Flashlights in video games...

If you love flashlights (and I know you do) and you love video games (most of you do), then this should be a fun thread.

If I recall correctly, the very first flashlight in a video game was in an 1980's classic called, "Rock-n-rope". This guy shot ropes to climb level by level to reach the top. The helmet flashlight would flash a short distance to blind the creatures that were after him. They would be rendered helpless so he could pass, or they would fall off the rope if they were on it. Fun stuff.

But I suppose the ultimate flashaholic game is DOOM 3. You absolutely can NOT play it without that flashlight. Then you switch to shoot, then back to the flashlight. Very scary stuff.

I recently finished Quake 4. While it allowed a flashlight on 2 of my weapons, it wasn't ALWAYS needed. But dang, I don't think those guys were using LED yet.

I recall a simulated flashlight program for my TI-99/4A home computer. It was a moveable round white beam. The screen was all black. When you moved over the right section of screen, you saw various objects. Was a cheezy affect, but from such humble beginnings we have evolved.

What other games do you recall with flashlights?

Flashlights in video games? those people who make games certainly have no clue about flashlights

games i recall from the recent years:
halflife, deus ex, far cry, halflife2, doom, quake4

the best flashlight has to be in doom/quake4... altough the beam is a wide flood. i'd wish they had made it like a p60... more throw

Definetely Doom and Half Life; but don't forget SWAT 3 and SWAT 4! I think they actually have Surefires in the game.


Don't all rush to your local game retailer at once:nana:.

First game with a flashlight I played was "Halo." No... Maniac Mansion was the first. Don't forget Splinter Cell... Sam Fisher's best friend is darkness... and the flashlights guards carry in the game output a very nice beam.

Hmm.. didn't that Indiana Jones game for the Atari 2600 have a flashlight in it? Or maybe it was a candle - either way.

Before flashlights, we probably would have been lanternaholics or something anyway.. I still think it would be fun to get a real old-fashioned limelight.

Haunted House (Atari, 1981).

Fatal frame 2...seems like the main character is using the 6P-GM. Very nice flood beam but that's not what the P60 should look like.

Tron3, I know what you mean w/ DOOM 3.
I always thought that not letting you use the flashlight together w/ a weapon was a cheap way to make it more scary though. lol.

Halo also comes to mind.

i know there is a mod for doom 3 that lets you attach your light to your weapons. dont know where to find it though.

Metal Gear Solid 2 (and not the Dorcy light! There was one on the USP you had, and a lantern-style light.
Winback: Covert Ops - the enemies had them on their weaps.
I thing RE4 had one too.

Flakey said:

i know there is a mod for doom 3 that lets you attach your light to your weapons. dont know where to find it though.

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yes, the 'duct tape mod' ... i thought the decission to have no flashlight on the weapon was ridiculous. i dont think i will ever play doom3 again... finished it one time, no more motivation

owenbright said:

Tron3, I know what you mean w/ DOOM 3.
I always thought that not letting you use the flashlight together w/ a weapon was a cheap way to make it more scary though. lol.

Halo also comes to mind.

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It kinda pissed me off. Here was the much awaited DOOM 3 with the most sophisticated lighting engine ever to be seen in a video game. Yet, there was not enough light to see the darn game! :ironic:

Well, it did scare the living smeg out of me in any case. Being a fan of 1st person shooters, walking down a scary hall and seeing dead bodies was nothing new to me. But when they got up to attack me, that was scary. In other cases, an eerie evil laugh starts and one of those dead bodies gets tossed at me, or just flips up in the air. Just scary stuff. :sweat:

In Luigi's Mansion for the Nintendo GameCube, Luigi carries a flashlight you can use. I don't really care for the game myself, though. I remember also that you had to have a lantern in the Eye of the Beholder PC games years ago. You had to get refills for it. If it went out you weren't in total darkness, but it was really hard to see. It also dimmed over time until it ran out of juice. Nice effect.

Don't forget "Zork 1"! And other great text adventures.

If you didn't have your torch on at the right time, you'd get eaten by a grue! Whatever a "grue" is/was.

I suspect "Colossal Cave", i.e. the first well-known text adventure (written in Fortran, I think...), featured the first "illumination tool" in a computer game?

http://www.rickadams.org/adventure/

Funny thing about flashlights in games. Doom 3 especially. Ever notice that that very bright light has a nice dark spot in the center? Even a non-flashaholic friend noticed it (but then he'd been around me in close quarters for a few months). He was the one that said it was funny and must be because that's what people saw on what they thought to be good lights. Not like the Surefires my other friend and I always carried.

Unicorn said:

Funny thing about flashlights in games. Doom 3 especially. Ever notice that that very bright light has a nice dark spot in the center? Even a non-flashaholic friend noticed it (but then he'd been around me in close quarters for a few months). He was the one that said it was funny and must be because that's what people saw on what they thought to be good lights. Not like the Surefires my other friend and I always carried.

Click to expand...

Thing about that DOOM 3 flashlight, I believe the intent was to create a "realistic" flashlight effect to show off the lighting power of the graphics engine.

I wouldn't have minded it so much if you were able to find a flashlight upgrade to a brighter LED model. It would be pretty simple to create a beam of light with a brighter center, and less bright spill beam. That DOOM 3 flashlight was just inadequate crap in a VERY dark game.

I have to agree with the people that were irritated by a lack of weapon lights in Doom III. It does make it scarier to have a lack of lighting, but just seems ridiculous in a futuristic FPS.

I think Painkiller has a flashlight in it, but it's been so long since I played it I'm not sure. That game was pretty scary too though, especially the old asylum with the patients missing their hands and feet that would come crawling at you or across the ceiling.

The lights in HALO and HALO2 must be Inova... they have that ringy spot pattern!

The flashlight in Doom3 must be m*g light. It's adjusted to wide focus and has a large black hole in the middle and plenty of artifacts! hehe. The switching from flashlight to gun is extremely annoying. I think it'd be cooler and more reaslitc with weapon lights so it's dark then you turn and light up some ugly face the blow it away!

the silent hill series had flashlighting. i think in the earlier ones your batteries would run out on you too. the new "condemned" on the 360 has flashlight use as well and i believe it will alert the monsters to your approach!