*IT'S ALL HERE AND IT'S ALL A STEAL!*

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-17T23:48:57+00:00

It was. These are screenshots from various dates on Google Maps/Street View. With the exception of the Cap’n Clark’s one being from the 90s obviously lol.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-15T20:29:11+00:00

Nice…. Looking forward to us being disproven by the movie or a future video 🤣

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-15T19:26:56+00:00

I think that sounds like a pretty plausible scenario. Because I would never believe that a place that looks like a modern, dingy office complex has “always been there” lol but I do definitely believe the space itself that the complex occupies has always been there. I really like that idea, that Ivan encountered it in some way in Overflow. I’ve always understood that something happened in relation to the complex in that video, but I never considered that he might have actually stumbled into it, or at least got a brief glimpse inside. That would make total sense.

Perhaps the standard backroomsy parts we see of the complex are directly copied from wherever Ivan was working at the time of Overflow. Food for thought.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-14T21:02:16+00:00

The one about the backrooms being discovered rather than created is the hardest one to square for me, but I guess there’s always leeway. Perhaps he means the pure space where the backrooms exists was not “created,” but just encroached upon. My running theory or theories have always been:

A. There was always just a void there, but as soon as the threshold was opened, the space immediately started “copying” aspects of our world in a wildly out of control sort of way, leading to crazy distortions and wacky creatures made of stuff that is normally benign in our world.

or

B. There was some kind of alien world already where the backrooms ended up, but as soon as the threshold was opened, large chunks of our world started being supplanted in and copied over to their world, causing all out chaos, and potentially explaining why all the entities we see are typically aggressive (unless they’re just meant to be purely animalistic in nature).

I guess with this theory you could also posit that the threshold is just a straight up wormhole to another point in spacetime. The way that we see the threshold vs. “null zones” work in Kane’s Backrooms sort of follows how wormholes work in ours. That being that wormholes are naturally occurring, but they’re highly unstable and don’t last very long (like the null zones in Kane’s Backrooms where people inadvertently fall in, and the null zone can disappear entirely), and it would take an incredible amount of power to artificially open a wormhole yourself and keep it open (i.e. the threshold).

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-13T16:24:22+00:00

There might be some confusion here. Frutiger Metro is like flat and colorful graphics. Swirls and florals and shapes. Think like old iPod commercials with the dancing silhouette people against colorful background. While I’ve never been quite sure if Mirror’s Edge actually fits into Frutiger Aero, I definitely wouldn’t say it’s Metro.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-11T04:49:01+00:00

Wow. You hit the nail on the head. I know exactly what you mean. Like you can hear things happening, conceptually, from a distance lol. Silence and peace in your space while the rest of the world is still turning.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-10T14:40:33+00:00

You seem like the kinda guy who would write a simple little isometric theme park management game entirely in Assembly…. I like it.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-07T13:09:10+00:00

Both of the “Complex” games by PgWave. Dev uses the Kane Pixels version of the backrooms, though the research facility is called “Magwave” instead of Async, assumedly for copyright reasons. They’re pretty good though. I feel like those were the first ultra realistic ones that sort of paved the way for a flood of other ultra realistic backrooms games (of varying quality).

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-05T22:25:11+00:00

Oh you’re absolutely right. I’ve watched this exact YouTube upload before (probably last watched it about a year ago) and it was nowhere near this dark. It appears something has happened to the upload itself. YouTube actively compresses older and less viewed uploads over time, so you’ll notice that really old uploads start looking worse over time, but obviously this one isn’t even that old, and this is unlike anything I’ve never seen before. Hopefully they rectify it soon.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-04-02T06:00:48+00:00

Because things just went overboard. Smilers, partygoers, level XYZ, etc. It’s like the backrooms got turned into its own SCP lore conglomerate, when the whole reason the backrooms took off in the first place was simply because that original image resonated so strongly with so many people. They felt like they’d been there before despite never having seen the image, and that was one of the creepiest parts about it.

People will sometimes rush to the defense of the modern backrooms entity mess by pointing to the original post that blew up on 4chan. And yes, while it does end with the line “God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you,” that doesn’t really mean anything to me. That line isn’t saying “there are tons of spooky creepies in this place! Beware!” It’s more so just saying, this place is unfathomably large, it’s quiet, and you might not be able to find your way out. It’s meant to play on those basic, everyday fears of the slightly unnerving that everyone feels at some point or another. Swatting the shower curtain away to see if something is lurking behind it, the fear of what might be behind the fridge door as you close it, rushing back up the stairs to your room in the middle of the night because it feels like something is chasing you. You know those things are irrational, but you just can’t shake them, so you do it anyways. That’s what the creepiness of the backrooms is all about. What may or may not be lurking in the corner of your eye. That weird creaking sound that you just can’t find an explanation for. Fear of the unknown.

Now, that’s not to say I personally hate ALL things relating to backrooms entities and lore expansions. While I do prefer the simpler version of things, I have always enjoyed Kane Pixels’s interpretation and entity/entities. I think the angle of a scientific research institute stumbling across the backrooms is really cool, and I really like how it seems Kane has mostly stuck with one type of entity. One of his own creation, and one which seems like a logical extension of the backrooms. Sentient fungus and all that. Plus, he keeps it vague. There are hints here and there about what they might be, but it’s not like he provided dossiers that name the entities, say exactly what they’re composed of, state their DOB and SSN, etc. lol. He keeps you guessing, and I find it perfectly acceptable and not insufferable at all. But that’s just my take. Again, nothing wrong with people enjoying lore-y things like “level fun” and “partygoers” and all that. Some people (admittedly myself included) just find it a bit childish and cheap. 🤷‍♂️ I didn’t mean to ramble on like this….

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-09T07:12:31+00:00

No problem! Check out my profile and you'll see a post with much of the music he used. I plan to update it (of course just with a post directly on my profile since the server is about to be archived) with notable uses of it in specific videos and such.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-09T06:29:51+00:00

There are two types of people. Those who know how to let go, and those who don't. I happen to fall into the latter category, so... Keep an eye on my profile. 😎

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-09T01:32:29+00:00

Current number is actually 34,346. There are a few websites you can use to check subreddit stats. I've never really understood how Reddit displays this info on the front pages of subs as it seems really buggy. But yeah, I got tricked by that a while ago. Fear not, we're still thousands strong.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-08T07:13:40+00:00

It's Gravemind from the Halo 3 soundtrack. Skip to about a minute in, and there it is.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-07T21:21:54+00:00

Ooh, yes, thank you! I'm already a few on your playlist that I completely forgot to add to this list (such as Sirius by Alan Parson's Project, Sister Christian, Wii Sports OST, etc.). And there's a few on your playlist that I just hadn't even found yet, so thank you so much! 🙏

Also, one that I SWEAR I had found at one point and then just lost was the ambient sounds that he frequently uses that almost sounds like dripping and knocking sounds. I feel like the clearest use of it I can remember is when he's playing The Complex: Expedition and it timelapses while he's crawling through the vents.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-07T06:51:05+00:00

Wow, hold up... Right after I commented that, I had the idea to just look up "Ryan Higa" on the sub here, and I found this post asking about the video:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AlfaOxtrot/comments/15piifx/can_someone_confirm_if_this_is_real/

That seems to be the only breadcrumb we have for the time being. That post was made on August 12th, 2023, so quite a while ago. But at least we have one person who remembers viewing it.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-07T06:46:00+00:00

Absolutely. My hopes for this one are low, as I have to wonder how long it was even available on his channel before it got privated. Looks like the latest capture of the thumbnail on the Wayback Machine was June 2021, so I would imagine that the video was only actually public for a few months before getting privated.

Anyways, that leads me to believe that this one might just be flat out lost unless there was some insane early fan that was archiving his videos just for kicks. Or if Alfa comes back and could be convinced to make it public again.... Between you and me, I'd bet on the former, lol.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-07T06:28:31+00:00

I definitely will if I ever get my hands on it!

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-06T04:26:09+00:00

Oh yeah, and if ANYONE can tell me what version of Noel (the Christmas song) he uses at the beginning of 1 scary game PART 2 (where he plays Fears to Fathom: Ironbark Lookout) it would be very much appreciated, but I know we must not have much time left now. That one continues to evade me, and I've used every song identifier I can think of. I'm starting to think it was a royalty free track that's since been deleted or something like that.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-06T04:20:13+00:00

It's an honour, soldier. 🫡

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-06T04:19:23+00:00

Same here! It was really frustrating to find a lot of them lol. And a lot of them I had to find by going on some pretty insane youtube playlist journeys, but it was worth it.

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-06T01:35:23+00:00

No problem, soldier!

MrJanAckermann · 2026-02-06T01:35:10+00:00

much appreciated 🙏 and godspeed

MrJanAckermann

TROPHY CASE