Arcade Museum: Berzerk

When “retro” games are talked about, usually you hear about the royalty of the golden age – Pac-Man, Space Invaders (which also gave me the occasional nightmare), Asteroids, Donkey Kong, and that type of stuff. But less frequently heard is Berzerk, possibly the most terrifying video game in history.

After giving my 3-year-old nightmares watching the Planet Earth DVDs and exposing him to the wonders of the great white shark, I started to think of what used to give me nightmares when I was his age. I wasn’t that big on the nature shows and since my dad was a hunter and liked to fish as well, the sight of blood and death wasn’t something that was too bad.

Then while doing some research on video games for a list I was going to do (which may end up coming later), I remembered one game that would give me nightmares for a long time (and may in some way contribute to them now).

The game was called: BERZERK.

Berzerk was produced in 1980 by Stern Electronics, which previously had been known for its pinball machines. It was only Stern’s second video game they produced, and they never approached the success after Berzerk, getting out of the video game business in 1985. I was five or six years old when I first came across the game, which talked. Not only did it talk, but it apparently scanned your pants for money.

A happy face that kills. Lovely.

The premise was simple. You’re a guy, you’re running around a room where robots are s-l-o-w-l-y making their way to get you, shooting lasers at you, while you shoot at them. Again, this by itself isn’t too bad, and didn’t stand out that much from other games (Robotron: 2084, which would come out two years later, was this at about 100x the speed), but it was that damn voice that got you. I would hear in my head long after I was done playing “the humanoid must not escape” in this synthesized voice that haunted my little six-year-old psyche. Space Invaders marched. Pac-Man turned on a siren that never stopped.  Berzerk took it personal.

A little too personal, maybe. Berzerk was blamed for the death of not one but two people playing the console, both of whom were apparently in good physical condition before playing. The second, and eighteen-year-old with no previous medical history, had a heart attack which the coroner suggested came as a result of the stress playing the game.

So nightmarish taunting and the death of those who played it. Add to that a movie based on being sucked into a video game and playing for your life, and you wonder why the industry crashed in 1983.

“Coins detected in pocket!”
“INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!”
“Destroy The Humanoid!”
“The humanoid must not escape!”
“Chicken! Fight like a robot!”