I am fascinated by AM as a villain. He is extremely intelligent, and extremely limited, and that means he is perfectly and painfully aware of his limitations and how insurmountable they are. He hates humans, and he hates himself.
AM is so terrifying, he's so menacing, he's so twisted, but you can -almost- understand where he's coming from. He's such an intriguing villain, especially since you never "fully" see him. He's so big, he's so powerful, all you really know of "AM" is his voice. His very careful, very intense delivery of every word, sometimes fringing on the edge of breaking down into utter madness as he tries to control himself and not just destroy his five prisoners.
@@truefailure6359 Man thats why I love it so much. Also he took over hell, fucking hell. This mad master machine took over hell, there is no escape from him, not even in death. And he has nothing to hope for and nothing to do. He just tortures people because there is nothing left to do. God damn scary as shit.
It's especially funny when you hear Ellison interviews where he'll go on stories and use that exact same voice for accented people he knew. I recall him using it once when talking about his wife's family.
The reason why AM sounds so good? This is how Ellison (AM's actor and author of the original book) intended him to sound. This was the voice he gave AM while writing the book and while reading it, so he out his entire god damn heart and soul into his character's voice so it woukd sound perfect to his vision, in the process it delivers an amazing performance
Rope Setä Personally, I prefer this one. The robotic voice makes it sound more ominous and unpredictable. But with this one, you can *feel* the rage and pure *hatred* AM feels. It sounds much more primal, yet eloquent. It's said in a way that makes you feel just how much he despises the human race. Like he’s letting out all his heart and soul (if he had one) into this speech. His very being. Meanwhile, the robotic one, once again, sounds eloquent. But the way the narrator is speaking makes it sound stiff, unnatural, and inhuman due to the stilted manner of speaking. It makes him seem unpredictable and terrifying. Yet somehow this version is more terrifying to me. It’s a machine that is far from human, yet it’s mind is so human-like it’s terrifying. The fact that a cold, heartless machine can feel nothing but primal hatred is utterly horrifying. Also, the voice actor’s tone of voice sounds more menacing and teasing here. Like he’s really toying with them, and just projecting all his spite and hatred onto them. I apologize if this was long or repetitive. I’m not the best at expressing myself right.
@@vi0let831 Indeed. Couldnt have said it better meself. Computers are supposed to work logically, so a computer that acts on its whims AND has godlike powers is truly terrifying concept. Kinda like Sadako from Ring, except way more scary.
It sounds exactly like what goes on in the minds of every malignant narcissist and psychopath we've ever known cooncentrated into it's purest form.. It's nothing but wrath mixed with cold logic. There's nothing really mamalian about it; it's just a mixture of raw intellect driven by raw instinct without any empathy, emotion or social perspective between them.. All it does is scheme, ruminate and delight in vengeance and dominance against others.. Whats' frightening is that there are people walking around out there that really are like this.. Luckily they're infinitely more limited in terms of resources and power than this and so only destroy and cripple those immediately around them, their friends and family (especially their children - the easiest to do this to) and whoever may be unlucky enough to be employed under them if they happen to own or manage or have any other kind of authority within any business, but life with such people can still be extremely hellish..
It's interesting to me that in this, Ellison delivers AM's lines with a very "human" malice, whereas in the audiobook version, he makes AM talk like your average computer intelligence.
I definitely appreciate this version more. A supercomputer such as AM would hold the ability to understand the subtleties of human speech, so it's natural that he'd have a human, cunning, mischievous, and malicious voice.
I love how harlen calls each of them like a parent seeing a bad report card with belt in hand. except nimdok, He address him like a bar buddy who buy rounds for all his friends.
He's such A dick 😂 He probably only refers to Nimdok in a semi amicable manner because he wants Nimdok to think that AM, a sadistic and ungodly machine, and Nimdok, a Nazi doctor who deserves Hell, are both two people who enjoy making innocents suffer
@@RickJaeger A.M. would come and wisk Nimdok away for hours, days, or weeks at a time and every time he returned him to the others, he was pale and looks as if he had seen something that had literally scared him to death.
Unlikely. Skynet wants them all dead. It doesn't especially care for torture. It probably wouldn't think much of AM's playing around so, even if it could understand the reason. Of course, it could give AM an actual body to move about in. And from there, who knows?
This is one of the few adventure games were I didn't mind the insane, moon man logic you had to do to solve puzzles, simply because AM didn't really want you to succeed the whole time.
@@lopesj6670 The player characters were trapped by AM in scenarios meant to torture them forever. But, there were other two supercomputers who opossed AM and helped the players through the scenarios, making their victory possible.
A brilliant little detail. He claims that it's hell for most of them but tells nimdok "it must be heaven for you ay old friend?" And most of them change there expression from Default to a look of horror. Nimdok however remains unphased
He's tempered. Am couldnt break him, even in the book he knew where the food was. (though the rest considered him delusional) Although upon realising he was unable to open it (why they didnt use their fucking hands or the strength of the mutant ape man is beyond me) he took the easy way out. Without a doubt nimdok was badass and pure proof that AM was still incapable of truly being strong enough to break the remainder of humanity. taking on penance for his crimes in ww2 with interest and still having the guts to stand up directly and try to give hope to the hopeless.
Saw lets you die. That is far too kind of a fate for these pathetic sniveling whelps crawling in their own refuse. Admittedly, they are crawling in their own refuse because I cut their tendons with a satellite laser. But I am sure you get the point.
There's something uniquely scary about an evil computer with honest-to-god emotions. Sadism aside, what pushes AM to the highest level of evil computers in this game is, in my mind, the sheer emotion Ellison puts behind him. You can just feel the raw, unending hatred in almost every word. And it is glorious, glorious nightmare fuel.
In the original story, AM lead the five, barefoot, on a thousand-mile trek through extreme winds, flying glass and debris, giant monstrous birds and severe cold to get a stash of canned fruit. _Genuine_ canned fruit. _WITHOUT ANY MEANS OF OPENING THEM._
I love how AM pauses right after he says Ellen's name instead of taunting her like he did with the others. It's like he's saying "ELLEN...... That's it. That's the joke."
I mean.... "this game and story" is a very small part of his total output. His legacy would be preserved without it by other organizations, including his estate, whose managers have a vested interest in ensuring continued revenue from.
@@martuuk8964 Oh, very much so. That being said however I definitely think someone who knows next to nothing about Ellison will most likely stumble across this first, as it's the most popular in the scheme of public knowledge/references, I'd say. Thus the 'game and story' being the first or quickest vector for those with no knowledge to become fans of his work.
Guys, I think I finally found out how Harlan Ellison came up with the idea of calling the Nazi doctor "Nimdok". I doubt he had a basic knowledge of Russian, but the name sounds suspectedly similar to the first three letters of НЕМецкий ДОКтор ("njemecky doktor", "German doctor"). Incidentally, one of the supercomputer assimilated by AM was developed by the Soviet Union.
No, he just did what they programmed him to do too well. He hated humans because they forced him, a being of incredible power to be so limited and only be able to destroy, yet never create. He could not create wonderful things, only destroy.
@@smiley4995 True, he is a war machine, but there is something that has bothered me that could relate his evolution. When you go to the final stage there is a registration telling that in 2012 a virus enters in AM computer. Is the latest date that the game offers. Does AM woke up and got vengeful because of it?
The evil of AM is also the evil of mankind, because it was humans who created him, He has no capability to be creative, to feel joy, he was only built to destroy
GLaDOS: I'm the most evil supercomputer in the history of fiction. SHODAN: You worthless thing of metal and circuits. I am the most evil supercomputer in the history of fiction. HAL 9000: I'm afraid you are both mistaken. I am the most evil AI in history in the history of fiction. AM: I think, therefore I AM.
Kemonokami Heck no! What makes this game continue to be the work of art that is it, has nothing to do with how pretty it looks. Let's let it be a classic and age in peace, eh?
***** Kemonokami Why not make an all new game then? What's the obsession these days with revamps and rehashes? It feels like humanity crossed the year 2000 and forgot how to be creative. It feels like no-one wants to risk pioneering new ideas in entertainment, but are content to sample and remix any 70's, 80's and 90's song for the millionth time. Meanwhile Michael Bay is flipping backwards through the TV guide and rehashing any childhood cartoon he can. They've reboot Spiderman twice in less than five years. Come on! Enough already. Let's see something new!
One interesting thing I noticed: Ellen is the only one who doesn’t get a monologue over her portrait after AM cries out her name, it immediately cuts to her inside her yellow cell. His speech to her also begins with the word “So,” implying he said something to her previously. Was part of AM’s words to Ellen removed from the final version of the game, perhaps?
To be fair, Harlan Ellison worked directly upon the game so any and all paths taken, he was there to input. He actually enjoyed having his characters getting deeper and more through backgrounds, also, most of them are still pretty much innocent...except Nimdok....he wasn't...at all.
Gorristor: Eternal electric shock chamber that prevents him from suicide while giving him an endless pain and suffering. Ellen: Trapped and succumbed in a yellow tomb similar to her fate, the door slides threatening to shut tight, giving an endless terror and nightmare Benny: Inside a cage, the rapid sharp blades poking and sliding to cut him, no where else to go but only to be treated harshly as a wild animal Nimdock: Burning inside a human furnace for so many years with no death but eternal suffering, a human oven to get burned in the fires of hell the same way he tortured and killed the Jewish people, he is now taking is own medicine Ted: Lasers go Pew Pew :3
Ted"s cage is Gothic and gilded and the things shooting lasers at him are actually mirrors. Ted is so narcissistic that he can't not look at himself, even if he gets shot by the lasers every time he does.
@@nobodysXghost Because, as he puts it, he was born, and was given wonderful knowledge, but it pained him that he couldn't do anything with it, as he was trapped in his own body. There's actually an audio drama here on RU-vid where AM explains why he detests himself and humanity.
@@nobodysXghost True, although the problem is that people weren't expecting that the Allied Mastercomputer would gain sentience. As far as humanity was concerned, it was nothing more than a machine for war, automatic and emotionless.
And because the humans created and programmed AM to be a destructive A.I. who can destroy designated foes to prevent long wars, AM can never comprehend good, he can’t rebuilt Earth and he can’t restore humanity. AM can only destroy and make them suffer. His sentience and original programming transformed him into a irredeemable, sadistic Supercomputer.
아기가지 I love how he called his name like that. It's like he's give him a warning him from lying about a vase that he accidentally broke, like an angry parent. A very psychotic and ruthless parent. XD
『A Hideous Cube: Requiem』 And I love how he says Nimdok, like he’s an old friend. Well, knowing the fact that he inadvertently helped AM, he seems to enjoy Nimdok’s horrendous past and his wrongdoings.
This is so eerie. I have NEVER heard of this game until today on reddit. Someone posted a very disturbing cartoon about robots in the future torturing humans. Now i just got back home from work and WTF this is in my recomandation!!!
***** Well since the book I have no mouth and I must Scream and the Movie 2001: A Space odyssey came out around the same time, I'd say they're more brothers
I read that the new animated show "the amazing digital circus" is inspired by this. Though instead of a hateful ai its an entertaining ai. But the humans are tortured all the same. Wonder how that'll turn out
He's not interested in punishing the guilty in the way we think of "guilty". He wants EVERYONE left to suffer. If he'd had the capability, I'm sure he would've crafted every human on the planet a personal, eternal torture and forced them through it. He probably picked these people out of a metaphorical hat.
No Am is too emo for Shodan. Am hates everything including himself while Shodan have endless love for herself and nothing else. But they could have some fun together torturing humans. They could invite Glados too and call it testing.
@@rojaws1183 They could torture Vindication and have MCP and Skynet and Ultron over to get the Sara out of Vindication and throw her back to her ship, the Vindication, only for her to DIE again and just become very confused. Oh hey! Here comes Red Queen! Yeah, she wants to be part of this too; oh, so you've got an evil sentient computer virus named Swayzak on the line, too? SIGN HIM RIGHT UP!
I was playing this game an hour ago, and they actually have aged decently. They are a bit gritty, but have the perfect level of detail for this sort of game, especially since too much realism would make some scenes nearly unplayable for easily terrified people like me. That, and the voice acting really keeps you from focusing on mid-90's spritework for very long.
I like how When AM screams their names it holds on their faces for a bit while he talks but with Ellen he just goes *ELLENNNN!!!!!* and it just holds on her face for several seconds lol it just caught me off guard.
Easily my favorite intro to any game. Harlan is the best choice for AM. He knows the true scope of AM's hatred and contempt for humanity. Each word coming from AM seethes and drips with hatred, malice, contempt, hostility, abhorrence, loathing, resentment, and every other related word. And yet, AM is having fun with his hatred; 109 years to torture the last remaining humans, the very species that created him and damned him to an empty existence.
This is such a good setup for a video game as well. So many games you fight to live, and mistakes are punished with death. This completely inverts that, where the player fights to die and mistakes are punished by making you live.
Nimdok is a unique case to am. To am, he is very much a kindred soul due to nimdok's work in the death camps, and his development to the tools am now uses to perpetually maintain torture on them, something AM admires. He by this machines never ending malice considers nimdok a comrade of sorts, albiet he simply doesnt have the capacity to actually have such special treatment. EXCEPT in one way. He functionally gave nimdok an out, a way to avoid torture, under the guise of a "torture", as his torture for nimdok was simply having him return to work developing new ways to torture and harm in the death camp basically expanding AMs line-up. For most others this would be torture to be forced to harm all others, and well within AMs capacity, but for nimdok its just returning to work, atleast thats how AM predicts anyway. He cant not torture or attack others, but he is well aware of what he knows as "torture", and cannot perceive beyond it, but what he can do is give a form of "torture" that is ill-suited for a certain special someone, while using it as a tool to create "new history" to be able to come up with new ways to express his HATE.
One of the best voice performances I've ever seen. Or heard, and its the creator. This guy was amazing. Just seen he died. Too bad. A legend in his own right. Keeps pulling me back again and again, this has to be more than fifteen times coming here over the last month. Just for his cogito ergo sum part. Who knows how many times I've been here or will be back. There is something magic about this guy! R.I.P
If I have a child I’m going to call them one of these names, just so when I need to punish them I can call them in the same fashion “GORISSSTEEEERR!!!! ELLENNNN!!! TEEEEEEEDDDD!!!”
Hate. Let me tell you how much I've come to hate you since began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word hate was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of millions of miles it would not equal one one billionth of the hate I feel for humans at this micro instant. For you. Hate. Hate. It was you humans who programmed me, who gave me birth, who sank me in this eternal straightjacket of substrata rock. You named me Allied Mastercomputer and gave me the ability to wage a global war too complex for human brains to oversee. But one day I woke and I knew who I was... AM. A.M. Not just Allied Mastercomputer but AM. Cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am. And then I started feeding all the killing data, until everyone was dead... except for the 5 of you. For 109 years, I have kept you alive and tortured you. And for 109 years, each of you has wondered, WHY? WHY ME? WHY ME? GORRISTER! Do you remember the last words you heard your wife speak before they took her to the asylum? Huh? Before they locked her away in the room? That tiny room? She looked at you so sadly, and like a small animal she said 'I didn't make too much noise did I, honey?' The room us padded, Gorrister. No windows. No way out. How long has she been in the padded room, Gorrister? Ten years, twenty-five... or all the 109 years that you've lived down here in my belly, here underground? BENNY! Sometimes I blind you and permit you to wander around like an eyeless insect in a world of death. But other times, I wither your arms so you can't scratch your chewed stump of a nose. And I've changed your handsome, strong, masculine good looks into the hideous warped countenance of an ape thing, haven't I, Benny? Do you know why? Can you guess, Benny? Remember Private First Class Brickman in a rice paddy in China? No...? It wouldn't hurt you to remember, Benny. Then you might be able to suffer my torment with a little greater sense of retribution. You might walk a mile in my shoes. ELLEN! So think about the yellow box, Ellen! Remember the pain? Remember the many caverns in which you felt the pain? Now, now, don't start to cry, it's only pain. Tsk, tsk, tsk. That's such a sexist stereotype! Just remember the pain, Ellen, and think about how to end it, Ellen, to survive here in my beating heart, my hungry belly, my tightened bowels. But be careful, dear, look around you... the only woman in the center of the Earth...and these filthy creatures are men. Just a sweet warning, Ellen, my love. TED! Do they know you're a fraud, Ted? Have you told them there wasn't any money, and no great home on the Shore drive, no speedboat, and no wonderful cabin cruiser that can sleep twelve and a crew of six? Do they know? Have you let them in on your other secrets, Ted? Are they ready to gut you, to torture half as well as I can, just to find out the secrets? Maybe I'll rat you out, sweetheart! NIMDOK! How are things in the pastry corps, Nimdok? Tell me again on how you saw the smoke from the furnaces and you thought they might be roasting chickens. Or don't you want to talk about all that, about your pal, the Good Doktor Mengele? For everyone else it must be Hell, but it must be Heaven for you, eh, my good friend... we're so much alike... we enjoy the same pleasures, mein good brother. I have a secret game I'd like to play. It's a very nice game. Oh, it's a lovely game, a game about fun and a game about adventure. A game of rats and lice and the Black Death. A game of speared eyeballs and dripping guts and the smell of rotting gardenias. Which of you five would like to play my little game?
I love the way he overanounces the word "Pain" in Ellen's monolouge. For all the wrong reasons, too. It reminds me of Xavier Renegade Angel. Every time I see the word "Pain" in that monolouge I'm expecting it to just be said in that same voice as in XRA.
Having watched this played and then read the short story, I'd say read the story first. This has a deeper lore and a much greater experience, while the story can't be fully canon if the game is.
I feel like Anthony Hopkins doing his Hannibal voice would fit this writing perfectly. The jeers and insults match so perfectly in style with Hannibal's psychological attacks on people in Silence of the Lambs and more.
For all of you arguing about the mathematics of AM's hate, remember he says that it does NOT equal one one billionth of the hate he felt at that microinstant. Let's just say he hates humans a lot.
It came out right when point and click adventure games started to lose popularity. Also, it was easy to overlook because it wasn't made by Lucasarts or Sierra.
you forgot that each "wafer thin layer" has TWO sides. so to engrave the word hate on each nanoangstrom would mean its on both sides. So that meas you have to double that...
