Dreamer N64

I'm a completionist. Meaning that whenever I start a game I HAVE to finish it,and complete any challenge/ get every award. Because of this, i've noticed a lot of creepy things in video games. An example of this is in Legend Of Zelda 2. You know that guy in one of the towns, the one who says "I am Error"? Well, if you leave that town and pace back and forth twice, and then get into two battles in a specific area, for about 5 seconds the words "ERROR CONTROLS YOU" will appear on the screen. Every creepy easter egg or glitch i would ever see couldn't prepare me for a game that I would get in the future.

About three months ago I took a week long vacation to New York. My brother who lives in Manhattan offered to let me stay there so I wouldn't have to buy a hotel  room. Basically the entire week it was just me wandering throughout New York while my Brother was at work. The only time I really saw him was in the morning or at night. On my last day in New York however, my brother had the day off of work. We had planned to spend the day in NYC, but it was downpouring so we just stayed inside and hung out. Later on in the day he brought out our old N64 with all of our old favorite games. We played classics like Goldeneye and Mario Kart, and lesser known games like Spider-Man and Ready 2 Rumble Boxing. We played all night long and finally went to bed at 1:00. The next morning I packed up my stuff and head home. Realizing how much fun I had, on my way home I decded I was going to buy a N64. I got back to my apartment around 2:00pm and got settled in. Once I was all set, I grabbed $30 and went to my local retro games/comic book store Comically Speaking. I bought an N64 for $25 and went back to my apartment. I immedately opened up the box the system came in and took out my system. It was painted gold and was awesome. Then I took out the games that came with it. Goldeneye, Wave Racer 64, 1080 Snowboarding, and a game I had never heard of called "Dreamer N64". The cover was a man in a straight jacket floating on baloons. He had a weird, somewhat creepy expression on his face. He had a smile that stretched across his face. He had pitch white skin and dark circles around his eyes. He looked mentally insane!

The cover creeped me out so i put the cartridge face side down on the floor. I hooked up the system and got ready to play. I was origionally going to play Wave Racer 64, but then I caught a glimpse of Dreamer in the corner of my eye. I wondered what the game was about and put Wave Racer down. I picked up Dreamer and put it into my system. It was sort of like I was hypnotised, because I didn't want to play it. However, when the N64 logo appeared myy completionist side kicked in and I got ready to play the mysterious game. The title screen was just a blue sky with clouds all around. Then the man from the cover floated up on baloons. I got a chill down my spine. He looked at the screen and a muffled sound came up. The only words I could make out were, "Welcome" and "Dream on" The rest sounded like white noise, but I could tell it was saying something. After that, the words "Dreamer" appeared. It looked like a first grader wrote it with crayons. Then in blinking red at the bottom it said "Press start". I did, and then a loud piano key note played. The man gave me a mean look and then all his balooons popped. He started falling and screaming and right before he hit the ground the screen faded to black. I sat there in silence, staring at the black screen for about a minute. Then finally it stopped. The black faded to a bedroom where the man was sleeping. He woke up and was violently shaking. He then sat up, got out of bed and stared at the screen. Again a muffled sound came, except it was a bit easier to understand this time. I could tell the man was talking this time and that he had a british accent. I could make out that he said "Nothing much, just had a bad dream... just a bad dream.." The rest sounded like white noise. The man sort of looked like a clay model. He then paused and just stared at the camera for a good 15 seconds. Then once again the muffled sound came up. This time it was hard to hear. I could barely make out this, "I didn't.. much... sleep.. tired" The man then crawled into his bed and fell asleep.

The screen faded to black and then The controls flashed on the screen. Then It said, "Level One, Get Ready" and it faded to a field. there were flowers everywhere and the sky was blue. Butterflies were flying everywhere. Then there was the man. on the other side of the screen. An arm popped out of the straight jacket. The arm was wrinkly and bony. It was holding a net. Soon a paragraph came up on the screen explaining that the point of the game was to catch as many butterflies as you can within 1 minute. In the first level you have to catch a minimum of 10 butterflies to win. It seemed simple enough so I pressed A and then I was able to start. The game was some what of a side scroller because you could only go in one direction, forward. The game was incredibly easy and I collected 25 butterflies. Time ran out and another muffled sound came up. It said, "You Win" and the screen faded to black. Once again I was in the man's bedroom and he woke up. He looked at the screen and I couldn't understand what he said other than "FInally... dream" Then he stared once again then white noise blared through the screen and the man fell asleep. I was brought back by how loud it was. Then it said Level Two. It was exactly the same as level 1 except I had to collect 20 butterflies. The same exact thing happened every level, gradually increasing how many butterflies I had to catch. After the 4th level I seriously contemplated to stop playing, ignoring my completionist side, but I couldn't... I just couldn't. I was so bored I cursed being a completionist.

The man woke up once again except the game glitched out. A screech blared through the TV as the man started sort of glitching all over the place then he went over to the screen. The screech stopped and he just stared. the room turned black as just the man stared at me. His pupils rolled into his head and his smile turned into a scowl. Words flashed on the screen asking, "Do you wish to continue?" I chose yes and white noise blared again. Then it said "Level 5 Prepare or Parish". The man once again was in the feild holding the net. Now the handle was covered in spikes. A tear ran down the man's face as blood trickled down his hand. There now was a 30 second time limit, but I had to catch only 10 butterflies. I noticed in the field  that the flowers were withered and music was playing. It sounded somewhat like a broken jack in the box. I started the level and it was a HUGE jump from the last few levels. It was almost impossible. I was only able to catch 2 butterflies. The time ran out and the screen went black. I heard a scream and then an image flashed on the screen about 2 seconds. I could see that it was the man holding a torch. The screen went into a room. It was dim. Only being lit by a dyng lightbulb. The walls were grey and i could see a small table that had a knife, a drill, and a syringe. The man woke up and he looked at the screen and cried. A man walked in. He was wearing a shirt that had blood stains all over it. He said something, but all I could hear was, "Test subject 402... dangerous... kill... careful" The man with the bloody shirt grabbed the syringe and jabbed it into the man's neck. They never said his name, so I just call him Subject 402, based off of what the other man said. The man started crying and then he fell asleep. He was in the field again. The sky was cloudy and grey. There was also no flowers. I had 20 seconds and I had to collect 15 butterflies this time. Subject 402 was bleeding and walking instead of running. It was impossible, I couldn't beat the level! TIme ran out and the screen cut to black. It was hard to hear but I think that it sounded like a man begging for mercy. The words, "Level 7 WHY??" showed up on the screen.

There was a 10 second time limit. I had to collect 90 butterflies. The game was literally impossible. The grass was gone. The butterflies were all black. and Subject 402 was just shambling, and then crawling. He was dripping blood. The screen cut to black again and then the words "Final Level, Revenge Is Needed" This level was completely diferent. Subject 402 was chasing the man. I had to catch up to him before the time ran out. I did and once again the screen faded to black. It then went into the room. The man had his neck slit and was on the floor gasping for air. SUbject 402 woke up. He looked at his hands and cried. One hand was a drill and the other hand was missing fingers and was distorted. He then killed himself with the drill hand. The screen then froze then went into static. Words were displayed on the screen "Congratulations You Win"

I was horrified and I haven't played my N64 since then. The next day I talked to my friend who has worked with Nintendo for 15 years. I went to his house. He was doing some character designs for the next Mario game. I asked him if he had ever heard of the game Dreamer 64. He stopped drawing and gave me a confused look. He asked me how I knew about it and I told him it came with mys system. He almost jumped out of his chair. According to him Dreamer 64 was supposed to be a kids game for the N64. However, one day early in development the creator of the game had a mental breakdown and went missing. His team was able to complete the 4th level, but then gave up because of lack of inspiration and budget problems. He then showed me a picture of the creator, he was Subject 402