Category: Nyogtha

Happy Halloween guys. As is the nature of the holiday, I’ve resurrected The Thing That Should Not Be, for this one shot. As I’m about to review three horror games back to back, it only seemed appropriate. What follows are fourteen pages of your favorite articles from the archives of Nyogtha, the longest running column…

Short column this week, as I’m writing this from my hotel in Chicago. I’ve been on a business trip since Wednesday and I’m using my only real free time to write this. But then, with Version 2.0 coming to a close, I need to be able to say I’m the only staffer to have never…

There will be two issues of Nyogtha next week. Issue 49 hits as part of a preview of the upcoming Beyond the Threshold. Issue 50 will be the last piece of the culture section. There were 35 issues of volume I, plus the three into Daily Pulse columns Nyogtha debuted under. This puts us at…

Folklore One of the most famous cases in undead folklore is that or Arnod Paole. It happened approximately 300 years ago and shows that even as America was starting to strongly considering dumping British tea into the ocean and becoming its own nation, that on the other side of the planet, vampires were still not…

Can you believe we’ve been doing Nyogtha for two years now? Generally when I write anything for over two years, I get royally sick of it, ala Retrograding, but so far this isn’t the case here. This week I thought I’d focus a bit on food folklore. Even thought I don’t drink, I realize most…

Odd week for me as we had a flood here in Minneapolis and my car took some damage. I spent most of the week worried that the ol’ Pikachu Beetle would be totaled, but thankfully due to speed and care on my part, the only thing needed was a tranny flush and some upholstery replacement.…

Folklore Reader Mail query: On an unrelated topic I’ve recently gotten into the D&D parody comic The Order of the Stick. The main bad guy is a lich, a term I’ve encountered a few times in games like Nethack. It made me wonder, is there any historical/mythological basis for liches beyond their inclusion in the…

You know this was one of those weeks where I just couldn’t think of what to write. It was the first time since August ’04 I didn’t have a request for a particular topic for Nyogtha and my brain was empty of ideas I thought readers would enjoy. Originally I had planned to discuss anti-matter,…

You know, over the past few months I’ve received several email about the movie “An American Haunting,” asking me if it really is based on a true story, or much like the Amityville Horror, was based on a true HOAX. I could have sworn I had done a column on the Bell Witch long before…

Ah, the Fourth of July. For some reason in America it has become linked with outdoor grilling and the basest of food. Pork lips and assholes into an oft-kilter cylindrical type shape known as a “hot dog.” Sloppy Joes that taste as good as they look. Chicken and steaks that are burned on the outside…

This week’s Nyogtha is rather a weird one. There’s no folklore. Just out and out insanity. If you’ve been following my exploits for the last decade you know I’m been doing the whole “Folklore of Monsters” thing for almost 10 years now professionally/semi-professionally. In that time I’ve encountered some truly weird stuff. Cults, secret societies,…

Nyogtha Volume II, Issue XXXIX Well, due to a snafu with uploading, I won’t be able to do my original column until next week. But not a problem. This is why we writers generally have a stockpile of filler columns sitting around. The original column will be up next week and involves a hilarious transcript…

Man it feels so different (and by different, I mean GOOD) to not be talking about video games anymore. I’m glad so many people enjoyed reading the countdown on both Inside Pulse and in my Livejournal, but I can’t tell you how ecstatic I am to be done talking about video games. I’ve been writing…

#2. Clock Tower II (Clock Tower in North America) Publisher: Human Entertaiment (Japan)/ASCII Entertainment (North America & Europe) Developer: Human Entertainment Systems Released On: Sony Playstation Release Date: 12/13/1996 (Japan), 09/30/1997 (North America) In the mountains of Romsdaaren, Norway, stands the Barrows Family Mansion, an unwholesome, brooding manor perched atop a large cliff. Home to…

#4 I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Developer: The Dreamer’s Guild Publisher: Cyberdreams, Acclaim Written By: Harlan Ellison Systems Released On: DOS Release Date: 10/31/1995 Yes my friends, we are seeing an Acclaim title at #4. Good god almighty, if I hadn’t bothered to look at the box, I’d have laughed in your…

#6 Fatal Frame (Project Zero in Europe) Publisher: Tecmo (USA and Japan) Wanadoo (Europe) Developer: Tecmo Systems Released On: Sony Playstation 2, Microsoft Xbox Release Date: 03/04/2002 (PS2), 11/22/2002 (Xbox Director’s Cut) Fatal Frame was a game I was salivating over since it was first announced. It was highly original and sounded freaky as hell.…

#8. Koudelka Developer: Sacnoth (Now called Nautilus) Publisher: SNK/Atari (then under the Infogrames name) Release Date: 11/30/1999 Systems Released on: Sony Playstation As I said last week, the next game on the countdown would be the only one that made it on both the RPG and the Spooky Game countdowns. On the RPG countdown from…

Ahoy-hoy! I’m back from a two week Eastern European vacation. And so I’m getting right back into the swing of things. Let’s crack open the top ten of the Horror/Terror game countdown and start showing you the very best of the best. #10 Splatterhouse Publisher: Namco Developer: NEC Systems Released On: Arcade, Turbo-Grafix 16, FM…

Folklore So far on the countdown I’ve been putting the folklore bits of the column either at the beginning or the end of the column, but as #12 on our list revolves around one of the most important unsolved murders in 20th Century American history, I thought I’d give you your history lesson right off…