I can't believe it, but this is one of the few 2600 games I cannot recall ever playing (especially since I loved Adventure). Thank you for sharing this detailed run-through of the game. You know, with that reddish-brown color of the "flashlight", you could totally convince younger people that this was an Aqua Teen Hunger Force game. :)
The first ever survival horror game and one of my favorites of the genre. It is a fun, simple, but realistically creepy game. I can actually beat it in the hardest difficulty.
A truly brilliant game. The idea of just showing the eyes was great, so the entire thing didn't need high quality graphics (or at least the highest quality the 2600 was capable of), just as much atmosphere as was possible for the system. One of my favorites of all time.
It's such a clever idea and a remarkable how that works so well. Your Brain fills in the rest of the details, and the lack if light even justifies the simple silhouettes if enemies. This would work as a simple indie game today. I forgot how much I loved this game.
This one doesn't get nearly enough credit for its role in shaping the survival horror genre. There are a number of key elements in play here that would go on to be mainstays: Fumbling your way through dark areas, a focus on evading rather than confronting threats, managing a very limited inventory, and conserving a vital resource (your lives, in this case). The makers of the original Alone In The Dark have cited it as a major influence.
I found it last year while he was still on 1981 (Skeet Shoot), and was very enjoyable. I didn't know the early Atari carts were also based on arcade games, which means the originals were play-tested with quarters.
I REALLY liked this game as a kid (and still do) and asked for it for my birthday. This manages to had enough depth to make "one more game" an ongoing proposition but simple enough so that it didn't need or ask anything outrageous of the player.
Oh man this has always been one of my favorite Atari games! I'm surprised to hear that it might not have been that big of a hit. I played this all the time as a kid, and I think it's got great atmosphere and is still a lot of fun to play today! Love it. Also, I love the video capture setup you're using. Those fuzzy outlines of an SD signal really take me back!
There's an interview with Nolan Bushnell where he talks about how a lot of companies even back then wanted massive hit after massive hit and how even after he'd gone Atari had a philosophy of releasing both titles designed to be huge hits but also smaller, more weird cult hits that might not spend anytime at the top of the charts but were constant sellers and absolutely loved by their fans and he specifically mentioned Haunted House as an example of that. A game that sold consistently and had a big cult following. I think that's why it's survived so well. It always sold copies and everyone who loved it, really really loved it.
My guess is Haunted House sold quite well. Atari was on fire (in a good way) in 1982! Everything labeled Atari sold like hotcakes! My buddy purchased this game as soon as it was released. Plus, If it sold 34,000 copies in 1988 - long after Atari’s heyday - then Haunted House was reasonably successful.
Bushnell used it as an example of a game "with a cult following that consistently sold copies for the company" when he was talking about his philosophy of releasing smaller titles designed for specific audiences alongside the ones he expected to be big hits. Obviously he'd gone by this point but I bet he'd be in a position to know roughly what this sold just from being around.
As usual, great video. But it’s a shame that we don’t have anything from the mind of the author and that you did mention the Return to the Haunted House romhack but omitted the XBLA reimagining of the game from 2010 that is part of the retrocompatibles for XBOX One and hasn’t been delisted yet.
One of my favorites! Quite possibly favorite of the original pre-83 games? Thank you for giving this game its historical context given what little you had to work with.
I wrote most of the wikipedia article for Haunted House. Its a real shame that little info about it is available from Andreasen. One bonus is that you control the game scrolling. Which i cant find any arcade game that does this beforehand. That being said, i really pike Adventure, but i agree with the reviewer at the time, running around in the dark is not my cup of tea. Still a fun early game in the genre to try to get to see a cool stepping stone in games.
The 1982 Atari Logbook Challenge says to play game 9 on difficulty b, win with at least this many lives remaining and use no more matches than described: Pro (Unflappable): 3 Lives, 25 Matches; Master (Nerves of Steel): 4 Lives, 38 Matches; Wizard (Champion Ghost Chaser): 7 Lives, 25 Matches. The previous green logbook, from 1979, had Pro, Master and Wizard as the three challenge levels for every game, so I included them here, as it's easier for me to remember than the special titles they came up with. Game 9 has a different layout of stairs and locked doors, so required mapping it out, as it's not in the manual. My best is 9 Lives, 5 Matches. I don't think I will ever beat that unless the Urn pieces are in the first three rooms I encounter, so I don't play it any more. Now that I think of it, difficulty switches on A may do something. But the action is very random as monsters pop out at you. The 3rd-party game for Atari, _Mountain King,_ also uses a bat to steal the item you're carrying. All the 1982 catalogs I have show _Haunted House_ next to _Adventure_ and _Superman_ under the heading "Adventure Territory." I didn't get any catalogs in 1982-3 that had _E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,_ or _Raiders of the Lost Ark,_ or _Swordquest: Earthworld_ though I saw them in the Atari Age magazines. I suspect they took the catalogs out of unsold _Pac-Man_ boxes and put them in later carts to save a few cents, though it probably hurt sales by not taking advantage of "cheap" advertising. Today I think the Spielberg movie-games would have done better being action-oriented like a bicycle chase and a truck chase, respectively, much like the arcade games _Paperboy_ which came later and _Wild Western_ which has you on horseback chasing a train and fighting train-robbers. One of the first books I remember liking to read was the Choose Your Own Adventure Book, _The Mystery of Chimney Rock (1980)._ You go into a spooky house, get separated from your friends and try to escape alive. There's a black cat and a witch that can turn you into a mouse. Later, when I got a computer I played _Voodoo Castle (1979)_ a text adventure game (but not _The Count_ which was similar). As an adult, when I learned that _Adventure_ was based on a text-adventure game, I wondered why Atari didn't make more like that. Probably memory limitations? They saved memory in _Haunted House_ making four screens, one for each floor that are symmetrical and identical and contain 6 rooms, instead of 4x6=24 screens you'd map out for each room as in _Superman_ or _Adventure_ which both had 30. Or was it lack of imagination? Today and for the last several years I like to play the board game, _Betrayal at House on the Hill_ where you go exploring into a mansion, which is laid out differently each time, until the Haunt begins and one of the players becomes the traitor with a different objective than the heroes.
I might not be playing much more of _Betrayal at House on the Hill._ The expansion wasn't fun, so I removed the components from the base game. The adventure I played last week was a standoff. My ally got eliminated the first turn the Haunt started, so was out with nothing to do, and left. It just dragged as the Traitor and I looked for a way to the basement. Once there neither side could hurt the other, and since the game had lasted two hours, we called it a draw. Still, the idea of having different rooms in a different configuration each game where different stuff happens is pretty good.
I was curious how likely the urn pieces could start in the first 4 or 5 rooms in game 9. At most 1 piece. After countless times trying to improve my score, one time I just ran to the 4th floor and found pieces of the urn and ran back to the entrance, losing no lives and using only 2 matches! I tried playing game 8 again, thinking it would be similar just with a different "maze." However, since the bat and spiders can't go through locked doors it's harder to avoid them as they will follow you to a dead end. Still I was eventually able to win with 6 matches and 9 lives. I found the manual online, but its map of locked doors for games 1-8 was incorrect. It does say that the left difficulty switch on B will have lightning strikes occasionally to show you the walls, while on A it does not. The right difficulty doesn't do anything.
Haunted House could really scare me as a kid! --Jumping off the floor when that ghost came and zapped me, and the terror of trying to get away. LOL. Great times!
I used to Love playing Haunted house on the Atari 2600. Looks like it is included on the Atari classics for the Nintendo Switch family of game systems.
I was never a big fan of the game. The maze was dull and the lighting of matches was a strange and unnecessary game mechanic to me. However, the atmosphere was top notch. The sound of the wind and the footsteps made the game a bit scary. There's also a sense of claustrophobia. These are things that are hard to pull off on the 2600, so I appreciate the game for those reasons.
I think you're right. Maybe there should have been a lantern you could start with or find, that doesn't get blown out. I feel sorry if kids didn't have other games to fall back on after playing a session of this game. Still, I played it a lot and got through to game 9, and won the logbook challenge in 1983, after my Atari was repaired. I don't think I thought of it when I got it, but it seems like they should have had 24 screens instead of 4, then the rooms could be connected differently or randomly. _Adventure_ has 30 rooms. They'd still have to have symmetry across a vertical line to save memory, but the background buildings in Superman look pretty good, so the rooms could be distinctive and better than _Swordquest: Earthworld._ It looks like they kept two mechanics: having the monsters jump out at you like the dragons did, and how the bat can steal what you're carrying. Still, a distant third compared to _Adventure_ and _Superman._ I understand _Adventure_ was one of 27 games that sold over 1 million copies. So maybe they were looking for another hit? _Haunted House_ must have sold well enough for them to make _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ and _E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial_ as adventure games instead of action games. The latter two sold over 1 million and 2 million, respectively, (probably on the name alone) but there were so many returns for _E.T._ that it helped bring down Atari. I laugh when people say they couldn't understand _Adventure_ to win it without the rule book, but don't when people say they never solved _Raiders._ (I didn't know how to dig on the "dirt pile" for the Ark until I read it online.) Text adventure games became the thing I played over the next year or two on the VIC-20. I think my last was _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ which I couldn't win, either.
Nobody ever liked this game except me. Nobody bothered to read the manual to learn how to play, so they all said it sucked. I knew how to play, which didn't make anyone happy.
Yeah, I remember playing games at other kids' homes, like Donkey Kong and Barnstorming. If you could jump right in and have a fun session for a few minutes while taking turns, (or playing head-to-head) then it was a good game. But those 5-minute games from Activision, while good for a quick visit, would have been disappointing to buy and play alone at home. Pitfall! was the only one I bought, and I got a lot of hours out of it, though once I won it, I didn't play it again until years later. So I don't see visitors getting into Haunted House. Even two-player games I had like Super Challenge Baseball, and Armor Ambush required kids to learn the controls and strategy, so the home player had an advantage. I think the two-player games were done in 1981 after Super Breakout, Ice Hockey and Tennis.
Every time I look at the cover and look at the eyes I can't stop imagining the eyes look so funny because that person just smelt the world's most evilest fart
![[TH] 2024 PMGC League | Survival Stage วันที่ 1 | PUBG MOBILE Global Championship](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FVFT-PFwU80/mqdefault.jpg)
I looked up James Andreasen's obituary. He was only 49. How sad he died so young.
This game definitely gave me some jump scares!
I can't believe it, but this is one of the few 2600 games I cannot recall ever playing (especially since I loved Adventure). Thank you for sharing this detailed run-through of the game.
You know, with that reddish-brown color of the "flashlight", you could totally convince younger people that this was an Aqua Teen Hunger Force game. :)
Not a game to play alone downstairs in the rec room at night, although it was done anyway.
I love the pupils. Great detail.
The first ever survival horror game and one of my favorites of the genre. It is a fun, simple, but realistically creepy game. I can actually beat it in the hardest difficulty.
This has been one of my favorite Atari games since it first came out.
A truly brilliant game. The idea of just showing the eyes was great, so the entire thing didn't need high quality graphics (or at least the highest quality the 2600 was capable of), just as much atmosphere as was possible for the system. One of my favorites of all time.
It's such a clever idea and a remarkable how that works so well. Your Brain fills in the rest of the details, and the lack if light even justifies the simple silhouettes if enemies. This would work as a simple indie game today.
I forgot how much I loved this game.
Yes! I LOVE this game.
The ghost is iconic in my mind. As a kid sort of reminded me of a marshmallow shape you would find in a cereal box of the "monster" cereals.
“Iconic”
This one doesn't get nearly enough credit for its role in shaping the survival horror genre. There are a number of key elements in play here that would go on to be mainstays: Fumbling your way through dark areas, a focus on evading rather than confronting threats, managing a very limited inventory, and conserving a vital resource (your lives, in this case). The makers of the original Alone In The Dark have cited it as a major influence.
The great Meatwad exploration maze game! Seriously though, this is a great game for the 2600. Lots of complexity to be found here!
I just happened to be wearing a bootleg Atari 2600 Haunted House t-shirt I got off of Etsy when this was released. :)
Wow I’m glad I stumbled upon this channel, so much fascinating work on these seminal relics!
I found it last year while he was still on 1981 (Skeet Shoot), and was very enjoyable. I didn't know the early Atari carts were also based on arcade games, which means the originals were play-tested with quarters.
I’m sure this has been said before by others, but I greatly appreciate you using the Solaris hyperspace warping sound at the start of your videos. 👍
I REALLY liked this game as a kid (and still do) and asked for it for my birthday. This manages to had enough depth to make "one more game" an ongoing proposition but simple enough so that it didn't need or ask anything outrageous of the player.
Im liking this channel. Glad I found it. The sounds and bleeds and such fits this game perfectly. I subbed. 😊👍
Another great review! I've ordered your book and am looking forward to reading it.
Oh man this has always been one of my favorite Atari games! I'm surprised to hear that it might not have been that big of a hit. I played this all the time as a kid, and I think it's got great atmosphere and is still a lot of fun to play today! Love it.
Also, I love the video capture setup you're using. Those fuzzy outlines of an SD signal really take me back!
There's an interview with Nolan Bushnell where he talks about how a lot of companies even back then wanted massive hit after massive hit and how even after he'd gone Atari had a philosophy of releasing both titles designed to be huge hits but also smaller, more weird cult hits that might not spend anytime at the top of the charts but were constant sellers and absolutely loved by their fans and he specifically mentioned Haunted House as an example of that. A game that sold consistently and had a big cult following.
I think that's why it's survived so well. It always sold copies and everyone who loved it, really really loved it.
There was also the 2010 sequel on Windows, the 360 and the Wii. The Steam version is still available for $5.99 with "mixed" reviews.
Playing this in black in white mode late at night on a cruddy CRT TV was the best
Yah, when i didnt have turn on big main tv in evening , i played my system on a small color tv. I had a small bnw tv first for awhile.
Don't ever stop making these!!!
Awesome stuff, every time!!!
My guess is Haunted House sold quite well. Atari was on fire (in a good way) in 1982! Everything labeled Atari sold like hotcakes! My buddy purchased this game as soon as it was released. Plus, If it sold 34,000 copies in 1988 - long after Atari’s heyday - then Haunted House was reasonably successful.
Bushnell used it as an example of a game "with a cult following that consistently sold copies for the company" when he was talking about his philosophy of releasing smaller titles designed for specific audiences alongside the ones he expected to be big hits. Obviously he'd gone by this point but I bet he'd be in a position to know roughly what this sold just from being around.
Video games almost died in 1983. Lucky NES came out. Saved playing video games at home.
Haunted House is definitely a game that I enjoyed playing (and Adventure is a great VCS game. Good episode. Looking forward to Pac-Man next time.
Probably Pac-Man will get quite a variety of comments, and maybe attract new people to the channel.
What a lovely game, I'd love to give that a shot.
It's very cool. Good job to Atari and Andreasen.
such a great channel!
Anothrr great video! Thank you !
Very interesting as always!
I never appreciated this game as a kid, mostly due to needing to shift to higher difficulty settings to get a challenge. I should go revisit it now.
As usual, great video. But it’s a shame that we don’t have anything from the mind of the author and that you did mention the Return to the Haunted House romhack but omitted the XBLA reimagining of the game from 2010 that is part of the retrocompatibles for XBOX One and hasn’t been delisted yet.
One of my favorites! Quite possibly favorite of the original pre-83 games? Thank you for giving this game its historical context given what little you had to work with.
Pretty amazing that he got some scenes of the BETA version of this game. I think it's a first in this series.
Video games almost died in 1983. The Nintendo saved at home gaming. Arcades were still really popular.
I wrote most of the wikipedia article for Haunted House. Its a real shame that little info about it is available from Andreasen.
One bonus is that you control the game scrolling. Which i cant find any arcade game that does this beforehand.
That being said, i really pike Adventure, but i agree with the reviewer at the time, running around in the dark is not my cup of tea. Still a fun early game in the genre to try to get to see a cool stepping stone in games.
I suspect it sold a bunch of copies, as everyone who owns an Atari now has about three or four copies!
The 1982 Atari Logbook Challenge says to play game 9 on difficulty b, win with at least this many lives remaining and use no more matches than described:
Pro (Unflappable): 3 Lives, 25 Matches;
Master (Nerves of Steel): 4 Lives, 38 Matches;
Wizard (Champion Ghost Chaser): 7 Lives, 25 Matches.
The previous green logbook, from 1979, had Pro, Master and Wizard as the three challenge levels for every game, so I included them here, as it's easier for me to remember than the special titles they came up with. Game 9 has a different layout of stairs and locked doors, so required mapping it out, as it's not in the manual. My best is 9 Lives, 5 Matches. I don't think I will ever beat that unless the Urn pieces are in the first three rooms I encounter, so I don't play it any more. Now that I think of it, difficulty switches on A may do something. But the action is very random as monsters pop out at you. The 3rd-party game for Atari, _Mountain King,_ also uses a bat to steal the item you're carrying.
All the 1982 catalogs I have show _Haunted House_ next to _Adventure_ and _Superman_ under the heading "Adventure Territory." I didn't get any catalogs in 1982-3 that had _E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,_ or _Raiders of the Lost Ark,_ or _Swordquest: Earthworld_ though I saw them in the Atari Age magazines. I suspect they took the catalogs out of unsold _Pac-Man_ boxes and put them in later carts to save a few cents, though it probably hurt sales by not taking advantage of "cheap" advertising. Today I think the Spielberg movie-games would have done better being action-oriented like a bicycle chase and a truck chase, respectively, much like the arcade games _Paperboy_ which came later and _Wild Western_ which has you on horseback chasing a train and fighting train-robbers.
One of the first books I remember liking to read was the Choose Your Own Adventure Book, _The Mystery of Chimney Rock (1980)._ You go into a spooky house, get separated from your friends and try to escape alive. There's a black cat and a witch that can turn you into a mouse. Later, when I got a computer I played _Voodoo Castle (1979)_ a text adventure game (but not _The Count_ which was similar). As an adult, when I learned that _Adventure_ was based on a text-adventure game, I wondered why Atari didn't make more like that. Probably memory limitations? They saved memory in _Haunted House_ making four screens, one for each floor that are symmetrical and identical and contain 6 rooms, instead of 4x6=24 screens you'd map out for each room as in _Superman_ or _Adventure_ which both had 30. Or was it lack of imagination?
Today and for the last several years I like to play the board game, _Betrayal at House on the Hill_ where you go exploring into a mansion, which is laid out differently each time, until the Haunt begins and one of the players becomes the traitor with a different objective than the heroes.
I might not be playing much more of _Betrayal at House on the Hill._ The expansion wasn't fun, so I removed the components from the base game. The adventure I played last week was a standoff. My ally got eliminated the first turn the Haunt started, so was out with nothing to do, and left. It just dragged as the Traitor and I looked for a way to the basement. Once there neither side could hurt the other, and since the game had lasted two hours, we called it a draw. Still, the idea of having different rooms in a different configuration each game where different stuff happens is pretty good.
I was curious how likely the urn pieces could start in the first 4 or 5 rooms in game 9. At most 1 piece. After countless times trying to improve my score, one time I just ran to the 4th floor and found pieces of the urn and ran back to the entrance, losing no lives and using only 2 matches!
I tried playing game 8 again, thinking it would be similar just with a different "maze." However, since the bat and spiders can't go through locked doors it's harder to avoid them as they will follow you to a dead end. Still I was eventually able to win with 6 matches and 9 lives. I found the manual online, but its map of locked doors for games 1-8 was incorrect. It does say that the left difficulty switch on B will have lightning strikes occasionally to show you the walls, while on A it does not. The right difficulty doesn't do anything.
Haunted House could really scare me as a kid! --Jumping off the floor when that ghost came and zapped me, and the terror of trying to get away. LOL. Great times!
I used to Love playing Haunted house on the Atari 2600. Looks like it is included on the Atari classics for the Nintendo Switch family of game systems.
I was never a big fan of the game. The maze was dull and the lighting of matches was a strange and unnecessary game mechanic to me. However, the atmosphere was top notch. The sound of the wind and the footsteps made the game a bit scary. There's also a sense of claustrophobia. These are things that are hard to pull off on the 2600, so I appreciate the game for those reasons.
I think you're right. Maybe there should have been a lantern you could start with or find, that doesn't get blown out. I feel sorry if kids didn't have other games to fall back on after playing a session of this game. Still, I played it a lot and got through to game 9, and won the logbook challenge in 1983, after my Atari was repaired.
I don't think I thought of it when I got it, but it seems like they should have had 24 screens instead of 4, then the rooms could be connected differently or randomly. _Adventure_ has 30 rooms. They'd still have to have symmetry across a vertical line to save memory, but the background buildings in Superman look pretty good, so the rooms could be distinctive and better than _Swordquest: Earthworld._ It looks like they kept two mechanics: having the monsters jump out at you like the dragons did, and how the bat can steal what you're carrying. Still, a distant third compared to _Adventure_ and _Superman._
I understand _Adventure_ was one of 27 games that sold over 1 million copies. So maybe they were looking for another hit? _Haunted House_ must have sold well enough for them to make _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ and _E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial_ as adventure games instead of action games. The latter two sold over 1 million and 2 million, respectively, (probably on the name alone) but there were so many returns for _E.T._ that it helped bring down Atari. I laugh when people say they couldn't understand _Adventure_ to win it without the rule book, but don't when people say they never solved _Raiders._ (I didn't know how to dig on the "dirt pile" for the Ark until I read it online.) Text adventure games became the thing I played over the next year or two on the VIC-20. I think my last was _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ which I couldn't win, either.
Bought it new, loved the game.
Nobody ever liked this game except me. Nobody bothered to read the manual to learn how to play, so they all said it sucked. I knew how to play, which didn't make anyone happy.
Yeah, I remember playing games at other kids' homes, like Donkey Kong and Barnstorming. If you could jump right in and have a fun session for a few minutes while taking turns, (or playing head-to-head) then it was a good game. But those 5-minute games from Activision, while good for a quick visit, would have been disappointing to buy and play alone at home. Pitfall! was the only one I bought, and I got a lot of hours out of it, though once I won it, I didn't play it again until years later.
So I don't see visitors getting into Haunted House. Even two-player games I had like Super Challenge Baseball, and Armor Ambush required kids to learn the controls and strategy, so the home player had an advantage. I think the two-player games were done in 1981 after Super Breakout, Ice Hockey and Tennis.
Most Atari games are easy to play. Some needed instructions. Otherwise you won't figure it out.
Just played Haunted House last night! 👻
I played this but I had know idea what I was doing
GOOD GRAPHICS!!!
More like... Haunted House of Representatives.
Great work, Mr. Bunch. 🙂
Every time I look at the cover and look at the eyes I can't stop imagining the eyes look so funny because that person just smelt the world's most evilest fart
MEATWAD! 😂
Damnit. It's called Boo!! Haunted House. AVGN's word is law.