Haven't heard of this game? Good. Let me tell the story of the game called "The Tunnel". The Tunnel(or only Tunnel as it says on the title screen) was released in 1998 by small game company known as "Freedom Software International". Not much is known about this game, because it was most likely overlooked back in the day when it was released. People who have played it tell that it is a First-Person kind of horror game, much like "SCP-087-b". The Game is said to cause fear and hallucinations to some who played the it. What is it about this game, that made players lose their minds?
In game you control a character, most likely a male, and you move in dark tunnels in the middle of the night. The character has a white shirt and jeans. The Character model is low-ploy and not designed well, at all (see the picture below). The title screen of the game showed a dark tunnel with no ending in sight and gave player 4 choices:
New Game
Load Game
Options
Quit
Pressing "Load Game" would make the game crash and "Options" and "Quit" didn't do anything whatsoever, so that left the "New Game" as the only option. At very start of the game there were instructions and little back story.
Instructions:
Use WASD to move.
Use MOUSE to look around
Back Story
It's evening. You went for a night walk in a park. You stumbled across an old tunnel and you decided to walk inside. Now you're stuck, and you must find your way out before it's too late.
After instruction screen game plays like any normal First-Person game. If you look back at very start of the game you will see nothing, but a brick wall. When you progress in the game it might seem pointless. You just walk in the same environment over and over again. But players who didn't throw away their discs and preceeded with the game, started hearing noises. First they seemed to be ambient sound, but when they continued the game they started disconnect from the background and started sounding like they were closing in. If you still continued with the game you might encounter a humanoid figure. The Figure is said to be about same height as normal human being and is said to look like man with only ripped camo pants. He doesn't have hair and his has dirt all over himself and some people even say he has no ears or mouth. If the figure noticed you, he would start chasing you until you got away or he catches you. If player manages to get away he gets to continue the game. If you get away and you continue the game and you might get a message stating: "That was close, continue the game and reach the end".
If the figure catches you, the game will make a "thump" sound effect and show your character's dead body on a floor. After this happens the game will crash to the desktop and the game's data will be corrupted and game is no longer playable. Nobody knows what happens in the end, because it is stated that nobody has ever beaten the game.
Model, which is the only remaining file from the original game.
In rare occasions, gamers whose game didn't crash, got to continue the game. Only now the game has more slippery controls as if the player would be sick or tired or something. If the player continues with the game he will start hearing noises again. This time noises are much more clear and you can actually hear some whispers, speaking in a low pitch. There are 3 lines of 5 that were understadable to translate in english.
Line 1: "It will...."
Line 2: "You can't...."
Line 3: "OUT...."
Two other lines are hard to comprehend, but gamers say that they most likely said: "Never Stop...(unexplained mumbling)" and "I AM...(unexplained)". After progressing further in the game, gamers say that you'll see the "figure" again, but this time it'll look a bit different. One difference is that the creature now has shining body, like the body has something on it(probably blood) and that its legs were bend backwards. If it saw the player it would scream and start running towards the player at maxium speed. This time no matter what, the "figure" would always catch the player. When this happened screen would cut to black and after that something horrible would happen.
The real answer isn't clear, because everybody who talks about this game, refuses to talk about this screen. The only thing they say is "Never Stop Running" repeatedly before going insane. Nobody to this day knows how the screen would affect the player so badly and who the "figure" even was and what was he doing in the tunnel. Every player who suffers because of this game is classified as insane or mentally unstable. The Only thing we can assume is that the game over screen is "something truly awful".