The House of the Dead (prototype)

Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

The House of the Dead (c) 1996 Sega Enterprises, Limited.

Make your way through a haunted mansion filled with crazed zombies, chainsaw-wielding 'undeads' and other nasty creatures! Your mission is to investigate the status of the mysteriously missing personnel at a genetic engineering center, and the first team of operatives sent to rescue them. You must destroy the Undead's evil creator, Dr. Curien, while saving the scientists and your girl. During the game, you discover that good doctor is the one resurrecting the Undead, and you must stop him and his evil undead minions.

The game is divided into 4 chapters; Armored Giant, Man-Bat, Giant Spider, and 'Magician'. The game allows you to aim and destroy specific body parts. (i.e. you can blow off the arms of a chainsaw-wielding undead enemy), although blowing off their heads is the fastest way of killing them. Awesome and one of the best selling modern video games!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the Sega "Model 2C" hardware.

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

The House of the Dead was released on September 13, 1996 in Japan. And internationally released on March 04, 1997.

Because of its graphic content, House of the Dead (or HOTD for shorts) and its sequels became centers for video game controversy, particularly in 2000, when the city of Indianapolis, Indiana used the game as an example in an attempt to pass an ordinance requiring minors get parental consent before being able to play violent video games in arcades. The ordinance was eventually struck down at the appellate Federal court level on the grounds that it violated First Amendment rights.

The movie version of 'The House of the Dead' had next to nothing to do with its game counterpart (as all game-to-movie conversions go), but it did have an interesting twist: one of the survivors of the zombie rampage was named Curien (the villain of HOTD), and AMS agents Rogan and G appear at the film's end.

The enemy zombie character named Cyril, make an appearance on the 2012 animation movie 'Wreck-It Ralph' from Walt Disney Animation Studios.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Player 1 Plays As Sophie : Right after inserting your credit, press Right, Left, Right(x2), Left(x2), Start. Right and Left refer to the triggers.

* Player 2 Plays As Sophie : Right after inserting your credit, press Left, Right, Left(x2), Right(x2), Start. Right and Left refer to the triggers.

* Both Players Are Sophie : Right after inserting your credit, press Left, Right(x2), Left(x2), Right, then hit Start before the game enters demo mode. Right and Left refer to the triggers.

* Player 1 Plays As Super G : Right after inserting your credit, press Left(x2), Right, Left(x2), Start. Right and Left refer to the triggers.

* Player 2 Plays As Super G : Right after inserting your credit, press Right(x2), Left, Right(2), Start. Right and Left refer to the triggers.

* Both Players Are Super G : Right after inserting your credit, press Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, then hit Start before the game enters demo mode. Right and Left refer to the triggers.

* Special Endings : If you save all the innocent bystanders in the game from being killed, you'll enter a secret power-up room just after the limestone cave in the final stage.
1) If you finish the game with 62,000 or higher you'll see the GOOD ending.
2) If you finish the game under 62,000 and the last digit of you r score is zero you'll see the BAD ending.
3) If you finish the game under 62,000 and the last digit is not a zero you will see the NORMAL ending.

* Show your score : Left refers to the player 1 gun / trigger... right refers to the player 2 gun / trigger. Put your coins in and press Left x3 Right x2 then press the start button... remember this has to be done very quickly.

- SERIES -

1. The House of the Dead (1996)
2. The House of the Dead 2 (1998)
3. The House of the Dead III (2003)
4. The House of the Dead 4 (2005)
5. Loving Deads - The House of the Dead EX (2008)
6. The House of the Dead - Overkill (2009, Nintendo Wii)

- STAFF -

Producer : Rikiya Nakagawa
Assistant producer : Hiroshi Aso
Programmers : Koji Ooto, Kazutomo Sanbongi, Kazutaka Horie, Tomoyuki Naito, Gen Miyazaki
Designers : Hiroyuki Taguchi, Yasutada Kawata, Nobutaka Tozawa, Takahiro Kudou, Akiko Shirota, Satoshi Ito, Norio Ishii, Yasushi Sekido
Music composer & Sound effects : Tetsuya Kawauchi
Publicity : Yasushi Nakajima, Akira Yamanaka, Jun Kasahara
AM4 Staff : Minoru Matsuba, Yasuhiro Komori, Noriaki Ueda, Motohiko Higashiguchi, Eiji Inoue, Ken Adachi, Kenji Watanabe
Director & Planner : Takashi Oda

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Sega Saturn (1998) "The House of the Dead [Model MK81082-50]"
Sega Saturn [AS] (1998) "The House of the Dead [Model 80318-40]"
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.26, 1998) "The House of the Dead [Model GS-9173]"
[US] Sega Saturn (mar.31, 1998) "The House of the Dead [Model 81082]"

* COMPUTERS:
[US] [EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (1998)