The house was cheap for a reason.
Ethan has just moved into an old house in the suburbs with his parents and his gold-and-woodgrain Intellivision. His mother has heard a rumor: the man who lived there before them spent his days in the basement, and one day he was never seen again. Ethan doesn’t believe it. Then one afternoon, alone in the house, he unlocks the basement door.
Inside a dusty wooden box he finds a cartridge with no label, an Intellivoice and a note that says Personal. There’s no title screen when he plugs the cartridge in, just a maze game laid out exactly like his own house. As the game’s lights dim, so do the lights in his bedroom. When flies burst out of a box on the screen, they’re in his room too. And the game won’t let him quit.
The Last Player is a short horror story, laid out like a feature in an early-’80s fiction magazine. It’s a quick read for a dark Halloween night, with plenty for longtime Intellivision fans to recognize.
Get it through Gumroad: https://variactive.gumroad.com/l/the-last-player-part-1
