Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside

Pajama Sam: No Need to Hide When It's Dark Outside, often called *Pajama Sam 1*, is a point-and-click adventure game that came out in 1996. It was made and published by Humongous Entertainment for Windows and Macintosh. As the first title in the *Pajama Sam* series, it sold close to three million copies and collected 50 awards.

The story follows a young boy named Sam who tries sleeping with his light off for the first time but gets scared of the dark. He pretends to be his superhero idol, Pajama Man, by putting on a blue cape and red mask. He imagines Darkness as a living thing he can freeze with his flashlight and trap in his lunchbox. While searching his closet for Darkness, Sam falls through a portal into the Land of Darkness, a place where the sky is always night. Soon after arriving, some talking trees catch him in a rope snare and take his superhero gear, hiding each piece in a different spot. After escaping, Sam makes friends with a tree who tells him to find his lost items. Along the way, he helps a boat named Otto overcome his fear of sinking and a mine cart named King get unstuck from rust; both help him on his quest. When Sam finally finds his gear and enters Darkness’s bedroom, he discovers Darkness isn’t a bad guy—just lonely and wanting a playmate. Sam befriends him, and they play a game called Cheese and Crackers (like tic-tac-toe). Then Sam goes home and falls asleep, no longer afraid of the dark.

The gameplay follows the typical Humongous Entertainment point-and-click style. The main mission is to find Sam’s mask, flashlight, and lunchbox, which are hidden across the Land of Darkness. After beating the game once, new paths for these items unlock. The player can’t choose which scenarios appear in a given playthrough—that option came in later sequels. There’s also an optional sidequest to find ten pairs of socks belonging to Sam’s family, scattered around the world. The game includes a few minigames, some optional (like Nuggets, a Snake-like mine cart game) and some required (like The Brain Tickler, a quiz show that lets Sam enter Darkness’s basement).

The game was shown at E3 in June 1996. A writer for *Computer Games Strategy Plus* noted that Sam was originally designed as a boy, not a pumpkin. This is referenced in the game itself: in an animated cutaway, Sam reads a journal in Darkness’s library that m