Game of thrones, 2015, Stern. Three cast members on the left, three on the right, stabby chair in the middle. Dragon topper leers at the player from a castle. If I actually had any idea who these people were I’d tell you more.
Future Spa
Future Spa, Bally, 1979.
It’s the spa, but in the future!
In the center, a woman and a man run toward the camera. They are wearing futuristic jumpsuits that cover them from head to toe except for windows cut in the torso. Like, on the woman’s sky blue outfit the first window stretches from just above the pubic hair to just below the breasts, and a second window reveals most of the breasts to the collar bone.
Her collar is popped and stands up to her earlobes.
Oddly, she has a belt around her middle despite half the outfit missing.
Did I mention you can see her nipples through the fabric?
Silver and gold matching boots and gloves cap off the ensemble.
The man behind her has a pornstache and 70s hair. His outfit only has one window which stretches from just above the belt buckle, over the pecs and all the way up, essentially meaning that if he doesn’t stand up straight the whole damn outfit could pop off his shoulders.
His pecs and six pack abs are visible to an unfortunate level. His collar is popped and he doesn’t appear to have a neck.
In the top left corner are two moons (or rocky planets). The top right displays curvy futuristic buildings with three more moons in the background.
In the bottom right corner, a creepy man in no shirt and a strange helmet grabs a hold of a glowing bar while he sits in front of a console.
In the bottom left corner a naked man sits in a tub staring at the naked woman standing next to him. She is holding on to the long fabric strap around another woman’s breasts – that woman is on a swing above.
This thing is creepy, at its best.
Funhouse 2: Rudy’s Nightmare
Funhouse 2.0 Rudy’s Nightmare by Pedretti, as an upgrade kit to Funhouse, 2022.
The upgrade kit provides new boards, backglass, and a new mirror toy to an existing Funhouse machine. The new backglass consists of Rudy, the creepy ventriloquist dummy from Funhouse, front and center. Rudy lookalikes in red jackets instead of blue are to the left and right. Behind them on the left is an angry living hot dog and on the right a human sized monkey with giant cymbals.
Behind them all, Evil Rudy looms over the others.
The creepiest thing about the new game is the obvious nod to Stephen King’s It in the form of the “do you want a balloon?” mode.
Funhouse
Funhouse, Williams, 1990. This game is so evil I wrote a short story about it.
The conceit is a funhouse at a carnival. There’s a hot dog cart and a mirror maze and a trap door, but the primary feature is a giant ventriloquist dummy head named Rudy that talks to you throughout the game.
He’s creepy normally especially if you’ve watched the ventriloquist episode of Twilight Zone, but at one location I play at his eye is upside-down and he goes from creepy to cursed.
The backglass is… a thing. Rudy as a giant head with giant hands nearby holding doorways into the funhouse looks like he’s sitting on the stage of a 1940s dance stage. A large crowd is in the foreground surrounding the stage. Some scary posters are to the left. Beyond the first horizon in both directions are circus tents, balloons, etc.
The building behind the creepy head has lots of people riding slides around building edges as if the funhouse was also a water floom.
In the right foreground, Rudy stands with a very large clock slung around him, and the sign for a ticket booth declares that the funhouse closes at 12 (an integral part of the game play).
Flight 2000
Flight 2000, Stern, 1980. Space ships zoom between planets while something planetoid explodes to the left. Same general hard sci vibe as the space ships on Mars Attack, but without the scary floating head.