Dark Seed (video game)

Dark Seed is a psychological horror point-and-click adventure game developed and published by Cyberdreams in 1992. It exhibits a normal world and a dark world counterpart, which is based on the artwork by H. R. Giger. It was one of the first point-and-click adventure games to use high-resolution (640 × 350 pixels) graphics, to Giger's demand. A sequel, Dark Seed II, was released in 1995.

Plot
Mike Dawson is a successful advertising executive and writer who has recently bought an old mansion on Ventura Drive (named after Ventura Boulevard) in the small town of Woodland Hills. On his first night at the house, Mike has a nightmare about being imprisoned by a machine that shoots an alien embryo into his brain. He wakes up with a severe headache and, after taking some aspirins and a shower, explores the mansion. He finds clues about the previous owner's death, which reveal the existence of a parallel universe called the Dark World ruled by sinister aliens called the Ancients.

On the second day, he travels to that universe through the living room mirror and meets the Keeper of the Scrolls, a friendly darkworlder. She tells him that the nightmare he had on his first night was real and warns him that if the embryo—the eponymous Dark Seed—is born, it will kill him and all of humanity. The only way to stop this, she says, is to destroy the Ancient's Power Source.

On the third and final day, Mike executes an elaborate plan that culminates with the Ancient ship's departure on the Dark World, depriving them of their power source, and the destruction of the living room mirror, sealing the Ancients out of the Normal World. The game ends with the town librarian visiting Mike and telling him she found some pills in her purse prescribed to Mike. The medication will presumably kill the embryo inside his head. A morphing animation reveals that, unbeknown to the librarian, she is the Keeper of the Scrolls' counterpart. Mike then states that he's just beginning to understand.

Gameplay
Unlike most point-and-click adventure games, which give the player time to explore, many actions in Dark Seed must occur within precise time limits, or the game will end up in an unwinnable state. As a result of this, one must start over repeatedly to win without resorting to a walkthrough.

Production
When Cyberdreams approached H. R. Giger about providing artwork for a video game, the artist disliked the proposed use of VGA Mode 13h's 320 by 200 graphics and demanded higher resolution. The developers agreed to use 640 by 350 mode instead, although doing so reduced the palette from 256 to 16 colors. Cyberdreams received access to almost all of Giger's artwork. Developers used an Epson flatbed scanner to import selected body parts and landscape fragments in monochrome, then with DeluxePaint II Enhanced for MS-DOS assembled them into single images. An Amiga and a SVHS camera digitized actors' poses that Cyberdreams further edited on PCs. After the company decided that the images were inadequate late in the development process, developers hand colored the art for six more months. The main character, Mike Dawson, is named after the game's designer and producer. He also lent his appearance to the character's sprite.

Ports
The original game was released for MS-DOS first, then Amiga, Amiga CD32, Macintosh, Sega Saturn and PlayStation. The PlayStation and Saturn versions were released only in Japan; however, these console versions are not dubbed in Japanese, only subtitled, making the game's story still accessible to English speakers. These ports have been criticized for doubling the speed that time flows in the game though, as well as speeding up the soundtrack. The Saturn version is also compatible with the Sega Saturn Netlink Mouse.

There was also a version developed for the Sega CD and even promoted for American release, but publisher Vic Tokai never released it. An unlicensed version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in Chinese, however an English translated ROM is currently being worked on by a small nonprofit team.

Reception
Computer Gaming World called Dark Seed in 1992 "the most integrated and effective feel for a horror adventure yet" but criticized the unforgiving real-time gameplay that often caused unwinnable situations, hard-to-find on-screen puzzle elements, and an overly abrupt ending, stating that "the interactive elements are so poorly implemented that they nearly destroy the effect" of the graphics and sound. The magazine nonetheless concluded that the game "hint[s] at tremendous potential", and hoped that Cyberdreams' future games would be "not only beautiful, but fun to play". QuestBusters recommended the game to fans of the Alien films and Accolade's Elvira games. The reviewer wrote "The graphics are impressive, the atmosphere gripping, but for me the staying power was the story and wondering what was going to happen next", and concluded "I didn't think it was the best thing out this year, but I certainly would have missed out if I'd passed it by. Give it a shot." The game was reviewed in 1992 in Dragon #188 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.

Next Generation gave the Sega CD version (which was ultimately never released) three out of five stars, describing it as "a perfect example of graphic-adventure-as-nightmare ... Half of the game's appeal lies in the bizarre and frightening hallucinations suffered by the hero (or maybe they aren't hallucinations...). We recommend checking it out." Famicom Tsūshin scored the Sega Saturn version of the game a 24 out of 40.

In 1993, the game received a Codie award from the Software Publishing Association for Best Fantasy Role-Playing/Adventure.

Dark Seed was a nominee Computer Games Strategy Plus's 1992 "Best Adventure" award, which ultimately went to The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel. The magazine's Theo Clarke wrote, "The strength of this game lies in its atmosphere, but my pleasure was diminished by the use of a master diskette at the security device."

Legacy
In 2006 GameTrailers named Dark Seed the seventh scariest game of all time, ranking it above Clock Tower, System Shock 2, and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

An urban legend spread that the intense pressure of designing the game gave lead designer Mike Dawson a mental breakdown. However, he actually left the games industry after completing Dark Seed and moved into television writing (including some episodes of Family Matters) until the late 1990s, wrote four books on programming (including Beginning C++ Game Programming and Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner) and is teaching game design and programming classes at Stanford University and UCLA.