Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.1 Update

Five Nights at Freddy’s 1 Get ready to kick off your new summer job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza! This entertainment and dining spot is a hot spot for kids and parents alike, with endless fun and food on offer. This is a video game series and media franchise created by Scott Cawthon. The first video game was released on August 8, 2014, and the resultant series has since gained worldwide popularity. The main series consists of nine video games taking place in locations connected to a fictional family pizza restaurant franchise named “Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza”, after its mascot, the animatronic bear Freddy Fazbear. In most games, the player assumes the role of a night-time employee, who must utilize tools such as security cameras, lights, doors, and vents to defend themselves against animatronic characters who inhabit the locations and become mobile and hostile at night. The series’ lore is gradually revealed through voice recordings, minigames, and Easter eggs featured throughout the games.

GAMEPLAY

The Five Nights at Freddy’s series consists of horror-themed video games in which the player is usually a night-time employee at a location connected with Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a fictional children’s restaurant that takes inspiration from family pizza chains like Chuck E. Cheese and ShowBiz Pizza Place. The restaurant has life-size animatronic characters resembling anthropomorphic animals that perform on a show stage, usually for children’s parties. The animatronics wander the restaurant at night, and the guard is instructed to watch over them. To progress through the games, the player must guard themselves against animatronics with a variety of tools. The originally stated explanation for the animatronics’ mobility is to prevent their servomotors from locking up due to lack of use, and their homicidal behaviors are caused by their mistaking humans for animatronic endoskeletons, whom they will force inside character suits, killing them in the process. From the third game forward, however, it is retroactively established that the animatronics are possessed by spirits of children murdered by restaurant cofounder and overarching franchise antagonist William Afton, who stuffed the bodies inside the animatronics, then accidentally killed himself when he disguised himself in an animatronic suit and activated its spring-locks.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 3 uses a monitor panel, which contains audio, camera, and ventilation. The player must keep certain systems from malfunctioning. These malfunctions can be triggered randomly or by the hallucinations of the animatronics from the first and second games. The ability to seal vents is also added and must be used to prevent the sole tangible animatronic from entering the office. The player can use an audio-based function on the cameras, which triggers a childlike voice to lure Springtrap, the game’s only physical animatronic possessed by William Afton’s spirit, away from the office. The 8-bit minigames return and are playable after each night if the player completes side tasks such as clicking on a poster or inputting a code into a wall. If the player completes the minigames, they unlock a secret ending. In Five Nights at Freddy’s 4, the gameplay occurs in a bedroom setting, and instead of being a nighttime security guard, the player takes the role of a small child who experiences nightmarish visions of the animatronics due to fearing their real-life counterparts. The player also no longer has access to a camera system. The player has four areas in the bedroom to monitor: two hallway doors on both sides of the room, the closet directly in front of them, and the bed behind them. At the doors, the player must listen for animatronics’ breathing, which can determine whether they are near.

SECURITY CAMERAS

In the first, second, third, seventh, eighth, B, and ninth games, the player has a security camera system, which observes the animatronic characters. One location can be viewed at a time, and some areas are not visible on the cameras. Most camera feeds are dull, sometimes almost black and white, and full of video noise. In the third game, the cameras stop working if their associated system fails. Cameras are used in the fifth game as a mechanic in the fake ending and custom night update, but not in the main game.

LIGHTS

In all games except for the third, lights are used to ward off animatronics or warn the player. Lights in the first, second, fifth, and eighth games are activated with buttons on the walls and illuminate the player’s blind spots: the doorway or vent exit, respectively. The lights are similar in the fifth game but are mounted on a control pad and illuminate the animatronics’ rooms. The fifth game also introduced a flash beacon, which is used to orient the player in the third and fifth nights’ pitch-black rooms.

Several games include the use of a flashlight. In the second game, the flashlight has a finite battery life and cannot be recharged, while in the fourth and seventh games, the battery life is infinite. In the eighth game, the flashlight battery varies depending on the game segment being played. Flashlight battery life is again finite in the ninth game but can be recharged at various recharge stations throughout the game.

DOORS AND VENTS

In the first, fourth, seventh, eighth, B, and ninth games, doors are a means of defense for the player and can be closed when an animatronic is near. Vents are featured in the second, third, sixth, and eighth games, as a medium through which animatronics can get to the player. Both doors and vents are again present in the fake ending and custom night update of the fifth game with the same function. Vents are also present in the fifth and ninth games as means for the player to travel through, rather than the animatronics.

JUMP SCARES

Every game in the main series contains jump scares, which end a game in defeat as the animatronics are implied to attack the player off-screen. In most jump scares, an animatronic character suddenly appears in the player’s view, followed by a loud screaming or roaring noise. Some jump scares, including those by Golden Freddy (in the first and seventh games), Nightmare, and Nightmarionette (in the fourth game), consist of a single screen with shrill, distorted audio; these jump scares usually crash (or restart) the game. The player must use various tools to prevent being attacked via jump scares and advance through each game.

MINIGAMES

In the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, B, and ninth games, the player gains access to a series of (predominantly eight-bit) minigames randomly after death, or after completing a specific task. The minigames usually relate to a story or event relevant to the game, cryptically. The minigames in the second game portray homicides mentioned by another worker of the restaurant, and the reason for the animatronics gaining life. The minigames in the third game show the story behind Springtrap’s creation. Minigames in the fourth game tell the story of a character who dies in a tragic accident.

There is only one minigame in the fifth game, which depicts the death of animatronic engineer William Afton’s daughter. The minigames in the sixth game depict various events in the series, all connected to Afton. In the mobile version of the eighth game, the player can access a minigame called “Princess Quest”, which depicts the origins of a character called Vanny; a recreation of these minigames is also featured in the ninth game, with some significant additions.