The Gadgets Page

Over the years, the most tantalizing games of the Nineties were hardly able to be called games. My favorite, was The Dark Eye. It was a strange, retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories that let you see them from the point of view of the victim and the “disturbed.”

The most disturbing was the story of Berenice. I had never read the story, so the ending of this portrayal on the game is particularly vivid in my memory. Wandering around the library, trapped and the eery voice repeating, “teeth,” over and over again is how I will always remember that story.

Here is a walkthrough of that storyline:

Watching this brought back all the creepy fascination I had with this game. That random wandering in the library, not knowing what to do, and those unintelligible voices just gave me a shiver of fear. All the portraits changed to smiling teeth and flashing teeth on the screen are just the finishing touches on a brilliant work.

KotakuNYC has an interesting tribute to the game here:

After watching these clips, I realize why The Dark Eye hasn’t been ported over to iOS like Myst and The 7th Guest. It was less a game and more an interactive movie… with puppets… and Edgar Allan Poe… and William S. Burroughs. It was just too strange to be rescued from the sterile death of non-compatibility. It remains only in clips and bits on YouTube and suffers a dismemberment not unlike the very characters it portrayed.

For more clips:

• The Dark Eye – Menu Theme
• The Dark Eye Part 1- Introduction
• The Dark Eye – The Cask of Amontillado (Montresor)
• The Dark Eye – The Cask of Amontillado (Fortunado 1/2)
• The Dark Eye – The Cask of Amontillado (Fortunado 2/2)
• The Dark Eye Part 3- Storyline
• The Dark Eye – Berenice (Egaeus)
• Let’s Play The Dark Eye [07] – Berenice: Her perspective. 1/2
• Let’s Play The Dark Eye [08] – Berenice: Her perspective. 2/2
• The Dark Eye – The Masque of the Red Death (Part 1)
• The Dark Eye – The Masque of the Red Death (Part 2)
• The Dark Eye – The Tell Tale Heart (Old Man)
• The Dark Eye Part 8-The Young Man pt.1
• The Dark Eye Part 8-The Young Man pt.2
• The Dark Eye Part 11-The Fall of Henry
• The Dark Eye – Annabel Lee
• The Dark Eye – Ending