A Video Game with a Deadly Secret - Pale Luna Creepypasta Story Time // Something Scary | Snarled

Summary

In the chilling tale of 'Pale Luna,' a mysterious text adventure game from the 80s, players navigate a cryptic journey that leads one persistent explorer, Michael Nevins, to a shocking real-world discovery. The game's obscure commands and frustrating bugs were dismissed as programming flaws until Michael's dedication unveiled a hidden message. Following in-game coordinates, he unearthed the remains of a missing girl, Karen Paulsen, in Lassen Volcanic Park. The game's programmer remains elusive, leaving the story a chilling blend of digital and reality.

Takeaways

• 🌌 The story is about a video game called 'Pale Luna' that has a deadly secret.
• 🎮 'Pale Luna' was a text adventure game from the late 80s, similar to 'Zork' and 'The Lurking Horror'.
• 🚫 The game was notoriously difficult and buggy, with limited commands and frequent system freezes.
• 🏙️ It was never circulated outside the San Francisco Bay area and all known copies have been disposed of.
• 👨‍💻 Michael Nevins, a persistent player, managed to progress past the initial screens after extensive trial and error.
• 🗺️ The game led Michael to coordinates in Lassen Volcanic Park, suggesting a real-world treasure hunt.
• ⛏️ Following the game's clues, Michael discovered a decomposing body, which turned out to be a missing girl.
• 👮‍♂️ The girl was identified as Karen Paulsen, who had been missing for over a year.
• 🔍 Attempts to find the game's programmer were unsuccessful due to the anonymous nature of the software swapping community.
• 📖 The story serves as a chilling narrative about the dark side of gaming and the internet's ability to hide secrets.

Q & A

What is the title of the video game mentioned in the script?

The title of the video game mentioned in the script is 'Pale Luna'.

Why was Pale Luna never circulated outside of the San Francisco Bay area?

Pale Luna was never circulated outside of the San Francisco Bay area due to the abstruse design choices made by its programmer, which made the game difficult to play and share.

What genre of video game is Pale Luna classified as?

Pale Luna is classified as a text adventure game, similar to games like Zork and The Lurking Horror.

What was unique about the gameplay of Pale Luna?

The gameplay of Pale Luna was unique because it was confusing and buggy, with only specific commands accepted and incorrect choices leading to system freezes.

What was the reaction of most players who tried Pale Luna?

Most players who tried Pale Luna became frustrated with its unplayable nature and threw the disk away, considering it a poorly programmed game.

Who was the one person mentioned in the script that managed to progress further in the game?

Michael Nevins was the one person mentioned who managed to progress further in the game after hours of trial and error.

What did Michael Nevins discover after following the game's instructions in real life?

After following the game's instructions in real life, Michael Nevins discovered the badly-decomposing head of a blonde-haired little girl.

What was the identity of the girl whose remains Michael Nevins found?

The girl was identified as Karen Paulsen, who was 11 years old and had been reported missing to the San Diego Police Department a year and a half prior.

Why was it difficult to track down the programmer of Pale Luna?

It was difficult to track down the programmer of Pale Luna because the software swapping community operated in a legal gray area, leading to many dead ends.

What was the outcome of Michael's discovery for the rest of Karen Paulsen's body?

The rest of Karen Paulsen's body was never found despite the efforts made to locate it.

What is the significance of the phrase 'Reap your reward' in the context of the game?

In the context of the game, the phrase 'Reap your reward' is a morbidly ironic instruction that leads to the discovery of Karen Paulsen's remains, which was the 'reward' the game was hinting at.

Outlines

00:00

🕹️ The Mysterious Game of Pale Luna

The video introduces 'Pale Luna,' a vintage text-based adventure game created by Ed, which was never widely circulated and only known within the San Francisco Bay area. The game is notorious for its cryptic and frustrating gameplay, featuring a blank screen with minimal text and limited commands. Players navigate through a dark room and a forest, facing technical issues like system freezes and unresponsive commands. The game's obscurity is attributed to its designer's peculiar choices, making it a niche curiosity among vintage game enthusiasts.

05:01

🔍 The Grim Discovery Linked to Pale Luna

The narrative shifts to Michael Nevins, a player who persevered through 'Pale Luna's' challenges and discovered a hidden message within the game. Following the game's cryptic clues, he decoded coordinates that led him to Lassen Volcanic Park, where he unearthed a tragic and shocking surprise: the decomposing head of a missing 11-year-old girl, Karen Paulsen. The video concludes with the chilling aftermath, including the failed attempts to find the game's programmer and the unresolved mystery of Karen's body. The story serves as a chilling blend of gaming and real-life horror, inviting viewers to engage with the channel and its chilling content.

Keywords

💡Snarled's Slaytrix

Snarled's Slaytrix is the new gaming channel introduced in the script, which serves as the platform for sharing the story of 'Pale Luna'. It represents the modern way of sharing and experiencing gaming narratives, contrasting with the older, more analog methods of software swapping parties mentioned in the video. The channel is used as a backdrop to introduce the eerie tale of the game 'Pale Luna', setting the stage for the unfolding narrative.

💡Pale Luna

Pale Luna is the central subject of the video, a mysterious and enigmatic text adventure game from the 1980s that was never circulated outside the San Francisco Bay area. The game is characterized by its confusing and buggy nature, which led to it being considered unplayable by most. However, it holds a deadly secret, as it ultimately leads to the discovery of a real-life crime. The game's name is symbolic, suggesting a dark and ominous presence, which is reflected in the chilling story that unfolds around it.

💡Software Swap Parties

Software swap parties were gatherings where individuals would trade games and applications on physical media like floppy disks. This term is significant as it sets the historical context for the distribution of 'Pale Luna'. It contrasts with today's digital distribution methods and highlights the community aspect of early software sharing. In the script, these parties are mentioned to illustrate how games were shared and how a game like 'Pale Luna' could have been passed around within a small group.

💡Text Adventure

A text adventure is a type of video game that relies on text parser inputs to progress through the game's narrative. 'Pale Luna' is described as a text adventure, similar to games like 'Zork' and 'The Lurking Horror'. This genre was popular in the 1980s but was becoming outdated when 'Pale Luna' was created. The script uses this term to establish the game's genre and to highlight its simplicity and the frustration it caused players due to its limited and cryptic commands.

💡Latitude and Longitude

Latitude and longitude are geographical coordinates that specify points on the Earth's surface. In the script, the player discovers coordinates within the game that lead to a real-world location. This concept is crucial to the video's plot, as it connects the virtual world of the game to a gruesome real-life discovery. The use of these coordinates adds a layer of mystery and intrigue to the story, as it blurs the line between the game and reality.

💡Michael Nevins

Michael Nevins is the character in the script who perseveres in playing 'Pale Luna' despite its frustrating design. His determination leads him to uncover the game's deadly secret. Michael represents the archetype of the dedicated gamer or the 'super-fan' who goes beyond the surface to uncover hidden depths. His journey through the game and the subsequent real-world adventure is central to the video's narrative.

💡Karen Paulsen

Karen Paulsen is the real-life victim whose remains are discovered as a result of following the clues in 'Pale Luna'. Her character is central to the video's dramatic twist, as she is the tragic figure around which the mystery of the game is built. The mention of Karen humanizes the story and adds a layer of seriousness and horror to the game's narrative, shifting it from a mere gaming experience to a chilling real-life event.

💡San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area is mentioned as the geographical location where 'Pale Luna' was circulated. This detail is significant as it grounds the game in a specific cultural and historical context, suggesting a sense of locality and exclusivity. It also adds to the mystique of the game, as it was never widely distributed and remains a curiosity confined to a particular region.

💡Lassen Volcanic Park

Lassen Volcanic Park is the real-world location where Michael Nevins, following the coordinates from the game, discovers Karen Paulsen's remains. This park serves as the climax of the video's narrative, where the virtual game world intersects with a tragic reality. The park's mention is crucial as it provides the setting for the shocking revelation and underscores the video's theme of the blurred line between gaming and reality.

💡Eccentric's Buried Treasure

The term 'Eccentric's Buried Treasure' is used metaphorically in the script to describe what Michael Nevins initially believes he will find at the end of his in-game and real-world journey. This concept is a common trope in adventure games and stories, where a treasure hunt leads to a significant discovery. In the video, it is subverted, as the 'treasure' turns out to be a grim reminder of a crime, adding a layer of dark irony to the narrative.

💡Deadly Secret

The 'Deadly Secret' is the core mystery of the video, referring to the real-life crime that is uncovered through playing 'Pale Luna'. This term is central to the video's theme, as it encapsulates the unexpected and horrifying twist that transforms a seemingly innocuous game into a conduit for a tragic event. The 'Deadly Secret' serves as a plot device that drives the narrative and maintains the suspense throughout the video.

Highlights

Introduction of 'Pale Luna', a mysterious video game with a deadly secret.

The internet has simplified obtaining information and software, contrasting with past software swap parties.

Pale Luna was a text adventure game, never circulated outside the San Francisco Bay area.

Game's programmer made abstruse design choices, making it 'enigmatic' and 'nonsensical'.

The game's initial screen presents a dark room with minimal interactive options.

Further screens in the game are confusing, often leading to system freezes.

Standard text adventure commands are mostly useless in Pale Luna.

Michael Nevins, a player, perseveres to uncover more about the game after others give up.

After extensive trial and error, Michael discovers new text: 'Pale Luna smiles wide.'

Michael deciphers the game's cryptic commands to progress, involving digging a hole and using items.

The game's coordinates lead to a real-life location in Lassen Volcanic Park.

Michael's real-world exploration based on the game's directions uncovers a grim discovery.

The discovery is the decomposing head of a missing 11-year-old girl, Karen Paulsen.

Attempts to find the game's programmer are thwarted by the anonymous nature of software swapping.

The rest of Karen's body is never found, leaving the game's connection to her death a mystery.

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to like, subscribe, and follow for more chilling stories.

Transcripts

- [Female Voice] Pale Luna Smiles Wide.

- Hey, I'm Sapphire.

Wanna hear something scary?

(suspenseful music)

What better way to celebrate Snarled's

new gaming channel, Slaytrix, than with a

story about a video game with a deadly secret.

This is the story of Pale Luna by Ed.

In the last decade and a half, it's become infinitely easier

to obtain exactly what you're looking for by way of

a couple of keystrokes.

The internet has made it all too simple to

use a computer to change reality.

An abundance of information is merely a search engine away,

to the point where it's hard to imagine life

as any different.

Yet, a generation ago, when the words "streaming" and

"torrent" were meaningless, save for

conversations about water.

People met face-to-face to conduct software swap parties,

trading games and application on Sharpie-labeled

five and 1/4 inch floppies.

Most of the time, the meets were a way for frugal,

community-minded individuals to trade popular games

amongst themselves.

However, a few early programming talents designed

their own computer games to share amongst their

circle of acquaintances who, in turn, would pass it on

until it had it's place in the collection of aficionados

across the country.

Think of it as the 80's equivalent of a viral video.

Pale Luna, on the other hand, was never circulated outside

of the San Francisco Bay area.

All known copies have been long disposed of.

This fact is attributed to a number of rather abstruse

design choices made by its programmer.

Pale Luna was a text adventure

in the vein of Zork and The Lurking Horror,

at a time when said genre was swiftly going out of fashion.

Upon booting the program, the player was presented

with a screen almost completely blank, except for the text:

You are in a dark room.

Moonlight shines through the window.

There is gold in the corner, along with a shovel and a rope.

There is a door to the east.

Command?

So began the game that one writer for a long

out of print fanzine decried as "enigmatic,"

"nonsensical," and "completely unplayable,"

as the only commands that the game would accept were

"pick up gold," "pick up shovel," "pick up rope,"

"open door," and "go east.

The player was soon presented with the following:

Reap your reward.

Pale Luna smiles at you.

You are in a forest.

There are paths to the north, west, and east.

Command?

What quickly infuriated the few who've played the game was

the confusing and buggy nature of the second screen onward.

Only one of the directional decisions

would be the correct one.

For example, a command to go in a direction

other than north would lead to the system freezing,

requiring the operator to hard reboot the entire computer.

Further, any subsequent screens seemed

to merely repeat the above text.

Worse still, the standard text adventure

commands appeared to be useless.

The only accepted non-movement related prompts were

"use gold," which caused the game to display the message:

Not here.

"Use shovel," which brought up:

Not now.

and "use rope," which prompted the text:

You've already used this.

Most who played the game progressed a couple of screens

into it before becoming fed up by having to constantly

reboot and tossing the disk in disgust,

writing off the experience as a shoddily programmed farce.

However, one young man by the name of Michael Nevins

decided to see if there was more to

Pale Luna than what met the eye.

Five hours and 33 screens worth of trial and error

and unplugged computer cords later,

he finally managed to make the game display different text.

The text in this new area read:

Pale Luna smiles wide.

There are no paths.

Pale Luna smiles wide.

The ground is soft.

Pale Luna smiles wide.

Here.

Command?

It was another hour still before Michael stumbled upon

the proper combination of phrases to

make the game progress any further.

"Dig hole", "drop gold", then "fill hole."

This caused the screen to display:

Congratulations!

After some deliberation, Michael came to the conclusion

that the numbers referred to lines

of latitude and longitude.

The coordinates led to a point in the sprawling forests

that dominated the nearby Lassen Volcanic Park.

As he possessed much more free time than sense,

Michael vowed to see Pale Luna through to its ending.

The next day, armed with a map, a compass, and a shovel,

he navigated the parks trails, noting with amusement

how each turn he made corresponded roughly to those

he took in-game.

Though he initially regretted bringing the cumbersome

digging tool on a mere hunch, the path's similarity

all but confirmed his suspicions that the journey

would end with him face-to-face with

an eccentric's buried treasure.

Out of breath, he was pleasantly surprised by a literal

stumble upon a patch of uneven dirt.

Shoveling as excitedly as he was, it would be an

understatement to say that he was taken aback

when his heavy strokes unearthed the

badly-decomposing head of a blonde-haired little girl.

Pick up gold.

Pick up rope.

Use rope.

You've already used this.

Use gold.

Reap your reward.

Dig hole.

Drop gold then fill hole.

Pale Luna smiles at you.

Michael promptly reported the situation to the authorities.

The girl was identified at Karen Paulsen, 11,

reported as missing to the San Diego Police department

a year and a half prior.

Efforts were made to track down the programmer of Pale Luna,

but the nearly-anonymous legal gray in which the software

swapping community operated inescapably led

to many dead ends.

The rest of Karen's body was never found.

Like this video if it gave you the chills

and don't forget to subscribe to Snarled

and our new gaming channel, Slaytrix,

and, if you dare to follow me,

my links are in the description below.

Until next time, sweet dreams.