Atari has announced that it will be releasing a re-imagined version of the classic PC game Alone in the Dark this autumn. The new game, again destined for the PC platform, is called 'Alone in the dark: Illumination'. We also hear that Atari will launch a reboot of its Haunted House game for PCs.

Atari claims that Alone in the dark (AITD) is "the game that started the horror genre". I remember playing the original game on a 486DX PC and the first shocks as ghouls jumped out of cupboards, chests etc to attack my character. Not until the first Resident Evil on PSX did I get such a fright in a game. AITD was launched by Infrogrames in 1992. As well as being a fright pioneer it also was at the forefront of polygonal 3D graphic adventure games.

AITD has already been rebooted; in 2001 as Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare, and in 2008 under the original name of Alone in the Dark on Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii and PC. (It also spawned a poorly rated film in 2005.) The newest rebooted PC gaming instalment will be developed by Pure.

Haunted House first appeared on the Atari 2600 console in 1982. The title has already been rebooted for mobiles and tablets this summer, as an autorunning gesture driven platform game, as you can see in the video trailer below. However it is not known what form the Haunted House game it will take on PCs. Italian developers Dreampainters have previous horror game experience as they were behind the scary first-person PC game 'Anna', reports EuroGamer.

The recent Haunted House mobile video game trailer: