The Original Night Trap Programmers Want To Release A New Version Of The Campy Classic

Night Trap was released in 1992 for the Sega CD and the horror survival title was one of the most divisive and notorious games ever made. Now the original creators want to re-release the title in beautiful HD, a move that should send gamers of a certain age into a tizzy.

The game was one of the first to use digital video, and told the story of a group of co-eds trapped in a house of horrors. The game itself was about as racy as a Victoria’s Secret catalog (and featured Dana Plato) but was called sick and ultra-violent by clueless commentators in a Senate Judiciary and Government Affairs Committee hearing on violence in video games. The game was a huge hit as a result of the controversy.

The game play is reminiscent of old titles like Dragon’s Lair in which the player has limited control over the on-screen action. However, because the game uses computerized interaction as well as video playback, you had far more of an effect on the outcome of the game as you played. Plus there were bikinis.

Nowadays, however, the only way to play a little Night Trap is to grab an emulator or fund a new Kickstarter aimed at bringing back the infamous classic in full HD. The team, which includes members of the original development team, is looking for $300,000 to re-release the title (they’ve hit $35,000 so far) and are offering versions for the PC, Mac, and potentially the Xbox One and Wii U. The team includes director/co-designer Jim Riley, co-designer Rob Fulop, technical director Mark Klein, and executive producer Tom Zito all of whom worked on the original game.

How much better will the new version look? Take a gander.

Does the world need another Night Trap? Absolutely. As a piece of video game history it is an important interstitial title that appeared between the blocky wonkiness of the NES platformers and the VGA video of later PC titles. While today we are used to immersive environments and photorealistic video, Night Trap was one of the first to offer both, albeit in its own campy way.

Can Night Trap make it? Will the Augs get the ladies or will Control save the day? A pledge of $20 gets you access to the whole sordid tale. Just don’t tell the Martins.