HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TO NIGHTMARE NED!It's been 20 years since the release of Nightmare Ned! Throughout those years I've been trying to beat the game, unco. While exploring the depths of his hilarious dreams, you'll help Ned conquer his fears by confronting them yourself. Explore a creepy toilet underworld. Evade a slithering plumber's snake. Fight monster molars and more. That's the world of Nightmare Ned. A world of adventure-packed gameplay where fear is fun-and the fun never stops. Nightmare Ned is a puzzle-solving game presented as a platformer. Players control Ned who comes home from school and finds out through a note that his parents will be late. He uses the freedom to play games, but a thunderstorm frightens him and he goes to sleep. Strange things happen as a mysterious force drags Ned into a nightmare world. The main character of both the Nightmare Ned video game and TV show. He is a bald, bespectacled, 10-year-old boy with a hyperactive imagination, using it to deal with his fears, troubles, and anxieties through dark and quirky nightmares.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/NightmareNed
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A PC game released in 1997 by Disney Interactive and developed by Creative Capers Entertainment and Window Painters Ltd. It centers around a young boy, named Ned Needlemeyer, who is sent in a world of nightmares where he must face his fears to get out.
For the Television show, see here.
This article now has a character sheet. And there is, of course, Nightmare Ned Wiki for more information.
A high quality walkthrough of the game in its entirety including extras can be found here.
A written walkthrough of the game can also be found here.
Tropes featured by the whole game:
- Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Some of the nightmare-dwellers are capable of this.
- All Just a Dream: ...Or Was It a Dream?
- At the Crossroads: The Quilt.
- Arc Symbol:
- The five Shadows are represented by five distinct symbols.
- The patching and the sickly green color of Quilt usually appears whenever something bad is about to happen.
- Bloodless Carnage: In the game, Ned can get stabbed, decapitated, crushed, and other such fates with nary a drop of blood.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: During use of the game's menu, Ned will talk to the player.
- Cats Are Mean:
- Two black cats in Attic, Basement, and Beyond which injure Ned with shards from broken mirrors.
- The word-animal cats in the Chalkboard area of Alcatraz Elementary.
- Closed Circle:
- The nightmare worlds.
- Subverted when exit portals are used.
- Cyclops:
- The Gum Monster from in the Mouth and Cyco (Toilet-Paper Cyclops) from the Bathroom Nightmare.
- As well as the Medical Shadow and Bathroom Shadow.
Advertisement: - Darker and Edgier: The game has lost much of the cartoonic and silly nature from the show. Even the music is eerier.
- Downer Ending: The first ending in which Ned is still terrified of his nightmares.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Shadows and disembodied monster hands (pictured right) in the beginning.
- Eldritch Location: Much of Ned's nightmare, but primarily in The Mouth and in the Attic, Basement, and Beyond.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The second ending in which Ned has conquered his nightmares.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: Everywhere.
- Foreshadowing: Many points during the intro.
- Homage:
- The game has the art class segment which is reminiscent of fighting games, namely Mortal Kombat and the use of its phrase, 'FINISH HIM!'.
- The environment of the Graveyard Nightmare is known for bearing a strong resemblance to the works of Tim Burton and Edward Gorey.
- Horrifying the Horror: As the game continues and the Shadows begin to reveal, their expressions become increasing chilled and terrified themselves.
- Mad Doctor/ Depraved Dentist:
- The Medical Shadow is shown to be the most insane and sadistic of the bunch.
'I'm going to rip off one of your fingers, put it in a jar, and keep it as a souvenir!'- Also, at the end, if Ned is able to beat the Shadows and conquer his fears, the Shadows are shown to be still hiding in his closet. They contemplate of what to do now that Ned has won, and the Medical Shadow suggests that 'We could perform hideous, painful medical procedures on 'each other!''
- Subverted when it is shown that she was actually friendly and it just the child in Ned that made him fear doctors so badly.
- Doctor Shots, who will stab Ned clean through with giant needles if he gets caught when the Mouth closes on him, one additional piece of his outfit changing from white to a tooth decay mix of browns each time. If the decay spreads to his coat, you're ejected from the level.
- Drive-Thru Doctors that will swipe at Ned while he's rolling on the medical gurney.
- The creepy nurse in Alcatraz Elementary School, though she poses no real danger to him.
- Medium Blending: Artwork of both the background and some of the character mixes with technicolor, Real Life artistry, etc.
- Mooks:
- The countless Attic, Basement, and Beyond mice are this to a fire-spitting furnace who repeatedly fries them, and also the Electro-Beavers in the Bathroom Nightmare are this to the rat overlords.
- Played Straight with the Plaque Monsters from in The Mouth.
- Not Afraid of You Anymore: Ned when he conquers all five nightmare worlds. at least in the Good Ending.
- Our Vampires Are Different:
- There is a vampire bat in the Chalkboard stage of the Alcatraz Elementary spelled out with chalk and plaque vampire bats in The Mouth.
- There's a straight vampire who's a milk carton sculpture labeled 'Vilk' in the Art Class segment, complete with the background of a haunted house.
- Red Herring: A toilet labeled 'The Worst Toilet in Ned's Nightmare' which Ned chooses to outright avoid by leaping down into a chasm.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: The mouse/ rat civilizations, and on a larger scale, an enormous realistic-looking ratnote can be found in one of the cutscenes.
- Secret Path: Escape portals between the Nightmare realms.
- Scenery Porn/ Scenery Gorn: In the game. The 2D artwork and animation STILL look beautiful even years later.
- Shout-Out:
- The Attic, Basement, and Beyond stage in the game has a likely reference to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds in which a flock of birds swarm in through a window and viciously peck at Ned. This only happens after you've knocked a fake bird out of its cage.
- Ned's silhouette shakes hands with none other than Mickey Mouse.
- In the School stage, the principal makes an accidental phone call to 'the happiest place on earth' when trying to reach Ned's parents.
- Throw the Book at Them: An angry librarian squishes Ned between a book in Alcatraz Elementary as does the skeleton man in the Graveyard Nightmare if Ned disturbs him. The latter had actually crushed some other poor people the same way, and stuffed them into his bookshelf.
- The Unfought: None of the Shadows are directly fought or confronted.
- The Unsolved Mystery:
- The true nature of the Attic, Basement, and Beyond Nightmare, its connection, if any, to the real world, and Sally the little girl's connection to Ned was never learned.
- Some have speculated that the little girl Sally may actually be Mrs. Needlemeyer herself as a child.
- Unwinnable by Mistake: On newer systems, the Rat Ladder puzzle and Gurney arcade sequence can be harder to complete due to processor speed making the associated animations much faster than normal.
Tropes featured in the intro/outros and cutscenes:
- Dodgeball Is Hell: The passage from Alcatraz Elementary to the Medical nightmare results in Ned getting clobbered in the head several times by this, with a bump on his head for good measure.
- Multiple Endings: More specifically, a good ending and a bad ending.
- Phoney Call/ Evil Phone: Ned answers the phone while his parents are away, but before we find out who it is, he gets tangled in the phone cord and freaks outthinking something has got him.
- 'Psycho' Strings: As the view of the hallway begins to stretch out in the intro.
- Spear Carrier: The enormous pair of clawed monster hands—a likely Eldritch Abomination—that casts Ned into the Shadows' Nightmare World does not appear again unless the player ends with the good ending to which it brings him to the final battle. It is also seen on the game cover, but portrayed as more slender and presented in a much less cartoonish manor.
- Swarm of Rats: In the Medical to Bathroom Nightmare cutscene.
- Void Between the Worlds: When Ned is first cast into the Nightmare World by the Shadows.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: In the cutscene from Alcatraz Elementary to the Bathroom Nightmare.
Tropes featured in the Graveyard Nightmare:
- Anthropomorphic Food: The pumpkins, if they still count as food.
- Bat Out of Hell: There's one in the mausoleum.
- Dem Bones: A skeleton man lounging in a reclining chair while reading a book.
- The Grim Reaper: The Graveyard Shadow, foremost, and another with a more standard design.
- Kill the Cutie: The little boy wearing a party hat who helps Ned escape from the Jar get eaten by the Jack-in-the-Box monster immediately after.
- Mutagenic Food: Ned eats zombie girl scout cookies... Guess what happens?
- Nightmare Face: The Green Ghosts do this to each other, though none of them really find it scary.
- Off with His Head!: A scissor demon and Grim Reaper who jump out of the background and cut Ned's head off only for it to reappear seconds later.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The silly Green Ghosts who don't want to scare Ned, just each other. One of them just wants to play her accordion, oblivious to another trying to saw off the branch she's sitting on.
- Our Ghouls Are Creepier: One that is essentially a beating heart, needle-clawed hands, and cadaver-esque head attached to a long spine. When beaten, it explodes, leaving a deflated heart hanging from its spine.
- Our Zombies Are Different: A zombie girl scout, zombie dad, and Ned's zombie parents.
- Paper-Thin Disguise:
- Trick-or-Treater carrying a paper bag holding a cat wearing a mask disguised as a dog.
- Primal Fear: A little girl who's afraid of the dark had her nightlight stolen by a bat.
- Reality Changing Miniature: One puzzle in the Graveyard Nightmare shows an ant farm where multiple ants are shoveling dirt into a cave that looks like the room Ned is in. Then suddenly the real room gets filled with dirt and plasters Ned against the screen, which squeaks as he moves side to side. Pushing a lever with his yo-yo removes the dirt and solves the puzzle.
Tropes featured in the Medical Nightmare:
- Afraid of Needles: A big part of the nightmare.
- Benevolent Architecture: In the Mouth stage, dental brace can be used both as trampolines to jump over obstacles and as a sort of tightrope that Ned can use to climb across dangerous/ impassable areas. Also, bloody veins can be used to climb up to secret areas.
- Blob Monster/ More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The Gum Monster.
- The Elevator from Ipanema: The pitch black waiting room where you choose which stage to visit has Muzak playing.
- Fake Ultimate Mook: The Gum monster can't move its mouth far enough to bite Ned, but he can knock his teeth out in one shot.
- Hospital Gurney Scene: First part of the doctor level.
- Mood Dissonance:
- The Uvula song being performed in a bloody, diseased Eldritch Mouth.
- Muzak being played in a dark waiting room, alongside a chair that either takes the form of a gurney with clamps, or a dentist chair that eats anyone that sits in it.
- Strapped to an Operating Table: A spinning one attached to a wall, no less, and it has to be stopped at one of eight jars of organs (depending on how many were taken at the start) to free Ned.
- Umbrella Drink: Rotted tooth-men can be seen drinking from these during the Uvula Song.
- Womb Level: One half of the medical nightmare in the video game takes place in a giant mouth.
Tropes featured in the Alcatraz Elementary School:
- Bee Afraid: During the Chalkboard stage, big bee drawings will try and give Ned stings.
- The Bully: There is a minor baddie that tosses Ned into a trashcan if he gets near.
- Cheshire Cat Grin: This guy◊ has got some serious school spirit.
- Clucking Funny: Another one of Ned's opponents in The Locker is a giant, papier-mâché chicken who begins to crow 'when the sun comes up.'
- Dracula: One of Ned's opponents in The Locker stage, aka, Vilk.
- Dumb Muscle: The Clayman.
- E = MC Hammer: The chalkboard stage.
- Insane Troll Logic: The principal punishing Ned for clogging the bathroom toilets because he was the only one there at the time, not because of any substantial evidence.
- Kids Are Cruel: Most of the students in the school are either bullies or completely apathetic.
- Mascot: The school's is a wolverine.
- Noodle People: The pipe-cleaner skeleton.
- 'Not Wearing Pants' Dream: While getting his picture taken.
- Parental Substitute/ Mistaken Identity: If Ned manages to call the right number, two unfamiliar adults scold the principal for him blaming their son Max (Ned) for clogging the toilets and proceed to lead the boy out.
- Sadist Teacher: The children were in tears that day...
- Scary Librarian: This old lady will try and catch Ned in her book.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Ned had let a frightened kid out of a cell he'd been trapped in only to have him disappear and leave Ned to have an embarrassing school photo of himself taken instead.
- You Are Number 777444: The students at Alcatraz Elementary all have convict numbers.
Tropes featured in the Bathroom Nightmare:
- Creepy High-Pitched Voice: The rats, who have chipmunk-like voices, throw electrical objects at you while singing a Villain Song about how they enjoy electrocuting people.
- Electrified Bathtub: The mice throw electrical appliances into the water-filled bathtubs and try to shock Ned.
- Fear Is the Appropriate Response/ Run or Die: The Drain Snake.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Three fun-house mirrors depicting Ned going through generic puberty angst, such as acne, excessive height, and body hair. Even Ned thinks it's lame, albeit slightly unsettling to him at first.
- Growing Up Sucks: There is a musical number about this.
- Mighty Roar: If Ned falls into the chasm below the pivoting bathtubs, a loud monster roar will sound.
- Mouse World: It's populated by intelligent, sadistic, talking mice.
- My Future Selves and Me: Ned sees three future versions of himself during The Puberty Song.
- Sinister Tango Music: The Rat Tango is sung by the evil rats in the bathroom level, about they like to kill people by electrocuting them.
- Slave Mooks: The Electro-Beavers to the Rats.
- 13 Is Unlucky: Thirteen dead mice are needed to make the ladder to reach a secret area.
- Villain Song: The game had 'The Mouse Song'. The Rats explain in their song that their motive for tormenting you is, essentially, For the Evulz.
Tropes featured in the Attic, Basement, and Beyond Nightmare:
- Cool Car:
- Supernatural, 70s-style car that morphs into a rocket? Hell yeah.
- The Alleged Car: In addition to missing the side door, the car appears completely non-functioning, that is, until a key is found.
- Creepy Basement: Obviously.
- Fireballs: The living furnace spews out balls of flame. Rats that run by sometimes fall victim to this, as can Ned if he stands too close.
- Lazy Dragon: At one point you come across a dragon head mounted on the wall… but then you see that she's actually just sleeping, and the rest of her body is visible near the wall◊. Despite this grisly introduction, she's actually really friendly. Waking her up will prompt her to tell you poems (albeit somewhat macabre ones) with a cheerful Granny Classic voice.
- The Lost Woods: The short, second setting of the Attic, Basement, and Beyond Nightmare.
- Mind Screw:
- A door that when Ned enters he is spat out of the phonograph.
- Same thing if Ned climbs the left ladder in the starting area after scaring off its black cat with the yo-yo.
- Our Dragons Are Different: There is a female dragon's head mounted on a wall that will tell Ned three scary stories in the form of limericks.
- Pocket Dimension: A possibility, for it somehow had some sort of connection to the real world, according to Sally.
- Repetitive Audio Glitch: The phonograph that plays the same simple tune over and over.
- Schmuck Bait:
- A box that reads 'DANGER DON'T TOUCH'.
- Subverted when it turns out to be an oversized and morbid, yet harmless, insect, or simply nothing.
- The Walls Have Eyes:
- The Dark Woods area.
- Subverted when they turn out to be fake.
- Wedgie: The wallpaper turns into a bunch of hands that grab Ned and give him a major wedgie.
Index
- > >
- Nightmare Creatures
Description of Nightmare Creatures
Read Full DescriptionNightmare Creatures is a great horror action/adventure game in the same vein as Resident Evil, but with much more emphasis on action than puzzles.
Aside from some annoying quirks, such as the lack of proper save game feature (a remnant of the Sony Playstation version, which was the original for this PC port), the game is a very enjoyable action fest with more depth than many FPS titles. Brett Todd of The Games Domain sums up the good and bad about this fun game very well in his review:
'Blending spectacular 3D- accelerated graphics, smooth flowing action, and an immersive back story, this game is one of the best that I've played in some time. The atmosphere of gothic horror is perfectly captured with a flawless blend of evocative visuals and moody sound, and the game is a worthy heir of such classics as the first Alone in the Dark and the early Castlevania titles for the old Nintendo.
The story behind Nightmare Creatures is simple, but very engaging if you have any interest in gothic horror. It all begins way back in 1666, when a devil worshiping cult called the Brotherhood of Hecate was conducting sinister experiments in London. In order to take over the city, and then the world, the Brothers tried to develop a potion that would turn them into supermen. [But] instead of creating the master race, the Brotherhood cranked out a bunch of, well, nightmare creatures instead.
Fast forward to 1834, when evil doings again envelop London. Citizens start turning into monsters. The dead walk. Nobody knows what to do until an old book is dropped off at the home of Ignatius Blackward, a priest and occult expert. He soon discovers that the tome is the secret diary of Pepys, which records all the nasty doings of the Brotherhood. Knowing he needs help, Iggy then mails the diary to an expert immunologist (in 1834!) named Dr. Jean F. Showing up with his hot daughter Nadia in tow, the good doctor is promptly murdered and the book stolen. At the funeral, Iggy and Nadia are approached by a man who gives them a note reading: 'Know about Adam Crowley, Brotherhood of Hecate --- HVHJ'. On Oct. 17, 1834, the two of you head out to an address listed on the note, hoping to have a word with Mr. Crowley and maybe kick a little monster ass along the way.
When everything is set up to your liking, all that remains is choosing between Ignatius and Nadia before hitting the streets of London. Choosing between the two is really a matter of personal preference, as they aren't all that different in gameplay. Ignatius is bigger and stronger, but Nadia is much quicker and more agile. Their attacks reflect this appropriately, with the big priest being better at wading into the fray with his longstaff, and the smaller gymnast excelling at staying on the fringes until she leaps in with sword or feet flying. Special attacks individual to each character also show these differences. Both regular and special moves can be performed with various button combinations and none are of the impossible variety.
A wide selection of power-ups can be found throughout Nightmare Creatures. Some are hidden in conveniently marked boxes, while others are tucked behind windows, and others still will pop out after you kill off a monster. These range from health bonuses to a variety of useful weapons. Single shot Guns are good for taking out most individual enemies, while the Multi-Gun, which fires a round in all directions, is great when you're being gooned by a crowd. Other items there for the picking include Firebombs, Dynamite, and Repulsive Smoke, which repels monsters. Everything remains in your inventory until you use it, so you can stockpile useful trinkets like those Multi-Guns.
Even with [some] adventure-type elements, Nightmare Creatures is really all about combat. While this game may be following in the footsteps of Tomb Raider, the influence of pure fighting titles like Virtua Fighter is very recognizable as well. All of the game's levels feature a menagerie of beasties that have to be kicked, bludgeoned, and stabbed into submission before you can resume your hunt for Crowley. The sheer number of creatures is very impressive, and all thirteen feature very different methods of attack. Common enemies like Zombies just stagger forward and flail away, while Werewolves leap around you and slash with their claws. The Hulk-like Dockers pack a wicked roundhouse punch and will also smash the ground, sometimes bringing the ceiling down on you.
This impressive amount of variety means that Nightmare Creatures never gets repetitive even though the majority of game time is spent walloping one bad guy or another. To really succeed --- particularly in the later levels --- you need to handle each one differently. If you just wade in every time, and try to take out a Docker the same as you would a Spider, you're going to spend more time loading saved games than actually playing. There are also special boss monsters, such as a giant multi- headed snake and a yeti, that have to be outsmarted every few levels as well.
I have no hesitation recommending Nightmare Creatures to anyone interested in arcade action of the Tomb Raider sort. The lack of a true save game feature, the occasionally erratic controls, and that adrenaline time limit keeps this one out of the awards category, but I do hope that people will still give it a try. For atmosphere, gameplay, and eye candy, this one is hard to beat.'
Review By HOTUD
External links
Captures and Snapshots
Screenshots from MobyGames.com
Comments and reviews
evilkingnightmare2021-04-150 point
if anyone is having trouble with the music, go to this link and follow its instructions.
https://archive.org/details/nc-pc
Sorcerer2021-03-250 point
03/25/2021 downloading all the links from this page... Amazing! great memories from this clasical horror game, as old as good, thanks myabandonware.com!
.2021-03-202 points
Preconfigured installer for modern pc:
archive.org/details/NightmareCreatures-ZombsLair
Bijuklich2021-02-05-2 points
i'll skip this, i thought it will work fine on win10, but apparently it's not, messy graphics/resolution, no music....who ever wanna play best version of this game i suggest ps1 emulator epsxe with pete's ogl2 renderer + custom shaders...looks beautiful and plays perfectly with any gamepad...tested both games 1 and 2
oldgamer2020-10-261 point
Great game, it works perfect so far. I played it when I was younger and now my kid loves it.
EKN6662020-08-101 point
I download it and install it. without the patch the resolution looks messy and i have music. with the patch on the resolution looks great but there is no music anymore. how do i fix this?
Haz2020-06-110 point
Other than the Glide fix, I haven't found any of the patches/fixes do anything (it seems that the windows fix file is the same as the 1.2a patch). The glide fix allows you change the resolution via the in game display options. I reccomend renaming the old .exe and replacing it with the fix.
james_lovecraft2020-03-280 point
thanks so much for this game, if you have no music burn the iso on disc and play the game form there, it worked for me
Nour2020-03-180 point
The Game Not Working
khalidismayl2020-03-16-1 point
this game is good but for some reason it has a problem being too fast but it is working fine that is all and it has a egyptian audio files try to type in google nightmare creatures egyptian edition and download the game and try it you would like the game this way i am egyptian though
Musad2019-07-06-4 points
This game is total awesome. This game is old too. But it gives all the fun and horror which a child needs to play this game. One of the best horror game in my life. By the way, can you guys please develop the graphics of this game. Make it look real. PLEASE!!!
tota2019-06-210 point
nice game
kvachu2019-06-172 points
@LINK
Yo pal. Most often the reason for no music in old games is, when the cd is not inserted/mounted in the first CDROM device. It doesn't matter if the device is physical, or virtual(daemon. If your first cdr device is physical, but you don't want to burn the cd, but you have the image, mount it in the first virtual device, and after you will have to disable the physical cdr for the time of playing this game. I do like that, since I never use physical cdr in my laptop. To turn off your physical cdr right click on 'my computer' icon/properties/device manager, then click on CD-ROM/DVD devices. Right click on the proper one, and select the second top option(win10), which should be 'turn off' or somth like that. I you aren't sure which one is the physical one, then disable all the virtual cdr devices in daemon tools gui. If you disable them, you should see only the physical one in device manager.
You probably know most of it, but in case you didn't know I wrote all this.
Have fun man.
LINK2018-01-190 point
I love the game and everything and I installed, but the soundtrack doesn't work. I installed in 'work pc' It was fine. But in home, nothing.
♪♪Special Agent Page♫♪♫2017-04-191 point
i took the zipped ISO and it comes with both mac and pc. i used the pc ISO. without using fixes or updates there are no conceivable issues except the resolution being locked. with windows 10 i did not have to use any compatibility or restart my pc after the install as the game suggested. it runs fine. i have not tried a controller i just stuck with the keyboard configuration it came with. it's not a modern game so the keys aren't exactly intuitive however they are not counter intuitive either.
the sound was fine, the video was smooth. unlike most modern games this one works without a 'day one patch'. if you ever played this title, i highly recommend getting it again. it's original, it's playable, it's unique and it's quite addictive. i flew through the first level but that is to be expected since that last time i played was 18 years ago on a Ps1. abandonware simply means it's no longer supported or under protection (most of the time) for copyright. think of it like a newspaper on the floor, nobody cares if you take it and burn it. the ISO works great with daemon tools. if you've never had a digital disc before, just look online for a how-to-guide, it wont take long.
i've not found any malicious content in the files provided. as far as i can tell it is safe. i took the ISO version so i can't say anything about the rest of the links here. if you take the game, enjoy it.
Axe2016-12-191 point
Played this game for countless hours with friends. Try it in the dark. Its fun to play with all the different weapon upgrades. Good challenging game, especially towards the end. Look everywhere to get all the upgrades or you will be sorry and die a messy death lots. Great puzzles for this era. The monsters will make you laugh when they kill your friends. Could be scary a little if played alone on a dark and stormy night.
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