Back in the early 1980s, arcade cabinets started to evolve. Graphics sharpened. Music shifted from bleeps to catchy chip-tunes. And then came a voice, a voice raw, distorted, and terrifying:
“I HUNGER!”
I get goosebumps just thinking about it! That voice was, of course, Sinistar — and it gave nightmares.
If you were unlucky enough to play Sinistar as a kid, you still remember that voice. It didn’t just taunt you; it hunted you.
The Rise of the Talking Machine
Developed by Williams Electronics and released in arcades in 1982, Sinistar was one of the first games to feature real-time synthesized speech — not just sampled sounds. Its voice was created using a board known as the Votrax speech chip, capable of generating speech from phonemes on the fly. That meant Sinistar wasn’t just pre-recorded. He was built to speak.
And what did he say?
- “BEWARE, I LIVE.”
- “I AM SINISTAR.”
- “I HUNGER.”
- “RUN! RUN! RUN!”
And the most psychological mocking of all: “RUN, COWARD!”. There was another: a kind of guttural death roar when he was chasing you or killed you.
This doesn’t quite give the same effect, but the voices:
No cute mascot here. No helpful AI companion. Sinistar was a skeletal, screaming space demon who literally assembled himself from parts and then came after you, taunting you all the while, calling you a coward while you tried not to piss yourself, heart thumping.
Imagine you’re eight, standing in a dark arcade. Sultan’s Castle or Aladdin’s Castle — almost all early arcades seemed to have either of the names. All of a sudden, a deep robotic growl erupts from the cabinet. Sinistar has formed. Your hands go sweaty. The joystick slips. He screams “RUN!” And you don’t even have a plan.
Just run.
Gameplay Mechanics from Hell
Sinistar was a multidirectional space shooter that never let you breathe. Players had to mine crystals, convert them into “Sinibombs,” and then use those bombs to destroy Sinistar once he was fully built. The trick? He built himself fast. Enemy workers would gather the same crystals and bring them to a core where Sinistar’s pieces were assembled.
There’s no level break. No safe zone. This wasn’t like modern games that hold your hand through the first few levels and teach you exactling how to play. Once Sinistar forms, he screams and comes at you like an undead Pac-Man from space.
What made the gameplay brutal:
- You had to manually aim bombs while flying away from Sinistar.
- One hit from Sinistar and you died instantly.
- Your only weapon? A stockpile of bombs that often weren’t ready in time.
- The more you played, the louder and more aggressive he became.
The result? A psychological panic loop that still hasn’t been replicated. Resident Evil mastered the jump scare, but nothing has come close to the dread of having no more bombs left and trying to outrun Sinistar.
The Horror Lives On
There were other early talking games (Berzerk (1980) featured robotic taunts like “Intruder alert!” is a particularly beloved one) but Sinistar was the first to combine voice with horror. It wasn’t just a technical gimmick. It made you feel something.
That “I Hunger!” line ranks up there with the most memorable moments in arcade history. And for those of us who played as kids, it wasn’t cool. It was trauma.
I still remember hearing that voice over my shoulder as I ran out of quarters.
You can play Sinistar today in MAME or other emulators. It still gets your heart racing. I let my kids play it a few times and they were both shocked when they first heart his scream. Without the dark, noisy arcade, the sticky floor, and the reek of popcorn and panic, it’s not quite the same, but it will give you an idea.
Want the full experience? Turn the lights off. Crank the volume. And try to stay alive when you hear—
“RUN, COWARD!”
If you played Sinistar back in the day, I want to hear your story. Were you terrified? Did you beat him? Or did you do what most of us did: die screaming and come back for more?
Here is someone who did the impossible and beat him. I never knew anyone who did.
Did you?
❦
 |
David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Bluesky. |