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

Photo of the Fun House backglass as described in the post.

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.

A photo of Rudy's head with the upside-down eye looking super especially creepy especially if ventriloquist dummies creep you out to begin with

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).