FMV cult classic Night Trap launches Kickstarter for HD remaster
The original developers are all on board.
Infamous 1992 Sega CD FMV game Night Trap could be getting a remastered re-release called Night Trap ReVamped, if a new Kickstarter by the game's original developers is successful.
Night Trap is best known as for the controversy it brewed up in the US, where it was pulled from store shelves due to its offensive-for-the-times content in which teenage girls attend a slumber party and get picked off by vampires. The at the time controversial subject matter sparked a senate investigation into media violence and it's often cited as being one of the primary games that led to the establishment of the US's video game rating board, the ESRB.
Night Trap was heavily slagged by critics at the time for its minimal gameplay and terrible acting, but it became a financial success anyway, because after watching the following clip, how can you not want to play it?
Now, all the main names behind it - director and co-designer James Riley, executive producer Tom Zito, co-designer Rob Fulop, and technical director Mark Klein - are seeking to preserve this cult classic in HD.
"Night Trap more appropriately belongs in the current world of casual gaming than it did in the amped-up, twitch-factor era of the nineties, when it originally made its debut," explained the Night Trap team on its Kickstarter page.
Now the developer would like to use modern technology to display the live-action footage in its proper resolution. "In the early- and mid-nineties, digital video was still in its infancy, and the image quality was frankly terrible: granular and full of artifacts," the developer stated. "With the aid of the latest in digital technology, the game's video has been transferred directly to an improved high-definition format, providing the opportunity to experience the action at a level of resolution never seen before."
To get an idea of how this remastered version of Night Trap would look, here's some demo footage:
Interestingly, Night Trap was filmed in 1986, six years prior to its Sega CD release, as it was initially developed for a never released Hasbro console codenamed Nemo. Hasbro spent $27 million in developing this console, but ultimately decided to eat the loss rather than risk $250 million to manufacture it and compete with Nintendo.
If funded, Night Trap ReVamped is slated for a release on PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Mac, although it could come to Xbox One and PS4 if there's enough demand and pledges.
So far Night Trap ReVamped has raised $2,740 towards its $330K goal, but it just launched and has 29 days to go before its 9th September deadline.