Dead of the Brain

Dead of the Brain ~Shiryou no Sakebi~ is a Japanese horror adventure game, developed by FairyTale and released in 1992 by IDES for the PC-9801. A port bundled with its sequel to the PC Engine CD was published by NEC in 1999, making it the final official PC Engine game to be released.

Development
After the Saori incident (a scandal about erotic content in Japanese games caused by a teenager stealing a copy of the eroge Saori) and the arrest of the Kirara's president for distribution of indecent material, Kirara rebranded to IDES. FairyTale quickly began experimenting with non-eroge titles, like Shinjuku Monogatari, and violence-themed eroge. Thus, their Nightmare Collection series was formed, with Dead of the Brain and its sequel among its most prominent titles.

Multiple of Dead of the Brain's developers, including scenario writer and director RUSH-TEAM and composer MARINA, originally worked on Saori.

Fan translations
The game has received several English translation patches: One machine translated in 2019 by Retronomicon and a more accurate translation released on October 31, 2023 by WINE for the PC-98 version, and another one for the PC Engine on October 31, 2023 by Dave Shadoff. All are independent from each other.

Legacy
The Nightmare Collection series continued in 1993 with Marine Philt in March and Dead of the Brain 2 in November, the latter being a direct sequel to the original.

Fairytale continued releasing horror-themed titles in 1994 under their Fairytale Hardcover brand with Necronomicon, a title based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and Ballade for Maria.