My grandparents lived way out in the country and my grandpa was a farmer. In the back my grandpa built a large aluminum shed where he kept the tractors and had a small office made of plywood in there for business things. In the office was an old 13” tv in there that my uncle would sometimes hook up his Atari 2600 to play since there was only one tv in the main house. When I was about 4-5 years old and staying with my grandparents for the summer, one day and at around dusk I walked out to the shed and went into the dimly lit office and turned on my very first video game, Haunted House. I played for a little while and lost my young little mind as the amazing graphics and sound effects drew me in and reality faded. As the sun set the sound of the footsteps walking down the corridors of that pixilated house and frightening sounds of bats and ghosts echoed off the metallic shed walls and I started to become afraid. I turned off the tv and exited the office into the now dark and cavernous shed. I slowly walked toward the main house looking around fearing that a ghost, spider or bat may rush toward me at any moment and I would have to run for my life. Once I made it into the house without a supernatural incident I reflected on my time in that haunted house and the adventures I had and what I had to look forward to tomorrow when I would become a space fighter pilot in a game that I found in my uncles room called Star Master. This is what started me on the path to being a gamer and my love for video games. Thanks for the great video that brought all those memories flooding back, can’t wait for the next one!
Wow, my early love for video games was that"you have an Atari, why aren't you playing it all time?" My friend at the time, Stephen Donapel was content with that & insulting/teasing his sister.
Haunted House is one of my favorite Atari games. Looking back, it's actually scarier than most modern horror games. I managed to beat the very hard Game 8 and even 9 (plays like 8, but floorplan changed), once. It is definitely confusing without first reading the instruction manual.
I have very distinct memories playing this game in the basement of my parents' old house during the long, dark winters in Montana. Being six years old with the wind blowing outside in the early evening northern twilight mixed with this game was a strong cocktail in the anxiety department.
I absolutely loved this game back when it first came out, but it wasn't easy for me tom play because my NPD mother was always on a stupid kick about how "you're not supposed to be interested in Halloween!" " But my older brother and sister get to do that stuff!" "I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about you!" Whenever I saw the demo in the stores, it was always for only level 1, where you see the walls. I couldn't figure out what the point was until I managed to visit someone with the game and tried the other game level settings. Only then did I understand that level 1 was "the beginner's level" designed to help a new player get accustomed to how the game played. The other levels, especially from 3 on, are something else again. Oh, and I've long since determined that you play as a cat in this game: you have 9 lives.
My parents finally bought is a 2600 4 Switch woody Christmas of 82' . The line up of games : the console came with Combat and Pac-man . They got my oldest brother Pitfall , my other older brother Defender and for me it was Stampede . They also got us Haunted House as a family game . We played it all of the time and my Dad loved to watch us play Haunted House . He was always a fan of Halloween and scary stuff . It really did Creep me out playing it in the dark when I was 9 years old . I still own and play that same 2600 and all of those games along with the countless other 2600 games that I have added to my collection in the past 38 years and just bought my parents a Flashback 9 Gold this Christmas . They are in their 70's now and really enjoyed watching us play Haunted House again all of these years later in the same living room where it all started for us in 1982 . Great video !!!!
I remember this game as being the perfect "turn the lights off and play atari" game. It was so damn spooky late at night playing, with the sound effects turned up. ahhhh memories.
I played this game as a kid and found it genuinely scary. I'm talking when this game was actually new. My preferred mode was not being able to see the walls but with some lightning, which adds a lot to the atmosphere. The top floor felt genuinely far away and scary. My preferred strategy was to locate the scepter, then figure out where all the urn pieces were and finally make a run for it. One thing you did not mention is how great the sound is in this game. The lighting, the doors closing behind you, the organ that plays as you go up and down the stairs. It was top notch back then. I still have my CIB copy
I kept not wanting to pick up the sceptor but you had it right - you almost have to have it because sometimes the monsters overwhelm you right when you walk in a room.
The box art for these games were amazing. The main reason they sold copies of some games at all. Always remember seeing some amazing picture and wanting a game only to find out the game was nothing even close to those pics:)
Like the exciting (for a kid at the time) box art for Night Driver with those cool looking race cars and then you play the game itself and your "car" is a rudimentary blue square that looks more like a crude Conestoga wagon
So this was one of my favorite games growing up with the 2600. I used to live in a 100 year old house that was supposed to be haunted. That didn't help matters much.
try playing this game a strong THUNDERSTORM is going on outside. that adds to the spookiness of the game the game is available disc for for both computers and some home console gaming systems, in my case the PS 2. the title is ATARI ANTHOLOGY. IT HAS 80 GAME PROGRAMS ON IT, INCLUDING 18 in their ORIGINAL arcade game formats the remainder are in the ATARI 2600 home game console format the discs are available at Amazon
After I learn what is really going on. I play until I beat it, now it's easy to beat this game. Did enjoy it and still fun to play. Even after all these years.
Oh, yeah, I never played this as a kid, and I picked up an AtGames Portable a year ago with Haunted House on it. I heard great things about this game, but went in without reading anything about gameplay. That was a mistake! Glad you are back!
For those interested, the Atari Logbook challenge had 3 levels, originally titled Pro, Master, and Wizard (Wizard being best). You needed to win game 9b with 3 lives remaining &
For some reason, I recall this being a great game back in the day, kind of an adventure-type game after I had finished that one and was looking for more. It really helped pass the time during the great depression. Would love to see a remastered/expanded version of this, PS1-style. Thanks for posting. Cheers!
Played a lot of this as a kid and its a part of my retro game collection today. Although its not as involved as horror survival games are today it is good to pick up now and then.
One of the first horror games, making it a landmark creation. For me, being a horror writer, it was magical. It was fun to play in the dark, both in the dark mode and in real dark settings in the house, allowing you to escape in to the game environment more. I actually got scared playing the game several times as a preteen boy.
I happen to disagree it didn't age as well as some of the other games I think it's still more fun than most Atari games. Pretty Amazing games back then 100% original games they came up with nothing to copy off of. Haunted House, Adventure and Superman still fun as hell to play 😊
I didn't get good at complex games like this until the great Video game crash. And by then Haunted house was one of the games I rarely played without a friend to help each other track where we dropped what, etc. I feel like I missed many of the alternative game modes you do such a good job of summarizing!
We bought Haunted House early on for the 2600. The game box cover didn't have the fancy artwork on the box as shown in this video, and it didn't have any detailed story or maps with it, mostly just very simple instructions, brief comments about the ghosts, bats, spiders, and treasures, etc., and what your goal is.
Welcome back Aaron! Thanks for the hard work put into this video! Loved Haunted House growing up. Nothing much to look at but when we were kids having an imagination was critical to playing these games. Love these strolls down memory lane. Keep them coming and have a great week!
Who used to move the eyes around before starting the game :) I played this all the time . The flashing thunder when enemies are coming are really cool. Like u said it's a cheap game , buy it if u see it.
Nice video! I picked up a copy of this one locally last week. Interestingly it's one of the earliest games in the survival horror game genre. Will be including a recommendation, and a link to your video on my channel's review video Wednesday.
I LOVED this game growing up, it was my mother's favourite game (that or Pitfall). I do NOT remember a master/skeleton key though...and don't recall if I really explored the other selections other than the first one, so it's very possible I've missed out on quite a bit in and since my childhood.
The filter you're using for that RF look is pretty accurate. Maybe darker scanline differentiating would help? The horizontal edges of objects are great. Somebody knew what they were doing when they arranged that. Probably the standout technical achievement with this game was the bubble of matchstick light around the player. I'm not certain how it was done, to be honest. It has the resolution of the hardware's "background" graphics, but follows the player on a per-pixel footing, so it can't be just that.
Got to love Friday night arcade!!! Great job again, glad seeing you do this game, you did an excellent job, have this game but haven’t tried it yet but definitely will soon thanks again always look forward to your reviews.....and again try to do nes Rygar sometime
I really enjoyed this game as a kid. A friend had it before I got my own Atari 2600 later on (we actually got the Colecovision first). I've recently played this on the Stella emulator and it's still fun. Obviously not as scary as say Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but it's a good game and pretty cool concept.
I played this game until I mastered it in February '83. Not quite as fun as Adventure or Superman; there was something off about it. As someone said below, the 4th floor was the most dangerous. I think they could have made the rooms more distinctive, like going through a Clue house.
Not exactly a mind-blowing game by today's standards, but as one of the very first attempts at a true "survival horror" game it's pretty inventive. I was born quite a while after the Atari generation, so the first time I ever heard of this game was in an article in GameInformer magazine about games that formed new genres, and now that I've learned a bit more about the game I'd have to agree with its place there. While I don't have any nostalgia for the Atari era myself, I can still appreciate what games like this did.
Awesome and thank you for sharing. Yeah it's just so cool to see what they came up with giving the limitations in place from the hardware. So neat to see how imaginative they were!
Me and my friend did a Haunted house 3 10 years ago on game maker on the PC didn't have time to really finish it but was playable I put a video up on my old channel called incisivegaming on TH-cam get board check it out..😊
@@FridayNightArcade Haunted House came out a few months before Yars' Revenge, if I recall correctly. I know I had HH before Yars'. Yep, I just checked Wikipedia, and HH came out in February '82, while Yars' came out in May.
I've played a lot this game with my brother and a I still remember the good scares we took also we've marked on the paper the items location :D Maybe is this the first survival horror in the history?
I'm back! Sorry for such a long hiatus... real life and stuff. But things are back to normal now and all is well. Hope you all had a great holiday.
Welcome back man! Loved this game. It was a brilliantly fun! It had a lot of charm.
The remake of haunted house is awesome :D
My grandparents lived way out in the country and my grandpa was a farmer. In the back my grandpa built a large aluminum shed where he kept the tractors and had a small office made of plywood in there for business things. In the office was an old 13” tv in there that my uncle would sometimes hook up his Atari 2600 to play since there was only one tv in the main house.
When I was about 4-5 years old and staying with my grandparents for the summer, one day and at around dusk I walked out to the shed and went into the dimly lit office and turned on my very first video game, Haunted House. I played for a little while and lost my young little mind as the amazing graphics and sound effects drew me in and reality faded. As the sun set the sound of the footsteps walking down the corridors of that pixilated house and frightening sounds of bats and ghosts echoed off the metallic shed walls and I started to become afraid.
I turned off the tv and exited the office into the now dark and cavernous shed. I slowly walked toward the main house looking around fearing that a ghost, spider or bat may rush toward me at any moment and I would have to run for my life. Once I made it into the house without a supernatural incident I reflected on my time in that haunted house and the adventures I had and what I had to look forward to tomorrow when I would become a space fighter pilot in a game that I found in my uncles room called Star Master. This is what started me on the path to being a gamer and my love for video games.
Thanks for the great video that brought all those memories flooding back, can’t wait for the next one!
Wow, my early love for video games was that"you have an Atari, why aren't you playing it all time?" My friend at the time, Stephen Donapel was content with that & insulting/teasing his sister.
I've always been fond of Haunted House. Sort of proto-Resident Evil the same way Adventure is proto-Legend of Zelda. Good 2600 stuff!
Ah, wow
This has been one of my favorite Atari games since I first got it in 82.
Haunted House is one of my favorite Atari games. Looking back, it's actually scarier than most modern horror games. I managed to beat the very hard Game 8 and even 9 (plays like 8, but floorplan changed), once. It is definitely confusing without first reading the instruction manual.
I have very distinct memories playing this game in the basement of my parents' old house during the long, dark winters in Montana. Being six years old with the wind blowing outside in the early evening northern twilight mixed with this game was a strong cocktail in the anxiety department.
I absolutely loved this game back when it first came out, but it wasn't easy for me tom play because my NPD mother was always on a stupid kick about how "you're not supposed to be interested in Halloween!" " But my older brother and sister get to do that stuff!" "I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about you!"
Whenever I saw the demo in the stores, it was always for only level 1, where you see the walls. I couldn't figure out what the point was until I managed to visit someone with the game and tried the other game level settings. Only then did I understand that level 1 was "the beginner's level" designed to help a new player get accustomed to how the game played.
The other levels, especially from 3 on, are something else again.
Oh, and I've long since determined that you play as a cat in this game: you have 9 lives.
My parents finally bought is a 2600 4 Switch woody Christmas of 82' . The line up of games : the console came with Combat and Pac-man . They got my oldest brother Pitfall , my other older brother Defender and for me it was Stampede . They also got us Haunted House as a family game . We played it all of the time and my Dad loved to watch us play Haunted House . He was always a fan of Halloween and scary stuff . It really did Creep me out playing it in the dark when I was 9 years old . I still own and play that same 2600 and all of those games along with the countless other 2600 games that I have added to my collection in the past 38 years and just bought my parents a Flashback 9 Gold this Christmas . They are in their 70's now and really enjoyed watching us play Haunted House again all of these years later in the same living room where it all started for us in 1982 . Great video !!!!
Love hearing stories like this - thank you for sharing!
Easily one of my top 10 Atari 2600 games. The fact that they made a multi level adventure/horror game work so well was awesome!
I love how the cover for this game could easily be a movie poster.
I remember this game as being the perfect "turn the lights off and play atari" game. It was so damn spooky late at night playing, with the sound effects turned up. ahhhh memories.
I played this game as a kid and found it genuinely scary. I'm talking when this game was actually new.
My preferred mode was not being able to see the walls but with some lightning, which adds a lot to the atmosphere. The top floor felt genuinely far away and scary. My preferred strategy was to locate the scepter, then figure out where all the urn pieces were and finally make a run for it.
One thing you did not mention is how great the sound is in this game. The lighting, the doors closing behind you, the organ that plays as you go up and down the stairs. It was top notch back then.
I still have my CIB copy
I kept not wanting to pick up the sceptor but you had it right - you almost have to have it because sometimes the monsters overwhelm you right when you walk in a room.
the cover art for this game freaked me out as a kid!!! I am so glad you are covering this one, well done
It seems a bit Lovecraftian.
Five years old in 1982 and I was the undisputed champion of this game in my house. Loved it...and still do!
u still own the game and the console?
I still have a Atari 2600 and this cartridge. I need to fire that thing up and play it again.
This is currently one of my go to games on my 2600! I love the atmosphere of playing this with the lights out in the middle of the night.
😀
I remember making a flimsy boardgame of this when I was a kid.
The box art for these games were amazing. The main reason they sold copies of some games at all. Always remember seeing some amazing picture and wanting a game only to find out the game was nothing even close to those pics:)
Like the exciting (for a kid at the time) box art for Night Driver with those cool looking race cars and then you play the game itself and your "car" is a rudimentary blue square that looks more like a crude Conestoga wagon
My eyes do that when touched by a spider, too.
Classic artari
Always one of my favorite games!
So this was one of my favorite games growing up with the 2600. I used to live in a 100 year old house that was supposed to be haunted. That didn't help matters much.
This seems like a fun game
LOVED this game. I beat all nine levels (except, oddly, for 8).
i remember seeing the box art in catalogs and being impressed. the game itself reminded me of adventure.
Big fan of haunted house. I've had it since the 80s.
Great video as always
try playing this game a strong THUNDERSTORM is going on outside.
that adds to the spookiness of the game the game is available disc for for both computers and some home console gaming systems, in my case the PS 2. the title is ATARI ANTHOLOGY. IT HAS 80 GAME PROGRAMS ON IT, INCLUDING 18 in their ORIGINAL arcade game formats
the remainder are in the ATARI 2600 home game console format the discs are available at Amazon
I played this quite a bit as a kid but didn't have the instruction book, so I never knew exactly what I was doing.
I never got a chance to play Haunted House but I always wanted to after seeing screen shots and the boxart in those old Atari catalogs.
Welcome back! I remember getting Haunted House in a batch of games a friend gave me. Had to figure it out without the instruction manual. Enjoyed it!
Every sound in this game and been burned into my brain since I was so young as well as the art work on the cartridge
Great game! I played it all the time. I also bought the Atari remake on the Xbox 360, via download. I’m looking forward to the next episode!
After I learn what is really going on. I play until I beat it, now it's easy to beat this game. Did enjoy it and still fun to play. Even after all these years.
Soooo many memories of playing this during my child hood just relived. Thank you!
Oh, yeah, I never played this as a kid, and I picked up an AtGames Portable a year ago with Haunted House on it. I heard great things about this game, but went in without reading anything about gameplay. That was a mistake! Glad you are back!
Loved this game.
Thanks for shining light on the games of yesteryear
For those interested, the Atari Logbook challenge had 3 levels, originally titled Pro, Master, and Wizard (Wizard being best). You needed to win game 9b with
3 lives remaining &
Thank you, Friday Night Arcade, much appreciated disclaimer at the beginning.
Holy cow this brought back so many memories! Thank you!
I remember this being much more doable as a kid lol
For some reason, I recall this being a great game back in the day, kind of an adventure-type game after I had finished that one and was looking for more. It really helped pass the time during the great depression. Would love to see a remastered/expanded version of this, PS1-style. Thanks for posting. Cheers!
There is actually a remake of this game for the Wii. Also simply called "Haunted House".
Played a lot of this as a kid and its a part of my retro game collection today. Although its not as involved as horror survival games are today it is good to pick up now and then.
Don't call yourself a horror fan if you never played this meatball resident evil game
One of the first horror games, making it a landmark creation. For me, being a horror writer, it was magical. It was fun to play in the dark, both in the dark mode and in real dark settings in the house, allowing you to escape in to the game environment more. I actually got scared playing the game several times as a preteen boy.
I happen to disagree it didn't age as well as some of the other games I think it's still more fun than most Atari games.
Pretty Amazing games back then 100% original games they came up with nothing to copy off of.
Haunted House, Adventure and Superman still fun as hell to play 😊
Amazing bro
I loved playing this game. It prepared Me for mapping out The Legend of Zelda years later.
I didn't get good at complex games like this until the great Video game crash. And by then Haunted house was one of the games I rarely played without a friend to help each other track where we dropped what, etc.
I feel like I missed many of the alternative game modes you do such a good job of summarizing!
Welcome back. Loved the video 👍
Thanks, Paul!
Love your videos man. Glad I found your channel
We bought Haunted House early on for the 2600. The game box cover didn't have the fancy artwork on the box as shown in this video, and it didn't have any detailed story or maps with it, mostly just very simple instructions, brief comments about the ghosts, bats, spiders, and treasures, etc., and what your goal is.
You're back! I'm so happy to have some 2600 goodness to watch. Thanks buddy! 👍👍👍
I remember this game and I loved it
I had this as a kid. It was definitely different and not bad for it's time!
Thanks for making this great video!
Welcome back Aaron! Thanks for the hard work put into this video! Loved Haunted House growing up. Nothing much to look at but when we were kids having an imagination was critical to playing these games. Love these strolls down memory lane. Keep them coming and have a great week!
This has been one of my favourite 2600 titles over the past few weeks! 😁. Great review!
One of my favorite Atari games. I didn't have the manual so it took me a while to figure out what I was doing.
Really good video!
Great video. I've never played this game. Never even heard of it in the 80s growing up. But I've since seen lots of videos about it.
It looks neat.
I had never seen this game until today. I thought it was a homebrew with meatwad at first.
I remember trying to play this game at my cousins house when I was really young. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing but it creeped me out. 👻
Who used to move the eyes around before starting the game :) I played this all the time . The flashing thunder when enemies are coming are really cool. Like u said it's a cheap game , buy it if u see it.
My new favorite channel gonna watch all your videos.
Welcome back. Good game to come back with. Glad to see an upload from ya.
I was obsessed with this when it came out
Atic Atac was developed a year later, it was an awesome time to witness advancements in gaming. :)
Very nice! So hard as a kid, but I loved the box art. Thanks for the memories.
The same bat from Adventure. My long time arch nemesis.
Nice video! I picked up a copy of this one locally last week. Interestingly it's one of the earliest games in the survival horror game genre. Will be including a recommendation, and a link to your video on my channel's review video Wednesday.
I LOVED this game growing up, it was my mother's favourite game (that or Pitfall). I do NOT remember a master/skeleton key though...and don't recall if I really explored the other selections other than the first one, so it's very possible I've missed out on quite a bit in and since my childhood.
The filter you're using for that RF look is pretty accurate. Maybe darker scanline differentiating would help? The horizontal edges of objects are great. Somebody knew what they were doing when they arranged that.
Probably the standout technical achievement with this game was the bubble of matchstick light around the player. I'm not certain how it was done, to be honest. It has the resolution of the hardware's "background" graphics, but follows the player on a per-pixel footing, so it can't be just that.
Thanks - yeah I normally wouldn't use filters but the classic CRT effect seemed appropriate for this game. Will keep futzing with it.
Welcome back and Happy New Year!
It sounded like thunder claps wen he got scared to death
I always thought that's what they were. Dramatic thunderclap.
@@itwsntme probably 😂
Got to love Friday night arcade!!! Great job again, glad seeing you do this game, you did an excellent job, have this game but haven’t tried it yet but definitely will soon thanks again always look forward to your reviews.....and again try to do nes Rygar sometime
Welcome back bro. We missed ya haha
I really enjoyed this game as a kid. A friend had it before I got my own Atari 2600 later on (we actually got the Colecovision first). I've recently played this on the Stella emulator and it's still fun. Obviously not as scary as say Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but it's a good game and pretty cool concept.
That was one of the games I always wanted but never got
I played this game until I mastered it in February '83. Not quite as fun as Adventure or Superman; there was something off about it. As someone said below, the 4th floor was the most dangerous. I think they could have made the rooms more distinctive, like going through a Clue house.
Not exactly a mind-blowing game by today's standards, but as one of the very first attempts at a true "survival horror" game it's pretty inventive. I was born quite a while after the Atari generation, so the first time I ever heard of this game was in an article in GameInformer magazine about games that formed new genres, and now that I've learned a bit more about the game I'd have to agree with its place there. While I don't have any nostalgia for the Atari era myself, I can still appreciate what games like this did.
Awesome and thank you for sharing. Yeah it's just so cool to see what they came up with giving the limitations in place from the hardware. So neat to see how imaginative they were!
First game I ever beat. Didn’t know i did at the time.
Yaaaa! He's back :D
Haunted House 2 is a reskined adventure basically
Great episode! We love game 🦇
If this game were to release in October this game would have sell well. Meanwhile I think this game is a good halloween game.
Loved this game
MEATWAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!he needs his own show
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone made a PS4VR version ?
Me and my friend did a Haunted house 3 10 years ago on game maker on the PC didn't have time to really finish it but was playable I put a video up on my old channel called incisivegaming on TH-cam get board check it out..😊
Welcome back!
Is the death sound from Yars’ or did this one come first?
It's definitely the same sound. I believe Yars did it first.
@@FridayNightArcade Haunted House came out a few months before Yars' Revenge, if I recall correctly. I know I had HH before Yars'. Yep, I just checked Wikipedia, and HH came out in February '82, while Yars' came out in May.
Love it to this day
I've played a lot this game with my brother and a I still remember the good scares we took also we've marked on the paper the items location :D
Maybe is this the first survival horror in the history?
Scary stuff about black widows, isn't it?
Every play Shark Attack for 2600? Simple fun game.
Did reboot of haunts house it includes the OG haunted house lonng with it
This game is bad ass.
9 lives? So is your character a cat? 😃
The main character is Meatwad from ATHF!
Anybody? 😕
Riders of the lost ark 2600 anyone?