The Clock Tower Gallery
A girl, a mansion, and a boy with scissors, twice kept behind the Japan door.
Clock Tower begins in 1995 on the Super Famicom, a point and click horror film about an unarmed girl hiding from a child with giant shears, made as one man's homage to Dario Argento. Its sequel reached the West renamed as the first game. Its spin off reached the West renamed as the second. Its fourth game was made by a film director after the founding company had gone bankrupt. And its first game, the one that started all of it, did not officially leave Japan for twenty nine years.
Every cover below is a door. Behind it sits the game's history, how Human Entertainment and its successors made it and how its own era received it, and behind that, the questions its fans still ask. Start anywhere. The doors all open.
CLOCK TOWER
Human Entertainment · Super Famicom · 1995
Japan · 1995
Jennifer's pale profile in blue dark under the stacked CLOCK TOWER lettering, Human's name at the foot. A horror film poster in a game box's shape.
America · Never released
No American box exists: the original was never released in the West in its era, on any of its six platforms. The West's first Clock Tower was its sequel. The gap closed only in 2024, with Rewind.
The History
How Clock Tower was made, and how it was received: the Argento homage, the running away gamble, and Famitsu screaming.
The Japan Door
Why did the first Clock Tower never leave Japan? No reason is on record. The 29 year trail is.
The Inspiration
What inspired Clock Tower? Argento, and Phenomena above all, by its director's own account.
CLOCK TOWER (1996)
Human Entertainment · PlayStation · 1996
Japan · 1996
Clock Tower 2, photographed as the jewel case it shipped in: Jennifer in blue light, a silhouetted figure stooping at her side, Human presents a Horror Adventure.
America · 1997
The sequel wearing the first game's name: Scissorman raising the bloodied shears over his own head, ASCII's logo where Human's stood in Japan.
CLOCK TOWER: GHOST HEAD
Human Entertainment · PlayStation · 1998
Japan · 1998
Ghost Head. A red oni face filling the box, teeth bared under the white title, cropped here from a photograph of the complete package.
America · 1999
The Struggle Within. Alyssa Hale and the face of Mr. Bates behind her, the II this game never carried in Japan worked into the title in red.
