Medieval

Remember that game on the Playstation, Medieval?

Since childhood, I'd always loved that game. Recently, I decided to replay it using ePSXe (with my own disc, PAL, non-platinum). If anyone is a big fan of Medieval, they will know there is an FMV in the game for the 'Inside the Asylum' level, an FMV that was never used.

The video can be viewed using a Gameshark, however, and is easily accessible today through Youtube. The FMV shows Daniel Fortesque pulling a worm from his eyehole as a lamp post ignites.

The strange thing about this video is that there is no visible reason for disabling the FMV, yet leaving it on the disc. The moment I found the hidden FMV on my GoldFinger (Gameshark ripoff), I recognized the clip - from where, I wasn't sure. I was, however, sure that the FMV was never shown during the game, due to the fact that I had completed it for the third time just before my GoldFinger arrived.

Years passed before I ever made the realization of where I had seen the clip before. When the good Playstation emulators burst into the scene, I had decided to play through my old discs on my PC and for the sake of nostalgia, decided to browse through my old demo discs. One of them, to my surprise, had a demo movie for Medieval - a movie, which at this point, I had no recollection of.

I played the movie and a wave of realization washed over me. The video I refer to is also easily accessible through Youtube. The video begins with FMV shots that have been cut together; it switches between this and actual game footage for about three minutes.

A minute-and-a-half through, I saw the all too familiar footage that I had subconsciously kept with me for years gone by. Daniel pulls the worm from his eye socket, the lamp post ignites. I had finally solved the mystery of where I had seen it before. Less than 30 seconds passed before things got weird again.

Two minutes into the video, there is a clip of game footage that shows Daniel running away from a dragon (the same dragon found in the FMV before the Pirate Ship level). This level, like the hidden FMV, does not exist in the game. I was puzzled. Two of the things shown on the official demo were removed form the game for, as far as I knew, no reason.

Now, go back to when I said I was going to play the game in ePSXe.

Two days ago, I made it to the Asylum level (which happens to be one of my favorite levels, as onslaught after onslaught of zombies rush for you). Typically, there was no FMV. The first room is tedious, yet easy. So are the second and third. Usually. This playthrough, however, I never made it to the third room.

The second room consists of a square dungeon, similar to the first floor, with gargoyles and cannons on the walls. There are gates on three of the walls, which open and release hordes of zombies periodically.

The zombies come at me and the cannons fire cannonballs into the arena. Despite this, the second room is relatively simple. However, I finish off all the zombies, yet the door won't open. Eventually, I notice a zombie seemingly stuck in the graphics, inside one of the gates. Once I killed the glitch zombie, the door open as expected. As I ran for the door, however, I was blocked by an invisible wall. I soon realized that I was stuck in the graphics.

Mad, I mashed the buttons, desperate to find a way out after not having saved for what had been nearly an hour of gameplay. After charging my sword and swinging it at the invisible wall, the clink of the sword hitting the wall sent the game into a glitch that made the screen fully black, the clink stuck on repeat like a broken record.

After about fifteen seconds of this, the sound stopped and the blackness was replaced with Daniel in a forest. it was a level that I didn't recognize. I walked upward for a moment and discovered that I actually did recognize the level. Danial turns around the dragon is seen running behind him.

After an in-game movie, the game gave me control back and I ran from the dragon, both shocked at the fact I was playing the dragon level from the trailer and the fact that I didn't want the dragon to get me, in case I couldn't get back to the level again after dying.

After a minute of running through repetitive forest graphics, the dragon simply disappeared. At the end of the level, the walls were untextured and plain white. I continued traveling up and what I saw began to make my heart race. On the walls, in red writing (as if it were written in blood), was "Daniel will die," repeated over and over.

Underneath it on every repeat, for some reason, was an image seen during medieval's end credits of an apple with a 'magic' hat. I believe the story behind the picture is that the developers had an apple that they made a hat for, which rotted away after the hat was removed. This is explained alongside the image during the credits.

I ran upward for a good five minutes without a single aspect of the level changing. The game suddenly froze and I was forced to reset the console. In all my following attempts, I have not been able to recreate the glitch that sent me to the dragon level.

I am beginning to feel as though I don't want to experience the glitch again; the whole event has sent me into a paranoid state, especially due to the fact that most of my friends don't believe a word I say about it.

My parents have booked me in to see a shrink due to this, which I am not looking forward to, as I know the events I experienced were real beyond a shadow of a doubt. I don't have an inch of crazy in me and have been a rational person all my life. I don't drink or do drugs and am not on any medication; still, people refuse to believe my story.

Thinking about that stupid hidden FMV that got me into this mess now makes me queasy, bringing back memories of the level. People normally ask me "How could a video game possibly know that?" They don't understand. Alas, I am left with the most unfortunate coincidence to occur in my life, a curse on my sanity which I predict will remain with me indefinitely.

My name is Daniel and this game will haunt me for the rest of my life.