Petscop

About

Petscop is an unfiction let's play webseries focusing on a fictional obscure PlayStation 1 game of the same name developed by the company Garalina. In the fictional game, the player character must collect pets from their cages at the Gift Plane. However, after inputting a cheat code, the game begins to show a darker, completely different side of itself. The game is recorded on a YouTube channel of the same name by a narrator and commentator named "Paul", as he gives his findings on the game. The channel received notoriety for its similarities to the Ben Drowned ARG, though with an original creation rather than basing itself off of an existing property.

History

The Petscop Youtube channel launched on March 11th, 2017, and uploaded its first video, simply titled "Petscop" (shown below), the following day on March 12th. The video would subsequently be linked on the subreddit /r/CreepyGaming by reddit user /u/paleskowitz in a post titled "Videos of a mysterious unfinished PSX game from 1997, called "Petscop". There's something hiding in it"^[1]. In the first video, the narrator, "Paul," plays through an obscure Playstation 1 game he found called Petscop, developed by Garalina. The game looks like a normal, if unfinished, Playstation 1 title. However, after putting in a cheat code from a note accompanying the game, the player character is teleported into a dark void with a grassy floor. Within 2 months, the video received almost 150,000 views.

On April 26, 2017 Venezuelan YouTuber Dross (officially titled "DrossRotzank") uploaded a video titled "El misterio de Petscop" (which translates into English as "The mystery of Petscop"). As of May 2017, the video has over 2 million views.

On May 2nd, 2017, YouTube channel ScareTheater released a video analysis of the series up to that point (the first 7 episodes) (below, left) that gained over 160,000 views. On May 23rd, 2017 YouTube channel Night Mind uploaded a video titled "Petscop: The Best Haunted Game Series Online" which analyzed the first 8 episodes of the series (below, right), and has over 80,000 views. The game has its own Wiki page^[5] and subreddit,^[7] and has been covered by Kotaku^[2] and Playground Magazine.^[3]

Newmaker Theory

The Newmaker Theory is a popular fan theory about Petscop and its connection to the child abuse case of Candace Newmaker (born Candace Tiara Elmore), a 10 year old child who died from a 70 minute rebirthing session as a part of attachment therapy.^[6] There are numerous purported connections to the Newmaker story in Petscop. Examples include the "Quitter's room", a room with a mirrored plane where a character called Quitter resides, seen as a reference to dialogue from one of the adults who restrained her during therapy, the use of keywords being repeated in game, such as "Rebirth," "Tiara," and "Newmaker" and the Tool giving various answers that supposedly allude to Candace.

One of the most notable possible references to Candace takes place in the Quitter's room, in which the player encounters a sign which, when mirrored, reads "Do you remember being born?" that is seen as an allusion to one of the questions asked to Candace prior to her death (shown below).

However, this theory has been disputed due to the fact that the game's copyright year was 1997, and Newmaker died in 2000, three years afterward.

After the end of Petscop, series creator Tony confirmed on Twitter that the Newmaker references were intentional but later regretted their inclusion.^[17]

YouTube Spread

Petscop began to gain considerable notoriety on YouTube on August 20, 2017 when The Game Theorists uploaded a video about it titled "Game Theory: Petscop – The Scariest Game You'll NEVER Play!" in which MatPat reiterated the main points of the Candace Newmaker theory (shown below, left) the video to date has over 3 million views. On September 5, 2017 YouTuber, Pyrocynical, uploaded "Petscop: The Best Game You've Never Played", in which he examined each individual episode of the series to date (shown below, right).

In response to the Game Theorists' video, parody Twitter account Game Theory Rejects posted a Tweet making fun of the channel for "jumping on a months old bandwagon" (shown below).

Easter Uploads

On April 4th, 2019 the channel's avatar changed to an easter egg, as noted by Reddit user u/ReDaUlTrA567.^[9]

On April 21st, 2019, the Petscop YouTube channel uploaded five new videos. These uploads are notable due to the lack of commentary from Paul, and all of these with the exception of the last feature an entirely new description:

Some select "Petscop" recordings.
In a way, recordings have the power to raise the dead. They're kind of scary.
We finished our long Easter egg hunt.

Fans responded with a mix of surprise and enthusiasm at the sudden outpouring of new content, and quickly responded with memes and fan art surrounding the new episodes (examples shown below).

September 2019 Uploads

On September 2nd, 2019, the Petscop channel uploaded the 22nd, 23rd and 24th episodes, which provided several new developments in the series. Episode 22 included the the return of "Paul," who had not appeared on the channel for several episodes. Episode 24 shows a list of credits, which some interpreted as the end of the series^[10][11] (episodes shown below).

The /r/Petscop subreddit was unsure how to interpret the episodes. Many posted art and memes about the episodes, including user NobleNeon, who gained over 950 points with their post (shown below, left). User loveletter2k posted art that gained over 930 points (shown below, right).

"Tony" Reveal

On November 13th, 2019, Twitter user @pressedyes,^[13] known as "Tony," tweeted, "I made Petcop : )" (shown below).

Fans were initially skeptical of Tony, but the following day, Redditor Mewrocks discovered a video from 2013 which uses Petscop symbols and music.^[12] Similar to Petscop, the video is a Let's Play of a fake game called "Nifty," which was also supposedly made by "Garalina." This led to the discovery of Tony's Twitter.

Over the following days, Tony shared some early concept art of Petscop, before tweeting that he wanted to do a casual soft reveal but the discovery of Nifty accelerated the process (shown below, left). He also tweeted that he had changed the ": )" in the channel to a wink "; )," which was true, and confirmed he was the actual creator^[14] (shown below, right). He added, "Yes, it's over. Except for one thing."^[16]

He then thanked the fans, writing, "I've been consistently amazed by the fans of this thing. The common experience of Petscop is mostly the product of your work, not mine. It adds accessibility to a series that I once thought had a much smaller audience. Thank you all for that" (shown below). The developments were covered on Reddit in a thread by makan8.^[15]

Search Interest

External References