C64 Lore: Friday the 13th

[Flack]

As young teenagers, my buddy Jeff and I loved getting scared by scary movies and scary videogames. One of the first horror-related videogames either of us owned was Friday the 13th for the Commodore 64. The goal of the game is to search Camp Crystal Lake and stop Jason before he murders all ten of your innocent little camping buddies. Often, Jason will disguise himself as one of your friends – when this happens, the quickest way to flush him out is to attack all your friends to determine if they are really Jason in disguise. Kind of a brutal tactic, but it works. All of these violent acts are carried out using only weapons that the average teenage camp counselor could get his or her hands on: chainsaws, tridents, axes, throwing daggers, and so on.

While most of Friday the 13th’s gameplay wasn’t very scary, there was one aspect of the game that genuinely frightened us. At random points throughout the game, pictures of decapitated heads and skulls would flash up on the screen, accompanied by a blood-curdling digitized scream. These flashes of horror generally appeared during the cut scenes between rooms, which were normally black and silent. The screams caught us off guard and made us jump every single time.

To make the game seem even scarier, Jeff and I began playing the game only late at night and with all the lights turned off, huddled close to his computer monitor. To make his room seem even darker, the two of us began draping a blanket over our heads and the computer’s monitor, so that all we could see was the game itself.

At some point along the way I guess Jeff’s dad caught on to what we were doing. A fan of practical jokes, one night he snuck into Jeff’s room and gave Jeff and I the scare of a lifetime. The two of us, sitting at Jeff’s computer desk with our heads under a blanket, had just begun playing Friday the 13th. A few moments later, we saw the flash of skulls and heard that computerized scream that always made us jump. Jeff’s dad, seeing his opportunity, then bonked our heads together, Three Stooges style.

It was a scare (and throbbing pain) I’ll never forget. After that incident, we decided to only play Friday the 13th at my house.

[Kid Ice]

I didn't know when I first started playing Friday the 13th that those "flashes of horror" were coming. I played the game for weeks before one finally came on. It was a picture of a kid getting his skull split in half by a machete (and THAT scream). I was not just frightened by it....it took me so totally by surprise, and just seemed so unlikely to actually be a part of the game, that I thought for a second that I might be experiencing psychosis. Maybe that's why I never got into Eternal Darkness...Friday the 13th made me immune to that type of thing.

[kaedesdisciple]

Call me whatever you want, I don't care, but I still refuse to play this game. Nightmares for weeks as a kid. I even went so far as to hide the disk so I wouldn't have to hear the scream when my brothers played it.

[tonyvortex]

does anyone have screen shots of these random shots of shock?hell i just want to see anything from this version,it sounds so much better.

[Soviet Conscript]

does anyone have screen shots of these random shots of shock?hell i just want to see anything from this version,it sounds so much better.

found one at least.....eh, i guess you had to be there. acually i'm curious at what the scream sounded like

http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/fr...eShotId,45104/

[exit]

I remember it as being some really high pitched scream.

As a side not: People always fail to mention that if you kill too many people, or oddly enough don't save them in time, it turns out that DUN DUN DUUNNN you're really Jason.

[Jengo]

lmao, i can imagine that, pretty funny!

[Soviet Conscript]

Jason in disguise? kinda odd. i mean he was never really subtle about his killings. sure he killed people usually one at a time or he was briefly mistaken for someone else playing a "practical joke" but he never disgised himself. odd...unless the game is kinda based off part 4 that jason wasn't even really in, just that ambulance driver guy pretending to be Jason. i always thought the ambulance driver guy resembles the dad from the wonder years.