WEBVTT - Selects: Night Trap: The Video Game Failure that Changed the Industry 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.440 Hey, everybody, it's me Josh and for this week's select, 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:07.040 I've chosen our twenty twenty one episode on night Trap 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.360 the video game one of those overlook pieces of pop 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:14.080 culture history about one of those unfortunate pieces of technology 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.400 that emerged during a sea change, which made it utterly 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:19.880 out of date the moment it was born. It's a 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:22.639 great story about a not at all great video game, 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:29.640 and I hope you enjoy it. Welcome to Stuff You 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:39.159 Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.840 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles w Chuck 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:45.640 Bryan over there, there's Jerry over there being Sally, and 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:53.560 this is Stuff you should Know. Ye video Obscure Lost 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:58.000 video game episode. How did you hear about this? This 0:00:58.080 --> 0:00:59.080 is a your request. 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.279 Yeah, Trap is the game that we're talking about. And 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.920 I heard about this from watching the Netflix documentary series 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:06.880 High Score. 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.839 Did you netflix and chill while you were watching that? Jerk? 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:16.240 No, I Netflix by myself and chilled because Emily. 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:16.640 Wasn't watching this. 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:17.720 That's a different thing. 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:18.720 Yeah, this is a different thing. 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:19.119 Okay. 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.280 This was a documentary series on Netflix, I think six 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:29.119 parts that covered the history of video games, I can 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:30.959 recommend it in one way in that it was a 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.600 very light kind of fun watch, but it is by 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:36.959 no means comprehensive and a little goofy at times, and 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:37.759 how they handled some. 0:01:37.720 --> 0:01:40.880 Stuff on Night Trips specifically or. 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:41.840 Like the whole series. 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.080 But it was fine, and it's you know, if you're 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.280 in the from a certain generation and in the mood 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:50.680 for like five plus hours of a bit of a 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.240 nostalgia kick, you could do worse things. 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:54.400 But it's not great. 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.880 Have you ever seen that documentary? I think it's King 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.440 of Kong? Oh, sure, man, that is one of the 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.040 best time I've ever made. I haven't seen a year. 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:04.000 They go to see it again. 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:04.520 It's great. 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:06.600 I think our old buddy Josh Bearman might have written 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:08.000 the original story that that was. 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:10.680 Oh I'm not surprised you had something. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:10.920 To do with that. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.000 But Night Trap I learned about because in episode five 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:19.880 they covered when video games started becoming violent, so Mortal 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:23.440 Kombat obviously factored in heavily in that episode. And then 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:26.120 this game called Night Trap. There's another game I do 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:27.680 want to cover on a shorty by the way, one 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:32.880 of the first LGTBQ games ever that was really interesting. 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:35.280 And had a cool story. What the heck is it called? 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.519 I can't remember now. I saw this a couple of 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:39.720 months ago, so it's been a while. 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:40.880 Oh what was it? 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:42.160 I can't remember, but it was. 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.120 It's great and that'll make it for a good shorty okay, 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.120 but a really cool story behind it. But this is 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.760 night Trap, which figured in as the game that kind 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.040 of brought about along with Mortal Kombat, but was really 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:57.240 central informing what ended up being the ratings board for 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:58.120 video games. 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:04.160 I mean, that's that's like understating it. Like this one game, yeah, 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.640 paired with Mortal Kombat, basically led directly to the creation 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:09.000 of that. 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:11.960 Yeah, So that's really why it's notable. The other thing 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:13.760 that made it notable, and we'll get into all this, 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.000 was that it was a a live action as in 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.600 they shot you know, a little movie, right, and that 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.680 you controlled, Yeah, that you sort of control, you. 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.960 Could conceivably theoretically pathetically control. 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:31.280 Because it wasn't a great game, but it lives in 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:34.160 infamy because of every because it's a really cool story. 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:36.520 I think in the end, it is a pretty cool story. 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.360 And the whole thing starts actually with a play from 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.480 the I think it was written in nineteen eighty one 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:48.040 by a playwright named John Oh. What's his last name? 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:51.360 Krasank Okay, I want to say, son, I want to 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:57.280 krisanch Shit, you don't think so? I don't know. Maybe well, regardless, 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.800 he wrote a few episodes of Due South. What was that? 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:03.320 It was like a show about a Canadian mountee. 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.600 I think, oh, all right, yeah he wrote this and 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:08.720 it was if you've been to Sleep No More in 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:13.360 New York, you may have the play Tamara to think 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.919 because it is a lot like the concept of Sleep 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:17.360 No More. 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:19.400 As far as I know, this was the one that 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:20.640 broke that ground. 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:22.640 I think so in the ground they broke it. 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.920 It's about the painter Tamara de Olympica, who have never 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:27.279 heard of. 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.520 She was a Polish painter who lived in Italy in 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.680 the roaring twenties, okay, when the fascists were starting to 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:38.080 take power, and she took no guff from them, no guff, hedonistic, 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:44.240 amazing art deco painter, art deco portraitist, basically interesting. So 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:46.320 her work's really interesting. I didn't know anything about it. 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.760 I'd never heard of her until this too, but I 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:50.560 looked her up. She seemed pretty cool. 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:52.560 But This is a play about her where it is 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.640 set on a multi floor building. There are scenes taking 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.040 place at the same time in multiple rooms, and as 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.880 an audience member, you can move from one room to 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.400 the other, missing out on some stuff, seeing some stuff, interacting. 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:08.039 I mean it's Sleep No More. Yeah, they I don't 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.280 know if they just totally ripped it off or if 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.480 they said, hey, it's been you know, thirty years. Who's 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:15.720 going to remember Tamera, right? 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.200 I think it was like they broke that ground, and 0:05:18.240 --> 0:05:20.000 once you break that ground, you're going to have people 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:20.760 following your wake. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.839 There's probably been other stuff that did this, but Sleep 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:25.440 No More I think just got so much attention in 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.000 New York for its run. It might still be going 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:29.880 or maybe coming back after the pandemic. 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:31.440 I would like to see that. I would love to 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:36.080 see Tamra too, But this it was. It ran in 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:41.880 New York, but it started a Toronto Art festival I think, 0:05:42.040 --> 0:05:45.200 oh interesting, and then some producers set it up in 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:47.040 la and that's where it had its longest run. From 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.320 about the mid eighties to the nineties. They had this 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:53.159 just kept going and going and going. I was reading 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.880 an La Times article on it. But the reason that 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.800 it factors into this is because it's basically the basis 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:05.240 for this game Night Trap, where there are different things 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.480 going on in different rooms and you kind of cycle 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:13.360 toggle between the different rooms through security cameras in these 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:15.840 rooms right to see what's going on. And while you're 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.520 doing that, you're missing stuff that's happening in other rooms 0:06:18.600 --> 0:06:21.680 in this game, and if you miss too much stuff, 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.440 you lose. If you catch enough stuff and you do 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.880 everything right and press all the correct buttons, you win. 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.080 But that's that's basically how it applies. It's like this 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.960 almost an homage to this play in video game form, 0:06:37.240 --> 0:06:40.080 but it's full motion video, meaning it's like a film 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:44.200 or TV show that you vaguely control or put better 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:45.400 you interact. 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.680 With, Yeah, and the idea of the game, and we'll 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:49.680 get a little bit more into the development of it 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.960 in a minute, but it is basically like a party 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:57.719 happening at this house, young like co ed types like 0:06:57.839 --> 0:06:58.720 sorority girls. 0:06:58.760 --> 0:06:59.320 Maybe ye. 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.080 It's very sort of titillating, and that was one of 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:04.320 the big deals. 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:07.280 A little bit. I think this for the time. Yeah, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:09.680 for the time, I wouldn't say, I mean you got 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.280 married with children was like ten times more titillating those 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:14.880 This is very tame. I think. 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.280 Well, you know, obviously part of the controversy comes from 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.920 assaults on women in the game, understandably, but again we'll 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:25.640 get to that. It is even tame compared to a 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:27.600 lot of the stuff that was out at the time. 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:30.880 But what's going on in the game is they are 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:36.760 these pseudo vampires called augurs that are the bad people 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:41.119 in this game. And Jim Riley, who conceived of this game, 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.080 when he had the idea of I think he was 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:47.800 watching security camera a security camera screen with all these 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.840 different rooms and it hit him like what a great idea, 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.000 And then he saw this play and he said, we 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.480 can actually do something like this, Like what if a 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.680 user and a game player could go into any of 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.600 these views that they want and if they're missing something, 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:05.320 they're missing something it might be important, but they're in 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:06.240 control of the. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:11.160 Game, right, And I mean that's the story rather right. 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.440 But again, I think you really pointed out something important 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:19.280 that that was the concept in the actuality. They kind 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.840 of missed the mark a little bit. Yes, So with 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.920 the game the it was originally designed as part of 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:31.600 a platform called Control Vision. I think internally it was 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.640 called Nemo an Emo and it was being created by 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.640 a company called Axelon, And Axelon was actually a Nolan 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.240 like video game company name, but it was a Nolan 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.800 Bushne old company. After Atari, he founded Axelon, among others, 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.280 I think he created five companies at the same time 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:54.480 in parallel. Using this incubator that he had created, and 0:08:55.360 --> 0:09:00.360 the developers at axeln started creating a full motion video 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.600 VHS based we should point out, yes, I'm VHS and 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.600 to get from one place to another, rather than this 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:10.920 was the breakthrough thing. This is the thing that made 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.000 this work, and they did get it to work. But 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:18.480 using VHS tapes, you could toggle between stuff in virtually 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:24.280 real time without the VHS player having to rewind or 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:27.000 fast forward, which would have really just kind of put 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.240 the kibosh on the whole thing. But instead, because of 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:38.000 the interlacing that video uses, they could actually choose what 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:42.040 field to show at what time and basically switch between them. 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:44.480 Which was I mean, it looks archaic, but it's a 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.120 remarkable technology at the time to be able to do that. 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.440 Right, Yeah, it's still mind blowing. Like I'm like, I've 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:55.800 they vaguely understand how this actually works, but the fact 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:57.640 that they actually got this to work and had a 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:01.439 proof of concept going enough that Asro was like sold, 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:03.160 that was a big deal. 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:05.319 Yeah, and this was eighty five. 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.079 One of their designers was the legendary Tom Crane who 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.720 designed Pitfall, one of my favorite all time games on 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:11.240 the Atari. 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:12.040 That's a good one. 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.080 But it was a good team and they went apparently 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.959 to these Tamera performances. They were also inspired by Dragon's Layer. 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:18.880 Do you remember that game? 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:21.520 I do. I was never into it, but I remember 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:23.680 watching it and just it looked cool. 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:25.760 I mean it was an animation game where it was 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:31.760 fully animated and used LaserDisc to project this animated footage. 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:34.439 So it looked awesome, but it was just it wasn't 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:36.200 that great. The gameplay wasn't great. 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.199 No, but it followed a story. There was a story. Yeah, 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:41.000 that was happening, and then every once in a while 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.480 there's something you had to do to move the story 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.800 along right as part of the game, and if you 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:47.880 didn't do it right, the dragon like turned you into 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:49.200 to Ash or something like that. 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.080 Right, Yeah, but you're not actually controlling the player, which 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:53.520 was the big difference in these games. 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:54.640 For the regular game. 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.640 You're you're creating a sequence like you're doing this and 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:01.120 then sitting back and then hopefully the thing you're hoping 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:05.080 to happen happens. Now, the thing that differentiates that from 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:11.200 Night Trap is that there was no coherent story while 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:13.400 you were off doing something that you were supposed to 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.360 be doing to win the game. Yeah, the story kept 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:16.800 going on over here. 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.160 So you can't follow a storyline that way, no, which. 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.320 Is a big deal, and that was a big differentiator 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:22.800 between it and Dragons Later. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:24.679 All right, well, let's take a little break here. 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:26.439 That's a good setup, I think, and we'll come back 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:51.679 and get more into Night Trap right after this. All right, 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:54.840 so I mentioned the augurs, We need to explain a 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.040 little bit about this game and what it was supposed 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.800 to be and what it ended up being, because Netflix 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.080 Dementary Jim Riley basically is like, well, the first thing 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.600 they created a demo called Scene of the Crime. 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:07.839 Yes, and it was a. 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:14.280 Detective game and Hasbro liked it, like I said, but 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.599 they had a big problem because the original idea that 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.280 Jim had was to have ninjas, and he's like, it'd 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:21.520 be great. 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:22.320 These ninjas come in. 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.760 They got throwing stars, they got weapons and they're doing 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:27.679 all this stuff and you can control it and it's 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.360 super cool. And Hasbro is like, wait a minute, we 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.400 can't have what we call reproducible violence. So anything that 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:37.880 a kid like kids love throwing stars, and we can't 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:40.600 show ninjas throwing throwing stars into people because a kid 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:42.960 will go and do that. You can't have a knife 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:44.640 because the kid can go get a knife out of 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:46.680 a drawer. It's got to be something that a kid 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:47.600 cannot reproduce. 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:50.320 So they said, okay, well, how about what if the 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.520 ninjas turn out to be and I'm sorry, I know 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.120 ninja is the plural of ninja, Sorry for sure. What 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.160 if they turn out to be vampires? 0:12:59.679 --> 0:12:59.959 Right? 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.160 And Hasbro said, I kind of like where you're going 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:07.240 with this, But kids can still like bite people on 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:07.640 the neck. 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:09.520 I think it came the other way though. I think 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:11.319 that was a note from Hasbro. 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:12.000 Oh was it? 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:14.600 I'm pretty sure they were like, what if they were vampires? 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:14.880 Okay? 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.679 And Jim Riley was like, Okay, I guess I can 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.720 do that, okay, biting people's necks, And then Hasbro was like, 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.000 can't do that because the kids can bite next to. 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.640 So what they found, and this is a great metaphor 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:31.960 for the night Trap overall. Yeah, what the ninja Originally, 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.320 what they turned out to be in the end were 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:40.040 loping vampires who used what looked like a Ghostbuster's pro 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:45.120 tom pack with a collar of the kind that Arnold 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.160 Schwarzeninger was wearing at the beginning of Running Man, like 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.480 a clamp sort of yes, yeah, on the end, and 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:53.880 that that is what they used to draw the blood 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.760 from the hapless teens who you were in charge of 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:00.800 protecting Night Trap. 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:04.200 Yeah, so what Hasbro did was they noted it to 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:09.160 death and neutered it to death because they said. He 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:11.360 even was like, all right, I can do vampires. They 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:13.240 can run around and hurt people. And they said, no, no, no, 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:16.320 they can't even run around. It's too scary if they're fast. Yeah, 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.520 So they came up with augurs who in the game 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.400 they are described as vampires who had been half bled 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.320 and left to die. So they are not quite vampires, 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.360 but they aren't human either, and that makes them lopy 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:35.480 and lumbery instead of being able to move fast. And 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.120 if you see them, they look like they're wearing garbage bags. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:43.240 They're lumbering around they're drawing the blood using a trocar. 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:44.520 Is what the name of that thing was. 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:46.920 Oh, it was okay because it was definitely its own thing. 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:48.920 It was its own thing, and it's funny. 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.160 In the documentary, Jim Riley was like, in the end, 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.560 he said, this trow car, which you know, it didn't 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.240 show it explicitly. It showed the clamp going around the 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.280 neck and this little drill and so out of a 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:03.960 shaft start and then sort of moving and then blood 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:05.960 being drawn. But it doesn't like going in the neck 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.200 or anything. No, but he said what they ended up with, 0:15:08.280 --> 0:15:10.880 he said to me, was something far creepier than a 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:13.880 vampire biting someone's neck. Sure, but they were like, it's 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:15.800 not reproducible though, so it's fine. 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.640 And it's also it's weird that Hasbro was so fixated 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:25.280 on not including reproducible violence because apparently they saw night 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:29.240 Trap as a way to interest adults, right, because they 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:33.000 had apparently found out during focus group testing of Seen 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:36.560 in the Crime. I believe that the parents who were 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.280 in the room or were part of the focus group 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.320 were saying, like, I really kind of liked this. It's 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:42.560 like a TV show, but I get. 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.240 To contry it because it looked like something that they understood. 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:48.720 Right, Yeah, and so Hasbro was like, oh, okay, this 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:50.520 has been like a kid's thing up to this point. 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.240 Maybe we can finally crack into the adult market with 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:57.480 this stuff. So it's weird that they that they kidified 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.480 it to death if they were trying to use it 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.960 to capture adults, but maybe they were like, it has 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:07.400 to go both ways in case adults don't like it. 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.640 Well, I think in the documentary they make the point 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:13.120 that Hasbro was I think the adults were looming out 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:14.920 there as a possibility, but they were like. 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:16.560 Adults will never play video games. 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.440 So what they really wanted until they grow up and 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:20.880 then continue to. 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:21.600 Play video games. 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:24.240 Well, they really were after was a teenage market, which 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:27.640 didn't fully exist at this point. Gotcha like an old 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.720 like sixteen and seventeen year old boys, which is why 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:34.800 they put sorority girls in. Like a nighty at a 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:37.520 slumber party was an all in an effort to sort 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:39.480 of titillate, you know, people. 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:42.560 Like me, right, and it worked like a charm. 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:44.880 I had never heard of it back then, because you just. 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.640 You would play night trap in Netflix and chill by yourself. 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.720 So they actually had to shoot this like a movie, 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:54.480 you know. They shot it in Culver City on a 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:57.800 sound stage. And what they would do back then for 0:16:57.960 --> 0:17:00.760 and there were more full motion games of the time, 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:05.200 and you would try and cast one recognizable face among 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.960 this cast just sort of they called it the anchor 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:09.840 to like, all right, well this has got so and 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:10.360 so in it. 0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:12.520 And who did they cast for Night Trap? 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:17.440 Dana Plato from from Different Strokes. Kimberly. Yeah, Kimberly who 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.520 passed away very tragically. Man, I was reading about her life. 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.840 She had a hard, sad life. 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:24.800 Man, very tragic story. 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:26.680 Yeah, it is. It's very sad. And they actually went 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:28.600 back and ruled their death of suicide later. Did you 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:30.720 know that. I don't know if I knew that. Yeah, 0:17:30.760 --> 0:17:34.000 she died by suicide ultimately because she overdosed the like 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:38.680 drugs or yeah, soma, I believe, which is like a 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:43.080 generic lore tab interesting, which I think you really have 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:46.000 to try. Like, I don't think that's an accidental thing, 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.320 which is probably why they did that. But it was 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:53.520 at a family reunion in Oklahoma, Wow, which I'm like, God, man, 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.439 that's that's just a sad ending. And her son actually 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:57.240 died by suicide. 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.840 Later, No, I think I knew that, like not super 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:00.879 long ago, right. 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.160 Like yeah, in the twenty tens, yeah, oh. 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:08.520 Man, very sad, but yeah. Dana Plato was cast as 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.600 that anchor. She played Kelly, who was a secret agent 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:14.840 who had infiltrated the house. 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:15.680 She was undercover. 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:16.720 Yeah, she's undercover. 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:18.600 And she would talk right to camera and say things 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.320 like you've got to get to the other room because 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:24.120 the augurs are after whoever mayor helper, Yeah, go help her. 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.720 Yeah, and we should say also, so the group of 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:31.479 crime fighters that she was a part of was called SCAT. Yeah, 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:37.600 the Special Control Attack Team SCAT. And then I don't 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:39.879 know if we also said so the people who own 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:44.040 the house had invited this group of teens that included 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:51.040 undercover Dana Plato Kelly, who which I saw admittedly on Wikipedia. 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.240 This is a great example of night trap being night 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:57.760 trap in the In the credits at the end, Kelly's 0:18:57.840 --> 0:19:00.240 name is spelled with a y on the end. In 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.840 the players the user's hand guide and deny tonight. Yeah, 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:09.320 that's night trap for you right there. But the family 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.600 that invited the kids, these teenage girls out for a 0:19:13.640 --> 0:19:18.359 weekend at their house are actually themselves vampires with teeth everything, 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:19.120 not augurs. 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:20.840 They're actually they don't attack people. 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:23.360 No, they brought them there for the augurs. 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.639 Right right right to source their blood. I guess there 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:27.600 is a pretty funny scene in it. When did you 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:28.280 watch any of it? 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:32.400 I watched the whole thing. I watched. I think Crumpy 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:34.600 Gamers did like a playthrough. 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:36.080 Yeah, they have a full I watched. 0:19:36.480 --> 0:19:39.000 There's stuff too, and yeah, I've watched a lot of 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:39.879 night Trap stuff. 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:42.480 The best part is when they're explaining in the game 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.320 what the augurs are and the woman says, you know, 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:46.560 it's a vampire who's been blah blah blah, and one 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.040 of the scat guys is in the background and he goes. 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:51.080 You've got to be jiving me. 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:52.600 I'd like see that. 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:53.280 Oh it was great. 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:56.120