Please Insert Disc: A Horror Game About PS2’s Red Screen

From the creators of Home Safety Hotline, Night Signal Entertainment explores the PS2 operating system. Their newest puzzle horror adventure revolves around the console’s early build experiencing the Red Screen of Death. Only now, something appears to be possessing your PS2.

Night Signal Entertainment

Night Signal Entertainment released its first game on Nov. 7th, 2022. The game, Night Signal, is a short first-person horror inspired by The Twilight Zone. It was praised for its gameplay matching the game’s setting and aesthetics. Taking place in the 1960s, you eliminate anomalies using a remote control. Adjusting the TV antennas and reading channel guides helps you keep track of them. Lead developer Nick Lives wanted to explore how simulations can develop analog horror.

His concept holds true in Night Signal Entertainment’s next game, Home Safety Hotline. By using a Windows ‘98 PC interface and dial-up internet, an unsettling atmosphere is built. You play as a hotline employee that will offer callers home protection advice. The disturbing audio and 32-bit photos are your only perception of the world. As the employee continues working, they discover the safety service is a mythic organization.

Red Screen of Death

In the next Night Signal Entertainment Game, Please Insert Disc, the setting will be in the early 2000s. Sony and Microsoft were in heated competition for their next-gen consoles, the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The PS2 won for its multiple functions including playing DVD/CDs and backward compatibility with PS1 games. Its hardware struggled with reading discs, leading players to a red error screen. The PS2 will ask the user to insert the appropriate game disc even if it is one.

Gamers called this error “The Red Screen of Death.” There are a couple of reasons why it occurs in game consoles and causes them to become unplayable. The PS2 can suffer from overheating, a faulty power supply or disc reader, or a damaged motherboard. Many PS2 owners remember the distorted PS2 howl scared them when the red screen appeared.

Please Insert Disc’s Trailer

Please Insert Disc
Photo courtesy of Night Signal Entertainment

On Please Insert Disc’s official Steam page, the announcement trailer showcases the puzzle gameplay. Like Home Safety Hotline, you will be playing with a system interface. Your NeptuNe2 has encountered a disc error while playing Hell Grinders. By navigating through the configure menu, you attempt to fix it using troubleshooting methods. 

When you check the memory cards, there are two save files of Hell Grinders with the first named Tony. According to the Steam page’s description, the system may be ashamed of your actions. The final screenshot of the game of something or someone saying, “Please let me out.” It is unknown if the entity is Tony or a monster trapped in the NeptuNe2.

On First Impressions

So far, Please Insert Disc looks very confident in its development. Night Signal Entertainment has successfully replicated the PS2 configuration menu UI. The animations, graphics, and sounds captured that 2000s nostalgia for PlayStation owners. Hell Grinders on Tony’s file is a clever reference to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series.

Please Insert Disc could be hinting that players will experience different gameplay. The memory card shows three other games: Max Toad 2, Quiet Manor 3, and BeatBOT. Each will have gameplay that will correlate with a puzzle that must be solved. The horror factor feels more paranormal from its current preview. Nevertheless, Please Insert Disc promises to provide tension through the atmosphere alone.

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