Talk:Alone in the Dark (1992 video game)

Untitled
I don't believe this game was made by atari, maybe published on certian systems but I've played the game several times on the pc and never seen the atari brand logo anyway. --- Take it back, infogrames, the developer, was bought by atari. Also a version was released on the 3do I believe. My suspicion is confirmed by the picture that clearly displays the 3do logo. --- Made all these changes.

It was the other way around - Infogrames bought the rights to the Atari image and logo and renamed themselves Atari. I'd be very surprised if what we now call Atari employs anyone who worked at any of the previous hardware or software organisations that went by that name. One bit of confusion remains - I've heard reference to the game actually being developed by a group called I-Motion, but I've never found any details on that entity. If anyone can clear that up, please do.

Mac
This was also released on the Mac

Lord Boleskine
I thought Boleskine was an alias of Aleister Crowley, and that's what the book in the game is referring? Which would make sense as a reference to someone immersed in the "occult"...

The book refers to events before the game Shadow of the Comet. It mentions all the things Parker talks about or encounters like the child guide, the sons with the webbed hands, Halley's Comet and the stone circle in the woods. I think the name was just a homage to Aliester Crowley rather it being him, since Boleskin's ghost helps you destroy the portals in the story and has no real desire for the occult itself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kimdealslover (talk • contribs) 13:50, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

spoiler?
I removed the spoiler tag since it didn't tell you nothing you wouldn't know even before playing the game.

Fair use rationale for Image:AITDscreenshot.gif
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BetacommandBot 23:41, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:AITDscreenshot.gif
Image:AITDscreenshot.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 13:09, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

RISC OS
This game was also released on RISC OS, and I've edited the article to reflect that. How do I know this? Well, I played it on my A3010! 81.159.187.161 (talk) 14:43, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Front full.jpg
Image:Front full.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 20:37, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

External links modified
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Source

 * https://web.archive.org/web/20010813185340/http://www.nextgame.it/html/articolo.php?id=1718
 * https://archive.org/details/gamelivepc043/page/n139
 * https://archive.org/details/Pcmania02/page/n17
 * https://archive.org/details/Game_Players_PC_Entertainment_Vol.6_No.2_March-April_1993_U/page/n69/mode/2up

Adding Interplay as the Distributor
I've noticed some talk on here about who is the distributor of the video game. We should clarify, Infogrames was the distributor only in Europe in the first run. It was not the distributor of this game in North America.

In North America, Infogrames started a joint venture with Interplay called I-Motion. It was a private company so I don't think we can ever know the full details, but from what I can find, I-Motion was wholly owned by Infogrames but they needed a management JV with Interplay to utilize Interplay's distribution outlets in NA in order to get the game onto shelves. I'm almost positive that other early Infogrames/I-Motion titles in NA also had a distribution imprint with Interplay (I'm thinking Shadow of the Comet in particular, in addition to the AITD trilogy, maybe also Time Gate).

I think the Distributor label for the first-run of the game should say Interplay for NA. Interplay let their distribution license expire probably as early as 1995 or 1996, however, after which Infogrames started distributing the game directly in NA. Then, as the note that is labeled with the "^" in the article references, THQ Nordic took over distribution after they purchased the IP from Atari back in 2018.

I think for the sake of the article, we should probably be more specific. Interplay was the first distributor, followed by Infogrames (whos name was updated to Atari after the reverse merger in 2008), and finally THQ Nordic in 2018. But I think the way the article is currently worded is misleading. If we wanted to keep it simple, we could say Infogrames (EU) and Interplay (NA). I think the standard process for these banners is to post the distributors upon the first run anyway, right? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Montreux4 (talk • contribs) 21:53, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Poe and Alone in the Dark
For some reason, User:Gen. Quon has reverted the removal of clearly erroneous information from this article. I do not attest that this was done in bad faith, and I am also appreciative that they were looking for a compromise, but bad facts have no place on Wikipedia.

To recap, a single author, one Tom Garner, in his book Echoes of Other Worlds: Sound in Virtual Reality asserts in passing that "the Usher homestead has been directly attributed to the design of Derceto, the haunted mansion of the original Alone in the Dark (Raynal 1992)." This rather shocking statement is made without citation (the reference to Raynal 1992 is to the game itself and not to a source that backs up this claim).

Why is this claim shocking? Because no member of the development team has ever cited Poe generally nor The Fall of the House of User specifically as sources of inspiration for anything in Alone in the Dark. Raynal has always been upfront that 1970s horror cinema from Romero to Argento is his primary inspiration for everything in the game. He also specifically cited The Amityville Horror in his 2012 GDC postmortem, so that seems a fair source for the haunted house trope that Poe helped originate but certainly has no monopoly on. The game's writer, Hubert Chardot, drew on a wider variety of sources, most notably Lovecraft, but when it comes to the house and the player's progression from attic to basement, he cites Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho as his influence. So we have two movies featuring creepy old houses called out by name by the developers, while Poe is conspicuously absent.

And this gets even sillier when one actually bothers to read The Fall of the House of Usher. Poe, not one for long descriptions, describes the house and its ground thusly:

"I looked upon the scene before me — upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain — upon the bleak walls — upon the vacant eye-like windows — upon a few rank sedges — and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees — with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium"

He further describes it sitting at the base of a lake and having to cross a bridge to enter the grounds.

Upon arrival, the protagonist states: "The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellissed panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the walls."

The house in Alone in the Dark is nothing like this. There is no lake, there is no bridge, and the foliage, including many trees, is dense and green. There are no pointed (presumably Gothic) windows, there is no vaulted and fretted ceiling, there is no oak floor, and the chamber the player enters into is not large. How anyone can conclude that the Usher homestead contributed to the design of Derceto is beyond me.

So yeah, this is really not a thing. Garvin writes about audio in games, with a particular focus on virtual reality. He is not an expert on 1990s computer games, survival horror, Gothic literature, or Edgar Allen Poe. He provides no citation for his claim that anyone "attributed" the design of Derceto to the Usher homestead. The developers have never mentioned Poe despite giving numerous interviews where they have cited their influences. And both the creator of the game and the writer have directly discussed two creepy houses that influenced their design decisions. There is no rational basis for leaving this fact in the article. Not every fact found in a monograph, even a scholarly one, is correct. Indrian (talk) 06:41, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
 * What can I say? Wikipedia is citational. I found a monograph that made a claim, so I added it. While your points might be true, I feel like this (especially your claim "Not every fact found in a monograph, even a scholarly one, is correct") veers into original research territory. As the GA reviewer, do you have any thoughts? At the end of the day, it's such a minor claim that I'm not adamant that it needs to remain in the article, but I also don't like the OR-y vibe here.--Gen. Quon[Talk] 16:06, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
 * You have a fundamental misunderstanding of the OR policy. That policy governs additions to an article not backed by sources. It has nothing to do with evaluating a source to determine whether it is reliable for the facts asserted and thus suitable for inclusion in an article. Your opinion that untrue information can be added to an article merely with the defense “somebody claimed it once” is baffling to me. Sure, this one little fact on one 30-year-old game hardly matters, but in the bigger picture this is exactly how conspiracy theories and disinformation spreads. Being cavalier about facts is never a good idea.


 * You might want to brush up on Reliable Sources, which actually provides guidance on this and is clear that otherwise reliable sources can be determined to not be reliable for information mentioned in passing outside of the core competencies of the work, which applies here. The source is about the use of audio in virtual worlds, not the influences of 1990s video games. Indrian (talk) 16:36, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
 * , I kindly ask you to cut the condescension; I also object to your claim that I was being "cavalier about facts". My point was simply that your arguments might veer into OR territory, given that you are attempting to rebut sourced material with your own understanding of the media. Either way, whether we include this fact or not seems less an RS question and more of a "passing mention" issue. I'm fine if we leave it out, but I do find the hyperbole unnecessary.--Gen. Quon[Talk] 22:59, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Editors have an inherent evaluative role in assessing the reliability and use case of sources, and that doesn't fall in the scope of WP:OR. However, I agree the level of extraneous analysis to get to that point is a bit much. I think this can be more simply resolved on the basis of verifiability. Beyond assessing reliability, the text makes a statement that isn't corroborated by other primary or reliable secondary sources, is passive ("has been directly attributed") and does not provide context to the claim. I think you made a valid decision to preserve this source with the revert absent the discussion here, but agree there's merit to removing the statement if nothing else can be found. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 00:08, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
 * That seems fair. Like I said, I'm not hellbent on keeping it, so if that's the consensus, that's cool.--Gen. Quon[Talk] 05:12, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it doesn't strike me as a big deal, I can see how someone might draw parallels, but it's an understandable correction. ＶＲＸＣＥＳ (talk) 07:34, 14 January 2024 (UTC)