Humble Archive Troll - Atmostfear Footage
Atmosfear (previously known as Nightmare in certain regions) is an Australian horror video board game series released in 1991 by Phillip Tanner and Brett Clements.
Two years after the game's launch in 1991, the two millionth Nightmare board game was sold. Since then, three game expansions have been released.
A major refresh to the series was released in 1995, titled The Harbingers, which sold above the industry's sales predictions in Australia and became one of the top-ten best-selling games in the United States and the United Kingdom within months of its release.
The series was revived in 2004 with the release of The Gatekeeper, which included a DVD to replace the video cassette which, with the addition of a programmed 'randomizer', allows the creators to give a whole new game every time the DVD is played. A second DVD board game was released in 2006 entitled Khufu the Mummy.
A new version of the Atmosfear The Gatekeeper was released in 2019 with an app replacing the subsequent Gatekeeper
Humble Archive Troll - Atmostfear 2 - Baron Samedi
Nightmare is a horror video board game released in 1991 by A Couple 'A Cowboys and J. W. Spear & Sons as part of the Atmosfear series.
The game is set in a place known as "The Other Side". This place has six Harbingers, each of whom has authority over a Province. To play the game, each player adopts the persona of one of the Harbingers: Gevaudan the werewolf; Hellin the poltergeist; Khufu the mummy; Baron Samedi the zombie; Anne de Chantraine the witch, and Elizabeth Bathory the vampire. The final character in the game is the Gatekeeper, whose job is to ensure that the other characters do not escape from The Other Side.
Following the success of Nightmare, four game expansions were announced but only three were released. Each expansion comes with a new tape and new time and fate cards, with a different character hosting each new tape. Nightmare II is hosted by Baron Samedi and released in 1992. Nightmare III is hosted by Anne de Chantraine and released in 1993. Nightmare IV is hosted by Elizabeth Bathory and released in 1994 and featured several changes to rule conditions, incorporating rules based on vampires. The game's fourth expansion, based around Khufu, was going to be released in 1995, but faced with declining sales of the series brought on by some twists in Nightmare IV (Bathory eliminating a player from the game completely in the last five minutes possibly chief among them), it was canceled and replaced by The Harbingers.
During an interview with Hard Copy in 1992, they discussed the possibility of there being a movie based on the characters. This, too, fell through be
Atmosfear 3: Anne De Chantraine
Phillip Tanner and Brett Clements met while both were working as on-screen reporters on the popular Australian Children’s Magazine Program, Simon Townsend’s Wonder World! After filming a story with the game distributor Crown & Andrews, Brett was inspired to create his own board-game. OZ QUIZ, an Australian game packaged in a mini portable cooler, went crazy, selling over 300,000 units in Australia, with New Zealand and British versions following.
The two joined forces to film a television pilot based on OZ QUIZ that was pitched to the Australian Networks. It was during one of these meetings where they earned the ire of a programmer who referred to them as just a couple of cowboys, that their company name was established. While OZ QUIZ didn’t get up as a TV show, one government broadcaster who saw the pilot liked the idea so much they decided it was good enough to copy and produced their version in-house. The legal fees to fight it were too prohibitive for this couple of young producers.
Putting that behind them Brett and Phillip then created DARE, a board-game based on the popular parlour game of Truth and Dare. Picked up by Parker Bros, this game also became a smash hit globally and Australia’s Network TEN picked up the television rights. It didn’t get off the ground as a television show either, although the same Network did pick up a kids TV show called ‘Double Dare’ soon after.
Over the next few years A Couple ‘A Cowboys became a very successful production company filming television shows, commercials, music videos and lots of award winning tourism campaigns for Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and a number of international airlines.
In early 1991 Phillip suggested to Brett that they should consider doing a low budget horror feature film as a way to break into that market. Brett came up with something much more interesting returning from the gym one night with a concept that combined their production skills and board-game success. The Video Boardgame NIGHTMARE™ was born. Over the next six months the game was developed; Brett wrote the scripts and the additional characters, and actor Wenanty Nosul was chosen to play The Gatekeeper. In a nearby TV studio Wenanty assumed the role and Phillip and Brett filmed his performance, set it to a video clock timer, added scary music and the game came to life. Test after test was played with Cowboys staff members and the game was refined until it was ready for presentation.
With a fully tested mock-up of the game, the duo presented to Greg Carmock, Marketing Manager at Roadshow Entertainment. Roadshow were one of the first companies in Australia involved in home entertainment via movie rentals and sales on video. Greg saw the potential and convinced his CEO, Milt Barlow, to be at the next presentation. By the time Brett and Phillip had completed the pitch to Milt, a deal was done. Not only was Roadshow going to distribute the game but also use their marketing muscle, including television, cinema advertising and ads at the start of their rental videos to promote the game.
At the time, an Australian game which sold 5000 units was considered a success. At the very first sales presentation to market a major Australian retailer committed to stocking 30,000 units for sale that Christmas. Christmas 1991 saw sales in Australia of over 70,000 units. Milt Barlow, then proceeded to travel the world and sell it into all the major territories, with the Cowboys following to ensure the quality remained consistent. Various actors were cast around the globe and flown to Australia to become Gatekeepers in their territories. The name NIGHTMARE was not available in certain countries around Europe in particular so we went with the title - The Video Boardgame ATMOSFEAR instead.
The game went global, selling over 4 million units across the brands over the years.
Atmostfear 4 - The Harbingers
Atmosfear: The Harbingers is an Australian video board game designed by Brett Clements and Phillip Tanner and published by Mattel as a major update to the Atmosfear series. The object of the game is to collect six different coloured "Keystones", face player's worst fear and thus beat the "Gatekeeper". Each player adopts the persona of one of the "Harbingers", otherwise must play as a "Soul Ranger". The game is set in a place known as "The Other Side". The Gatekeeper is to ensure the other characters do not "escape" from The Other Side. The game board is made up of a central hub and six two-sided interchangeable "Provinces" which fit together, creating a hexagon. A videotape is included with the game, and acts as a game clock. The videotape stars Wenanty Nosul as The Gatekeeper.
Atmostfear 4 - Elizabeth Bathory
The Harbingers
She's the black widow of The Other Side, imprisoned for all eternity in her torture chambers in the towering Castle Cathtice for her murderous crimes - an iron maiden - condemned to love and perish forever.
But legends, like Vampires, never die.
Casting a black shadow over her Province, Bathory is the most powerful of 'The Harbingers' with all the allure of a Venus fly trap.
The Gatekeeper
At the beginning of the 17th century, in the towering Slovakian Castle of Cathtice, lived a countess of unequalled vanity. Driven by her desire to remain the most beautiful woman in the land, Elizabeth Bathory would feed upon the innocent young townsfolk she lured into her chambers. Parlor games such as "The Iron Maiden" were a castle specialty, as this black widow liked to poke more than just fun at her guests - she turned out to be a body piercing master!
In a small town, however, news of strange behavior travels faster than the plague and it wasn't long before Elizabeth was captured, tried and banished to The Other Side - which would be enough to make anybody see red. Here the only thing she kills is time while praying for her time on earth to come again.
Eat your heart out, Elizabeth.
Khufu the Mummy
'Beauty may be only skin deep but ugly cuts right to the bone' said the Countess of vanity, Elizabeth Bathory. Obsessed with preserving her beauty, Elizabeth just loved to put the bite on the local young folk - aka her own personal fountain of eternal youth.
Naturally it wasn't long before she was captured, tried and banished to The Other Side.
But now The Gatekeeper has advised her of her free pass to Khufu's House of Crass, and the Countess is going to seize this opportunity to suck dry the Bandaged Ego once and for all.
You'll usually find her playing Blackjack because she's great at counting cards. After all, she's been around Counts all her life. Count Dracula, Count Yorga, The Count from Sesame Street...
She knows all the big names.
Atmostfear - The DVD Era
An update to the VCR games Nightmare from 1991 and it's 1995 successor, Atmosfear.
The aim of Atmosfear is to collect a key from each of the six regions of the board before heading to the "Well of Fears" in the centre and attempting to draw your fear from among those of your opponents in order to win the game. This must be done before 49 minutes pass, or all players lose automatically.
Atmosfear uses a DVD that acts as a timer, constantly ticking away toward the end of the game. The Gatekeeper also frequently appears on screen and causes problems for any or all of the players. Just like its predecessor, Atmosfear makes for stressful play -- players rush to take their turn and pass on the dice as quickly as possible before the Gatekeeper appears and calls on them.
Unlike the original, the adaption to DVD means encounters with the Gatekeeper are randomized rather than in a fixed order, so you cannot predict when he will turn up next. It also means that new events can come up several plays on, although as with the original, in the long run, players may still become familiar with the possible events, leading to reduced replayability.
How else would we finish the this off?