Silent hills demo: 7 years after it was delisted, P.T. fans struggle to save it

7 years after it was delisted, P.T. fans struggle to save it

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DeAngelo Epps

April 29, 2022

In August 2014, a historic video game collaboration took place. Hideo Kojima, film director Guillermo del Toro, and publisher Konami came together to create a free downloadable title called “Playable Teaser,” or P.T. This interactive teaser for the the upcoming entry in the Silent Hill series, Silent Hills, became an immediate talking point among fans and started a long, odd journey that represents all Konami has become.

Contents

A new era of horror
The fight to save P.T.
Konami strikes back

P.T. — Gamescom 2014 Trailer

Konami achieved the impossible with the help of two masterminds and changed the world of gaming horror with a simple demo that served as a peek at what promised to be the most ambitious horror game of a generation. But less than a year later, on April 29, 2015, Konami pulled the plug, removing P.T. from the PlayStation store and canceling Silent Hills. This swift shutdown prompted a war over history between fans who wanted to see a pivotal moment preserved and a company that wanted it scrubbed from the record entirely.

A new era of horror

P.T. is a game that is still praised for being one of the most experimental and complex horror experiences there is. Seemingly taking notes from a newer generation of mainstream and indie horror games, P.T. evolved from the classic third-person view of older Silent Hill games and took horror into first-person territory. That not only made the scares scarier, but it helped create a more immersive world — if you can consider a looping hallway and two rooms a world.

But that loop is where the true horror lies. As players make their way through the house countless times, more disparities appear. The maddening journey sparked feelings of mystery, insanity, and anxiety within the hallowed halls. Random jump scares and cryptic puzzles helped build a sense of growing dread, reminding players that they were still playing a classic survival-horror game.

The teaser received praise from casual players and critics alike. For weeks, no one could stop talking about P.T. Despite the acclaim, Konami shut down the Silent Hills project and took P.T. down with it. The playable teaser was removed from the PlayStation store and further downloads, including reinstallations from those with a license for the game, were blocked.

What Konami didn’t realize was a game with over 1 million downloads wasn’t going to be taken down so easily.

Silent Hills P.T. Complete Walkthrough with Ending

The fight to save P.T.

The initial reaction to the teaser’s delisting was about what one would expect from the internet. It prompted thousands of angry reactions from social media, petitions to bring back the game, and opportunists who began selling PlayStation 4s with P. T. installed on eBay, with some listings in the four-figure range. You can even look now and find PS4 listings still advertising an installed version of P.T. as a plus.

For those of us that can’t spend $1,000 on a whim for a movie-length experience, a few cape-less heroes emerged and tried their best to save us from a teaser-less future.

R.T. — Launch Trailer (Xbox One)

In October 2014, a fan-made remake of P.T. brought horror to Xbox consoles through Microsoft’s game creator, Project Spark. This remake, titled R.T., reimagined the demo in the game-maker’s engine and was quickly celebrated by those who missed out the first time or wanted another taste of the demo. Unfortunately, that project vanished when Xbox did away with Project Spark and its servers in 2016. Another remake came in the form of a ground-up PC version that was quickly shut down by Konami, keeping P.T. in the dark for that much longer.

During this remake frenzy, fans scrambled to keep P. T. alive in various other ways. Twitch streamer Lance McDonald recently recounted how those with download licenses attempted to use a proxy server to redirect P.T.‘s .json and .pkg links to a custom one, allowing for further download of the game on jailbroken PlayStation 4’s.

Despite Konami’s takedown of the game and deletion of its .json and .pkg files from PlayStation servers, the attempt from fans was a success and those with the right know-how returned the game to their consoles. But Konami wasn’t going to let the horror story have a happy ending.

Konami strikes back

Reports show that Konami went out of its way to blacklist P.T. from the PlayStation 5, as the company told GamesRadar: “[P.T.] will not be available on the PS Store, so users won’t be able to re-download the content through the backward-compatibility feature to the PS5.”

A Polygon report showed that the game once worked thanks to data transfer from PS4 to PS5, so what went wrong? Well, that same report carries a statement from Sony stating that the choice to end P. T.’s new-gen compatibility “was a publisher decision.”

The push to recreate the experience stands as a testament to how far fans will go to save something they see as important.

P.T.‘s story marked the beginning and quick evolution of the gaming horror genre into a new beast altogether. Its gameplay formula and philosophies were and still are praised for the new elements it brought to the table, and its presence is felt in many projects in the genre that followed behind (looking at you Resident Evil 7 and Visage).

Years later, there is no official way to legally play P.T. due to Konami’s decision to wipe the game from everywhere possible despite a strong outcry from fans, casual players, and critics alike. This story highlights another complicated battle for game preservation that gaming fans fight on a regular basis.

The only ways to experience the Silent Hill sequel that could have been are through a spotty PS4 jailbreak method, dropping a dime on an overpriced console, or playing the unofficial PC remake, Unreal PT. No matter the choice, the push to recreate the experience stands as a testament to how far fans will go to save something they see as important despite Konami, the game’s actual creator, not seeing things the same.

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Silent Hills P.T. Walkthrough — Silent Hill Memories

Beginning

You start lying on a floor in a concrete chamber. After the protagonist stands up, move through the door into a L-shaped hallway.

This is the main location of the demo. There are four points of interest in this hallway: a small cabinet with a digital clock to the right at the beginning of the hallway, a cabinet with the phone at the corner, a bathroom just around the corner and the last cabinet with a radio in the foyer before the exit door. Your task is to move through the hallway to the end and exit through the door at the bottom of the stairs, after which you’ll re-appear at the beginning of the hallway as if trapped in some sort of a space/time loop. That is what we’ll call a «cycle». During each cycle you’ll need to accomplish various puzzles to advance to the next cycle.

First Locked Door

Move through the hallway. You can stop by the radio to listen to the story, then proceed through the exit door. Go through the area until you’ll bump into a locked exit door. Backtrack past the digital clock around the corner, then return to the stairwell door which should be now open. Notice some banging inside the bathroom as you pass by. Go through the exit door into the next cycle.

Collecting the Photo Fragments
(optional)

This puzzle is actually optional. You can do it at any stage of the game during various cycles and it is not required to finish the demo. It may, however, provide some clues for the final puzzle.

You need to locate six pieces of a torn photo to complete the photo above the clock cabinet. To collect them, find the fragment and zoom in (R3) until you’ll see a phrase on your screen.

The first fragment is inside the plant’s pot to the right at the start of the hallway.
The second fragment is nearby, on the floor by the clock cabinet.
The third fragment is in the very corner of the hallway near the teddy bear on the floor.
The fourth fragment is behind the right pillar after you pass the bathroom – search closer to the ceiling.
The fith fragment is at the bottom of the stairs near the exit door.
To find the last fragment you need to open the menu (Select) and press R3 to collect it from the brightness indicator.

By the way, here are the phrases you’ll get by collecting the photo fragments:

Portuguese:
Sussurrei seu nome
(I whispered your name)
Mas o vento da noite levou sua voz embora (But the wind of the night took your voice away)
Italian:
Non mi mossi più nell’attesa inerte
(I didn’t move anymore during the waiting)
Poi il suo indice scivolò sulla mia mano
(Then his finger slipped on my hand)
Japanese:
つめたい手でした (It was a cold hand)
からだがふるえました (Body was trembling)
English:
Never moving a step, his hand in mine
I waited for it to pass
German:
Und durch Nebel schwindenden Bewusstseins
(And through the mist of fading consciousness)
Glaubte ich ein telefon zu hören
(I believed, I heard a phone)

Second Locked Door / Ghost in the Bathroom

In this cycle the stairwell door will shut as you approach. Try to open it, then turn around to find out that the bathroom door is slightly open releasing some cockroaches. Get close to the opening and stare into the dark (R3) to get a scary image of a ghost, after which the door will slam shut. The stairwell door now opens, so continue through the area.

Ghost in the Hallway

As you move through the hallway, you’ll come across a vision of a ghostly figure standing next to the radio cabinet. Continue walking forward and the lights will go out. Just continue throught the exit door after that.

Open Bathroom

In this cycle the door of the bathroom will open as you walk towards it. Go inside and collect the flashlight on the floor by zooming in. The bathroom door closes trapping you inside. Zoom in at the crying little creature in the bathroom sink triggering some noise from the hallway and door rattling, then look at the scratched mirror above the sink. After some time the noise will stop and the door will open freeing you. Go to the exit door in order to begin a new cycle.

Portrait

The hallway is now dark. Proceed around the corner and approach the radio cabinet at the far end of the hallway. Look at the portrait of a couple – the message on it says «Gouge it out!» Punch a hole in the photo by pressing X. This will unlock the exit door. Continue to the next cycle.
Notice the message above the exit door: «Forgive me, Lisa. There’s a monster inside of me.»

Hanging Fridge
/ HELLO!

Move through the area – a window will fall down just in front of you in the foyer. Notice a seemingly incomplete message on the left wall of the foyer: «I can hear them calling to me from». Go through the exit and make another loop. The foyer before the exit is now glowing in red and a bloody fride is hanging from above. Continue through the exit door to begin the next loop. The whole hallway is now lit up in red. Approach the phone cabinet to find the word «HELLO!» scratched on the wall next to it. Move back and forth from the telephone to the wall message in the foyer to transfer all the letters from one place to another (alternatively you can just revert your gaze from the wall to collect all the letters in one go) and finish the message: «I can hear them calling to me from HELL». After you do that, continue through the exit door.

Infinite Red Hallways

Pass through the hallway one more time and you’ll get into a nightmarish version of the location with deep red illumination and twitching eyeball paintings. You can now move much faster through the area. Run forward and keep looking at the right wall to find a spot with a peep hole. It should be just outside the bathroom. Look into a hole (R3) until the scene is finished. You’ll get the message «No turning back now» just above the peep hole. You may go into the open bathroom to hear a message from the creature in the sink, then get to the exit door and start the next cycle.

Glitches

The hallway seems to return to its normal state. You can keep going forward or just stand and after some amount of time you’ll start getting display distortions and the game will seemingly crash with a colored screen of death (the color of the screen may be various).

Final Puzzle
– Baby Laughter

The demo will restart itself and you’ll begin in the concrete chamber once again. Go through the door into the hallway to solve the last puzzle.

In the last cycle you need to trigger three baby giggles. First thing you need to do after you step into the corridor is to wait until the clock turns to 00:00 (in the meantime you can either stand still or freely walk around the place). Once the bell begins ringing, you can trigger either of the two baby laughs below at ANY time and in ANY order.

Baby laugh #1
From any location, move your character 10 full steps in any direction, and be sure to stop IMMEDIATELY on your 10th step. You can even walk up against a wall. This should trigger the first baby laugh.

Baby laugh #2
From any location, speak into your Playstation microphone the letter «J» (or «Jay») and then stay completely silent for at least 3 FULL seconds (you do not have to be exceptionally loud or articulate when saying «J»). Continue to say «J» into the mic between at least 3 full-second intervals of silence. After saying «J» a total of three, four, or even five times (just keep saying it), this should trigger the second baby laugh.

Baby laugh #3
After you get the second laugh, your controller should vibrate for a few seconds. Stand still and do absolutely nothing and you should get the third and final giggle. The telephone starts ringing. Approach it, zoom in and you’ll get the message «You’ve been chosen». The door is unlocked and you’re free to go outisde and watch that Silent Hills trailer.

Demonstration of the deceased Silent Hill, which was supposed to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive

A lot of interesting things are going on in the depths of the gaming industry. However, some events only surface after many years. For example, enthusiast Andrew Borman (Andrew Borman) unearthed a prototype of 2006, which later could turn into an exclusive Silent Hill for the PlayStation 3.

0005 Silent Hill: Origins for PlayStation Portable. The team really wanted to do something for next generation consoles and offered Konami their version of Silent Hill for PlayStation 3. throughout the southwestern United States. Next to modern buildings, buildings from the 18th century arose, and their size could be simply huge. So the frightened little girl saw at home. nine0007

Some buildings seemed like a mirage in the desert, others grew out of the ground, others fell from the sky, others appeared like a kind of reverse tornado, and so on. Climax assured that this approach would make a seamless world without downloads.

The action was moved from Silent Hill to Arizona. We were supposed to play as the priest Hector Santos. The main character’s sister lost her husband. She got rid of the grief among the Silent Hill cultists who came to Arizona. The woman began to consider Anna, Hector’s niece, the next Alessa. The priest heard a plea for help from Anna and went to look for her. nine0007

The protagonist could perform all sorts of rites and purification rituals. Climax also wanted to introduce vehicles and the ability to build barricades to keep monsters out. Both nurses and creatures from the first Silent Hill were supposed to appear in the game, and, of course, the pyramid head.

But Konami refused to green-light the project. Climax had to rename the game to Broken Covenant and get rid of links with Silent Hill . Over time, the authors began to think about how to turn their brainchild into an episodic series and release it on the Xbox 360, abandoning the exclusivity for the PlayStation 3. But nothing helped: other publishers were not interested, and the developments were eventually sent to the archive.

The video below is by no means a demo or a finished excerpt. This is only a prototype, the so-called «pitch» — a rough sketch, assembled on the knee in a short time. Its sole purpose is to show publishers the overall vision of the project. Therefore, for example, the detailing of the environment is zero, and the model of the main character is taken from Silent Hill: Origins .

Creepy school corridors and encounter with a monster in a demonstration of a fan-made remake of Silent Hill on Unreal Engine 5

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Amid rumors piling up about new games in development in the cult horror series Silent Hill , Team Codeless Studio presented its own remake of the very first part of the franchise in 1999 on a modern engine.

Using the Unreal Engine 5 toolkit, enthusiasts have already begun to recreate the Midwich Elementary School from the first part of Silent Hill, demonstrating their achievements in a 10-minute video.

The video shows the exploration of the updated environment, fighting monsters with firearms, and inventory.

It is noted that the studio is going to remake the entire game, transferring all locations, scenes, battles and puzzles to the new engine. The result will be posted online, but when this happens is still unknown.

According to rumors, Konami itself approved the creation of a remake of Silent Hill 2 by the Polish studio Bloober Team .

Read also : Reggie Fis-Aime: New retro consoles from Nintendo are unlikely, you need to add Wii and GameCube games to Switch Online . nine0008

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