Topic: 2024/03: Alone In The Dark (PC) - VGCartography

[JonLeung]

Alone In The Dark

For this month's "Maps Of The Month" featurette, I wish to draw your attention to VGCartography's Alone In The Dark (PC) maps.

In 1924, Jeremy Hartwood, the owner of the mysterious Derceto Manor, dies by apparent suicide.  His niece, Emily Hartwood, believes a piano in the attic of the mansion has a clue to her uncle's death, while a private investigator, Edward Carnby, is asked to procure the piano for an antique dealer.  You choose to play as either character and, upon entering the mansion, you find yourself trapped inside.  As you look for a way out, you will learn of the evil that inhabits this place, and how the world at large might also be dependent on your survival.

Alone In The Dark is significant in gaming history.  It is often cited as the first 3D survival horror game and one of the best games ever made.  A remake is coming out this month, with Hollywood talent Jodie Comer and David Harbour.  The original game's legacy includes being an influence on the Resident Evil series, whose director, Shinji Mikami, has said that the first Resident Evil game might have had a first-person perspective, if not for Alone In The Dark and its fixed camera angles.

Indeed, the fixed camera may have been due to technical limitations, but also allowed for scenes to be framed in intentional ways to build tension.  Games with such a look make for interesting "maps" and, thanks to VGCartography, who is quite skilled at his craft (and we love his craft!), we not only have all the screens you may see, but also hand-drawn interpretations of the Derceto Manor and the Underground Maze below.  These original diagrams serve well as actual maps and require artistic and interpretive skills beyond taking screenshots.  These maps that are both "original" and "ripped" are a feast for the eyes, and are quite helpful if you ever find yourself... alone in the dark (in Derceto Manor).  Great job, VGCartography!

So to recognize the effort put into mapping this landmark horror classic, VGCartography's Alone In The Dark (PC) maps will be known as VGMaps.com's Maps Of The Month for March 2024.

[TerraEsperZ]

The first Alone in the Dark was among the earliest PC games I got to play at home. Before one of my uncle lent me his copy of the game for me to copy, I had only played the games I inherited from another uncle along with his PC a few years prior, which were mostly Space Quest games along with Wolfenstein 3D and F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter.

Alone in the Dark was something else though, and given that I was really into Lovecraft stories at the time, I was really immersed in the game. I remember getting through a few spots the hard way (like fighting every zombie in the dining room) and making detailed maps by hand of the whole mansion along with the underground maze.

I considered making maps for the game back in 2006 (nearly 20 years ago!) but using an isometric view never felt like a serious possibility because too much would be hidden by the walls. Thankfully, VGCartography proved me wrong and yet again, came up with great looking original maps!

Great work as usual my friend!

[VGCartography]

Thanks much all!

This game also has a special place for me, we had the floppy disks and the big manual and a tiny flipbook you had to use to pass the anti-cheat system where you looked up which object was on a random page. The low-res shapes and polygons made some of the creatures even more unknowable and weird, love how goofy yet sinister they are/move.

I'm not much for drawing without heavy reference material, so I used the game screenshots & tigrouind's AITD-roomviewer to extract 3d models of the actual collision in each room (basically uber-simple cubes) to get scale and layout accurate. I've been doing a similar map for RE1, hope to wrap that up pretty soon.

[Cyartog959]

Thanks much all!

This game also has a special place for me, we had the floppy disks and the big manual and a tiny flipbook you had to use to pass the anti-cheat system where you looked up which object was on a random page. The low-res shapes and polygons made some of the creatures even more unknowable and weird, love how goofy yet sinister they are/move.

I'm not much for drawing without heavy reference material, so I used the game screenshots & tigrouind's AITD-roomviewer to extract 3d models of the actual collision in each room (basically uber-simple cubes) to get scale and layout accurate. I've been doing a similar map for RE1, hope to wrap that up pretty soon.

Well, that's great to know. Keep it up. I'm eager to see more full maps posted up to the atlas soon!