Alone in the Dark (DOS)

Alone In the Dark

Platform: DOS Year: 1992 Developer: Infogrames Europe SA Buy: Amazon

This page is for the MS-DOS version. For other games in the series, see Alone In the Dark.

Alone In the Dark is a 3D survival horror game set in 1920. Jeremy Hartwood, a rich man with a fascination of the occult, has been found dead in his Louisiana mansion, apparently having hung himself! The player assumes the role of either Hartwood's niece Emily or a private investigator named Carnby; one must go to the mansion, a house known as "Derceto," and determine what really happened.

Upon entering the mansion, the player quickly discovers it to be swarming with various monsters and spirits, many of whom are far more powerful than the player. Weapons and ammunition can be found along the way to kill the monsters, but a lot of them must be defeated through wit or stealth. The game also has various puzzles which must be solved in order progress.

Screenshots

The game's title screen. Choosing Emily or Carnby. Arriving at the dreaded house. The infamous first room. This might come in handy! A storage room with a bow.

Music

VGMPF Album Art

Philippe Vachey composed several songs for Alone In the Dark, but also included a few eerie classical songs as well. Strangely, none of the music in the game loops, often leading to odd moments of silence. When a monster shows up, the "Danger" theme plays, soon followed by a track that is generally criticized as being unrelated to the action occuring, which leads some players to think it just plays randomly. Vachey also added in a lot of sound effects that play as you interact with the environment, but unfortunately, they aren't well synced with the action and often sound a bit off.

The CD version of the game features a different soundtrack, which has yet to be recorded. Vachey has verified in a 2014 interview he composed both versions of the soundtrack.

Recording

#	Title	Composer	Arranger	Length	Listen	Download
01	Introduction	Philippe Vachey	Philippe Vachey	2:21		Download
02	Exploring Derceto 1	Philippe Vachey	Philippe Vachey	1:53		Download
03	Danger	Philippe Vachey	Philippe Vachey	0:20		Download
04	Combat (Alone in the Dark)	Philippe Vachey	Philippe Vachey	1:00		Download
05	Chopin's Posthumous Opus 69	Frédéric Chopin	Philippe Vachey	1:42		Download
06	The Beautiful Blue Danube	Johann Strauss II	Philippe Vachey	2:37		Download
07	The Dance of Death	Camille Saint-Saëns	Philippe Vachey	3:22		Download
08	Ending	Philippe Vachey	Philippe Vachey	2:08		Download

Credits

• Ripper: TheAlmightyGuru (ADL, VOC), tails_ (VGM)
• Recorder: TheAlmightyGuru
• Game Credits:
  • Original Musics & SFx: Philippe Vachey
  • Mixed By: Sequence Coda
  • Drivers Designed By: The CodeBlasters

(Source)

The CodeBlasters are credited in the header of each of the driver files.

Game Rip

Format	Download
	Download (Info)

Luigi Auriemma's QuickBMS was used to extract the ADL music files from the LISTMUS.PAK file and the VOC sound effects from the LISTSAMP.PAK file.

The VGM logs were made using Valley Bell's DOSBox v0.74.

Since there doesn't yet exist a player for the native music files, the VGM logs were recorded using Game Emu Player v1.204.

Audio Devices

Music
Sound

(Source: Music, Sound)

Although the game supports several different sound cards for music, they all use the same sound chip (OPL2), which sounds essentially the same on each sound card. The digital sound effects also sound similar on every sound card with a DAC, but very different on a PC speaker.

Releases

France Title: Alone In the Dark Platform: DOS Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA     Germany Title: Alone In the Dark Platform: DOS Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA     Italy Title: Alone In the Dark Platform: DOS Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA     UK Title: Alone In the Dark Platform: DOS Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA     Argentina Title: Alone In the Dark Platform: DOS Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA, Erbe Software, S.A.     Spain Title: Alone In the Dark Platform: DOS Released: 1992-??-?? Publisher: Infogrames Europe SA, Erbe Software, S.A.     USA Title: Alone In the Dark Platform: DOS Released: 1993-??-?? Publisher: I•Motion, Inc.

View Alone In the Dark
Alone In the Dark	•  •
Alone In the Dark 2
Notable Personnel	Philippe Vachey • Jean-Luc Escalant • Frederic Mentzen
Notable Companies	Infogrames Europe

Links

• mobygames.com/game/dos/alone-in-the-dark - MobyGames.
• gamefaqs.com/pc/564567-alone-in-the-dark-1992 - GameFAQs.
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_in_the_Dark_(1992_video_game) - Wikipedia.