As always, I recommend watching the source material before you get going! (And Internet Story, too)

What Happened to Crow 64?:
https://youtu.be/irEb9TS9yEk​



Internet Story:
https://youtu.be/g-SL4ejpP94

Here's my thinking. Manfred's daughter fell down the stairs in their house and either broke her neck or hit her head. Either way, she fell into a coma and was unable to breathe without the use of a machine. Manfred and Marta argued about whether or not to take her off life support, Manfred wanting to keep his daughter living. I think the call represents his wife calling at work to tell him that she is having the doctors pull the plug on their daughter. The end scene in the bedroom shows him arriving too late to save his daughter...but just in time to see her die. The water might represent a sensation of drowning that he felt in that moment. The moment the player was gone.

I really like the fact that in the "crow language" 'Crow' translates to 'Thea'. It really brings home the fact that the Crow is an insert for Lorenz' daughter.

The eBay seller could be the son. Considering the seller mentioned he found the game in a box in his cellar.  It was kind of like telling the ending of a story before reaching the mystery. Son finds his dad's game. He sells it cheap since he wants to put that part of his life behind him. And in the end, making the whole mystery a tragedy, out of the countless people putting all this effort into solving it, the only person that really matters has no interest in it. I would like that if that were the case. Makes this creepypasta style story interesting.

Thea’s death was probably caused by head trauma after falling down a staircase. all the references to heads glitching, “we can’t see into another’s mind”, Thea’s body in her bed being headless, etc

I think another thing that makes Catastrophe Crow much more believable than other “haunted video games” is that it’s an original IP rather than an existing one. Sure, a haunted version of Link seems creepy on the surface, but knowing well that the game exists in the real world and other copies AREN’T haunted, it’s much less plausible than this

"Its better to show it than try to describe it"
The crow:  ascends

The falling down the stairs and the mutilated crow in bed are pretty obvious.
“She fell without a sled, and she lost her head.”
(Edit: I’m bad a rhyming.)

The little crow having bandages on a wing is a nice way, using only the environmental narrative, to show he can't fly, making the platforming gameplay way more beliavable. That's something you don't see in real great games even today.

Old School OG ghosts: Boo

New age millennial ghosts: Yo, wanna do some morse code and cipher puzzles to find out why I'm fucked up?

that one picture of the arches looks an awful lot like ribs

Fitting that the monsters in a game about crows are.. scarecrows

If the development cart was put in a box meant for Nils, and the Development Cart was found in an attic and sold on ebay...

The scariest part of this game is the fact that they named it catastrophe crow instead of CrowTastrophe

unfiction: were gonna gaslight you to the point where you question reality, and youll like it

For once, it's one I'm actually aware of PRIOR to Nick covering it.

This is an incredibly awesome unfiction piece, but for some reason the part that'll stick out in my mind is the fact if you jump, even if you're in a place that's clearly meant to be haunting, you'll just hear boing.wav

Honestly, I wish more ARGs would have the games actually playable. So many of them look lovely but I'd REALLY like an ARG To allow the file be open and playable and allow people to post about easter eggs on their own as time goes on. I saw this one long ago and the graphics kinda made me think ofc its fake but i love the attempt at a Rare studio style look!

What I like the most about this ARG is that nothing about it seems to suggest it's haunted in any way. This is just a macabre piece of interactive art, crafted by a mind mentally and emotionally shattered by tragedy. No ghosts, no digitized consciousness- just a sphinx of a game who's riddle we have yet to truly solve

"I was just thinking about you" is the creepiest most positive thing you can say to someone