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>Licence<br />
to Kill.<br />
Horror is hot once<br />
again, with recent<br />
movies like Freddy vs<br />
Jason, Jeepers Creepers<br />
2 and The Texas<br />
Chainsaw Massacre<br />
surpassing all<br />
expectations at the box<br />
office. In time-honoured<br />
tradition, hit<br />
films lead to licensed<br />
games and, indeed,<br />
Vivendi Interactive is<br />
to release a game<br />
based upon the upcoming<br />
Van Helsing movie.<br />
Martyn Carroll casts a<br />
Marty Feldman-style eye<br />
over the history of<br />
horror licences,<br />
beginning with games<br />
that played the death<br />
march when your three<br />
lives had expired<br />
The original Texas<br />
Chainsaw Massacre<br />
movie spawned several<br />
sequels, last year’s hit remake,<br />
and, in 1982, a game for the<br />
humble Atari 2600. Cited as<br />
“The First Violent Video<br />
Game!”, it invited you to “play<br />
the part of the vengeful<br />
Leatherface or an innocent<br />
victim looking for safety”.<br />
Considering the emotive<br />
advertising, it was no surprise<br />
to learn that distributor Wizard<br />
Games was headed by low<br />
budget-movie producer Charles<br />
Band. This title was followed<br />
by Halloween (“The game<br />
where HE comes home!”),<br />
in which you helped<br />
babysitter Laurie save<br />
kids from the hands of<br />
her brother Michael.<br />
While these games<br />
sound intriguing, the<br />
graphics were<br />
extremely basic and<br />
the sound was awful,<br />
even by 2600<br />
standards. It was<br />
kind of hard to be<br />
scared of a beeping<br />
chainsaw or a<br />
shapeless ‘shape’!<br />
TCM and Halloween are two of the rarest 2600 games<br />
because many shops refused to stock them!<br />
**67**
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