Sanitarium (videogame)

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Sanitarium

Developer(s)	DreamForge Intertainment, Inc.
Publisher(s)	ASC Games (1998) XS Games, LLC (2002)
Release date(s)	1998, 2002 (re-release)
Genre(s)	Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB: T BBFC: 15
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Media	Compact disc (3)

Sanitarium is a point-and-click adventure game released in 1998 by ASC Games. A psychological thriller often praised for its atmosphere and originality, Sanitarium tells the story of a man stricken with amnesia, trying frantically to unveil the details of his institutionalization in a terrifying asylum. The search for his own identity takes place within the grounds of the sanitarium and in the main character's delusions and flashbacks, as he confronts the ghosts of his past. The dark mood and graphics of the game are matched by an equally ominous musical background.

The game uses a 3rd person perspective and a non-tiled 2D navigation system. Each world from each of the 9 chapters (over which the game spans) carries a distinct atmosphere that presents either the real and imaginary world of the main protagonist. In many cases, it is unclear to the player which of these worlds the game is currently in play. This indistinction underlines much of the psychological horror portrayed in the game.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Levels in Sanitarium

The Tower Cells

The Innocent Abandoned

The Courtyard and Chapel

The Circus of Fools

The Cave

The Mansion

The Laboratory

The Hive

The Morgue and Cemetery

The Lost Village

The Maze

The Gauntlet

Morgan's Last Game

[edit] Easter Eggs

Mad Programmer Outburst

Inside the main program file, sntrm.exe, on the XS (pre-patched) version of the game there exists a humorous outburst as a possible error code, on what would be line 774 if the file were interpreted as text, when searched by the utility grep:

c:\sntrm_k.txt ERROR: Invalid NPC ID --> All resources == 0 Stupid Dumbshit Goddamn Motherfucker! Unable to find encounter keyword %d '%s' in encounter %d No portrait for this encounter. Goodbye.

Developer's Graves

In Chapter 7, The Morgue and Cemetery, some headstones contain the names of people associated with the development of the game. Clicking on the stones will trigger naration of a name and a funny epithet. More deveveloper headstones appear in Chapter 9, The Gauntlet. Developer headstones can be distinguished from headstones relevant to gameplay because the last name on a developer's headstone will be abbreviated to a single letter.

Red herrings Two examples of red herrings exist in the title. The second chapter features a hut with a large paint impression of a red herring on the roof, the character states his dissapointment of the fact it contains no useful items or objects. The second instance of a red herring exists in lost village chapter and is found in the water temple after you enter, Olmec verbily mentions how it must be useful due to its 'crimson color'.