Why no more Full Motion Video games?

[Anthony1]

I know I will get flamed to death on this one, but here me out first.

Remember Night Trap?

That was a cool game. Sure, it wasn't too interactive, but it was very interesting and a great new concept at the time. I remember getting it for my Sega CD.

I also got Sewer Shark, which was a horrible example of a FMV game. But I was thinking that with todays modern systems, you could have a really, really good looking night trap like game.

Night Trap on the Sega CD only let you play the game in a small window, but with todays systems, I would think that you would be able to play the games in full screen mode, with DVD quality video and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Sure, it really wouldn't be a true video game per se, but it would still be kinda cool.

I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy and I'm nostalgic for Night Trap. I remember that at the time these games were coming out, the entire video game press completely lambasted them in the magazines. They basically tore into any and all FMV games, so that eventually they were never made again.

I can understand alot of the criticism that was going around back then, but I think that if they had some of these games nowadays, it would be a good idea. They would only appeal to a very small segment of the market, but there would be people out there that would enjoy them.

They were the kind of games that were so bad, that they were acutally good. Instead of laughing with the game, you were laughing at it.

But for whatever reason, I really enjoyed Night Trap, and I don't have a Sega CD now, nor do I have a 3DO, but when I do get one of those systems, I'm going to grab a copy of Night Trap again and go back to that bygone era of FMV.

[zmeston]

I know I will get flamed to death on this one, but here me out first.

Remember Night Trap?

That was a cool game. Sure, it wasn't too interactive, but it was very interesting and a great new concept at the time. I remember getting it for my Sega CD.

I also got Sewer Shark, which was a horrible example of a FMV game. But I was thinking that with todays modern systems, you could have a really, really good looking night trap like game.

Night Trap on the Sega CD only let you play the game in a small window, but with todays systems, I would think that you would be able to play the games in full screen mode, with DVD quality video and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Sure, it really wouldn't be a true video game per se, but it would still be kinda cool.

I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy and I'm nostalgic for Night Trap. I remember that at the time these games were coming out, the entire video game press completely lambasted them in the magazines. They basically tore into any and all FMV games, so that eventually they were never made again.

I can understand alot of the criticism that was going around back then, but I think that if they had some of these games nowadays, it would be a good idea. They would only appeal to a very small segment of the market, but there would be people out there that would enjoy them.

They were the kind of games that were so bad, that they were acutally good. Instead of laughing with the game, you were laughing at it.

But for whatever reason, I really enjoyed Night Trap, and I don't have a Sega CD now, nor do I have a 3DO, but when I do get one of those systems, I'm going to grab a copy of Night Trap again and go back to that bygone era of FMV.

I have a HUGE weakness for Digital Pictures' games (Make My Video and Kids on Site excepted), and I would love to see DVD-licious versions of Night Trap, Double Switch, Ground Zero Texas, Corpse Killer, Supreme Warrior, etc. At the very least, a "10th Anniversary Remastered Special Edition" of Night Trap would rock.

I'm not sure who currently holds the rights to DP's assets, including the film and video archives needed to create updated versions of DP games, but I vaguely recall a rumor that the rights-holder was working on a DVD version of the unreleased Maximum Surge, a DP production starring Yasmine Bleeth and Walter Koenig.

-- Z.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Sure, it wasn't too interactive

I think you answered your own question right there. Y'see, I always thought of the FMV and - earlier - the laserdisc games as video versions of a choose-your-own-adventure book: cool idea, but with an extremely exhaustible supply of novelty.

Fact of the matter is, players like myself like something more along the lines of Ultima IV or V - sure, there's only so many outcomes, but there are so many ways to get there. Not so with FMV games: the actors and animators can only film X number of outcomes, even with a big budget. So the path you have to take to reach the successful outcome narrows more and more until there's really only one or two ways to get there.

And once you get there? Well...game over. The thrill's gone at that point. For the coin-op industry, at least, which demanded replay value, that kind of rat-in-a-maze game with only one path to winning was anathaema. Less so with the home video game industry, but until the branching routines are perfected, and someone's got the budget to film 255 outcomes to a game, and the game can really react to the player's actions instead of just shutting him out for one wrong move...well...these are just things that FMV can't pull off too successfully. Which brings use back to the rat-in-a-maze syndrome.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Yasmine Bleeth and Walter Koenig

I'll spring for the rights, if I can call it "Battle Of The B-Grade TV Guest Star Actors" instead.

[zmeston]

Yasmine Bleeth and Walter Koenig

I'll spring for the rights, if I can call it "Battle Of The B-Grade TV Guest Star Actors" instead.

Poor Yasmine has had a rough ride since her glorious "Baywatch" days, and having her drug-bust mug shot posted on The Smoking Gun was an especially low point. My favorite DP babe is Camille Cooper, the blonde from Double Switch, who managed to outshine even Corey Haim and Debbie Harry. Heh.

-- Z.

[Achika]

IMO, FMV's looked pretty junky back in the day. Why try to recreate something (even if you could do it better now) that didn't go off so well back then?

It's like asking the question, why not make it 2D? 3D? Cell shaded? CG? It's just the choices the designers & programmers make.

I think that if they had some of these games nowadays, it would be a good idea. They would only appeal to a very small segment of the market

This is a money making business right? You've said in your other posts that pretty much only big $ companies would get into it. So why shell out a lot of money for a small niche of people? It seems like a bad idea to me...

[calthaer]

Why not just take the footage and put it on a DVD for people to watch? That would be far less expensive and it would eliminate the need to push buttons in order to progress through the movie.

Oh wait...you said those things were supposed to be games?

I thought that a good working definition of a game was made by Sid Meier when he called them "a series of interesting choices." Dragon's Lair and other FMV games don't seem to offer too many choices to me.

Let Miramax or WB or some other movie company produce them. Companies making games have enough trouble staying in the black without making movies, too.

[Anthony1]

Well, I have to admit that when you say full motion video "game", that the "game" part is used very loosely. Yes, they are basically a choose your own adventure type of situation, but I still find them to be fun and entertaining in their own "campy B-Movie" type way.


Sure, these so called "games" are just a quilty pleasure, that might be a little embarrising to admit that I enjoy them. Well, at least I did enjoy Night Trap. But I still think they would find an audience at the right price. Like say $24.99 or so. They could get the old footage from Digital Pictures, which was probably shot in 35mm, and they could make a really good looking DVD quality video out of it. They could also remaster the sound into a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

But I also think that a totally brand new Full Motion Video game could be made. Basically what happened, is that these games came out and were totally dogged by the gaming media and gamers, and then nobody gave them a second chance. So developers decided that Full Motion Video was a dead end, and nobody should go there anymore.

That could have been the case back then, but I think now, with improvements in technology, and the fact that systems now have the capability for DVD quality video and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, they maybe should take another swing at it.

It certainly would never threaten any "real" video games, but I think that there would develop a small group of people that would buy these games, if for nothing else their quirky, campy, B-movieish flavor.

[Kid Ice]

I can't say I miss games entirely done in FMV (Night Trap was decent, but almost all the other ones sucked), but I do think it adds a little something to the game if done in limited quantities. I'm mainly thinking of 3 DO games such as Need for Speed, The Perfect General, and Immercenary that added FMV to good games, rather than just building a lousy game around FMV. I'm actually a bit surprised that it isn't used nowadays for intros, plot exposition, stuff like that. Imagine a Metal Gear game where a real actor plays Solid Snake!

the kid

[maxlords]

Good Deal Games released some previously unreleased Sega CD FMV games recently...Bug Blasters and Citizen X I believe. Check their website at www.gooddealgames.com Great guys! So SOMEONE is doing it :P

[Kid Ice]

Good Deal Games released some previously unreleased Sega CD FMV games recently...Bug Blasters

I witnessed Bug Blasters in DP's Room of Doom, and I was literally doubled over with laughter. Considering some of the FMV product that WAS released, imagine how poor these games must be.

Don't get me wrong... I'm all for unreleased products being made available!

the kid

[Bighab]

I enjoyed FMV games. Wing Commander 3 for 3DO is my fav

[ShinobiMan]

I too got a kick out of FMV games back in the day. At the time there was nothing like it... one of the things that made my sega CD so "magical" as a kid.

"What's that? A game that has a movie in it? what? The game "is" the movie? Good heavens!"

Those words were heard a lot in my house. Well, maybe not the GOOD HEAVENS part.

You know, I haven't played one of those games in such a long time. I remember so much suspense was involved with those titles back then because it was all based on timing and well... timing.

Sherlock Holmes was a family event back then. we'd all gather together (even invite friends) and solve one of the mystery's. That disc came with the Sega CD.

Overall, I had a memorable experience with a lot of those games. Good fun.

[congobongo]

The most recent one I remember was X-Files for the PSX. Man what a dissapointment that was.

IMHO: FMV = Crap

[Anthony1]

Sherlock Homes I don't think would qualify as your traditional FMV game. Don't get it wrong, I loved that game.

But I just don't think I would put it in that genre.


It's a damn shame that we haven't seen more games like Sherlock over the years.

[Ed Oscuro]

The most recent one I remember was X-Files for the PSX. Man what a dissapointment that was.

IMHO: FMV = Crap

Hah! I remember seeing the box for that on PC. 7 discs, wasn't it? Yikes. Looked cool on the game store shelf, but even then it looked like a mighty stupid purchase.

Anyways, I'd like to think of FMV as perhaps something to do in tandem with the game engine...something along the lines of the video clips that play on TV monitors (wow!) in Aliens vs. Predator.

[Daltone]

Hey, my favorite game EVER is FMV. Yes, there was a hell of a lot of crap released, especially in the adventure genre (*coughUrban Runnercough*) but there were some REALLY amazing games too. Luckily, DVD seems to have sorted out the nasty 'oh my god, look at all those discs' problems of yore. Well, either that or that 'Virtual Drive' thingy.

FMV - the future of videogames

Ok, maybe not, but i can hope..

[hydr0x]

i would love to see some (not many though) FMV games in the future, with todays technical possibilities these would be great "games", remember, most of the fmv games were so bad because they had cheap actors or cheap cameramen and so on

[Daltone]

i would love to see some (not many though) FMV games in the future

I just want to see this one

remember, most of the fmv games were so bad because they had cheap actors or cheap cameramen and so on

Hey, remember cost isn't everything. Ever play "Frankenstein: Through The Eyes Of The Monster" ? Something tells me Tim Curry wasn't too cheap, and the acting was still crap

[zmeston]

i would love to see some (not many though) FMV games in the future

I just want to see this one

remember, most of the fmv games were so bad because they had cheap actors or cheap cameramen and so on

Hey, remember cost isn't everything. Ever play "Frankenstein: Through The Eyes Of The Monster" ? Something tells me Tim Curry wasn't too cheap, and the acting was still crap

The worst acting by a real actor in an FMV game was turned in by Christopher Walken in the PC game "Ripper." One of the game's six CD labels is a snapshot of one of Walken's FMV clips, and he's clearly reading his off-camera cue cards instead of looking at the person he's clutching in his arms.

Something else I dug about Digital Pictures' productions is that they used genuine Hollywood talent (B- and C-list talent, granted) both in front of and behind the camera, along with well-known game designers (Rob Fulop for "Night Trap," Mark Turmell for "Citizen X").

-- Z.