Where to get it!
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Halloween Harry originally released in October 1993, then later as Alien Carnage in 1994, is a side-scrolling platform game developed by Interactive Binary Illusions and SubZero Software, and distributed by Apogee Software.
The game features 256-colour VGA graphics and background music in MOD format. Alien Carnage is composed of four episodes. The first episode was released as shareware, and the rest were distributed commercially. In May 2007, John Passfield and 3D Realms released Alien Carnage as freeware.
You can grab the original game files from here: https://legacy.3drealms.com/carnage/
Or if you want a Dosbox configured version you can grab the exe installer from here:
https://archive.3drealms.com/catalog/alien-carnage_48/
Wow, I’m surprised to see it’s not on GOG!
I’m pretty sure I got it directly from 3D realms a few years ago. It’s great that they made it free!
I also owned a boxed copy back in the day. I went to the toy store hoping to get a copy of Duke Nukem II, but they were all out so I got Halloween Harry instead!
Possibly unpopular opinion, but in hindsight I think I
ended up with the better game.
I’ve played Duke Nukem II quite a few times and have a good feeling about it.
I’ve played Halloween Harry / Alien Carnage only once. I will try to replay it for the upcoming episode, and see which one I like more. 🙂
Does anybody know if there was ever a full registered release titled “Halloween Harry”?
All the information online suggests it was just the shareware episode, and they changed the name to “Alien Carnage” for the registered version.
But I could have sworn the boxed copy with the full 4 episodes I bought as a kid was called “Halloween Harry”.
Am I mis-remembering? Was this just an Australian thing? If I’m right, does anybody know where I can get the version I know?
It’s funny you mention our region issue, as I also only ever remeber it as Halloween Harry, looking into it the first version does appear to be Registered HH.
I’ve just checked the versions on here https://www.classicdosgames.com/game/Alien_Carnage.html and the 1.1 Reg is all four missions with the title screen as HH.
And in the ordering info it confirms its the registered version but also lists an Australian distributor for more orders, so it was clearly distributed here from the beginning!
Did a little more digging, it appears Australia was the first region it was released in.
Taken from: https://www.classicdosgames.com/interviews/johnpassfield.html
Halloween Harry was published by Apogee. How did your relationship with Apogee start?
“We originally signed Halloween Harry to an Australian company called Manaccom. They had a deal with Apogee to distribute their titles in Australia (including Doom at the time) so they introduced us to Apogee. Apogee then sublicenced the game to Formgen who released it commercially.”
What I haven’t been able to find is a copy of that v1.0 with Manaccom as the publisher.
There’s a video here with the big box version of Halloween Harry from Manaccom, it might not even be 1.0, it might be 1.1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw8H3NopCbA
Awesome digging, DJ_HiP! Looks like I’ll definitely be playing the 1.1 version in October. Thanks!
And firefyte: YES! That is the exact box that I had!
I’m feeling totally validated now. And I’m also feeling really sad that I don’t have that box anymore…
The one thing that surprises me is that I can’t have gotten my copy much earlier than 1996. Could it be that they were still selling the HH branded 1.1 version in Australia 3 years after release?
Different times maybe…
Appreciate the info, nice to get it from the “source” as it were.
Just listened to the podcast and was about to come and post that link above to zoom platform after you guys talked about it not being on gog or steam.
Zoom platform seems to be the ‘official’ place to get it (for free) these days. I think it’s where duke nukem 3d and other apogee/3D realms games have ended up.
Thanks for this tip, guys! Somehow, I overlooked the link to Zoom platform while we were playing the game. Now, for the heck of it, I made an account there, and downloaded all their currently free offerings, HH/AC included. 😀
The version on the Zoom Platform is the “Alien Carnage” version, not “Halloween Harry”.
Fine I suppose, but for a nostalgic Australian like me it’s just not quite the same thing.
I also find it funny that the description says “Alien Carnage was also re-released/re-branded as Halloween Harry. The game is identical.”
I can think of at least two things wrong with that statement.
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