Survival horror is a subgenre of horror games . Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical action games through limited ammunition or weapons, health, speed, and vision, or through various obstructions of the player's interaction with the game mechanics . The player is also challenged to find items that unlock the path to new areas and solve puzzles to proceed in the game. Games make use of strong horror themes, such as dark mazelike environments and unexpected attacks from enemies .
180-587: Resident Evil is a 1996 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom for the PlayStation . It is the first game in Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. Set in the fictional Arklay mountain region in the Midwest , players control Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine , members of the elite task force S.T.A.R.S. , who must escape a mansion infested with zombies and other monsters. Resident Evil
360-489: A Famitsu score of 38/40 or above up until 1996. GamePro described the storyline and cinematics as "mostly laughable", but felt the gameplay's "gripping pace" and the heavy challenge of both the combat and the puzzles make the game effectively terrifying. They reassured readers that the unusual control system becomes intuitive with practice and applauded the realism instilled by the graphics and sound effects. The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly also commented on
540-400: A first-person perspective and encourages resource management and puzzle-solving, more akin to earlier entries in the franchise. Many of these earlier entries were also remade with modern graphics while retaining their survival horror aspects with the remakes of Resident Evil 2 , Resident Evil 3 , and Resident Evil 4 . After these were well received, other games were remade, such as
720-504: A survival knife and a Beretta M92FS , and zombies and various other monsters scattered around the Mansion will attack them on sight. While the player can procure other firearms to defend themselves, including a Remington Model 870 and a Colt Python , there is limited ammunition throughout the area, preventing the player from killing everything they come across. Taking damage depletes the player’s health, shown on an electrocardiogram in
900-542: A zombie . When Wesker mysteriously vanishes (alongside Jill in Chris’ story), the player is left to explore the mansion alone and attempt to find their allies. As they explore, they find that Bravo Team has been massacred – Forest Speyer was pecked to death by infected crows and has zombified, while Richard Aiken dies from venom poisoning after being bitten by Yawn, a giant mutated snake, and captain Enrico Marini
1080-631: A , e , i , o and u to produce á , é , í , ó and ú , reducing the number of sorts needed from 5 to 1. The typebars of "normal" characters struck a rod as they moved the metal character desired toward the ribbon and platen, and each rod depression moved the platen forward the width of one character. Dead keys had a typebar shaped so as not to strike the rod. In English-speaking countries, ordinary typewriters printing fixed-width characters were standardized to print six horizontal lines per vertical inch, and had either of two variants of character width, one called pica for ten characters per horizontal inch and
1260-508: A cylinder inside a wooden box. In 1874, the cylinder was replaced by a carriage, moving beneath the writing head. Then, in 1875, the well-known "tall model" was patented, which was the first of the writing balls that worked without electricity. Malling-Hansen attended the world exhibitions in Vienna in 1873 and Paris in 1878 and he received the first-prize for his invention at both exhibitions. The first typewriter to be commercially successful
1440-421: A firm contract for the next batch. However, Remington was engaged in merger talks, which would eventually result in the creation of Remington Rand and no executives were willing to commit to a firm order. Northeast instead decided to enter the typewriter business for itself, and in 1929 produced the first Electromatic Typewriter. In 1928, Delco , a division of General Motors , purchased Northeast Electric, and
1620-467: A franchise including video games, films, comics, novels, and other merchandise. It has been ported to Sega Saturn , Windows and Nintendo DS . A sequel, Resident Evil 2 , was released in 1998. In 2002, the game's remake , alongside its prequel, Resident Evil Zero , were both released for GameCube (and subsequently on other platforms) in March and November 2002, respectively. In Resident Evil ,
1800-618: A game that makes you jump as much as when encountering your first pair of Cereberos in this title would be very difficult." He also praised the heavy difficulty of the puzzles, the great care required in combat, the 3D graphics, and the exceptionally high replay value. Computer Gaming World gave a more mixed review for the Windows version, explaining that they "tried to hate it with its graphic violence, rampant sexism, poor voice acting and use of every horror cliché, however...it's actually fun." Survival horror The term "survival horror"
1980-463: A helipad, chased by the Tyrant, where Brad Vickers returns to search for them and they manage to signal him down using a flare . If the Tyrant is still alive, it follows them onto the helipad, but Brad drops a rocket launcher down, which the player uses to kill it. Regardless, the survivors of the incident escape the mansion with Brad, with the mansion being destroyed if the lab’s self-destruct sequence
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#17327867036002160-404: A horrific setting and atmosphere without the overuse of violence or gore. In 2010, the cult game Deadly Premonition by Access Games was notable for introducing open world nonlinear gameplay and a comedy horror theme to the genre. Five Nights at Freddy's effectively incorporated jump scares into the genre with the first game in the series releasing in 2014. Further evolution of
2340-498: A horror game released that year was Sega 's arcade game Monster Bash , which introduced classic horror-movie monsters, including the likes of Dracula , Frankenstein's monster , and werewolves , helping to lay the foundations for future survival horror games. Its 1986 remake Ghost House had gameplay specifically designed around the horror theme, featuring haunted house stages full of traps and secrets, and enemies that were fast, powerful, and intimidating, forcing players to learn
2520-549: A lack of continuous, reliable electricity. The QWERTY keyboard layout , developed for typewriters in the 1870s, remains the de facto standard for English-language computer keyboards . The origins of this layout still need to be clarified. Similar typewriter keyboards, with layouts optimised for other languages and orthographies, emerged soon afterward, and their layouts have also become standard for computer keyboards in their respective markets. Although many modern typewriters have one of several similar designs, their invention
2700-506: A legible written document composed of ink and paper. By the end of the 19th century, a person who used such a device was also referred to as a type writer . The first commercial typewriters were introduced in 1874, but did not become common in offices in the United States until after the mid-1880s. The typewriter quickly became an indispensable tool for practically all writing other than personal handwritten correspondence. It
2880-404: A limited inventory, while battling or escaping from horrifying creatures, which could lead to permanent death for any of the characters, thus creating tension and an emphasis on survival. It was also the first attempt at creating a scary and frightening storyline within a game, mainly told through scattered diary entries left behind fifty years before the events of the game. Developed by Capcom ,
3060-527: A manufacturer of sewing machines ) to commercialize the machine as the Sholes and Glidden Type-Writer . This was the origin of the term typewriter . Remington began production of its first typewriter on March 1, 1873, in Ilion, New York . It had a QWERTY keyboard layout, which, because of the machine's success, was slowly adopted by other typewriter manufacturers. As with most other early typewriters, because
3240-490: A mobile phone title and designed to work more effectively with the limited control scheme and screen size. The result is a game that is more of a puzzle adventure game than the survival horror titles found in console versions. The game scored 7.8 out of 10 points on IGN and an 'A' on 1UP.com . The original PlayStation version of Resident Evil was critically acclaimed, receiving an aggregated rating of 91 out of 100 at Metacritic based on eight reviews. Among those who praised
3420-431: A new wardrobe and the player's handgun is replaced by an improved model where any shot fired has a random chance of decapitating a zombie, killing it instantly. The original version of the game is included as well, along with a new "beginner" mode where the enemies are easier to kill and the amount of ammunition that can be found by the player is doubled. Additionally, the auto-aim function was restored in all modes, though it
3600-520: A pack of ravenous Dobermanns . Joseph is mauled to death, while Brad flees in their helicopter – the survivors flee from their pursuers, eventually taking shelter in a mysterious mansion. One member of Alpha Team (Barry in Chris’ story, Chris in Jill’s story) is separated and does not make it inside – the player character splits off from the others to investigate noises coming from the west wing, but discover Bravo Team member Kenneth J. Sullivan being eaten by
3780-501: A primary option, such as a limited number of weapons or invulnerable enemies; if weapons are available, their ammunition is sparser than in other games, and powerful weapons such as explosives are rare, if even available at all. Thus, players are more vulnerable than in action games , and the hostility of the environment sets up a narrative where the odds are weighed decisively against the avatar. This shifts gameplay away from direct combat, and players must learn to evade enemies or turn
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#17327867036003960-537: A recent string of cannibalistic murders. When contact with them is lost, Alpha Team is sent out to investigate – consisting of Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Barry Burton, Joseph Frost, Brad Vickers , and captain Albert Wesker . They discover Bravo Team’s helicopter crashed in the forest, with pilot Kevin Dooley dead at the scene. Alpha Team continue to explore the surrounding forest, but are suddenly attacked by
4140-453: A recording studio in Tokyo and provided by Scott McCulloch (Chris, Narrator), Lisa Faye (Jill), Barry Gjerde (Barry), Lynn Harris (Rebecca, Triggering System), Sergio Alarcon (Brad, Joseph), Clay Alarcon (Richard, Zombie Forest Speyer, Zombies), Dean Harrington (Enrico, additional voices), Pablo Kuntz (Albert, Radio Transmissions), and Ward E. Sexton (Title and Character Names Announcer). Harris
4320-636: A return to form for the series due to several developmental decisions taken by Climax Studios . This included the decision to openly break the fourth wall by psychologically profiling the player, and the decision to remove any weapons from the game, forcing the player to run whenever they see an enemy. Examples of independent survival horror games are the Penumbra series and Amnesia: The Dark Descent by Frictional Games , Nightfall: Escape by Zeenoh, Cry of Fear by Team Psykskallar and Slender: The Eight Pages , all of which were praised for creating
4500-414: A tower, which were replaced by the guard house and the lab respectively. Another feature that was removed from the final game was the real-time weapon changing, from the earlier 1995 V-Jump demo. Capcom did not use any motion capture in the game, despite having their own motion capture studio; instead, the animators referred to books and videos to study how people, spiders, and other animals encountered in
4680-650: A workable design. Some early typing instruments include: By the mid-19th century, the increasing pace of business communication had created a need to mechanize the writing process. Stenographers and telegraphers could take down information at rates up to 130 words per minute, whereas a writer with a pen was limited to a maximum of 30 words per minute (the 1853 speed record). From 1829 to 1870, many printing or typing machines were patented by inventors in Europe and America, but none went into commercial production. In 1865, Rev. Rasmus Malling-Hansen of Denmark invented
4860-658: Is considered the first practical power-operated typewriter in 1914. In 1920, after returning from Army service, he produced a successful model and in 1923 turned it over to the Northeast Electric Company of Rochester for development. Northeast was interested in finding new markets for their electric motors and developed Smathers's design so that it could be marketed to typewriter manufacturers, and from 1925 Remington Electric typewriters were produced powered by Northeast's motors. After some 2,500 electric typewriters had been produced, Northeast asked Remington for
5040-564: Is mostly a first-person shooter at its core. Meanwhile, the Fatal Frame series has remained true to the roots of the genre, even as Fatal Frame IV transitioned from the use of fixed cameras to an over-the-shoulder viewpoint. Also in 2009, Silent Hill made a transition to an over-the-shoulder viewpoint in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories . This Wii effort was, however, considered by most reviewers as
5220-516: Is not in any other versions of the game. Fujiwara said the game was originally targeted towards a core audience and he only expected it to sell around 200,000 copies, before the game went on to sell millions. Mikami said he was "a little worried about how well a horror game would really sell." Anpo said that Capcom did not expect the game to be successful. Bio Hazard was renamed for the North American and European markets after Chris Kramer,
5400-641: Is not noted in the in-game controls. The North American and European releases of the Director's Cut were marketed as featuring the original, uncensored footage from the Japanese releases. However, the FMV sequences were still censored, and Capcom claimed the omission was the result of a localization mistake made by the developers. The game's localization was handled by Capcom Japan instead of Capcom USA, and when submitted to Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), it
5580-517: Is not unusual for survival horror games to draw upon elements from first-person shooters , or even role-playing games . According to IGN , "Survival horror is different from typical game genres in that it is not defined strictly by specific mechanics, but subject matter, tone, pacing, and design philosophy." Survival horror games are a subgenre of horror games, where the player is unable to fully prepare or arm their avatar. The player usually encounters several factors to make combat unattractive as
Resident Evil (1996 video game) - Misplaced Pages Continue
5760-447: Is shot dead by a mysterious sniper just after revealing that there is a mole in S.T.A.R.S.. The only Bravo Team survivor, field medic Rebecca Chambers, is rescued by Chris. The player eventually comes to discover that the mansion was a research facility of Umbrella , a pharmaceutical corporation that was secretly producing Bio Organic Weapons (B.O.W.s) to sell on the black market . The cannibalistic murders were caused by an outbreak of
5940-559: Is the most gore-laden of all the platforms; after decapitating a crawling zombie with a kick, the head remains on the floor, and Plant 42 can cut the character before the game over screen; though the live-action footage is censored in the U.S. version. The Saturn version also features exclusive enemy monsters, such as a re-skinned breed of Hunters known as Ticks and a second Tyrant prior to the game's final battle in Chris's game. Exclusive outfits for Jill and Chris were added as well. This version
6120-448: Is the only version of Resident Evil that has all of the uncensored full motion video (FMV) sequences, which includes the uncensored introduction, Kenneth's death scene in its entirety, and ending. Support for 3D accelerator cards were added, allowing for much sharper graphics. Two new unlockable weapons were added, a MAC-10 for Jill and an FN Minimi for Chris. New unlockable outfits for Chris and Jill were added as well. It also skips
6300-402: Is to get the highest score out of all the players by destroying the most monsters, with the tougher monsters being worth more points. There are three playable multiplayer stages and nine playable characters. In March 2008, Capcom Interactive Canada released Resident Evil: Genesis , based on the plot of the original game. It includes only Jill's game. Genesis was developed from the ground up as
6480-438: Is usually considered a first-person shooter with survival horror elements. Regardless, the genre's increased popularity led Western developers to incorporate horror elements into action games, rather than follow the Japanese survival style. Overall, the traditional survival horror genre continued to be dominated by Japanese designers and aesthetics. 2002's Clock Tower 3 eschewed the graphic adventure game formula seen in
6660-465: The Alien science fiction horror film series, was released. The game updated the concept of a single un-killable villain chasing the protagonist throughout most of the game, requiring the player to use stealth in order to survive. In 2015, Until Dawn , developed by Supermassive Games , was published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 . The game is an interactive drama in which
6840-492: The Dreamcast incorporating action elements from beat 'em up and shooter games . Konami 's Silent Hill , released in 1999, drew heavily from Resident Evil while using real-time 3D environments in contrast to Resident Evil' s pre-rendered graphics. Silent Hill in particular was praised for moving away from B movie horror elements to the psychological style seen in art house or Japanese horror films, due to
7020-538: The Entertainment Software Rating Board . In the game itself, the auto-aiming function was disabled and the numbers of ink ribbons found by the player were reduced. Capcom also planned to eliminate the interconnected nature of item boxes, meaning that items could only be retrieved from the locations where they were originally stored. This change made it in preview copies of the US version, but
7200-569: The Hansen Writing Ball , which went into commercial production in 1870 and was the first commercially sold typewriter. It was a success in Europe and was reported as being used in offices on the European continent as late as 1909. Malling-Hansen used a solenoid escapement to return the carriage on some of his models, which makes him a candidate for the title of inventor of the first "electric" typewriter. The Hansen Writing Ball
7380-579: The Super NES , before moving development to the PlayStation in 1994. Koji Oda was working on the Super NES version, after having worked on Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (1991). Oda revealed that the setting was originally more of a hellish place, before being changed to a more realistic setting. Several of the Resident Evil mansion's pre-rendered backdrops were inspired by The Overlook Hotel ,
Resident Evil (1996 video game) - Misplaced Pages Continue
7560-531: The font . In 1941, IBM announced the Electromatic Model 04 electric typewriter, featuring the revolutionary concept of proportional spacing. By assigning varied rather than uniform spacing to different sized characters, the Type 4 recreated the appearance of a typeset page, an effect that was further enhanced by including the 1937 innovation of carbon-film ribbons that produced clearer, sharper words on
7740-510: The "laughable" dialogue and voice acting, he felt they were overridden by the game's positive aspects. He pointed out that the lack of genuinely confounding puzzles allows the game to move at a good pace, and the use of prerendered backgrounds allowed the PlayStation to handle much more detailed characters. Yasuhiro Hunter of Maximum stated that "The game has the greatest atmosphere of any other game in existence [ sic ] - naming
7920-411: The "poor localization" that apparently "hindered the realism and immersion of the title" for the international release, which was one of the reasons for the re-dub in the 2002 remake. The original Japanese PlayStation version also features a vocal ending theme, " Yume de Owarasenai... " ( 夢で終わらせない... , "I Won't Let This End as a Dream..." ) , performed by Japanese rock artist Fumitaka Fuchigami, that
8100-442: The 1979 Japanese only stealth game Manbiki Shounen (Shoplifting Boy) by Hiroshi Suzuki and the 1979 sci-fi horror film Alien , the gameplay of Nostromo involved a player attempting to escape a spaceship while avoiding the sight of an invisible alien, which only becomes visible when appearing in front of the player. The gameplay also involved limited resources, where the player needs to collect certain items in order to escape
8280-570: The 1995 V Jump Festival presentation in Japan featured real-time weapon changes, with the co-op mode removed and rudimentary character models and textures. An early 1996 preview in Maximum Console magazine featured a graveyard and a slightly different version of the final boss. The graveyard, which was removed from the final game, eventually made it into the 2002 remake . Also featured in the game until late in development were guest houses and
8460-405: The 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2 . Sources: Typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys , and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectively against the paper with a type element . Thereby, the machine produces
8640-590: The Bar-Let and the Corona No. 3 Typewriter have two separate shift keys, a "CAP" shift (for uppercase) and a "FIG" shift (for numbers and symbols). The Murray code was developed for a teletypewriter with a similar three-row typewriter keyboard. To facilitate typewriter use in business settings, a tab (tabulator) key was added in the late nineteenth century. Before using the key, the operator had to set mechanical "tab stops", pre-designated locations to which
8820-466: The Dark (1992), which influenced him to adopt a cinematic fixed-view camera system. Mikami said that, if it was not for Alone in the Dark , Resident Evil would have had a first-person view instead. Mikami was initially reluctant to adopt Alone in the Dark ' s fixed-view camera system, saying it "had an effect on immersion, making the player feel a bit more detached", but eventually adopted it because
9000-458: The Dark uses static prerendered camera views that were cinematic in nature. Although players had the ability to fight monsters as in action games , players also had the option to evade or block them. Many monsters could not be killed, and thus could only be dealt with using problem-solving abilities. The game also used the mechanism of notes and books as expository devices. Many of these elements were used in later survival horror games, and thus
9180-442: The Dark , notably its cinematic fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backdrops. The control scheme in Resident Evil also became a staple of the genre, and future titles imitated its challenge of rationing very limited resources and items. The game's commercial success is credited with helping the PlayStation become the dominant game console , and also led to a series of Resident Evil films. Many games have tried to replicate
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#17327867036009360-504: The Japanese approach tends to favour psychological horror . AX-2: Uchū Yusōsen Nostromo was a survival horror game developed by Akira Takiguchi, a Tokyo University student and Taito contractor, for the PET 2001 . It was ported to the PC-6001 by Masakuni Mitsuhashi (also known as Hiromi Ohba, later joined Game Arts ), and published by ASCII in 1981, exclusively for Japan. Inspired by
9540-635: The PlayStation, Resident Evil: Director's Cut Dual Shock Ver. (デュアルショックver.), co-produced by Keiji Inafune , was released in August 1998. It features support for the DualShock controller's analog controls and vibration functions, as well as a new symphonic soundtrack , replacing the original soundtrack by Makoto Tomozawa, Koichi Hiroki, and Masami Ueda. The symphonic music was credited to composer Mamoru Samuragochi , although he admitted in 2014 that he directed his orchestrator Takashi Niigaki to ghostwrite
9720-551: The Simplex Typewriter Company made index typewriters for 1/40 the price of a Remington typewriter. The index typewriter's niche appeal however soon disappeared as, on the one hand new keyboard typewriters became lighter and more portable, and on the other refurbished second-hand machines began to become available. The last widely available western index machine was the Mignon typewriter produced by AEG which
9900-461: The United States—but before the advent of daisywheel and electronic machines—the typewriter market faced strong competition from less expensive typewriters from Asia, including Brother Industries and Silver Seiko Ltd. of Japan. In most of the early typewriters, the typebars struck upward against the paper, pressed against the bottom of the platen , so the typist could not see the text as it
10080-474: The appropriate item is found. Because it has several features that have been seen in later survival horror games, some reviewers have retroactively classified this game as the first in the genre. Malcolm Evans ' 3D Monster Maze , released for the Sinclair ZX81 in 1982, is a first-person game without a weapon; the player cannot fight the enemy, a Tyrannosaurus rex , so they must escape by finding
10260-417: The basket of typebars, in which case the typewriter is described as "basket shift", or the paper-holding carriage, in which case the typewriter is described as "carriage shift". Either mechanism caused a different portion of the typebar to come in contact with the ribbon/platen. The result is that each typebar could type two different characters, cutting the number of keys and typebars in half (and simplifying
10440-406: The built-in microphone. The player can also shake off enemies by using the touch screen, performing a melee attack. The game also includes wireless LAN support for up to four players with two different multiplayer game modes. The first is a cooperative mode in which each player must help each other solve puzzles and escape the mansion together. The other is a competitive mode in which the objective
10620-429: The carriage would advance when the tab key was pressed. This facilitated the typing of columns of numbers, freeing the operator from the need to manually position the carriage. The first models had one tab stop and one tab key; later ones allowed as many stops as desired, and sometimes had multiple tab keys, each of which moved the carriage a different number of spaces ahead of the decimal point (the tab stop), to facilitate
10800-402: The ceiling or crash through windows. Survival horror games, like many action-adventure games, are sometimes structured around the boss encounter where the player must confront a formidable opponent in order to advance to the next area. These boss encounters draw elements from antagonists seen in classic horror stories, and defeating the boss will advance the story of the game. The origins of
10980-409: The concept that each key was attached to a typebar that had the corresponding letter molded, in reverse, into its striking head. When a key was struck briskly and firmly, the typebar hit a ribbon (usually made of inked fabric ), making a printed mark on the paper wrapped around a cylindrical platen . The platen was mounted on a carriage that moved horizontally to the left, automatically advancing
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#173278670360011160-422: The demo disc also included a pre-release demo of Rockman Neo , later retitled Rockman DASH ( Mega Man Legends outside Japan), and a trailer for the newly released Breath of Fire III . The main addition to Director's Cut is an "arranged" version of the game that changes the location of nearly every vital item in the mansion, as well as the enemy placement. The main characters, as well as Rebecca, are given
11340-519: The director of communications at Capcom, pointed out that it would be impossible to trademark it in the United States. Among others, the 1992 video game Bio-Hazard Battle and the New York alternative metal band Biohazard were already using the name. Capcom ran an internal company contest to find a new name. Resident Evil was chosen since the game takes place in a mansion. Kramer thought
11520-598: The door animations and allows saves without ink ribbons only in Jill's game. The original Windows version was re-released on June 26, 2024 by GOG.com to include quality of life improvements and enhanced compatibility. Following the re-release of the first title, GOG.com released Resident Evil 2 on August 27 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis on September 25, both individually and as a $ 24.99 bundle. The Sega Saturn version, released in July 1997, added an unlockable battle mode in which
11700-460: The dual screen display with the top screen used to display the map, along with the player's remaining ammunition and health (determined by the color of the background); while the bottom screen displays the main action, and can be switched to show the player's inventory. The DS version also includes updated play mechanics: the 180-degree turn introduced in Resident Evil 3: Nemesis , along with
11880-516: The electric typewriter came in 1910, when Charles and Howard Krum filed a patent for the first practical teletypewriter . The Krums' machine, named the Morkrum Printing Telegraph, used a typewheel rather than individual typebars. This machine was used for the first commercial teletypewriter system on Postal Telegraph Company lines between Boston and New York City in 1910. James Fields Smathers of Kansas City invented what
12060-568: The electric typewriter was laid by the Universal Stock Ticker , invented by Thomas Edison in 1870. This device remotely printed letters and numbers on a stream of paper tape from input generated by a specially designed typewriter at the other end of a telegraph line. Some electric typewriters were patented in the 19th century, but the first machine known to be produced in series is the Cahill of 1900. Another electric typewriter
12240-457: The enemy's patrol routes and hide from them. However, reviewers eventually criticized the traditional Japanese survival horror formula for becoming stagnant. As the console market drifted towards Western-style action games, players became impatient with the limited resources and cumbersome controls seen in Japanese titles such as Resident Evil – Code: Veronica and Silent Hill 4: The Room . In 2005, Resident Evil 4 attempted to redefine
12420-432: The environment against them. Games try to enhance the experience of vulnerability by making the game single-player rather than multiplayer, and by giving the player an avatar who is more frail than the typical action game hero. The survival horror genre is also known for other non-combat challenges, such as solving puzzles at certain locations in the game world, and collecting and managing an inventory of items. Areas of
12600-473: The exit before the monster finds them. The game states its distance and awareness of the player, further raising tension. Edge stated it was about "fear, panic, terror and facing an implacable, relentless foe who’s going to get you in the end" and considers it "the original survival horror game". Retro Gamer stated, "Survival horror may have been a phrase first coined by Resident Evil , but it could’ve easily applied to Malcolm Evans’ massive hit." 1982 saw
12780-508: The far left was then pressed to the right to return the carriage to its starting position and rotating the platen to advance the paper vertically. A small bell was struck a few characters before the right hand margin was reached to warn the operator to complete the word and then use the carriage-return lever. By about 1910, the "manual" or "mechanical" typewriter had reached a somewhat standardized design. There were minor variations from one manufacturer to another, but most typewriters followed
12960-454: The first of 11 DS games to ever be rated Mature 17+ by the ESRB . In "Rebirth", new puzzles are added that use the system's touch-screen. "Knife Battle" sequences, viewed from a first-person perspective, are also added, in which the player must fend off incoming enemies by swinging the knife via the stylus. One particular puzzle requires the player to resuscitate an injured comrade by blowing into
13140-602: The front side of the platen, became standard. One of the first was the Daugherty Visible, introduced in 1893, which also introduced the four-bank keyboard that became standard, although the Underwood which came out two years later was the first major typewriter with these features. A significant innovation was the shift key , introduced with the Remington No. 2 in 1878. This key physically "shifted" either
13320-539: The game also featured up to 20 possible endings . However, the game would not be released in Western markets until 2011. Riverhillsoft 's Overblood , released in 1996, is considered the first survival horror game to make use of a fully three-dimensional virtual environment. The Note in 1997 and Hellnight in 1998 experimented with using a real-time 3D first-person perspective rather than pre-rendered backgrounds like Resident Evil . In 1998, Capcom released
13500-657: The game as the PlayStation, ensuring the port would take a long time. A Saturn version was finally unveiled at the April 1997 Tokyo Game Show , at which Capcom also showed a demo for the sequel on PlayStation. The live action full-motion video sequences were filmed in Japan with a cast of American actors; Charlie Kraslavsky (Chris), Inez Jesionowski (Jill), Greg Smith (Barry), Linda (Rebecca), Eric Pirius (Albert), and Jason Durkee (Joseph). All Japanese releases contain English voice acting with Japanese captions and text, recorded at
13680-405: The game is credited with making the survival horror genre possible. In 1994, Riverhillsoft released Doctor Hauzer for the 3DO . Both the player character and the environment are rendered in polygons . The player can switch between three different perspectives: third-person , first-person , and overhead . In a departure from most survival horror games, Doctor Hauzer lacks any enemies;
13860-409: The game move. In pre-production, other characters were conceived. Dewey, an African-American man, was intended to perform a comic relief role, while Gelzer, a big cyborg, was a typical "strongman" character. Both were later replaced, by Rebecca and Barry, respectively. Almost all development was done on Silicon Graphics hardware using the software program Softimage . The PlayStation was chosen as
14040-426: The game was GameSpot , describing it as "one of those rare games that's almost as entertaining to watch as it is to play". Famitsu gave it ratings of 9, 10, 10 and 9 out of 10, adding up to 38 out of 40. This made it one of their three highest-rated games of 1996, along with Super Mario 64 (which scored 39/40) and Tekken 2 (which scored 38/40). Resident Evil was also one of only ten games to have received
14220-525: The game was a horror action RPG revolving around a female SWAT member Lila rescuing survivors in an isolated monster-infested town and bringing them to safety in a church. It has open environments like Dragon Quest and real-time side-view battles like Zelda II , though War of the Dead departed from other RPGs with its dark and creepy atmosphere expressed through the storytelling, graphics, and music. The player character has limited ammunition, though
14400-496: The game was intended to be a remake of Sweet Home . The project was proposed by Sweet Home creator Tokuro Fujiwara , who was Mikami's mentor and served as the game's producer. Fujiwara said the "basic premise was that I'd be able to do the things that I wasn't able to include" in Sweet Home , "mainly on the graphics front", and that he was "confident that horror games could become a genre in themselves." He entrusted Mikami, who
14580-467: The game was originally slated for localization in 2004 but abruptly cancelled. Building on its previous success in Korea and interest, a remake was developed in 2015. Fatal Frame from 2001 was a unique entry into the genre, as the player explores a mansion and takes photographs of ghosts in order to defeat them. The Fatal Frame series has since gained a reputation as one of the most distinctive in
14760-416: The game world will be off limits until the player gains certain items. Occasionally, levels are designed with alternative routes. Levels also challenge players with mazelike environments, which test the player's navigational skills. Levels are often designed as dark and claustrophobic (often making use of dim or shadowy light conditions and camera angles and sightlines which restrict visibility) to challenge
14940-457: The game would become the main inspiration behind their later release Resident Evil . Its horrific imagery prevented its release in the Western world, though its influence was felt through Resident Evil , which was originally intended to be a remake of the game. Some consider Sweet Home to be the first true survival horror game. In 1989, Electronic Arts published Project Firestart , developed by Dynamix . Unlike most other early games in
15120-467: The game's emphasis on a disturbing atmosphere rather than visceral horror. The game also featured stealth elements, making use of the fog to dodge enemies or turning off the flashlight to avoid detection. The original Silent Hill is considered one of the scariest games of all time, and the strong narrative from Silent Hill 2 in 2001 has made the Silent Hill series one of the most influential in
15300-407: The game, such as adding more ways to attack zombies with items such as mines and traps, but was unable to due to schedule constraints. Production began in 1993, and the game took three years to develop. During the first six months of development, Mikami worked on the game alone, creating concept sketches, designing characters, and writing over 40 pages of script. The project was originally planned for
15480-493: The genre and moved into a distinct genre often referred to as "action horror." Survival horror refers to a subgenre of survival video games that include horror game elements. The player character is vulnerable and under-armed, which puts emphasis on puzzle-solving and evasion, rather than the player taking an offensive strategy. Games commonly challenge the player to manage their inventory and ration scarce resources such as ammunition. Another major theme throughout
15660-467: The genre by emphasizing reflexes and precision aiming, broadening the gameplay with elements from the wider action genre. Its ambitions paid off, earning the title several Game of the Year awards for 2005, and the top rank on IGN 's Readers' Picks Top 99 Games list. However, this also led some reviewers to suggest that the Resident Evil series had abandoned the survival horror genre, by demolishing
15840-415: The genre continues to grow among independent video game developers . The Last of Us , released in 2013 by Naughty Dog , incorporated many survival horror elements into a third-person action-adventure game. Set twenty years after a pandemic plague, the player must use scarce ammo and distraction tactics to evade or kill malformed humans infected by a brain parasite, as well as dangerous survivalists. This
16020-415: The genre conventions that it had established. Other major survival horror series followed suit by developing their combat systems to feature more action, such as Silent Hill: Homecoming , and the 2008 version of Alone in the Dark . These changes were part of an overall trend among console games to shift towards visceral action gameplay. These changes in gameplay have led some purists to suggest that
16200-531: The genre has deteriorated into the conventions of other action games. Jim Sterling suggests that the genre lost its core gameplay when it improved the combat interface, thus shifting the gameplay away from hiding and running towards direct combat. Leigh Alexander argues that this represents a shift towards more Western horror aesthetics, which emphasize action and gore rather than the psychological experience of Japanese horror. The original genre has persisted in one form or another. The 2005 release of F.E.A.R.
16380-536: The genre is that of isolation. Typically, these games contain relatively few non-player characters and, as a result, frequently tell much of their story second-hand through the usage of journals, texts, or audio logs. While many action games feature lone protagonists versus swarms of enemies in a suspenseful environment, survival horror games are distinct from otherwise horror-themed action games. They tend to de-emphasize combat in favor of challenges such as hiding or running from enemies and solving puzzles. Still, it
16560-503: The genre was carried out via platforms such as itch.io that allowed independent creators to distribute games more easily and therefore became hives of experimentation, an example of which is the emergence of games with PS1-style low-poly aesthetics, such as those developed by Puppet Combo , that became a genre unto itself which eventually went on to be published on more mainstream storefronts such as Steam. Overall, game developers have continued to make and release survival horror games, and
16740-474: The genre, with the first game in the series credited as one of the best-written survival horror games ever made, by UGO Networks . Meanwhile, Capcom incorporated shooter elements into several survival horror titles, such as 2000's Resident Evil Survivor which used both light gun shooter and first-person shooter elements, and 2003's Resident Evil: Dead Aim which used light gun and third-person shooter elements. Western developers began to return to
16920-559: The genre, it featured a science fiction setting inspired by the film Alien , but had gameplay that closely resembled later survival horror games in many ways. Travis Fahs considers it the first to achieve "the kind of fully formed vision of survival horror as we know it today," citing its balance of action and adventure, limited ammunition, weak weaponry, vulnerable main character, feeling of isolation, storytelling through journals, graphic violence, and use of dynamically triggered music - all of which are characteristic elements of later games in
17100-567: The genre. According to IGN, the "golden age of survival horror came to a crescendo" with the release of Silent Hill . A game similar to the Clock Tower series of games and Haunting Ground , which was also inspired by Resident Evil 's success, is the Korean game known as White Day: A Labyrinth Named School (2001). "White Day" was reportedly so scary that the developers had to release several patches adding multiple difficulty options, and
17280-548: The graphic-adventure gameplay of the original Clock Tower rather than following the Resident Evil formula. Another survival horror title that differentiated itself was Corpse Party (1996), an indie , psychological horror adventure game created using the RPG Maker engine. Much like Clock Tower and later Haunting Ground (2005), the player characters in Corpse Party lack any means of defending themselves;
17460-498: The graphical changes are difficult to notice on the DS' dual screen, they are easier to notice on an HD emulator. Exclusive new outfits for Jill, Chris and Rebecca were added as well. The player's handgun and magnum are replaced with the models from the 2002 remake. The soundtrack prior to Director's Cut Dual Shock Ver. was restored with a remixed track from the game's Original Soundtrack Remix album released in 1996. The game makes use of
17640-507: The horror atmosphere of its predecessor. However, the game often considered the first true survival horror, due to having the most influence on Resident Evil , was the 1989 release Sweet Home , for the Nintendo Entertainment System . It was created by Tokuro Fujiwara , who would later go on to create Resident Evil . Sweet Home ' s gameplay focused on solving a variety of puzzles using items stored in
17820-420: The index type--albeit with a very much larger index and number of type elements. Embossing tape label makers are the most common index typewriters today, and perhaps the most common typewriters of any kind still being manufactured. The platen was mounted on a carriage that moved horizontally to the left, automatically advancing the typing position, after each character was typed. The carriage-return lever at
18000-411: The internal mechanisms considerably). The obvious use for this was to allow letter keys to type both upper and lower case , but normally the number keys were also duplexed, allowing access to special symbols such as percent, % , and ampersand, & . Before the shift key, typewriters had to have a separate key and typebar for upper-case letters; in essence, the typewriter had two keyboards, one above
18180-489: The intricacies of the house and rely on their wits. Another game that has been cited as one of the first horror-themed games is Quicksilva 's 1983 maze game Ant Attack . The latter half of the 1980s saw the release of several other horror-themed games, including Konami 's Castlevania in 1986, and Sega's Kenseiden and Namco 's Splatterhouse in 1988, though despite the macabre imagery of these games, their gameplay did not diverge much from other action games at
18360-461: The intro were heavily cut from the one featured in the Japanese releases. Shots of mangled corpses, a "Cerberus" zombie dog being shot, Joseph's death, and Kenneth's severed head were edited out, as well as scenes featuring the character Chris Redfield smoking a cigarette. Despite these tweaks, the game was ultimately released on the PlayStation as one of the first games to receive the Mature rating from
18540-418: The inventory screen – it can be restored using herbs and first aid sprays, but if the player takes too much damage, they will die and must restart from their last save. The player has a limited inventory capacity of 6 slots as Chris, or 8 as Jill – spare items can be deposited in item boxes found inside various safe rooms, alongside typewriters that let the player use ink ribbons to save their progress. In
18720-498: The inventory screen, items can be examined, equipped, discarded, or combined with each other to produce various effects – e.g. combining two herbs to increase their potency, or making an item needed to progress. Certain items are needed to solve puzzles and either provide the player with more supplies or open new areas. Each character has a supporting partner that joins them during the story – field medic Rebecca Chambers for Chris, weapons specialist Barry Burton for Jill. Depending on
18900-667: The items that were present in the original PlayStation version. In January 2012, an anonymous individual claimed to have an EPROM cartridge of the GBC version and requested $ 2,000 before he was willing to leak the playable ROM. The goal was met in February and the ROM files containing an unfinished build of the game were subsequently leaked. A Nintendo DS port, Resident Evil: Deadly Silence , known in Japan as Biohazard: Deadly Silence ( バイオハザード デッドリーサイレンス , Baiohazādo Deddorī Sairensu ) ,
19080-496: The keyboard. In the early part of the 20th century, a typewriter was marketed under the name Noiseless and advertised as "silent". It was developed by Wellington Parker Kidder and the first model was marketed by the Noiseless Typewriter Company in 1917. Noiseless portables sold well in the 1930s and 1940s, and noiseless standards continued to be manufactured until the 1960s. In a conventional typewriter
19260-474: The knife button and tactical reload from Resident Evil 4 . The updated controls are applicable to both Classic and Rebirth modes. Just like the PC version, the door animations can be skipped as well as the cut scenes. The live-action footage was still censored, even in the game's Japanese release; however, the scene showing Kenneth's severed head was kept. Gameplay and combat are otherwise uncensored, thus making this
19440-464: The lead platform because the development team felt it was the most appropriate for the game in terms of things such as the amount of polygons. The development team had upwards of 80 people towards the end of the game's development. According to Akio Sakai, head of Capcom's consumer software division, Capcom were hesitant to port Resident Evil to the Saturn because the hardware was not as ideally suited to
19620-500: The main threat is instead the sentient house that the game takes place in, with the player having to survive the house's traps and solve puzzles. The sound of the player character's echoing footsteps change depending on the surface. In 1995, WARP 's horror adventure game D featured a first-person perspective, CGI full-motion video , gameplay that consisted entirely of puzzle-solving , and taboo content such as cannibalism . The same year, Human Entertainment 's Clock Tower
19800-402: The mainline Resident Evil series until Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017). A later prototype featured cooperative gameplay , but this feature was eventually removed, as Mikami said it "technically...wasn't good enough." Early footage of this co-op prototype was revealed in 1995. At this stage of development, a local co-op mode was present, along with different outfits. A later demo made for
19980-475: The mansion is destroyed. Resident Evil was created by a team of staff members who would later become part of Capcom Production Studio 4 . The inspiration for Resident Evil was the earlier Capcom horror game Sweet Home (1989), itself a video game adaption of the Japanese horror film of the same name . Shinji Mikami was commissioned to make a game set in a haunted mansion like Sweet Home , and early on,
20160-423: The mansion setting, the puzzles, the emphasis on survival, the door loading screen, the use of scattered notes and diary entries as storytelling mechanics, multiple endings depending on how many characters survive, backtracking to previous locations in order to solve puzzles later on, the use of death animations, individual character items such as a lockpick or lighter, restoring health through items scattered across
20340-457: The mansion, the intricate layout of the mansion, and the brutally horrific imagery. Part of the inspiration for limited ammunition came from the MSX port of the game Alcazar: The Forgotten Fortress , according to scenario writer Kenichi Iwao. The idea of having limited ammunition was inspired by the limited amount of supplies in the game's randomized dungeons. Iwao wanted to take more elements from
20520-412: The mansion." A reviewer for Next Generation said it "manages to be as genuinely scary as a good horror film - no small achievement. There are a lot of things that work around games being this frightening ... In this case, however, the fine character work, creepy and well-executed sound effects, and just the right music in just the right places all have a subtle, cumulative effect ..." While criticizing
20700-507: The name "was super-cheesy ... but the rest of the marketing crew loved it and were ultimately able to convince Capcom Japan and Mikami-san that the name fit." The cover artwork for the American and European release was created by Bill Sienkiewicz . The original PlayStation version of Resident Evil went through several changes between its original Japanese release and its international counterparts. The North American and European versions of
20880-427: The new soundtrack. The Japanese Dual Shock Ver. came packaged with a bonus disc that contained downloadable save data, footage of the unused Japanese dubbed versions of the live-action cutscenes , along with brief gameplay footage of the canceled original version of Resident Evil 2 . The soundtrack was generally deemed inferior to the original, with the ambient theme for the mansion's basement considered to be one of
21060-414: The number of whose characters (sorts) was constrained by the physical limits of the machine, the number of keys required was reduced by the use of dead keys . Diacritics such as ´ ( acute accent ) would be assigned to a dead key , which did not move the platen forward, permitting another character to be imprinted at the same location; thus a single dead key such as the acute accent could be combined with
21240-410: The opposite direction. By 1900, notable typewriter manufacturers included E. Remington and Sons , IBM , Godrej , Imperial Typewriter Company , Oliver Typewriter Company , Olivetti , Royal Typewriter Company , Smith Corona , Underwood Typewriter Company , Facit , Adler , and Olympia-Werke . After the market had matured under the market dominance of large companies from Britain, Europe and
21420-446: The original Clock Tower , and embraced full 3D survival horror gameplay. In 2003, Resident Evil Outbreak introduced a new gameplay element to the genre: online multiplayer and cooperative gameplay . Sony employed Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama to develop Siren . The game was released in 2004, and added unprecedented challenge to the genre by making the player mostly defenseless, thus making it vital to learn
21600-605: The original Director's Cut was instead made available from the PlayStation Network. A Game Boy Color version of the game, developed by the Software House HotGen, was supposed to be released in late 1999 or early 2000, until Capcom decided to cancel this project citing that the port was poor quality due to the Game Boy's limited hardware. This version contains every room, cutscene, and almost all
21780-425: The other elite , for twelve. This differed from the use of these terms in printing, where pica is a linear unit (approximately 1 ⁄ 6 of an inch) used for any measurement, the most common one being the height of a typeface. Some ribbons were inked in black and red stripes, each being half the width and running the entire length of the ribbon. A lever on most machines allowed switching between colors, which
21960-684: The other. With the shift key, manufacturing costs (and therefore purchase price) were greatly reduced, and typist operation was simplified; both factors contributed greatly to mass adoption of the technology. Certain models further reduced the number of keys and typebars by making each key perform three functions – each typebar could type three different characters. These little three-row machines were portable and could be used by journalists. Such three-row machines were popular with WWI journalists because they were lighter and more compact than four-bank typewriters, while they could type just as fast and use just as many symbols. Such three-row machines, such as
22140-431: The player and provide suspense, although games in the genre also make use of enormous spatial environments. A survival horror storyline usually involves the investigation and confrontation of horrific forces, and thus many games transform common elements from horror fiction into gameplay challenges. Early releases used camera angles seen in horror films , which allowed enemies to lurk in areas that are concealed from
22320-402: The player can navigate from room to room using doors, stairs, or elevators. Both characters have different perks: Chris has more health, handles weapons more effectively, and starts with a lighter for solving certain puzzles, while Jill has an increased inventory capacity, and starts with a lockpick that opens several locked doors which Chris must find keys for. Chris and Jill begin with only
22500-649: The player character can punch or use a knife if out of ammunition. The game also has a limited item inventory and crates to store items, and introduced a day-night cycle ; the player can sleep to recover health, and a record is kept of how many days the player has survived. In 1988, War of the Dead Part 2 for the MSX2 and PC-88 abandoned the RPG elements of its predecessor, such as random encounters , and instead adopted action-adventure elements from Metal Gear while retaining
22680-513: The player chooses to play as either Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine as they explore the Spencer Mansion to find their missing compatriots and secure an escape route. The environment is presented from a third-person perspective , using fixed camera angles and pre-rendered backgrounds, while the player uses tank controls to move. Certain parts of the environment can be examined, items can be collected, heavy objects can be pushed around, and
22860-511: The player controls multiple characters and features a butterfly effect system in which the player's choices can change the story and may dictate who survives the night. All playable characters can survive or die, depending on the choices made. Players explore the environment from a third-person perspective and find clues that may help solve the mystery. Multiplayer asymmetrical survival horror games gained popularity as well. Dead by Daylight , released in 2016, features one player taking on
23040-424: The player must traverse through a series of rooms from the main game and eliminate all enemies within them with the weapons selected by the player. It features two exclusive enemies not in the main game: a zombie version of Wesker and a gold-colored Tyrant. The player's performance in the battle mode is graded at the end. The game's backgrounds were touched up to include more detail in this version. The Japanese version
23220-438: The player's view. Also, many survival horror games make use of off-screen sound or other warning cues to notify the player of impending danger. This feedback assists the player, but also creates feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. Games typically feature a variety of monsters with unique behavior patterns. Enemies can appear unexpectedly or suddenly, and levels are often designed with scripted sequences where enemies drop from
23400-548: The player’s actions, their partner can either die or accompany them throughout the entire game – different endings exist depending on whether the player is able to save their partner and/or the other playable character and escape with them. On July 24, 1998, the Bravo Team of the Raccoon City Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) is sent out into the surrounding Arklay forest to investigate
23580-441: The protagonist endures a confrontation with the ultimate antagonist. Another major influence on the genre is Japanese horror , including classical Noh theatre , the books of Edogawa Rampo , and Japanese cinema . The survival horror genre largely draws from both Western (mainly American ) and Asian (mainly Japanese ) traditions, with the Western approach to horror generally favoring action -oriented visceral horror while
23760-448: The realistic graphics and sounds, and additionally praised the selection of two playable characters. Sushi-X remarked that it, "at first glance, may appear to be a clone of Alone in the Dark , but in reality, it is a totally new experience". Mark Lefebvre particularly remarked, "The element that really grabs a player here is fear. After trading blows with the first zombie, you'll quickly become hesitant to turn down any uncharted corridors in
23940-422: The release of Square 's Parasite Eve , which combined elements from Resident Evil with the RPG gameplay of Final Fantasy . It was followed by a more action-based sequel, Parasite Eve II , in 1999. In 1998, Galerians discarded the use of guns in favour of psychic powers that make it difficult to fight more than one enemy at a time. Also in 1998, Blue Stinger was a fully 3D survival horror game for
24120-420: The release of another early horror game, Bandai 's Terror House , based on traditional Japanese horror, released as a Bandai LCD Solarpower handheld game . It was a solar-powered game with two LCD panels on top of each other to enable impressive scene changes and early pseudo-3D effects. The amount of ambient light the game received also had an effect on the gaming experience. Another early example of
24300-424: The ribbon being struck at all. This enabled the keys to hit the paper unobstructed, and was used for cutting stencils for stencil duplicators (aka mimeograph machines). The first typewriter to have the sliding type bars (laid out horizontally like a fan) that enable a typewriter to be "noiseless" was the American made Rapid which appeared briefly on the market in 1890. The Rapid also had the remarkable ability for
24480-569: The role of a killer and four others play as survivors. The game is also notable for featuring multiple characters from other survival horror franchises, such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill . Other examples which use similar one versus four gameplay include Friday the 13th: The Game , VHS , Evil Dead: The Game , and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre . The Resident Evil series abandoned its action-oriented direction beginning with 2017's Resident Evil 7: Biohazard . The game utilizes
24660-401: The series, and in other survival horror games, including the inventory system, save system, and use of a vitals-monitoring system instead of a health counter. Resident Evil was praised for its graphics, gameplay, sound, and atmosphere, although it received some criticism for its dialogue and voice acting. It was an international best-seller, and became the highest-selling PlayStation game at
24840-600: The setting for the 1980 horror film, The Shining . Mikami also cited the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead as a negative inspiration for the game. The game was initially conceived as a fully 3D first-person update of Sweet Home (influenced by the game's first-person battles), with action and shooting mechanics. A first-person prototype was produced, and initially featured a supernatural, psychological Japanese horror style similar to Sweet Home , before opting for an American zombie horror style influenced by George A. Romero films. During production, Mikami discovered Alone in
25020-616: The ship, and if certain required items are not available in the warehouse, the player is unable to escape and eventually has no choice but to be caught and killed by the alien. Another early example is the 1982 Atari 2600 game Haunted House . Gameplay is typical of future survival horror titles, as it emphasizes puzzle-solving and evasive action, rather than violence. The game uses creatures commonly featured in horror fiction, such as bats and ghosts, each of which has unique behaviors. Gameplay also incorporates item collection and inventory management, along with areas that are inaccessible until
25200-428: The successful formula seen in Resident Evil , and every subsequent survival horror game has arguably taken a stance in relation to it. The success of Resident Evil in 1996 was responsible for its formula being used as the basis for a wave of successful survival horror games, many of which were referred to as " Resident Evil clones." The golden age of survival horror started by Resident Evil reached its peak around
25380-414: The successful sequel Resident Evil 2 , which series creator Shinji Mikami intended to tap into the classic notion of horror as "the ordinary made strange". Rather than setting the game in a creepy mansion no one would visit, he wanted to use familiar urban settings transformed by the chaos of a viral outbreak. The game sold over five million copies, proving the popularity of survival horror. That year saw
25560-440: The survival horror formula. The Thing from 2002 has been called a survival horror game, although it is distinct from other titles in the genre due to its emphasis on action, and the challenge of holding a team together. The 2004 title Doom 3 is sometimes categorized as survival horror, although it is considered an Americanized take on the genre due to the player's ability to directly confront monsters with weaponry. Thus, it
25740-417: The survival horror game can be traced back to earlier horror fiction novels. Archetypes have been linked to the books of H. P. Lovecraft , which include investigative narratives, or journeys through the depths. Comparisons have been made between Lovecraft's Great Old Ones and the boss encounters seen in many survival horror games. Themes of survival have also been traced to the slasher film subgenre, where
25920-490: The survival horror genre. Despite this, it is not likely a direct influence on later games in the genre and the similarities are largely an example of parallel thinking . In 1992, Infogrames released Alone in the Dark , which has been considered a forefather of the genre. The game featured a lone protagonist against hordes of monsters, and made use of traditional adventure game challenges such as puzzle-solving and finding hidden keys to new areas. Graphically, Alone in
26100-637: The time. Splatterhouse in particular is notable for its large amount of bloodshed and terror, despite being an arcade beat 'em up with very little emphasis on survival. Shiryou Sensen: War of the Dead , a 1987 title developed by Fun Factory and published by Victor Music Industries for the MSX2 , PC-88 and PC Engine platforms, is considered the first true survival horror game by Kevin Gifford (of GamePro and 1UP ) and John Szczepaniak (of Retro Gamer and The Escapist ). Designed by Katsuya Iwamoto,
26280-413: The time. By December 1997, it had sold about 4 million copies worldwide and had grossed more than $ 200,000,000 (equivalent to $ 389,000,000 in 2023). Resident Evil is often cited as one of the greatest video games ever made . It is credited with defining the survival horror genre and with returning zombies to popular culture , leading to a renewed interest in zombie films by the 2000s. It created
26460-421: The turn of the millennium with Silent Hill , followed by a general decline a few years later. Among the Resident Evil clones at the time, there were several survival horror titles that stood out, such as Clock Tower (1996) and Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within (1998) for the PlayStation. These Clock Tower games proved to be hits, capitalizing on the success of Resident Evil while staying true to
26640-403: The type bar reaches the end of its travel simply by striking the ribbon and paper. The Noiseless, developed by Kidder, has a complex lever mechanism that decelerates the type bar mechanically before pressing it against the ribbon and paper in an attempt to dampen the noise. Although electric typewriters would not achieve widespread popularity until nearly a century later, the basic groundwork for
26820-762: The typebars strike upwards, the typist could not see the characters as they were typed. The index typewriter came into the market in the early 1880s. The index typewriter uses a pointer or stylus to choose a letter from an index. The pointer is mechanically linked so that the letter chosen could then be printed, most often by the activation of a lever. The index typewriter was briefly popular in niche markets. Although they were slower than keyboard type machines, they were mechanically simpler and lighter. They were therefore marketed as being suitable for travellers and, because they could be produced more cheaply than keyboard machines, as budget machines for users who needed to produce small quantities of typed correspondence. For example,
27000-632: The typewriter business was spun off as Electromatic Typewriters, Inc. In 1933, Electromatic was acquired by IBM , which then spent $ 1 million on a redesign of the Electromatic Typewriter, launching the IBM Electric Typewriter Model 01. In 1931, an electric typewriter was introduced by Varityper Corporation. It was called the Varityper , because a narrow cylinder-like wheel could be replaced to change
27180-444: The typing of columns with numbers of different length ($ 1.00, $ 10.00, $ 100.00, etc.) Languages such as French, Spanish, and German required diacritics , special signs attached to or on top of the base letter: for example, a combination of the acute accent ´ plus e produced é ; ~ plus n produced ñ . In metal typesetting , ⟨é⟩ , ⟨ñ⟩ , and others were separate sorts . With mechanical typewriters,
27360-455: The typing position, after each character was typed. The carriage-return lever at the far left was then pressed to the right to return the carriage to its starting position and rotating the platen to advance the paper vertically. A small bell was struck a few characters before the right hand margin was reached to warn the operator to complete the word and then use the carriage-return lever. Typewriters for languages written right-to-left operate in
27540-457: The typist to have entire control of the carriage by manipulation of the keyboard alone. The two keys that achieve this are positioned at the top of the keyboard (seen in the detail image below). They are a "Lift" key that advances the paper, on the platen, to the next line and a "Return" key that causes the carriage to automatically swing back to the right, ready for one to type the new line. So an entire page could be typed without one's hands leaving
27720-407: The use of pre-rendered backdrops allowed a higher level of detail than his fully 3D first-person view prototype, which "didn't get along so well with the original PlayStation's specs." A concept art claimed to be of the original first-person prototype has been available since the 1990s, showing more similarity to Doom rather than Alone in the Dark . A first-person perspective was not used again for
27900-538: The worst video game compositions of all time. In 1998, Capcom USA released the game under PlayStation's Greatest Hits label. In North America, Resident Evil: Director's Cut Dual Shock Ver. was released as a downloadable game available from the PlayStation Network soon after it launched in November 2006, although the game is advertised with the original Director's Cut box art. In Japan and Europe,
28080-457: The “ Tyrant Virus ” (t-Virus for short), a virulent agent capable of turning any species it infects into flesh-eating zombies. At an underground laboratory beneath the mansion, the player discovers that Wesker is the mole, being an employee of Umbrella placed in S.T.A.R.S. to keep an eye on their operations; He also blackmailed Barry into helping him under the threat of killing his family, but if Barry survives, he turns on Wesker upon learning that he
28260-420: Was a survival horror game that employed point-and-click graphic adventure gameplay and a deadly stalker known as Scissorman that chases players throughout the game. The game introduced stealth game elements, and was unique for its lack of combat, with the player only able to run away or outsmart Scissorman in order to survive. It features up to nine different possible endings. The term "survival horror"
28440-417: Was activated – if the other playable character was not freed, they are left for dead. The game’s ending varies depending on whether the partner and/or supporting character survived; if the former did not survive to trigger the self-destruct sequence, the cannibalistic murders continue, and the Tyrant is now loose in the wilderness. Canonically, all four protagonists (Chris, Jill, Barry, and Rebecca) survive and
28620-431: Was also the voice director for the game, basing her direction on making it camp, loosely on Dawn of the Dead , The Blob and The Rocky Horror Picture Show . However, Japanese voice performances were also recorded but were left unused, as Mikami found the quality of the performances inadequate. However, lead programmer Yasuhiro Anpo later said that, due to all of the development staff being Japanese, they were unaware of
28800-446: Was bluffing. Wesker releases a Tyrant, a B.O.W. super soldier, in an attempt to kill the survivors, but it turns on and kills him first before focusing on the player; Optionally, the player can save the other playable character from a holding cell if they collected a set of MO disks scattered around the mansion, and if their partner survived, activate the self-destruct sequence for the mansion. The player and anyone they saved flee up to
28980-447: Was conceived by the producer Tokuro Fujiwara as a remake of his 1989 horror game Sweet Home (1989). It was directed by Shinji Mikami . It went through several redesigns, first as Super NES game in 1993, then a fully 3D first-person PlayStation game in 1994 and finally a third-person game . Gameplay consists of action, exploration, puzzle solving and inventory management. Resident Evil established many conventions seen later in
29160-583: Was first used by Capcom to market their 1996 release, Resident Evil . It began as a remake of Sweet Home , borrowing various elements from the game, such as its mansion setting, puzzles, "opening door" load screen, death animations, multiple endings depending on which characters survive, dual character paths, individual character skills, limited item management, story told through diary entries and frescos, emphasis on atmosphere, and horrific imagery. Resident Evil also adopted several features seen in Alone in
29340-644: Was first used for the original Japanese release of Resident Evil in 1996, which was influenced by earlier games with a horror theme such as 1989's Sweet Home and 1992's Alone in the Dark . The name has been used since then for games with similar gameplay and has been retroactively applied to earlier titles. Starting with the release of Resident Evil 4 in 2005, the genre began to incorporate more features from action games and more traditional first person and third-person shooter games. This has led game journalists to question whether long-standing survival horror franchises and more recent franchises have abandoned
29520-414: Was followed by a sequel in 2020. Shinji Mikami , the creator of the Resident Evil franchise, released his new survival horror game The Evil Within , in 2014. Mikami stated that his goal was to bring survival horror back to its roots as he was disappointed by recent survival horror games for having too much action. That same year, Alien: Isolation , developed by Creative Assembly and based on
29700-443: Was incremental, developed by numerous inventors working independently or in competition with each other over a series of decades. As with the automobile , the telephone, and telegraph , several people contributed insights and inventions that eventually resulted in ever more commercially successful instruments. Historians have estimated that some form of the typewriter was invented 52 times as thinkers and tinkerers tried to come up with
29880-527: Was initially released for the PlayStation in Japan on March 22, 1996, in North America on April 1, and in Europe on August 16. It was then reissued and ported to other systems, with many gaining new features in the process. The Windows version, released in December 1996, featured the uncensored footage from the Japanese version, and the opening intro is in full color rather than black and white. It
30060-436: Was initially reluctant because he hated "being scared", with the project, because he "understood what's frightening." Since Capcom no longer had the rights to the Sweet Home license, they had to invent a new universe, but the game still adopted many elements from Sweet Home . Resident Evil was based on Sweet Home ' s gameplay system, adopting many elements from the game, including the limited item inventory management,
30240-494: Was offered as a free download from their website. The French and German PAL versions of Director's Cut do feature the uncensored intro FMV in color, though they lacked the uncensored Kenneth death scene. Director's Cut was included in the lineup for the PlayStation Classic , which was released on December 3, 2018. It was made available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on June 13, 2022. A third version for
30420-531: Was patented in 1868 by Americans Christopher Latham Sholes , Frank Haven Hall , Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule in Milwaukee, Wisconsin , although Sholes soon disowned the machine and refused to use or even recommend it. The working prototype was made by clock-maker and machinist Matthias Schwalbach. Hall, Glidden and Soule sold their shares in the patent (US 79,265) to Densmore and Sholes, who made an agreement with E. Remington and Sons (then famous as
30600-471: Was praised for both its atmospheric tension and fast action, successfully combining Japanese horror with cinematic action, while Dead Space from 2008 brought survival horror to a science fiction setting. However, critics argue that these titles represent the continuing trend away from pure survival horror and towards general action. The release of Left 4 Dead in 2008 helped popularize cooperative multiplayer among survival horror games, although it
30780-500: Was produced by the Blickensderfer Manufacturing Company , of Stamford, Connecticut , in 1902. Like the manual Blickensderfer typewriters, it used a cylindrical typewheel rather than individual typebars. The machine was produced in several variants but apparently not a commercial success, having come to market ahead of its time, before ubiquitous electrification . The next step in the development of
30960-465: Was produced until 1934. Considered one of the very best of the index typewriters, part of the Mignon's popularity was that it featured interchangeable indexes as well as type , fonts and character sets . This is something very few keyboard machines were capable of--and only at considerable added cost. Although they were pushed out of the market in most of the world by keyboard machines, successful Japanese and Chinese typewriters typewriters are of
31140-410: Was produced with only upper-case characters. The Writing Ball was a template for inventor Frank Haven Hall to create a derivative that would produce letter prints cheaper and faster. Malling-Hansen developed his typewriter further through the 1870s and 1880s and made many improvements, but the writing head remained the same. On the first model of the writing ball from 1870, the paper was attached to
31320-568: Was published in Europe by Sega instead of Capcom's usual European publisher, Virgin Interactive Entertainment . A second version for the PlayStation, Resident Evil: Director's Cut , was released in September 1997. Director's Cut was produced to compensate for the highly publicized delay of the sequel, Resident Evil 2 , and was originally bundled with a playable pre-release demo of that game. The Japanese version of
31500-415: Was rejected because of one line of copyright text. Rather than remove the individual line, Capcom Japan decided to save time and simply swap in the cinematics from the U.S. release of the original Resident Evil . SCEA then approved the game and manufactured a full production run without Capcom USA having any idea that the uncensored scenes had been cut. Three days after the game's release, the uncensored intro
31680-520: Was released in January 2006, made to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the series. Deadly Silence includes a "Classic Mode", the original game with minimal enhancements and touch-screen support, and a "Rebirth Mode", containing a greater number of enemies and a series of new puzzles that make use of the platform's capabilities. The characters models are remade with better textures and different clothing, and enemies have higher quality of detail. Although
31860-511: Was removed from the retail release. This particular game mechanic would resurface in the GameCube remake as part of an unlockable difficulty setting. Shinji Mikami noted that they made the American version harder at the request of the American staff so that the game could be rented and not be completed in a few days. Mikami said that this version proved fairly difficult for Capcom staff, who had to play very carefully to complete it. Resident Evil
32040-402: Was typed. What was typed was not visible until a carriage return caused it to scroll into view. The difficulty with any other arrangement was ensuring the typebars fell back into place reliably when the key was released. This was eventually achieved with various ingenious mechanical designs and so-called "visible typewriters" which used frontstriking, in which the typebars struck forward against
32220-404: Was useful for bookkeeping entries where negative amounts were highlighted in red. The red color was also used on some selected characters in running text, for emphasis. When a typewriter had this facility, it could still be fitted with a solid black ribbon; the lever was then used to switch to fresh ribbon when the first stripe ran out of ink. Some typewriters also had a third position which stopped
32400-513: Was widely used by professional writers, in offices, in business correspondence in private homes, and by students preparing written assignments. Typewriters were a standard fixture in most offices up to the 1980s. After that, they began to be largely supplanted by personal computers running word processing software. Nevertheless, typewriters remain common in some parts of the world. For example, typewriters are still used in many Indian cities and towns, especially in roadside and legal offices, due to
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