SOURCES:
- Images Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, Link, and — finally — Link.
- The Hivesoft Logo was made by my house-mate for this SCP.
- Inspired by the old Killswitch creepypasta.
FEEDBACK:
- minmin minmin deserves credit here for helping me brainstorm the idea and figure out the color-scheme.
Like the article? Click here for more of The Great Hippo's Skippos!
Posting to note I've changed the box-art image to be compliant with CC (thanks to C-Dives C-Dives who pointed out I made a mistake with the art I used). The links have been updated accordingly; the new image uses this, which is public domain.
One more final note: I've noticed a couple of translators have posted translations of this article (which is super cool!). I've also just realized that the back of the box-art contains relevant information for the article, but since it's an image, it's really hard to do anything with that. You could just leave it as is, or provide a translation of the text somewhere — but for more enterprising translators, I figured I'd provide the GIMP *.XCF file here .
Feel free to delete the text-layer, replace it with your translation, then export as a *.PNG — and 'paste' this *.PNG over the pre-existing box-art's back-panel. Or — don't! This is a lot of work to go through for just a translation of a goofy NES creepypasta, but I thought I'd provide the option for anyone who wants to do it. ETA: Also, keep in mind — if you add this text, I went with black text, then used 'Brightness-Contrast' (under the Colors menu) to wash the text out by decreasing its contrast (so it 'looks' like part of the box).
(And as always, thanks to all the translators for all the work they do!)
Noting that the image of the mansion used in this article is also from here, and is licensed under CC0.
Mm Mm Good
While the numerology of the article is too close to SCP-2747 and the monster uncannily similar to SCP-3117, I really like how you use the images to convey the story rather than the text. It ends up reminding me of Stephen King’s The Sun Dog, and I actually did get some frisson from seeing the Blue Wraith get closer and closer to its target.
The Seventh Door was shipped prior completion.Probably should be "The Seventh Door was shipped prior to completion.
Good story, I like it.
Reminds me of a much subtler versions of those video game creepypastas like NES Godzilla and Strangled Red. This is certainly unnerving in all the right places, although you may have lost me a bit when you started to explain about the cartridge's effects on the system which I have no clue what it does other than it messes it up. The parts that explained it in a technical aspect lessened the whole experience for me but it was still enough to creep me out.
Wait a second.
A follow-up investigation determined that Mr. Rogers had gone missing; authorities suspected foul-play after discovering several fingernails torn from Mr. Rogers' left hand inside his NES console.
How can you have seven fingernails in your hand?
You mentioning Strangled Red and Godzilla NES really gave me nostalgia there.
Hit the cymbal!
Maybe I just don’t get it, but what exactly makes this game anomalous. It’s just an unfinished 8-bit game that’s slightly unsettling in its design and gameplay deviations and is involved in a few disappearances. This stuff is all well and freaky, but it doesn’t actually seem anomalous at all.
Novote, because it’s well written but not really fitting of an SCP article.
The contents of each cartridge vastly exceeds the storage limitations of its ROM2 chip. Extracting SCP-4054's source-code produces a data-file too large to be contained on any currently available device.
Right there in like the second paragraph, but go off I guess
Ah, I didn’t quite see that as I really skimmed that section. Sorry about that.
The user is 'ink49' in the image caption but 'inky49' in the text.
I don't get this one, it reads just like the aforementioned spooky video game creepypastas. What story may be contained in the images is difficult for me to figure out and also not as visually enjoyable, both as a result of the image quality of retro video games vs. paintings as in the preceding hippo SCP.
Oops; thanks — fixed!
And sorry to hear that it didn't work for you — this is and SCP-3561 are experiments for me; I want to see if I can accomplish horror by eschewing wham-lines and focusing on atmosphere and restraint.
I'll eventually break down what's going on here, but a few notes (on the off-chance you're curious):
- The Foundation says there are no monsters present in the game. And yet a monster appears in every screenshot.
- The monster's identity is stated in the box art; the Blue Wraith. You can see it on the cover (its by the house's entrance) and again on the back of the box-art (the blue figure in the bottom left demo-screenshot).
- The player dies randomly if they stay still too long; the Foundation doesn't know why. Again, this is to emphasize that the Foundation is missing something.
- A Hand of Glory is an occult artifact consisting of the hand of a murderer who was hanged used as a candle; when lit, any who see it are incapable of approaching you. inky49's fingernails were torn from his left hand.
- There are 25 disappearances. There are 25 figures (other than the Blue Wraith) in the final screenshot.
- Also, just a silly easter egg: The HiveSoft logo is HiveFind, from bzzip.exe.
I expect none of this will make the skip 'more' enjoyable for you; if I have to explain it, then it didn't work. I'm just throwing this out there to show that I'm not picking spooky elements for the sake of spookiness — there's a story I'm trying to insinuate, here.
(As an aside: That's the reason I love Killswitch so much. Most video game creepypastas include elements purely for spookiness' sake; things don't happen for a reason, they happen to creep you out. Killswitch feels like it isn't trying to scare you, and that's what makes it interesting. I wanted to evoke that same sense with this article and the other one I posted, An Unfinished Work.)
Video game spookyspagetti done right, with no hyper-realistic eyes to be found. My only real complaint is that the only thing making it seem anomalous is the final addendum. You have that bit about it having more ROM than an NES cartridge should, but that seems pretty minor. You could foreshadow it by putting something in the containment procedures about not modifying the game to reach the later levels.
Thanks! And yeah; part of my concern with this is that the article itself isn't about the anomaly (which is that the game contains far more content than it possibly should), but about all the things that operate adjacent to the anomaly.
The containment procedures are already really, really long; I feel like I'm stretching the reader's attention with them as it is. That being said, there's one bit in the list of game features I can modify to imply an even deeper anomaly:
- To date, researchers have uncovered several hundred levels beyond the seventh (described in the manual as the final level, and the location of the seventh key). These stages consist of vast networks of tunnels, crypts, abandoned factories, and empty underground cities. The precise number of additional levels beyond the seventh has not yet been determined, but vastly exceeds the storage capacity of the cartridge's ROM chip.
This might help emphasize that the anomaly here is that the game is fucking huge.
One big problem; the box art contains Non-Commercial license image (haunted house illustration), which is not available on SCP wiki. I strongly recommend that you fix current image — if the box art gets omitted, your above-mentioned spoilers would not work well. Moreover, this art is too good to be entirely thrown away.
Ugh, thanks — you're right; I thought this was just a CC 2.0 license, but it's non-commercial use. When I get home, I'll modify the image with a fully CC compliant painting of a spooky house. It shouldn't be that hard; I still have the GIMP files I used to produce the box-art, and the house painting is just one of the layers (so I should be able to swap it out with another one with relatively little work).
Thank you for pointing this out!
Jeez, man. I've always been a fan of how the horror in your articles is vague at first and the way you gradually ramp it up while leaving the reader to figure things out, but this takes it to a whole new level. I couldn't figure out anything about it at first, but then I went back through and started to notice more details each time. Awesome.