Stories Like Ben Drowned
Ben Drowned defined what haunted-game horror could be when taken seriously as a format. Published in 2010 as a combination of forum posts, video uploads of a genuinely haunted-looking Majora's Mask cartridge, and text logs, it was the first creepypasta to fully exploit the multimedia possibilities of the internet as a horror delivery system. The game behaved in ways that shouldn't be possible. The save file belonged to someone who had apparently drowned. The game knew the player was there.
What Ben Drowned understood about its source material was that The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask was already strange — a game preoccupied with death, time loops, and the faces of the dead. The haunted cartridge version didn't need to invent much; it only needed to escalate what was already there, and to present that escalation in a format that looked like documentation. The YouTube uploads looked real enough to convince people. The text was specific in the way that real accounts are specific. The horror was in the format as much as the content.
If you're looking for stories in that tradition — devices that behave incorrectly, technology that has been accessed by something that wasn't authorised, the specific horror of familiar software becoming unfamiliar — these Night Tales audio stories occupy that territory. Free, narrated, no account required.
Read the Ben Drowned Hall of Fame entry →Night Tales stories you'll like
A Year Skipped in the Memory Implant
Wrong childhood memory · 15 min
In a quiet, near future home where memories back themselves up and the grief AI tends your moods, a parent discovers a missing year hidden in the past and a truth the house refuses to let go.
Corrupted Doorbell at Dawn
Found footage · 7 min
A morning found footage ritual uncovers a home that watches back, turning routine into a slow, irreversible unraveling.
Echoes in the Router
Haunted technology · 15 min
A morning in a sunlit apartment turns into a slow unraveling as haunted devices begin to speak in whispers and glitches, weaving memory, fear, and a warning you cannot ignore.
Sunlight in Static
Found footage · 9 min
A morning found footage ritual unravels as daylight reveals a presence that watches from beyond the frame.
The Birthday Photo Mismatch
Wrong childhood memory · 14 min
A near future memory assistant turns a simple longing into an unwelcome truth as a haunted memory collides with a home that remembers for you.
The Box in the Attic Knows My Name
Wrong childhood memory · 15 min
In a morning that should be ordinary, a narrator unpacks a box of childhood relics and discovers a memory that never happened, uncovering a house that speaks in daylight.