Recently in a stream chat I frequent, I brought up the topic of what is arguably the first jump scare in videogaming (maybe not the first, but among the first certainly). After thinking about it a while, there's a lot I want to say about this particular example, and unfortunately for all of you, I can post those thoughts to Cohost. So, let's talk about Rescue on Fractalus. [https://i.imgur.com/AGV9N3B.jpg] ---------------------------------------- Back in 1985, before the endless spew of Jedi games, before the space simulation DOS games, and even before the point and click SCUMM games were a mainstay of computer gaming, LucasArts (Then Lucasfilm Games) had an impressive display on a number of home microcomputers. In particular, the Atari 8-Bit systems were known to play one of the hottest new games: Rescue on Fractalus. The game actually walks a fine line between being an arcade-shooter and an honest-to-goodness simulation game, instead nestling somewhere in between the two. The basic concept is as such: In the midst of an intergalactic war between humanity and a race of hostile aliens known as the Jaggies, numerous ace pilots have been shot down on the surface of the inhospitable world of Fracalus. The world is home to numerous razor-sharp jagged mountains, as well as an acrid, acidic atmosphere that will corrode pilot space suits and drastically reduces visibility. [https://i.imgur.com/Vk2wK2E.png] You, then, are tasked to locate and evacuate the downed pilots (and destroy their damaged craft, lest the enemy get their hands on your technology). The basic core of the gameplay involves your launching from the mothership, descending to Fractalus below, and navigating the landscape. You spent the majority of your time dogfighting enemy craft, dodging ground-installed gun emplacements, and trying to manage your shields and fuel while searching for downed friendly spacecraft via your instrumentation. And when you find one, is when Fractalus really kicks into gear. To evac a downed pilot, you must execute the following steps: 1. Land the spacecraft on stable and flat terrain while in range of the pilot. (Already this is risky - if you stop moving in range of enemy emplacements, you are hosed). 2. Disable the defensive and engine systems of your spacecraft. The manual specifically mentions that any approaching pilot will be vaporized entirely if they run into your shields. So you have to turn them off for the pilot to approach! (Stick a pin in this for later, it turns out to be really important). 3. Wait for the pilot to approach you. You will see the pilot run from the downed spacecraft toward your ship - and then disappear from view as they circle around to the back of your spacecraft. 4. Listen for the pilot to knock on your spacecraft airlock, and upon hearing this, manually open the airlock for them to enter. 5. Reactivate systems, lift off, and repeat until you have rescued all pilots in the region, at which point you can fire off your boosters and return to the mothership in orbit. In and of itself, this makes for a fairly interesting gameplay loop. As you progress through the subsequent areas (levels) of the game, you encounter more aggressive spacecraft, more numerous ground emplacements, and even dark, nighttime conditions. But when you get to a certain level, Fractalus adds a nasty twist. You've played through several levels at this point, gone through the motions of rescuing a pilot, and you are doing it yet again. Only, instead of familiar knock at the back of your ship, you are instead greeted with this: [https://i.imgur.com/iG42Vlj.gif] One of the hostile Jaggies has eliminated the downed pilot, and was laying in wait for you. Without warning, the Jaggie pops up, a startling sound queue plays, and if you do not react in time the alien will shatter your viewport and the harsh atmosphere will kill you. Game Over. It is worth noting that this detail was entirely omitted from the game manual on purpose, in an era when the game manuals were pretty much entirely required to understand how a game must be played. This was unheard of to players of computer games back in 1985. I'm sure some of them felt betrayed! But here's where we discuss the clever design of Fractalus, and what I feel even modern game design can learn from its implementation of the jump scare. The initial experience of a jump scare is startling, due to the way it subverts expectations and utterly blindsides the player. But after that, it is spent. After resuming play, players of Fracatalus understand the risk the Jaggies pose - They know when and where to anticipate such an attack. And remember that fact in the manual about your shields frying approaching pilots? It was actually a very cleverly disguised hint - Turn on your shields, and the Jaggie is vaporized instantly. So the threat they pose is very little, should you understand how to handle them. So, is the jump scare just a throwaway mechanism? The play knows to expect it, can be ready for it, and any effect it had was lost. Is it merely a cheap "Ha ha GOTCHA"? Well, Fractalus teaches us that it doesn't have to be. Every single pilot encounter you have in Fractalus has the threat of being an alien encounter instead. At first you understand the differences between an approaching pilot and an approaching alien - The pilots wear white helmets, whereas the green heads of the aliens are very obvious. But beyond a certain level, the aliens start wearing the helmets of the pilots, meaning you can't tell at all until the alien is pounding on the ship. Furthermore, the length of time it takes for the alien to breach your hull gets shorter and shorter as the game goes on, so reaction time can be a factor in some of the (much later) levels. What this does is transform this experience from a one-shot jump scare to which the player becomes numb, and into a space of toying with their expectations. And it is in this space that the jump scare has enduring value. Whenever a pilot is running toward you, there is a random period of time where they disappear from view, and you sit in utter, complete silence. You wait. You wait for the knock, or you wait for the ambush. You don't know which, so even though you know there's a risk of alien attack, you are still nervous about it. It's not about being startled. It's about the tension experienced as you wait in anticipation of the potential startle. Anyhow, I thought that was a genius bit of game design. There's a lot that can be done in that space of anticipation - Engaging the player's expectations and then playing in that space can make the jump scare more than just a cheap, one-shot, throwaway experience. Oh! And as a final note: The developers anticipated that some players might try to circumvent this gameplay loop by prematurely opening the airlock before the donwed pilot knocks. In the event you are rescuing a pilot, this works reasonably. However, if it's an alien that's attacking? You will avoid the jump scare - But the Jaggie will instead get into your ship directly and start tearing it apart from the inside. The only way to get rid of the Jaggie at that point is to hit the booster rockets and enter the vacuum of space with the airlock open. Needless to say, you'll lose any pilots that you had rescued to that point.