Thus, the excitement I felt at blasting the first few zombies that appear soon gave way to ohbloodyhell as four or five clambered off the floor and started walking towards me. Or whatever the game wanted you to press.īut as fast as you typed, you were never far away from another swarm. Big zombies needed lots of blasts to kill (thus, long words, and occasional sentences), smaller ones could be flicked away with a mere Z. Instead of shooting things, you typed what appeared, and every letter you got right – assuming letters were typed in the right order, and other such demanding details – equated to a blast from your gun. In hindsight, I think it may be one of the most stressful computer games I’ve ever played. That version did make it to the UK eventually, and it’s here where I first encountered it. Still, the game was released in 2000 (although it never got a European Dreamcast release), and a PC conversion arrived later in the year. It wasn’t always the most logical thing to explain to passers by, but personally, I tended to be too engrossed to try.

The characters bashed away on words, as zombies melted away. It did it in a tongue in cheek way, as the game’s characters now carried keyboards with them, and backpacks too, with the necessary processing power. The game really came to prominence, though, when a further Sega division, Smilebit, developed a version of Typing of the Deadfor the Sega Dreamcast. Join Amazon Prime – Watch Thousands of Movies & TV Shows Anytime – Start Free Trial Now

Typing of the dead