On consoles, thirty years after its release, there's still no escape from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream's horrors

Harlan Ellison used to say that I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream was a game that nobody could win. I gather now, having looked at a few wikis, that this is not entirely true. But back in the mid-1990s when I first encountered this weird, horrifying video game, it certainly felt true. I Have No Mouth was... not a hit, exactly, but certainly the subject of a sustained mania in my student house at the tail end of the last century. Adventure games, or point-and-clicks, were our collective favourite genre, outside of endless sessions on Worms 2. Back then we recognised that, even amongst the Monkey Islands and Tentacles, I Have No Mouth was...special? Read more

Mar 31, 2025 - 14:36

On consoles, thirty years after its release, there's still no escape from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream's horrors

Harlan Ellison used to say that I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream was a game that nobody could win. I gather now, having looked at a few wikis, that this is not entirely true. But back in the mid-1990s when I first encountered this weird, horrifying video game, it certainly felt true. I Have No Mouth was... not a hit, exactly, but certainly the subject of a sustained mania in my student house at the tail end of the last century. Adventure games, or point-and-clicks, were our collective favourite genre, outside of endless sessions on Worms 2. Back then we recognised that, even amongst the Monkey Islands and Tentacles, I Have No Mouth was...special?