This is my favorite Countdown entry so far.

I’ve been keeping up with the entries and blog posts, but it’s hard to find time to keep up with all the comments. Sorry, dudes. I was also excited to see the Marc Summers entry. Awesome.

Chestnuts roasted by Rainbowfeet @ 10/18/2006 11:47 PM

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OK this article almosts scared me because Matt and I are roughly the same age and when I was in second grade I had my parents help me make an ALF costume for halloween that year. Matt’s costume was by far better than the hack job I put together but I am fairly certain we used the same rubber ALF mask. I wasn’t able to get my hands on a full on fur suit I had to settle for butchering one of those generic kid costume Lion deals. We cut the tail of it off entirely then cut the bushy tail end off and safety pinned it to the ass end of the lion suit to give me the cute little ALF tail. If I ever found any pics of me in that get up I would prolly have to say it was a crappy job but back in the day I was damned proud of it. The one thing I remember is going to my little town Fall Festival which also had a costume contest that year which my dad entered me and my alf costume into. Out of maybe 30 other kids I made it into the top 2 but in the final judging had to settle for Second Place I still have the stupid ribbon I won around here somewhere too. I think that I was seceretly very bitter at losing because I can remember the whole thing vividly EXCEPT I can’t for the fucking life of me remember what the kid that beat me wore let alone what made it better than mine. My only guess is my poor fragile childhood mind blocked it out….or its just decade of pot smoking clouding my memory either way the irony is me and matt got the same idea on what was likely the same exact year lol.

I think the following year I was on some kind of astronaut kick and so I went as a spaceman and the year after that was Batman but insteead getting one of those pseudo pajama batman costumes I decided to use my beloeved Playmates Batman Armor set with the plastic chest plate and cowl and the gauntlet that shot little plastic dart things. I wore that thing alot as a kid but using it for halloween let me walk around the neighborhood wearing it without feeling like a complete retard for a change

Chestnuts roasted by The Krypt Angel @ 10/19/2006 1:06 AM

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The Halloween costume of the past that still stand out for me is a California Raisin. It actually kinda sucked to be walking around in that hot hot blanket-like outfit singing Motown songs all night.

This year I wanted to go as Hank Venture from The Venture Brothers. However I couldn’t find enough people to serve as other members of the Venture ensemble. Hank wouldn’t work on his own.

Chestnuts roasted by buckly @ 10/19/2006 12:31 PM

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I have “Atmosfear.” I never heard of “Nightmare.” My parents had these Friday night “dates” with my best friends’ parents where they would all get together and played cards or something, so every effing Friday night Laura and Amy and I would sit in the dark in the living room with candles and play “Atmosfear.” I think our parents thought we were starting a coven or something. I was never afraid of the Gatekeeper and I loved the scary music and stormy background on the tape. Do you remember this… “Who’s turn is it next? Hands up! You could have two free turns ORRRRRR… you could point the finger at the maggot in the lead and send him to the NEAREST BLACK HOLE!” I STILL love that game and wish I had someone to play it with me who wouldn’t make fun of it. :p By the way, I found this link if you’re looking for some “Atmosfear” nostalgia.

Chestnuts roasted by broomstickjockey @ 10/19/2006 11:33 PM

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oh gosh! “nightmare” was the precursor to “atmosfear”…. same characters (though all were only n ames inscribed on tombstones), and same premise – i THINK. there was the video, and the gatekeeper.. though i remember him being way more involved in “nightmare” (i.e., he did a hell of a lot more than say “take a fate card!”). another awesome aspect was that he became progressively more old/rotted looking as time progressed.

was was the goal of atmosfear? i played it ONCE, and can’t recall. all i remember is elizabeth being so fucking COOL looking (yet finally realizing in the silly, illustrated instructions that her shredding mass of teeth was some kind’f metal facemask.. but, still, how goddamned cool.

“nightmare” involved something like writing down your worst fears on little pieces of paper, putting them in a pot, and whomever reaches the end first gets to pull one of them out of said pot, and try and guess whose fear it was. i guess they were seriously banking on not knowing what your friends’ handwriting looked like….

Chestnuts roasted by michael @ 10/20/2006 3:23 AM

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Yeah, I did some research on the rest of the games last night. I WANT THEM ALLLLL! But I like that the characters were a little more fleshed-out in “Atmosfear: The Harbingers.” The goal was the same in that as you described in “Nightmare,” the only difference maybe being that you only had the first ten minutes of the game to “become” a character by landing on their provence, or else you became a Soul Ranger. And, you’re right, you get back to the hub first and you roll either a one or some other certain number and you get to pick a fear out of the Well and if it’s not yours, you win. Not a bad plot, though a little confusing.

Another thing I liked about the Gatekeeper in “Atmosfear” was that he would giggle and make farting noises between ordering you to raise your hand and flip off your friends.

I bought my “Atmosfear” second hand from eBay, so I didn’t get the awesome dice.

Thanks for the links! I was so obsessed with the game when I was a kid that I actually researched all the characters. They all exist in legends and myths (except for Hellin, of course). I thought that was pretty effing cool!

Chestnuts roasted by broomstickjockey @ 10/20/2006 12:44 PM

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Does it make me pathetic that I almost started crying while reading this article?

The only other XE article that’s ever done that to me is the one on C-3PO cereal.

Chestnuts roasted by Hellpop! @ 10/21/2006 3:16 AM

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This thing’s so old I doubt that anyone will read it, but that’s okay. I actually was ALF for Halloween. I was older than Matt, but it was the same costume.

My family was stationed in Japan, so everything was on a delay. On my Halloween, ALF was cool, but maybe not as cool as he would have been a couple years ago. The process of getting the costume was pretty much the same, except I didn’t actually throw a tantrum. I just begged and begged and begged. And luckily, this ALF was a body suit and mask together, no need to worry about one part selling out before the others (althought I think there were separate masks on sale).

Here I should point out that, being on a military base on Japan, all the kids shop at the same ONE place, the Exchange. It sounds strange, but it’s true, it’s like, you have JC Pennies and nothing else.

I think I saw one kid wearing the same costume, but that was it. Overall, it was a success. I didn’t have the following or adulation that Matt had, but that’s probably because ALF just wasn’t as hip by the time it made it overseas to us (to help contextualize this, we knew about the Simpsons, but we weren’t able to see them. When I got back to the states, they were on season three and from my pen palls I think they got it on AFES – Armed Forces TV or whatever – the same year).

I actually did go trick or treating as ALF. It was warm and by the end of the night I was totally drenched in sweat. It was all fine as long as the costume kept me warm, but fearing that I would catch pneumonia, my mom made me take off the costume and do the last of my trick or treating in my regular clothes (my little sister was there too. I don’t know what she was, but she definitely wasn’t ALF!).

On the last house I begged for candy the person questioned my lack of costume. While shivering, drenched in sweat in the cool night breeze, my reply was something akin to “I was ALF but I got all sweaty and my mom was afraid I’d die of pneumonia so she made me take it off.”

I don’t think I’ve ever worn a completely store bought costume since.

Chestnuts roasted by mike @ 01/21/2007 2:32 AM

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