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I Murdered Mommy!

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I Murdered Mommy! is an unfinished CD-ROM game which was to be written, directed and scored by The Residents. The game was developed between 1996 and 1997 as a follow-up to the group's 1996 game Bad Day on the Midway, and was planned for release through publisher iNSCAPE.

The game would have been interactive and structurally complex, with art direction by Mark Ryden, and would have allowed the player to explore "the fantasy life of an emotionally abused 13 year old boy who dressed like a clown and honked a horn instead of speaking".[1]

I Murdered Mommy! was abandoned when iNSCAPE went bankrupt in 1997 and was never completed (although at least one prototype of the game is known to exist). An album consisting of instrumental pieces intended for the game's soundtrack was released in a limited edition on Ralph America in 2004, and reissued by Klanggalerie in 2017.

History[]

After the consistent success of their first three CD-ROM projects (Gingerbread Man, Freak Show, and Bad Day on the Midway), The Residents were encouraged by iNSCAPE to produce another. The group promptly set to work on what they hoped would become their most ambitious title yet: I Murdered Mommy!

I Murdered Mommy! was intended by The Residents to stretch the capabilities of the format to new limits and pave the way for further innovation. iNSCAPE, the company which had released Bad Day on the Midway, had some reservations with the proposed concept, "an interactive game based on the fantasy life of an emotionally abused 13 year old boy", but as Bad Day had sold well they accepted the project.

As Jim Ludtke, the 3D artist and animator who had collaborated with The Residents on their previous CD-ROM projects, had left San Francisco for Los Angeles to develop his own CD-ROM game, the group instead planned to collaborate with artist Mark Ryden for I Murdered Mommy!. Ryden had recently acted as creative director of the acclaimed CD-ROM 9: The Last Resort. Engineering and art production was to be handled by Barbary Coast Interactive.[1]

Unfortunately, shortly afterwards the CD-ROM market took a nosedive due to a mountain of inferior titles and limitations inherent in the medium, and iNSCAPE went under. I Murdered Mommy! was abandoned and shelved by The Residents in Summer 1997, ending an era for the group. Although at least one prototype of the unfinished game is known to exist in The Residents' archives, it has never been released to the public (aside from a single screenshot featured in the 2023 book A Sight for Sore Eyes, Vol. 2).

Cast of characters[]

I Murdered Mommy! cast of characters

I Murdered Mommy! cast of characters

  • The Kid
    • "The Kid is 13 years old, dresses like a clown and honks a horn instead of speaking. He also believes that he killed his mother. Confused by his parents' wildly divergent values, The Kid believes that both are crazy and he lives the majority of his life in a fantasy world, searching for something to believe."[1]
  • The Father
    • "The Father is the owner of the donut shop. His business failures have left him bitter and angry toward a world that has no use for his eccentric imagination. The Father spends most of his time in the basement where his elaborate electric train set connects several shrines dedicated to the end of the world. He passionately believes the apocalypse is near."[1]
  • The Mother
    • "The Mother died under unexplained circumstances some time ago. The Kid believes that he's responsible for his mother's death, but he's never been told how it happened. He carries an enormous burden of guilt and idolizes the memory of his mother."[1]
  • The Stepmother
    • "The Stepmother works behind the counter at the donut shop. Her brief career as an actress in pornographic films resulted in her recognition as a 'safe sex expert'. The Stepmother has a small dog that barks constantly, and she also strongly believes in reincarnation."[1]
  • The Yeast
    • "The Yeast is a bland but pleasant bacteria that broke free from the donut batter and drifted into the sea monkey tank. A close encounter with hot grease has left it impotent. More than anything else, it wants to reproduce."[1]
  • The Atom
    • "Serenely stable, The Atom has no responsibilities to anything other than itself. It's blissfully unaware of all other entities and levels of reality, but it does occasionally ask some interesting questions. The end of the world starts with The Atom."[1]
  • The Aliens
    • "The Aliens are an enigmatic group of humanoid beings whose purpose is unknown to humanity. Their social structure is insect-like with little regard for individuality. They are becoming addicted to and corrupted by television."[1]
  • The Sea Monkey
    • "The Sea Monkey is the last survivor of a once thriving colony in a tiny tank in the donut shop. The death of all of her family and friends have left her in a state of high anxiety. Her emotions hold the potential of great power."[1]
  • The Google God
    • "The Google God is responsible for everything everywhere in every dimension forever. It finds the weight of this responsibility overbearing and worries that the forces of chaos are becoming harder and harder to keep at bay. It worships the simplicity of The Atom."[1]
  • God
    • "While God did create the earth and everything in it, it was originally done for his amusement - like a science experiment or a bowl of goldfish. Like most masters, God has fostered some level of affection for his creations, but recent personal problems with Satan have caused the entity to become distracted, and his level of maintenance has drastically declined."[1]
  • Satan
    • "Satan has also created more than its share of amusing distractions, but none have displayed the entertainment value of humanity. Irritated by God's incessant stories about mankind, Satan has always enjoyed undermining God's efforts, but now it's time to stop playing around."[1]

Soundtrack album[]

Although I Murdered Mommy! was nowhere near completion when work on the project stalled, The Residents had nonetheless completed a number of "sketches" of music for the game to play during pitch meetings.[2] The game was cancelled in Summer 1997, although the CD's 1996 copyright date implies that this material was completed by then.

In 2000, a four minute excerpt from the soundtrack was released on the rarities compilation album dot.com, and in 2004, while the group were at work on the concept album Animal Lover, the unfinished music was collected for release as a 29 minute mini-album with ten distinct tracks.

Release[]

I Murdered Mommy! was made available for pre-order by Ralph America on October 11th 2004,[3] and was premiered on KRVS Radio on October 18th,[4] before its release on November 1st.[5]

The initial release contained ten untitled tracks, with no track listing presented anywhere on the packaging. Some fans wrote to The Cryptic Corporation to ask for the track titles to enter into their digital media players. In response to this, Cryptic webmaster Big Brother published the album's track titles, as provided by The Residents, on the group's official news blog.[6]

I Murdered Mommy! was reissued on Klanggalerie in 2017, with the packaging showcasing concept art from the abandoned game. This version featured the track listing printed on the packaging.

Reception[]

Retrospective[]

In March 2010,[7] freelance music reviewer Mark Prindle described I Murdered Mommy! as a "bland" and "boring" soundtrack comprised of "a bunch of keyboard instrumentals -- not even really songs... just incidental music filled with tiny non-recurring riffs", despite "promising" instances of "clomping tribal percussion, wiggly Eastern melody and gigantic dance rhythm".[8]

Track listing[]

  1. IMM Presentation (4:11)
  2. Video Game (1:56)
  3. Dream Wheel (3:51)
  4. Google God (3:51)
  5. Andy Atom (1:33)
  6. Sea Monkey (1:27)
  7. Search For Truth (4:14)
  8. Breakdown (0:38)
  9. The Shoebox (0:52)
  10. The Game Ends (6:48)

See also[]

External links and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 I Murdered Mommy! liner notes, 2004
  2. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20041018153302/http://residents.com/C1016472556/E1897723941/index.html
  3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20041018192349/http://www.residents.com/C1016472556/E2074942494/index.html
  4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20041014083457/http://www.residents.com:80/
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20041127164354/http://www.residents.com:80/
  6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20041127164354/http://www.residents.com:80/
  7. ↑ Mark Prindle, "The 'What's New?' Page", Mark's Record Reviews, March 13th 2010 (archived via archive.org)
  8. ↑ Mark Prindle, "I Murdered Mommy", Mark's Record Reviews, March 13th 2010
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