High Scare by Chris Mallon and The Strange Stage

In 1989, reports began circulating around the small town of Ottumwa about a strange NES cartridge known as Pocket Horrors.

At the time, Ottumwa had become closely tied to arcade culture thanks to the rise of Twin Galaxies, making the sudden appearance of strange bootleg games and unofficial cartridges nothing particularly unusual.

Pocket Horrors appeared to be a crude imitation of a popular monster toy franchise… except many insist Pocket Horrors appeared first.

There was no company name. No official release. No record the game had ever existed at all.

At first it seemed harmless, passed around between school kids and rented from independent video stores. But within weeks, disturbing reports began to surface.

Children who played the game began waking at the exact same time every night screaming in terror. Previously normal kids became withdrawn, violent and obsessed with returning to the cartridge despite being visibly frightened of it. Child psychiatrists investigating the cases discovered something deeply unsettling, every child described different monsters, but each creature seemed tailored specifically to the fears of the person playing.

The game somehow appeared to know what scared you.

What happened next has since become urban legend. Reports claim local authorities began seizing copies of the game after psychiatrists warned of severe psychological effects in children. Parents were allegedly ordered to destroy the chips inside the cartridges themselves and provide proof it had been done. Some insist officials even visited homes to ensure every copy was dismantled and the circuitry destroyed.

To this day, surviving copies of Pocket Horrors are almost unheard of. Collectors continue searching for complete cartridges, though those who claim to own one rarely seem willing to play it.

After all, if Pocket Horrors really could learn your deepest fear…

Would you dare to play?

Strange Stage presents – High Scare

You begin by showing an obscure late 1980s video game, apparently a bootleg of a popular monster franchise, complete with the original cartridge, manual and other surviving pieces connected to the game.

You tell the story of the game, how children who played it claimed that the longer they spent with it, the more it seemed to understand them. Almost like some primitive form of artificial intelligence, the game appeared to learn what frightened each player most.

Then you put that idea to the test.

The participant opens the original game manual and silently chooses a fear, perhaps something that scared them as a child, or perhaps something that still does. They never say it aloud. They never write it down. Nothing is communicated to you.

You then direct them to a long abandoned website, where an unlicensed copy of the game can still be found.

And they can actually play it! The game is web based and is optimised to whether you’re playing on a phone, tablet or a laptop/desktop computer.

But this is where things get eerie.

The game inexplicably reveals the fear that, until that moment, existed only inside their head, and perhaps in their nightmares.

Somehow, the game has read them.

But that is only the climax.

Along the way, High Scare becomes a complete routine in its own right. The participant secretly chooses a level and concentrates on one of the monsters within it. You begin revealing impressions and details from the level they are silently reading, before finally identifying the exact monster they are thinking of.

You also introduce a deck of Battle Cards. You play a few rounds and demonstrate an uncanny ability to control whether you win or lose, while a series of apparently free choices begins to create increasingly strange coincidences.

The participant can mix the cards, cut them, shuffle them, handle them however they like, and yet the strange coincidences continue.

They choose two cards that lead them to a page in the manual. From everything on that page they freely choose an image, only to discover that their exact choice has already been scrawled into the back of the manual by its previous owner.

They can then choose any card from a completely shuffled deck and, using a strange psychological test printed inside the manual, you are able to identify their card without them saying anything out loud.

The cards are not marked on the back. You never need to see the face of their card. In fact, if you wish, they can keep it completely covered.

And if that is not enough, they can choose another monster from the deck. Hidden inside the old game box is a letter from its previous owner, and what is written inside introduces yet another impossible coincidence.

Eventually, everything leads back to that abandoned website and the final revelation of the fear they have kept secret from the very beginning.

High Scare has been designed to be completely modular. Perform a short ten minute piece, build a much longer routine around it, or use the complete sequence as a substantial feature performance. The supplied routine is only one way of combining what is hidden inside.

And that still is not everything.

The routine taught with High Scare uses only a fraction of what the system is capable of.

Hidden throughout the manual, Battle Cards and game are numerous additional effects and principles which can be used independently, added to the supplied routine, or developed into completely different presentations.

The Extras

The following are additional things you can do with your set.

Level Passwords

Every level has its own secret password, and you can identify the password for any level selected by the participant.

Eerie Lite

The manual contains a variation of one of the most popular features from Eerie. A participant freely chooses an interesting word. If they believe they could draw it, you can duplicate the image they are merely thinking of. If they cannot draw it, you can still reveal the exact word they chose.

Sum Deck

The Battle Cards contain a hidden Sum Deck principle which allows the cards themselves to secretly crib the participant’s selection. There are no markings on the backs of the cards.

Tossed Out Deck

The Battle Cards can also be used as a Tossed Out Deck whenever you wish to incorporate that principle into your routine.

And no, this is not a Sven Deck, one way deck or anything similar. In fact the deck can be freely shown.

Long Words

Completely separate to ‘Eerie Lite’ the long word principle is also built into the Battle Cards, with multiple cribs hidden in plain sight so there is no heavy memory work required. These use an entirely different set of words from Eerie Lite.

Digital Thumb Writer

The game itself can be used as a digital forcing device, allowing you to secretly force a number in an apparently innocent way.

A time, a page number, a number for ACAAN, a participant, an outcome, or virtually anything else you can attach a number to.

Multiple Outs

Two specially designed spreads within the manual can be used with a multiple out system, giving you another way of creating apparently free selections and impossible revelations.

The Invisible Man

An additional Battle Card is included which allows the Invisible Man to quite literally appear and disappear from the deck.

What's Included

The Performer’s Edition contains a pristine copy of High Scare, perhaps old stock recently discovered in the back room of a forgotten video store.

You receive the game box, game cartridge with protector sleeve, game manual, deck of Battle Cards, video store envelope and letters.

You also receive the complete video instructions, PDF Quick Guide, access to the playable game and the same private online forum included with the Collector’s Edition.

A bundle will also be available for those who want both versions.

High Scare has been an enormous project to bring to life, and what you receive is essentially an entire act contained within a game box.

This has been one of the most ambitious Strange Stage projects I have ever undertaken, and I cannot wait to see what you do with it.