Nightmare (Atmosfear series)
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. Gameplay. The game requires 3–6 players to attempt to collect keys while trying to beat the clock included on the video cassette. At random intervals, the game stops and The Gatekeeper appears to either taunt, reward, or penalize the players in a variety of ways. Prior to beginning the game, the players are required to write their "greatest fear" on individual slips of paper. The game is won by collecting six special keys before making it to the center of the game board where  the player draws a 'fear'. If that player draws someone else's fear, the tape is stopped and that player is declared the winner. If no one is able to accomplish this within 60 minutes, The Gatekeeper is declared the winner. Characters. The six Harbingers in the game are: Gevaudan the werewolf; Hellin the poltergeist; Khufu the mummy; Baron Samedi the zombie; Anne de Chantraine the witch; and Elizabeth Báthory, the vampire. Each of the Harbingers is based on either a real person or a myth, except for Hellin. Hellin, "in hell" reversed, is the only Harbinger entirely created by  Brett Clements. Hellin is also the only character with limited background information, as Brett wanted players to use their own imagination for this character. Baron Samedi got his name from the voodoo loa of the dead, though the game's creators misattribute him as the ancient Arawak Indian God of the Dead. Anne de Chantraine is based on a 21-year-old French lady who was burned at the stake for witchcraft. Elizabeth Bathory is based on a serial killer who is believed to have murdered and drunk the blood of about six hundred and fifty virgin girls. Khufu is  based on a Fourth Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh. Gevaudan is supposedly based around a man who was hunted by armies of people for supposedly carrying the sickness of lycanthropy, but actually named after a rampant wolf. The final character in the game is the Gatekeeper (played by Wenanty Nosul), whose job is to make sure the other characters cannot escape from The Other Side to the real world. The Gatekeeper's character is based on the old cemetery gatekeepers, whose job was to guard cemeteries from grave robbers. Video. Packaged with the game is a sixty-minute video cassette that  explains how to set up and play the game. The video contains footage of The Gatekeeper, a man who often interrupts the game to occasionally punish or reward the players at random. For example, if a player fails to answer him with "Yes, my Gatekeeper", he may banish them to the Black Hole. At the end of the game, if no player has won, the Gatekeeper appears and ends the game, declaring himself the winner. Development. Phillip Tanner and Brett Clements met in 1982 – they were reporters for Simon Townsend's Wonder World – and a year later, they both set  up their own television production company, A Couple 'A Cowboys. They developed a pilot and took it to Village Roadshow, who within 24 hours signed a marketing and distribution agreement. "Nightmare" was released in September 1991. In Europe, the game was renamed to "Atmosfear" to avoid legal issues with the name "Nightmare", which was already taken. On the game's release, a marketing campaign was launched with advertising appearing on television and in cinemas. Reception. The game was popular in Australia, leading to sold out "dance parties" and a number of advertising deals, including one with Pepsi. A song and  a music video were also created for the game. Clements and Tanner sold the two millionth board game during the 1993 Christmas period. Expansions. 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 released in 1992. "Nightmare III" is hosted by Anne de Chantraine released in 1993. "Nightmare IV" is hosted by Elizabeth Bathory released in 1994, and featured several changes to rule conditions, incorporating rules  based around 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 cancelled 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 because of the declining sales.