got him out of there.

Yeah.

So now he doesn't have to work there anymore.

Unionized ghosts If you If you are stuck working after death, please form a union and get the fuck out of there you.

Have literally nothing to lose but your chains.

Yes, yes, I will say that if you do not solve his quest correctly, if you try to hit him or use a different item on him, he grabs you and his his grip is a corrosive acid that melts you.

Oh.

Bad.

Which is crazy, Yeah, and it sounds really bad when you die, too.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, after our encounter with Servant, a small puzzle involving a doll coming to life teaches us our final spell.

Oh Sesame, to open a door when we see a face.

How cryptic.

We now have access to the outbuildings of the estate.

We start with a greenhouse to grow a strange fruit.

Eating it would cause us to die by aging rapidly, so don't do that.

The building on the left is locked and the only way to unlock it would be a gem that we don't have yet.

So we go to the building on the right and are confronted by dogs.

We can scare them with a spell and then we are admitted.

So I want I want to talk here because this is once you are outside, you can drop any items you don't need.

And this game has a robust and ludicrous number of things that you can pick up that are absolutely worthless to you.

So if you just click leave and an item in your inventory and the yard, it will leave it there unless it is an important item and it will say I don't think I should leave this here.

So at this point in time you could clear your inventory for anything that is not quest important.

Because I have played this game many times and because you all were watching a walkthrough of someone who played it many times, I think we were only picking up things that were actually important.

But you could be having a box of detergent, a whole drawer full of cutlery, two forks, 2 knives, 2 spoons.

Like, there is a ludicrous number of things to pick up that have no value whatsoever to this game.

But among them, and one of the things I really wanted to talk about, was in the drawer where we find the talking doll spell, we also find a Ruby.

And you might think I like a Ruby, I'll pick up a Ruby.

The minute you pick up the Ruby, the game starts to track the number of actions that you take.

If you take too long to finish the game or drop the Ruby, the player will instantly die.

And this is a throwback to the Mac Venture version, which had a constant counter from the very moment you got out of the car that if you did not solve the puzzle enough, you would become part of the house.

That's very punishing.

That is so crazy to me.

That feels not kid friendly.

No, like decisively so.

Yes, that is, I mean, they they kept the Ruby in there to sort of give the vibe to it.

But as as a child, of course, I picked up the Ruby every time.

And so my impression was always that I had to solve the game faster and you can do it, it just you just shouldn't pick up the Ruby.

Don't be very intense that way.

Switch to hard mode on an already hard game.

And I, I put a couple of the screenshots in, but but really what it is, is like every 5 to 10 actions, you get that creepy music start to play.

The red skull pops up and you have these ominous messages that are like, you feel a force taking over your mind.

You know that it is not your own.

Like it is just this constant, like psychological reminder that you're being corrupted by the House I.

Don't like that?

Creepy ass house.

I love it actually.

Like well, I know what you mean.

Merrily you don't like it, but you kind of love it from like a horror.

Perspective.

Yeah.

No.

Like becoming.

Yeah, Like losing your will and becoming part of the malevolent architecture.

Delicious.

Bad, though.

Very.

Haunting of Hill House, I must say.

Yeah, and you know how I feel about that.

Or, and like the original American Horror Story, just like the house itself is like a magnet now because it has been so corrupted and you are being pulled into it.

I guess black hole might be a better analogy.

But yeah, I think that's so great.

But it would have driven me insane and made me really angry.

Yeah.

Can we talk about these dogs?

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, we talked about Indiana Jones earlier.

So the narration here was dogs.

Why did it have to be dogs?

So Tyler, talk to me about these dogs.

Yeah.

So we run into these two dogs outside, I think, of the Chapel area.

But they are, are they hell hounds?

Are they regular dogs or that have been corrupted?

We really can't tell.

But they are very aggressive and very violent.

So from what I have seen and the research that I did, it seems like if you do anything but scare off the dogs with the Thundidi spell or some other aggressive spell, they are going to attack and tear out your throat.

And the narration does a pretty vivid job of describing how they kill you.

Yeah, and there is also this really scary image of an angry dog with drool and slobber coming out of its mouth, very foamy, very Cujo esque.

And that dog is poohed.

It looks very angry with you.

So originally I thought it was a werewolf, and then I was going to be like, Oh my.

But alas, it was just a normal dog.

Just a normal dog.

You know, I got to say I kind of gave it points for being queer earlier.

I revoked those points because you cannot pet the dog and that is homophobic.

That's very true.

Homophobia the game.

I love this dog art.

I think it is it is.

It is truly terrifying.

It is some of the best use of color in this game to take the black and white version of this, which was also pretty good and just to add a little bit more layer and function onto it.

I I I love this.

I think tyler's right.

It does kind of look like a werewolf because we are sort of collecting, we're collecting all of our like, horror tropes here too.

I mean, I don't personally put ghost Southern Belle in my horror tropes, but maybe I should.

Maybe there should be more ghost or Southern Belles.

Maybe that would be, you know what Ghost Ship could have used Merely a Southern.

Belle I'm not saying that that is a wrong choice, but I do think that our incredible opera singer is kind of like taking that spot.

She, she's kind of the Italian version of it isn't.

She she's an Italian Bella Bella.

That was good though.

She was a Bella.

But so like so like we, we had, we had Marley in chains like a sort of one of the famous ghosts.

We now have a werewolf.

I wonder if we'll see any others as we continue through this big spooky house.

We shall see well.

We get inside the church and we gain access to some important tools, a goblet of holy water and a set of candles.

As we see a bust that has a face we can say oh Sesame and the bust will admit us forward but warns us not to go in the darkness.

We can light the candles before proceeding and thank goodness we do because we are attacked by a ghost when we proceed and it is offended by the lights that we brought and now we can go down into the catacombs.

The.

Musical shift that happens when we enter the church is so dramatic from what we've had so far.

So I, I guess I would say that the the MIDI music that we've heard like the little bits and beeps, if you're unfamiliar with the concept is like it's intense, it's suspenseful.

It's definitely like kind of fast-paced.

So it keeps the player going and it keeps them motivated to keep pressing forward.

Here it almost feels like I'm going to mention a Resident Evil again, like a Resident Evil style safe room.

This is a place where we are not going to immediately be attacked.

The church itself is seems like relatively safe, at least if you don't go underground.

But I think it suddenly switches over to like this really beautiful organ music that's playing.

It sounds very angelic it despite it being just like electronic beats, beeps and boots.

So I really loved it.

It actually reminded me quite a bit of the music that's used in Faith, which also is MIDI music.

And it's again, just very beautiful, very pleasant, and a nice like, almost genre switch.

And it calms us down a little bit because I think this is the most straightforward sort of just puzzle kind of style room that we've had that isn't trying to kill us.

Yeah.

And the developers were always concerned that somebody would get this far but wouldn't figure out the doll puzzle to get O Sesame.

And so when you take the chalice and reveal this like hidden compartment, you can go down.

If you attempt to go down at the game says, I don't think you want to go down there.

There's a big spider there.

And you have to continue to try to go down three times until you are finally allowed to go down and then you are torn apart by a giant spider.

But one of my favorite things, and as a child, I asked adults what this meant and they just said it's part of like 20 questions or whatever.

But one of the narrations that you get is there is a spider down there that's bigger than a bread box.

And for my entire life since playing this game, I, if I have to describe something as large, I will call it bigger than a bread box.

And that is the stupidest thing in the world because it's kind of like who has a bread box anymore?

And that's not really that big.

Like the spider is way bigger than a bread box.

I mean to be clear, if I saw a spider bigger than a bread box I would freak out.

Yeah, that would be enough to convince me.

Like I should not encounter that fucking spider.

This is a dog with eight legs and I just dealt with angry dogs.

I don't think the Thundidi spell works on the spider that's a dog size.

No, and even even your spell for spiders will not work if you go down this way into the Chapel.

It's only if you go this way through The Cave.

I also love that there's like this little moment that the bus is like don't go forward without lighting your candles.

And if you just do, then the ghost that swoops down at you just kills you and it kills you by ghost.

It just it swings over to your face and then you get the death skull.

That's like your adventure has ended.

It is the least descriptive death and I don't understand why.

A ghost killed you.

What's dot to understand?

Pac-Man rules.

I understand Pac-Man.

He's just.

So the candles are essentially our big white dots.

They are.

They are big white dots.

I see it now.

I see the vision.

You lost me.

No, I'm glad that we.

Oh.

Oh, my goodness.

All right, so.

And sorry, sorry, before you go on merrily, the ghost is also audience right Now.

close your eyes.

Imagine a ghost.

That is what this ghost looks like.

This is the most ghost who has ever ghosted an olive ghost.

Dumb.

I think the design of the ghost is actually incredible.

But I also think that per our earlier conversation about this maybe being for kids horror is that if I asked a child what a ghost looked like, they would be like it would be like a sheet with a face.

And that is what this ghost.

Yeah, it's, it's truly very true.

Incredible the ghostness that has been dissolved into this design.

Yeah, but it does look like a frightening sheet ghost.

Yeah, yeah.

And like, for a game that has had at least 2 ghosts in it already, the fact that this ghost looks like that is kind of fun.

Agreed.

Agreed.

So the labyrinth is large and confusing.

I was confused watching somebody play it through this section.

Oh my God yes I have no I I could not figure out rhyme or rhythm to how to solve this labyrinth as I was watching this dude play it.

It's just like you clearly have to have this shit.

Memory like you've got a guide right in front of you and not tell you what to do Otherwise good fucking buck.

Apparently there are clues along the way to inform us to go to the center, which I I think you could assume because it's a labyrinth, right?

So we can make our way there avoiding zombies by using the pendant to repel them.

Remember the pendant from the mailbox?

To gain access to the center we need to solve 2 puzzles.

1 laying flowers on a grave to reveal a secret passage, and one involving capturing a hawk hinted at by one of the scrolls you can find.

The hawk immediately becomes helpful in distracting a giant tomato.

The giant tomato with a mouse.

I guess whatever it is, it leaves and we get a the jewel that we needed.

Not a Ruby, but just a jewel.

The Telomase zaps us out of the catacombs.

OK the catacombs are wild because they are pretty well designed and it is a cost saving measure to design A catacombs because you only have to design like 3 pictures and play around with how they're they're like layered or or shifted or whatever.

I love that there's just a random zombie walking around and if you it ever encounters you, you have to use the pendant on it.

If you don't, of course you get bitten by a zombie.

Also, if you run into a dead end, there's just a screen full of zombies and you can immediately leave and there's no consequence to it.

But if you do anything else, the zombies eat.

Fair enough, I suppose.

I mean, zombies do.

That is quite literally a dead end.

Yes and they're about Tyler.

You should write for this game because that's literally what the game said.

Also, I, I do, I, I talked about this earlier, but I loved this coffin.

And if you just like enter the coffin that you randomly find in the labyrinth, there's a there's dialogue, it just goes to black and the dialogue goes someone or something has sealed the coffin and you slowly suffocate.

I love that it fucking makes fun of you when this happens though because it says usually people are already dead before they enter a coffin.

Yes, incredible.

Oh my God, just perfect.

And then before we get to the tomato, cuz I know you both want to talk about what the fuck this tomato thing is cuz this stuff of nightmares.

I think the imagery of the cat, hawk and snake, if you try to hit them or use an item on them all attacking you simultaneously is another one of the great drawings of this game.

Absolutely.

Yeah, it's pretty good.

Me and the crew.

Me and the crew, it is, it is all three of us.

Because I think Marilee, what, which one of these are you?

Well, I would I would say I'm the cat, personally.

Yeah, yeah, I think I'm the snake.

I think I'm the snake.

I'm the hawk.

Yeah, yeah, that's good.

I like.

I like.

That I see this.

I see the vision.

So tomato, Yeah, talk about the talk, please.

I must exercise this from my mind because this I did block out as a child because when I bumped back into this tomato I was like, Oh yeah, this motherfucker.

Evil tomato.

Evil though evil question mark merely He's bouncing he's.

Got that's, I don't know, looking fucking tomato?

Human teeth.

Human teeth.

Everything else that you try to punch in this game kills you.

If you punch the tomato, it just goes.

Your hand bounces back from the soft flab of the tomato or whatever it is.

The creature I think it's, it never calls it a tomato.

We are calling it a tomato because that's what it looks.

Like that's because it.

Looks like a giant evil tomato folks.

If you have if you if you have read or seen Berserk, it has a face very similar to the The Bell elite pendant.

So if if you know that you get it otherwise I'll just describe it.

It is a very semi photo realistic looking face plastered onto.

It I'm gonna be honest, this is a strong contender for what I'm going to use for making the cover for the episode.

So if, if, if it's not the cover for this episode, you will probably see it on our social media this week.

Yeah, I was, I was a little, I was a little bummed again, I remembered a lot of this game, but I don't remember dying to the giant tomato.

So I thought like, oh, I'll try to die to the giant tomato so I can get the death sequence, so I can include it in the notes, and there's no way to die to it.

It will not kill you.

No matter what I did, it wouldn't kill me.

Maybe it isn't evil, then maybe it's just.

Neutral.

Just a weird guy.

It likes birds question mark because that bird you just captured, you released to get rid of the giant tomato, which is like an adventure game speed run, like adventure games never do this, but it's like, here's the thing, use it immediately.

It's that's so weird.

Well, you couldn't have an animal companion is the thing.

Like you had a hawk friend.

Can't have friends, you have to be alone for horror.

That's.

True.

The hawk is like immediately like yes, I want to eat this tomato flesh.

Is it meat?

Is it a vegetable?

Who can say the hawk wants it?

And it's so funny when the tomato leaves the literal on screen text is well, there you go.

Like it couldn't believe that's how the encounter ended also.

It's so funny, like what a crazy crazy thing.

But I have to mention it.

We did not discuss the earlier appearance of a similar red.

What the fuck kind of creature showing up so?

From from the themes, the abstract little creature, yes.

Yes.

So we have an abstract little creature that shows up relatively early on in the game.

When we go, I think it's on the 2nd floor into the game room.

We go to check out like a wardrobe and then suddenly the music shifts over.

It's kind of a jaunty, sort of like funny tune, and this little red goblin creature just shows up.

Is it touching the ground or anything?

It's just kind of floating by pixels moving, very jolting into place, and he just kind of crosses across the screen.

The game is like a weird little creature showed up.

That's strange.

We should follow up on that later.

That's it.

That's all the game gives you.

That's.

All the game gives you.

There are 4 rooms that he can just show up in and do his little animation and there's nothing for it.

There's only one room you can actually interact with him in, and that's the game room.

It was honestly a very this is this is a fear coded record.

The second time I'm mentioning Undertale and Delta Rune in one yes, but it felt it felt very like Undertale and Delta Rune kind of coded like it feels like Toby Fox almost certainly played uninvited.

And this is one of those games that really informed how does he want to present his story because these sort of non sequitur introductions of characters that are seem random but are actually integral to the plot is is so like a Toby Fox kind of move.

And especially with like the jaunty music that shows up and it's unique to this creature.

It reminded me a lot of just like some of the enemies that you end up befriending or having to fight in Delta Rune.

So like the fact that that was more than 25 years before either of those games released, really awesome.

And I love that that kind of spirit is carried on in this new age of like retro inspired video games.

Yeah, yeah, it's really cool.

It's really cool.

I I love the abstract little creature.

I think he's great.

I think we should adopt him for the podcast because he doesn't seem malevolent.

He not at all trades.

He trades cookies for keys.

And who hates that?

Who hates that?

Nobody.

I mean, and all he does is just kind of wave the key at us to be like, ha.

Ha, they haven't.

I haven't.

Presumably he's stolen the key.

To be fair, I feel like I'm the abstract little creature of your code sometimes.

You just, you have your, you have your own theme music and you Just Dance for Marilyn as amusement.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And then I eat a cookie from you guys to that's my, that's my payment.

I at least I know what my Halloween costume is for 2026.

Yeah.

Yes, abstract little red creature.

Well, now that we've zapped ourselves out of the maze and now that we have the jewel, we can access the building on the left, the Magisterium.

The jewel fits perfect and we are admitted inside.

A scary blue bug creature is hissing to us about food.

We can give it the strange fruit from before that we grew in the greenhouse and it goes away.

Now we can access a laboratory where a safe requires a combination.

This can only be solved by considering 2 items that you have come across.

One which tells you that gold, silver and mercury together can form a key, and the other which gives you the atomic numbers for these these elements.

A tricky but solvable puzzle.

My ass.

Well, once open, there's a jar that you can't open, and this puzzle is far less erudite.

You just have to smash it open with your axe and you get a cookie.

Now we're talking.

Oh my gosh.

I mean honestly now we're not talking.

I wouldn't use an axe to smash something you use to axe something.

Why you just fucking throw the jar?

I or and listen again I com solutions great game important for my childhood.

But why not make the axe a hammer?

Yeah, just exhaust if, if this is what we're gonna do with.

It honestly, in a way it's more erudite because you've been trained this whole time to think, OK, well, I'm going to have to get the axe or opener device and I'm gonna have to to trade a bucket of milk for a bunch of roses for a bunch of flowers for this, for that.

And then eventually I'm going to get the hammer and then I could come back with the jar opening device.

I, I love this game's wicked sense of humor.

We're, we get a lot of that going into this and I've touched on it already, but this like blue creature is so bizarre.

I love that the fruit is also like from again, another Indian chance reference.

Man, we're going for records here, baby true love with all the references that we're making.

But like the the fact that it can D age you, but then this blue creature can eat it just fine.

And it's also that it's it's I honestly thought David going into this, this was not an American made name American made game.

I thought this was a very Japanese made game because it uses a lot of Christian imagery which is very common in Japanese like RPGs and stuff and horror games because it looks cool which is understandable.

The aesthetics unmatched.

The aesthetics unmatched and then we suddenly start moving away from kind of like Christian and Western type of horror monsters and now we start getting these bizarre creatures that are just random Alice in Wonderland.

Seems like you were paying me on an acid trip when you came up with it, which like I'm thinking of like Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, which all come much later, but still kind of have that same sort of like body horror.

I don't know what this is that I'm trying to deal with kind of horror.

And I think that's funny because we end up with tomato creatures and this weird blue monster and our abstract a little creature with the key and cookie.

But it's also so strange and kind of off putting, and I really appreciate that I didn't expect it from an American game that was originally developed in the late 80s.

Yeah, yeah.

And we love, we love our weird little guys, cuz just like the tomato and just like the abstract little creature, this blue weird insect thing cannot kill us.

You can hit it, you can use other items on it, and the only thing that can impact it is giving it the strange fruit to give it away.

This does not lead to a fail state here.

Interesting, I was really concerned about that when I was watching the guy play it.

Yeah, he's just a fun little guy.

He just wants fruits.

I, you know, I feel like the guys that can't kill you would be another layer of frustration when you're playing it because at the very least, you know what to expect from that.

If you, if there's just a guy that exists, you know that you have to interact with it in some way and you have to figure out what that is.

Might be a little difficult for a player.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

I agree, cuz I totally see that.

Well, cuz for all intents and purposes for us, he's a fun little guy because we're here in 2025 and have a walkthrough.

But otherwise it's just a locked door.

It's just a locked door with a different.

Name.

Yeah, that's 100% right.

I mean, I guess that's that's how you could describe pretty much everything in this game now.

It's like some of the it's just that some of the locked doors will bite back.

Yeah, it's it, but it's, it's no Alan Wake where there's lots of different pathways to solutions.

It's no, I don't know why I'm just picking from this world.

There's no control where there's multiple paths to get to your objective like this is, it's an old school adventure game.

There is this is not an open world game.

There is one way to go and that is any.

Any diveration from the path is death.

And that way it's very not queer.

Yes, well, I don't like when people don't follow the rules.

So you must die.

OK, well now I'm just seeing me in what you're saying.

So that's more of a mental illness thing, though I'm going to move on anyway.

So the creature, the abstract creature that we've seen with the key is where our cookie must go.

And with that key, we return to the Magisterium to open the lock trap door from the laboratory.

You end up dropping down into a cave with a giant wall of ice.

A figure appears and tells you that he is trapped, his apprentice Drakhan or Draken, I don't know which, in the ice.

If we use the star, the ice melts and a body is washed away further down The Cave.

Following, we can finish the job and banish Drakhan into The Dark World.

It's not elaborate.

We just pick him up and drop him into a pit.

Then we leave and we're back in the fucking house.

This whole thing is so.

Stupid.

Back in the It's such a detour.

I've locked my apprentice into this wall of ice.

All I need you to do is melt the ice that I made and let him float downriver.

And then if you could just help him get into this little pit, he's really close.

You just need to right into the pit.

That's all I need you to do.

By the way, I have a magician who can turn people into dry walls of ice.

But like, this whole thing is so silly and stupid.

It's it was such a bizarre detour that was just like, we have to resolve the background plot line.

The plot, yeah.

Yeah, honestly though, like let's talk about that.

That first magician, the the mentor.

This is Master Crowley, by the way.

This is this is supposed to be Crowley.

Which is really funny because he does not look at all like a Victorian British occultist.

He looks like a very stereotypical East Asian like thought leader, philosopher, Kung Fu master.

I was getting Emperor from Mulan the animated.

Film that too, yeah.

I was also thinking of the the.

I guess he's the master like the the the Kung Fu.

The martial arts master from Kill Bill volume to 0.

Sure.

Oh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's that's that's the look.

Either way, these are all very stereotypical depictions of what is meant to be a wise figure that is teaching you about something.

And so I was really scared that we were going to get some really racist localized dialogue from that, and I was pleasantly surprised that was not the case.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Just he's just a dude.

I I don't know why his design is like that.

They were like design A wizard.

This is what we got.

Yeah, very, very strange choice there.

But I guess it's it's the 80s, early 90s and sensitivity readers aren't a thing yet.

But David, I have to know more of your thoughts on the Dracon or Dracon culmination.

I, I mean, I, I already made fun of this, but so he sort of floats downriver.

The only thing you can do is follow him downriver.

Then you're in a room with him and a pit.

Here are the things you can do.

You can use his body on the pit, which is what the game wants you to do, and then you are brought back into the house.

You can jump into the pit by yourself, which then leads to a death sequence where you just fall down a bottomless pit, become bored, and die.

Or you can try to wake Drakon up or try to use an item on him and he will wake up and push you into the pit and presumably continue to do evil.

But the if you decide to wake him up you get this awesome close up of Drakon.

It looks unhinged and I absolutely love it.

This could be like a like an album cover.

Yeah, it's.

Like it's it's kind of reminding me of like like King Gizzard and the wizard lizard that album cover.

Like I really am into it.

It's a really good design and it's like the only humanoid that isn't a ghost or zombie, yeah, that's been depicted like this.

Yes, I just really, I had a good time with this and I really appreciated it.

I love that upstairs we hear our sister's voice going into the spare bathroom.

The door locks, we hear a voice above us, but we can't reach the ceiling.

If you turn on the water, the bathroom is slowly floods, allowing you access to the ceiling.

Obviously this all makes total sense.

We are all here.

The logic is impeccable.

It's insane.

In the this hidden room is your sister.

All you can do to try and wake her is the single in game use of the hit command.

A spirit erupts out of her.

The Spirit now intends to possess us.

We have a goblet of holy water and that's all that will defeat the Spirit.

Now you can follow your sister out the window and everything is OK.

The end.

OK, a couple things.

Because I wasn't going to, I wasn't trying to overdo this with like the Mac adventure part of this.

But when you arrive up here and you get the demon out of your brother, your little brother is yeeded out the window and and in in this when the demon arrives, they added an animation of your sister like calmly getting up, opening the window and leaving.

But you know what's funny about that?

I noticed that behind the demon the window is broken.

Broken like someone got yeated out of.

It oh man, so.

I do think you can't do that at a children's.

No, I, well, it would be really funny, but I, I, I simply must ask, what the hell were they thinking with the flood the bathroom?

Such a question, such an honest question, such a truthful question.

And there is one scroll that is like water will raise your spirits or something to get to the thing that you need.

But I truly and honestly can't figure out how you would know to do this or how you would know that you could open the lamp to escape the room because if you wait too long you will just drown in the bathroom.

I just.

As one does.

Hey, I just watched Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time.

Hey, big news for for your coded fans that were paying attention to that.

But yeah, Nancy's mom warned her like, you'll drown in the bathtub.

Yeah.

And she must have been plain uninvited which she realized that.

Yeah, I also love this final death sequence is is kind of one of the most fun, which is if you don't use the goblet, you try to hit the demon or whatever, you get confronted with like strangely, two of our favorite little guys, which is the abstract little demon and the the cute bug creature, a zombie, the demon whose color palette swapped and then a pixel art of death that is nowhere else in the game.

And it is like you have been possessed and you are now like stuck in the house forever.

I mean, that was kind of the threat for most of the game, right?

Like you're just stuck forever there.

I was just like, did we design this death just for like the, the, the visage of death, like with the scythe and everything just for this death sequence?

Probably, yeah.

I think just so like really hammering home like you are toast, brother.

Yeah, you should have used that goblet full of boiling water.

You're fool.

You're fool.

But let's talk about like the actual ending ending when we are reunited with big sis.

And I got to say I was really scared that there would be like a faith style last minute twist here.

But no, if you rescue your big sister, you do.

You do and.

I love that as a hint of my theory that the house is weird and not really real on the inside.

You aren't like in the attic, you go out the window and then are.

You can don't have to go back into the house to leave from the third floor, so don't worry about it.

And it's like, it's like bright and beautiful outside.

And then you get, you get credits.

It's it's over the game.

Is not there's a summer breeze?

The narration of this is free of that sarcasm and wit.

It's very genuine and it's, it actually makes you feel like you have earned this happy ending.

And don't worry, everything is genuinely going to be happy.

And I feel like, like any horror movie, there's always that last minute scare and the fact that this game didn't do it.

I, I actually kind of appreciate it because it's like, this is such a difficult game.

We're playing a young person and we're trying to rescue our devoted family member.

Yeah, Hell yeah.

You get your happy ending.

Yeah.

So I really appreciate that in this game.

Yeah, I really, I, I, I think the ending is really fun.

I think it's cute.

I think, yeah, I would have liked holding a crucifix up to the demon a little bit more than a the goblet of holy water.

But I understand that that was too religious, not that the holy water is somehow not.

It's fine.

Whatever I I do, I do sort of regret that change because I do think a lot of demon lore is rooted in sort of the Christian war.

But you know what?

I'm very happy with it.

It was such a great revisit.

I love the the stressful music here in the attic.

I just think it was so well done to tell this story.

Yeah, you know, honestly, totally.

If if we're going off like the scroll of how water will raise your spirits, water is literally, you know, saving this girl from a spirit.

So there's, there's that, you know, I guess like, yeah, could you could say that sort of foreshadowing sort of.

Yeah, I guess that works on 2 levels then that that's role.

Yeah, it it tells me that these developers, especially with modern technology are, are really going to to give us a treat here soon.

And so I am very excited for Uninvited 2.

You can wish list it on Steam right now if you would like to, and I hope that the three of us get a chance to play it for a future episode.

That would be really fun.

Is it Christmas themed?

It seems to be in winter but I didn't get the vibe that it was Christmas themed.

It just was a it was a snowy house.

That's all I do.

OK, that's a nice twist.

I mean, the original takes place in the summer and now we're switching over to winter.

Yeah.

So how did we feel?

How did we feel about Uninvited in terms of horror or queerness after our conversation?

Any other final thoughts for the episode?

You know.

I had kind of hoped that we would find more queerness through our conversation.

I was very happy with our talk and I was very happy to cover this game.

I don't think it's got the most queer representation in it.

I do still like the idea of Drakon and Crowley having some sort of like disagreement where it's like, I couldn't throw you down the pit.

All I could do was lock you in this giant wall of ice.

I have to bring somebody here to throw you down this pit.

Falling down a bottomless pit that's kind of gay.

But otherwise, I think I wish there was a little more queerness.

I think there was plenty of horror.

I think this game is terrifying and I think the only reason I enjoyed playing it was because it was a video game and I was hungry for them.

I love that as a read.

Yep.

And but, you know, here's the thing.

Here's my secret.

I don't, I didn't really enjoy this game.

I, I, I, I kept thinking that this is really hard.

I, I didn't like the music very much personally.

I thought it was like it was fine, but it wasn't anything like the Chapel music I did like.

But on the whole, I thought that this game was very much not my thing, but I did really enjoy our conversation about it.

I do have more to appreciate about it now than when we started, doesn't he?

Would be a stretch to call this queer.

However, I do claim the little girl as part of the possessed little girl cinematic universe because again, said before I've said I'll say it again, that's a pretty queer thing for a girl to be doing, you know?

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I'm, I feel like I'm somewhere between the two of you.

I, I enjoy this game in the sense that I really appreciate it for being.

It feels like a good landmark of where video games are at this point in time and where they will go.

Part of the reason I think I I mentioned and merrily mentioned too Resident Evil and Delta Rune and Undertale is that these are very popular games that have a legacy that you can directly trace back to this early age of point and click adventure games.

So you've got Deja Vu Uninvited, the Sierra.

What was that game called again, David?

Mystery House.

Mystery House, like all of these things could be traced back to it.

And then of course, got home as well.

And for that, I really, really appreciate it.

I don't think I would have enjoyed playing this game simply because it's not for me, but I think this is still a very fascinating game.

I wish it was in more conversation, the fact that I've only heard about it discussed as being part of a very hard game.

Is in like a list of other very hard games.

I think it's a little unfair.

I think this is definitely a different game, but I think it should be known more for like this is a good point in time that you can look at and see where did gaming come from, where is gaming going?

And it's represented here in this kind of like interstitial period.

I think even the fact that it's a port of a game that then was ported over and then ported back to its place of origin and shape.

I mean that is so unusual.

And for that fact alone, I think like maybe the game itself is is kind of queer.

And yeah, because it's just as a fit the norm of of how game design normally goes and game releases normally go even at this time period.

So really interesting.

I think it being a little bit of a red headed stepchild in that sense makes me like it more.

But that's more like on the on like the meta level.

If I, if you just told me like Tyler played this game, I would probably bounce off of it.

But again, it's just not for me.

But I encourage anyone that is interested by this conversation check out the YouTube video.

It's like 45 minutes.

You can watch it with lunch.

Or if you're interested, try it out yourself because the NES port is available as a browser game.

You can download the OR like purchase the Steam version which is like in the original Mac venture.

Port Yeah, well, it's and it's the whole pack.

You can't just buy uninvited.

It's the whole pack now these days.

So you get you get Deja Vu Uninvited, Deja Vu 2, and Shadow.

So lots of bang for your buck.

You know, I personally am interested in the The Uninvited 2.

I think it's going to be very interesting to see what they so many years later are interested in expanding the story with.

Or if it's nothing and just having new people come to the house and like having other fucked up shit happen, which fair enough.

Yeah.

Very interested in seeing what they've what they've got going on.

Developers of Uninvited 2.

Please respond to David's e-mail and then come to.

Podcast Respond to David's E-mail Respond to.

You should always respond to David's e-mail.

No, no, no, they're busy.

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Of course, this month you've had a chance to hear us talk about Bellatro, and if you have not already listened to that, it was a long episode, so we had a lot to say about Bellatro.

Well, Fear Coded is a proud part of the Glitter Jaw Queer Podcast collective.

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And join us next time as we settle back down at the horror kids table and check out The Night of the Living Dummy from the Goosebumps series of children's novellas.

But for now, we will simply say goodbye.