History VideoGame / DeadOfTheBrain

* [[AmazingTechnicolorWildlife Amazing Technicolor Wildlife]]: Kitty/Shrodinger's fur is inexplicably a bright purple (and it isn't a [[HairColorDissonance stylized black]], either, since there's a good few minor characters with regular-looking black hair).

* [[EyeScream Eye Scream]]: Cole ends up having to take out the first zombie he encounters by driving his thumbs into its eyes so far that they pierce its brain.

* AttemptedRape: Sheila almost gets raped by two members of the Bloody Foxes, but thankfully is saved by Kane after he kills one of them and the other seconds later [[ISurrenderSuckers after he faked being remorseful]].

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Subverted. [[spoiler:Kane initially accepts he's going to get killed, saying sorry to Cole and asking him to avenge his family. As soon as his body begins to rot however, Kane dies [[UndignifiedDeath desperately screaming for help]]]]. This only happens in the Retronomicon translation, for in the other translations [[spoiler:Kane just asks Cole to take care of Sheila. He still dies screaming, but does not utter a word]].

* MeaningfulName: Cooger's cat is renamed Schrodinger in the Retronomicon translation; after all, he's both dead ''and'' alive.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Cooger's toying around with something as serious as a reanimation serum has pretty much caused an outbreak; [[spoiler:Becomes downplayed later as it's revealed that it was Guol who was the perpetrator behind the outbreaks since he intentionally sent Kiel to steal it and caused the outbreak way before the events of the game actually occurred, using Cooger's good intentions as a stepping stool for his agenda]].

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: Guol kills Kane by trapping him in a giant vat and releasing a necrotizing poison that [[MakeThemRot causes him to dissolve into sludge]] while he's still alive and conscious. Then he starts flooding the room with it in an attempt to kill Cole and Sheila.]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Subverted. [[spoiler:Kane initially accepts he's going to get killed, saying sorry to Cole and asking him to avenge his family. As soon as his body begins to rot, however, Kane dies [[UndignifiedDeath desperately screaming for help]]]].

Best described as a Japanese dev team taking a swing at the pulpy, ultraviolent zombie stories popular in the west at the time (such as ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'', ''Film/ReAnimator'' and ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978''), the game begins with Cole, a building painter living in New York who just got home after working for his demanding boss. After cleaning off, he receives a call from Doctor Hamilton Cooger who just succeeded in creating a reanimation serum that brings the dead back to life; in this case, his dead cat was the test subject. Trouble ensues after his cat kills Officer Jack who was investigating the racket his experiment made, and Cooger decides to use the serum to bring him back with the assumption that it won't have any nasty repercussions.

The game was never officially released in English, but three fan translations exist -- a 2019 translation patch by Retronomicon for the PC-98 version, a 2023 translation patch by [=WINE=], also for the PC-98 version, and a 2023 translation patch for the PC Engine version by Dave Shadoff. All of these translations were done by separate teams, and the Retronomicon patch notably takes more liberties with translations than the others do.

* ActionSurvivor: Cole and Kane are this; the former is a painter who's basically just trying to figure out how to stop the outbreak from getting any worse, and the latter is a journalist trying to run away from the outbreak and just ends up running into another hotspot.
* AttemptedRape: Shela almost gets raped by two members of the Bloody Foxes, but thankfully is saved by Kane after he kills one of them and the other seconds later [[ISurrenderSuckers after he faked being remorseful]].
* BickeringCouplePeacefulCouple: Sally and Ray are constantly bickering over how to handle the outbreak, whereas Cole and Shela are relatively tranquil with each other.
* BigBad: [[spoiler:Guol is revealed to be the instigator behind the entire outbreak, using Cooger's serum to run his own experiments on those he kidnapped and to give himself and Kiel eternal life due to having the proper effect on the living]].

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: Guol kills Kane by trapping him in PeopleJars and releasing a necrotizing poison that [[MakeThemRot causes him to dissolve into sludge whilst still alive to feel it]]. Then he starts flooding the room with it in an attempt to kill Cole and Shela.]]
* TheDragon: [[spoiler:Kiel was this to Guol, albeit reluctantly; he was blackmailed into breaking into Cooger's lab and stole the first serum he created]].

* FaceDeathWithDignity: Subverted. [[spoiler:Kane initially accepts he's going to get killed, saying sorry to Cole and asking him to avenge his family. As soon as his body begins to rot, Kane dies [[UndignifiedDeath desperately screaming for help]]]].
* FailureHero: Cole tends to regard himself as such, [[spoiler:given that he fails to save anyone but Shela]].
* GratuitousJapanese: Cooger names his sword Rashomon after one of the Jidaigeki films he watched with Shela.

* MeaningfulName: Cooger's cat is renamed Schrodinger in the Retronomicon translation due to this trope; he's both dead ''and'' alive.
* TheMole: [[spoiler: Kiel and Jack were this to Guol, as the former was meant to keep the other survivors in line at the hotel, and the latter was ''supposed'' to assassinate Cooger in his home the night Cole visited]].

** The outbreak [[spoiler:seemingly]] beginning when Cooger drops his serum in the graveyard and it washes down into the soil, the zombie's raggedy appearance, hunger for brains and ability to "turn" anyone they bite, and the discovery of the massacred police station all homage ''Film/ReturnOfTheLivingDead'', with a little of ''Film/DawnOfTheDead'' thrown in for good measure.

* StupidScientist: Played for drama; Cooger's obsession with defying death and making a serum that could resurrect anything it touches not only caused him [[NiceJobBreakingItHero to get an officer killed thanks to his undead cat]] [[spoiler: due to his inability to use it correctly, it gets him killed at the hotel and it also gave Guol the tool he needed to cause a catastrophic undead outbreak ''before'' the events of the game]].

* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:Kiel and Jack are such due to being blackmailed into doing Guol's bidding; to make matters worse, the former's family are ''still'' harmed even after he got rid of all the survivors from the abandoned Hotel, sans for Cathy and Shela]].

* WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler:Pretty much every character introduced in the game except for Cole and Shela are subject to this]].

Best described as a Japanese dev team taking a swing at the pulpy, ultraviolent zombie movies popular in the west at the time (such as ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'', ''Film/ReAnimator'' and ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978''), the game begins with Cole, a building painter living in New York who just got home after working for his demanding boss. After cleaning off, he receives a call from Doctor Hamilton Cooger who just succeeded in creating a reanimation serum that brings the dead back to life; in this case, his dead cat was the test subject. Trouble ensues after his cat kills Officer Jack who was investigating the racket his experiment made, and Cooger decides to use the serum to bring him back with the assumption that it won't have any nasty repercussions.

Best described as a Japanese dev team taking a swing at the pulpy, ultraviolent zombie movies popular in the west at the time (such as ''Film/TheReturnOfTheLivingDead'', ''Film/ReAnimator'' and ''Film/DawnOfTheDead''), the game begins with Cole, a building painter living in New York who just got home after working for his demanding boss. After cleaning off, he receives a call from Doctor Hamilton Cooger who just succeeded in creating a reanimation serum that brings the dead back to life; in this case, his dead cat was the test subject. Trouble ensues after his cat kills Officer Jack who was investigating the racket his experiment made, and Cooger decides to use the serum to bring him back with the assumption that it won't have any nasty repercussions.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dead_of_the_brain.PNG]]

'''''Dead of the Brain''''' is a horror-based AdventureGame (of the PointAndClickGame variety) created in 1992 by Japanese game developer [=FairyTale=]. Known as '''''Shiryou no Sakebi''''' in its native Japan, it was released by IDES for the PC-9801. It also has the honor of being the very last official game released for the PC Engine CD, in the form of a two-game bundle of Dead of the Brain and its sequel published by NEC in 1999.

The game begins with Cole, a building painter living in New York who just got home after working for his demanding boss. After cleaning off, he receives a call from Doctor Hamilton Cooger who just succeeded in creating a reanimation serum that brings the dead back to life; in this case, his dead cat was the test subject. Trouble ensues after his cat kills Officer Jack who was investigating the racket his experiment made, and Cooger decides to use the serum to bring him back with the assumption that it won't have any nasty repercussions.

The officer comes back...''[[CameBackWrong but with abnormally violent behavior and attempts to chase after Cole and Cooger]]''. As they're running, Cooger drops the serum into a graveyard and begins a city-wide undead outbreak...''or did he''?

It's followed by a sequel, ''VideoGame/DeadOfTheBrain2'', which was released in Japan in 1993. These two games, alongside the unrelated ''VideoGame/MarinePhilt'', make up [=FairyTale's=] "Nightmare Collection", a trilogy of horror games created by the former {{eroge}} publisher after the Saori incident made {{eroge}} seem a less attractive gameline.

* {{Woolseyism}}: The Retronomicon translation takes more liberties with the translation than subsequent translations do, largely in the name of making the story more entertaining.

'''''Dead of the Brain''''' is a horror-based Main/AdventureGame created in 1992 that is played in a point-and-click format.

The game begins with Cole, a building painter living in New York who just got home after working for his demanding boss. After cleaning off, he receives a call from Doctor Hamilton Cooger who just succeeded in creating a reanimation serum that brings the dead back to life; in this case, his dead cat named “Schrodinger” was the test subject. Trouble ensues after his cat kills Officer Jack who was investigating the racket his experiment made, and Cooger decides to use the serum to bring him back with the assumption that it won’t have any nasty repercussions.

It's followed by a sequel, ''VideoGame/DeadOfTheBrain2'', which was released in Japan in 1993.

* IntrepidReporter: Downplayed; Kane is certainly intrepid, but he's not really doing his job as a journalist since he has been actively trying to escape and survive the outbreak instead of covering it while hunting down Cooger, as he associates the outbreak with him.

* MeaningfulName: Cooger's cat is named Schrodinger; he's both dead ''and'' alive.