The Typing of the Dead: Zombie Panic

The Typing of the Dead is an arcade game that was developed by WOW Entertainment and published by Sega for the NAOMI hardware. The game was released in Japanese arcades in 1999 and was ported to the Sega Dreamcast in 2001 by Smilebit. A Microsoft Windows version was released in 2000 and a PlayStation 2 port followed in 2004.

The Typing of the Dead is a modification of Sega’s 1998 light gun arcade game The House of the Dead 2 in which the gun is replaced by a computer keyboard. The player takes the role of a secret agent in a zombie-infested Venice and must quickly type letters, words and phrases in order to kill fast-advancing enemies.

Despite falling under the criteria of “edutainment”, the game was lauded by mainstream game critics for its humor, difficulty and originality. The PC version of The Typing of the Dead sold 120,000 units in 2003.

A PlayStation 2 port was called The Typing of the Dead: Zombie Panic. This version was released in Japan in late December 2004 and was packaged with a USB keyboard. The game was mostly unchanged, although the Dreamcast backpacks were replaced with PlayStation 2 backpacks and new minigames were incorporated into the main story. A sequel, The Typing of the Dead 2, was released in Japan in 2007. English of the Dead, another revision of House of the Dead 2, was released as a language-learning game for the Nintendo DS in Japan in 2008. In 2012, an iOS remake was released entitled Flick of the Dead. Typing of the Dead: Overkill, based on The House of the Dead: Overkill, was released on Windows in October 2013.