11 Apr 2013

BOARD GAMES: ATMOSFEAR

Atmosfear was an interactive VHS video board game released in the UK in 1992. In the United States this game was called Nightmare. The game was very innovative and the first of its kind. As well as playing against each other, players also had to play against a character called the Gate Keeper who was on the TV.

Before the game starts each player must write down their worst fear on a piece of card and then shuffle them and place them in the middle. When we replayed this game at Halloween most of the cards had "gang rape" wrote on them and my one had "the tax man" scribbled on it. The aim of the game was to progress around the board (which was a grave yard) collecting keys. Once you collected six keys you could then advance to the middle of the board and turn over the top nightmare card. If the card you unturned is not your nightmare then you win the game but if its not.. you lose shit bag.


With all that in mind you also have to play against another character who I mentioned earlier, The Gate Keeper. The Gate Keeper is a weird welsh guy with a hood on. You must do everything that is asked of you which includes, shouting stuff at the TV, rolling the dice, tossing the coin, being insulted by him and being made his bitch for the duration of the game.


As the game progresses the Gate Keeper becomes more evil looking and sounds weirder. The game is timed for 60 minutes. If no one can get to the middle of the board in time within that 60 minutes the Gate Keeper wins the game. This game is best enjoyed with six players and it was a blast playing it with the family at christmas in 1992. This game however does not have a very good replay value, as the tape is the same each time not many new scenarios occur.


Due to the game not having that great of a replay value expansion packs would be released in the near future to keep the game fresh and also keep the money rolling in. The original Atmosfear game sold over 1 Million copies in its first year and was a huge success.


Atmosfear would get a reboot a few years later with a DVD version which is cool and has countless new possibilities and angles which gives the game that replay value the previous versions lacked. These games are a good laugh and much more exciting than Scrabble and the other big time board games.