An interactive film is a
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
or other
interactive media
Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and audio. Since its early conception, various fo ...
that has characteristics of a cinematic
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
. In the
video game industry
The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.
The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...
, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its
gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...
in a cinematic, scripted manner, often through the use of
full-motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
of either
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
or
live-action
Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...
footage.
In the
film industry
The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post ...
, the term "interactive film" refers to
interactive cinema
Interactive cinema tries to give an audience an active role in the showing of movies.
Another newer definition of interactive cinema is a video game which is a hybrid between participation and viewing, giving the player – or viewer, as it were ...
, a film where one or more viewers can interact with the film and influence the events that unfold in the film.
Design
This genre came about with the invention of
laserdisc
The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
s and
laserdisc players, the first
nonlinear
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...
or
random access
Random access (more precisely and more generally called direct access) is the ability to access an arbitrary element of a sequence in equal time or any datum from a population of addressable elements roughly as easily and efficiently as any othe ...
video play devices. The fact that a laserdisc player could jump to and play any chapter instantaneously (rather than proceed in a linear path from start to finish like
videotape
Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...
) meant that games with branching plotlines could be constructed from out-of-order video chapters, in much the same way as ''
Choose Your Own Adventure
''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...
'' books are constructed from out-of-order pages.
Thus, interactive movies were animated or filmed with real actors like movies (or in some later cases, rendered with
3D models) and followed a main storyline. Alternative scenes were filmed to be triggered after wrong (or alternate allowable) actions of the player (such as '
Game Over' scenes).
A popular example of a commercial interactive movie was the 1983
arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...
''
Dragon's Lair
''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television an ...
'', featuring an animated
full motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
(FMV) by ex-
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
animator
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including ''The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), ''An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...
, where the player controlled some of the moves of the main character. When in danger, the player was to decide which move, action, or combination to choose. If they chose the wrong move, they would see a 'lose a life' scene, until they found the correct one which would allow them to see the rest of the story. There was only one possible successful storyline in ''Dragon's Lair''; the only activity the user had was to choose or guess the move the designers intended them to make. Despite the lack of choice, ''Dragon's Lair'' was very popular.
The hardware for these games consisted of a laserdisc player linked to a
processor
Processor may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Processor (computing)
**Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program
*** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit (I ...
configured with interface software that assigned a jump-to-chapter function to each of the controller buttons at each decision point. Much as a ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' book might say "If you turn left, go to page 7. If you turn right, go to page 8", the controller for ''Dragon's Lair'' or ''
Cliff Hanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhange ...
'' was programmed to go to the next chapter in the successful story if a player activated the correct control, or to go to the death chapter if they activated the wrong one. Because laserdisc players of the day were not robust enough to handle the wear and tear of constant arcade use, they required frequent replacement. The laserdiscs that contained the footage were ordinary laserdiscs with nothing special about them save for the order of their chapters and, if removed from the arcade console, would play their video on standard, non-interactive laserdisc players.
Later advances in technology allowed interactive movies to overlay multiple fields of FMV, called "vites", in much the same way as
polygonal models and
sprites are overlaid on top of backgrounds in traditional video game graphics.
Origins
The earliest rudimentary examples of mechanical interactive cinematic games date back to the early 20th century, with "cinematic shooting gallery"
games in the United Kingdom. They were similar to shooting gallery
carnival games
A carnival game is a game of chance or skill that can be seen at a traveling carnival, charity fund raiser, amusement arcade and amusement park, or on a state and county fair midway. They are also commonly played on holidays such as Mardi Gras, ...
, except that players shot at a cinema screen displaying film footage of targets. They showed footage of targets, and when a player shot the screen at the right time, it would trigger a mechanism that temporarily pauses the film and registers a point. The first successful example of such a game was ''Life Targets'', released in the UK in 1912. Cinematic shooting gallery games enjoyed short-lived popularity in several parts of Britain during the 1910s, and often had
safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
animals as targets, with footage recorded from
British imperial
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
colonies. Cinematic shooting gallery games declined some time after the 1910s.
Capitol Projector's 1954 arcade
electro-mechanical game
Electro-mechanical games (EM games) are types of arcade games that operate on a combination of some electronic circuitry and mechanical actions from the player to move items contained within the game's cabinet. Some of these were early light gun g ...
machine ''
Auto Test
''Auto Test'' is a 1954 educational electro-mechanical game that uses a video projector. Released by Capitol Projector, it was a driving test simulation that used film reel to project pre-recorded driving video
Video is an electronic mediu ...
'' was a
driving test
A driving test (also known as a driving exam, driver's test, or road test) is a procedure designed to test a person's ability to drive a motor vehicle. It exists in various forms worldwide, and is often a requirement to obtain a driver's lic ...
simulation that used a
film reel
A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the end ...
video projector
A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signalling (telecommunication), signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens (optics), lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-per ...
to display pre-recorded driving
video
Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...
footage, awarding the player points for making correct decisions as the footage is played. It was not intended to be cinematic or a
racing game
Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...
, but was a driving simulation designed for educational purposes.
An early example of
interactive cinema
Interactive cinema tries to give an audience an active role in the showing of movies.
Another newer definition of interactive cinema is a video game which is a hybrid between participation and viewing, giving the player – or viewer, as it were ...
was the 1967 film ''
Kinoautomat
''Kinoautomat'' was the world's first interactive movie, conceived by Radúz Činčera for the Czechoslovak Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. At nine points during the film the action stops, and a moderator appears on stage to ...
'' , which was written and directed by
Radúz Činčera
Radúz Činčera (17 June 1923, Brno – 28 January 1999, Prague) was a Czech screenwriter and director, the conceiver of the legendary Kinoautomat.
Career
Most of his life he worked in the Krátký film Praha (The Short Film of Prague) movie s ...
. This movie was first screened at
Expo '67
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...
in Montreal. This film was produced before the invention of the laserdisc or similar technology, so a live moderator appeared on stage at certain points to ask the audience to choose between two scenes. The chosen scene would play following an audience vote.
An early example of an interactive movie game was
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
's ''
Wild Gunman
is a light gun shooter game developed and published by Nintendo. Originally created as an electro-mechanical arcade game in 1974 by Gunpei Yokoi, it was adapted to a video game format for the Famicom console in 1984. It was released in 1985 a ...
'', a 1974 electro-mechanical
arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...
that used film reel projection to display live-action
full-motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
(FMV) footage of Wild West gunslingers. In the 1970s, Kasco (Kansei Seiki Seisakusho) released ''The Driver'', a hit electro-mechanical arcade game with live-action FMV, projecting car footage filmed by
Toei.
In 1975, Nintendo's ''
EVR Race
The following is a list of products developed and published by Nintendo. Products made by third parties are not included, unless licensed to or distributed by Nintendo.
Toys and cards
Amiibo
Arcade
This list consists of dedicated arcade g ...
'' was a horse race betting arcade game that used
Electronic Video Recording (EVR) technology to playback video footage of horse races from a
video tape
Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassette ...
.
''EVR Race'' was Japan's highest-grossing
medal game
are a type of arcade game commonly found in amusement arcades and casinos, especially in Japan. In order to play a medal game, a customer must first exchange their cash into medals (metal coins, much like an arcade token). The rate of medals v ...
for three years in a row,
from 1976 to
1978
Events January
* January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.
* January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...
.
Another horse race betting game, Electro-Sport's ''Quarter Horse'' (1982), was the first arcade game to utilize a laserdisc player, though it was only used to play back pre-recorded non-interactive video footage of horse races, with gameplay limited to the player placing bets before the race.
An early attempt to combine random access video with
computer games
A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-deter ...
was ''Rollercoaster'', written in BASIC for the Apple II by
David Lubar
David Lubar (born March 16, 1954) is an author of numerous books for teens. He is also a video game programmer, who programmed ''Breakout (arcade game), Super Breakout'' for the Game Boy and ''Frogger'' for both the Super Nintendo Entertainment ...
for
David H. Ahl
David H. Ahl (born May 17, 1939) is an American author who is the founder of ''Creative Computing (magazine), Creative Computing'' magazine. He is also the author of many how-to books, including ''BASIC Computer Games'', the first computer book t ...
, editor of ''
Creative Computing
''Creative Computing'' was one of the earliest magazines covering the microcomputer revolution. Published from October 1974 until December 1985, the magazine covered the spectrum of hobbyist/home/personal computing in a more accessible format th ...
''. This was a text adventure that could trigger a laserdisc player to play portions of the 1977 American feature film ''
Rollercoaster
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...
''. The program was conceived and written in 1981, and it was published in the January 1982 issue of ''Creative Computing'' along with an article by Lubar detailing its creation, an article by Ahl claiming that ''Rollercoaster'' was the first video/computer game hybrid and proposing a theory of video/computer interactivity, and other articles reviewing hardware necessary to run the game and do further experiments.
Specialized hardware formats
LaserDisc games
A LaserDisc video game is a video game that uses pre-recorded video (either live-action or animation) played from a
LaserDisc
The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as DiscoVision, MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diam ...
, either as the entirety of the graphics or as part of the graphics. The first major arcade laserdisc video game was
Sega
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
's ''
Astron Belt
''Astron Belt'' (アストロンベルト) is a LaserDisc video game in the form of a third-person, space combat rail shooter, released in arcades in 1983 by Sega in Japan, and licensed to Bally Midway for release in North America. Developed in ...
'', a
third-person space combat
Space warfare is hypothetical combat in which one or more belligerents are situated in outer space. The scope of space warfare therefore includes ''ground-to-space warfare'', such as attacking satellites from the Earth; ''space-to-space warfare ...
rail shooter
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...
featuring live-action
full-motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
footage (largely borrowed from a
Japanese science fiction
Science fiction is an important genre of modern Japanese literature that has strongly influenced aspects of contemporary Japanese pop culture, including anime, manga, video games, tokusatsu, and Cinema of Japan, cinema.
History
Origins
Bot ...
film) over which the player/enemy ships and laser fire are superimposed.
Developed in 1982,
it was unveiled at the September 1982
Amusement Machine Show
The Japan Amusement Expo (JAEPO) is an annual trade fair for amusement arcade products, such as arcade games, redemption games, amusement rides, vending machines, and change machines. The event is hosted one weekend per year in the Greater Tok ...
(AM Show) in Tokyo and the November 1982 AMOA show in Chicago,
and was then released in Japan in March 1983. However, its release in the United States was delayed due to several hardware and software bugs, by which time other laserdisc games had beaten it to public release there.
The next laserdisc game to be announced was
Data East
, also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The Am ...
's video game adaptation of the Japanese
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
film ''
Genma Taisen
is a Japanese science fiction manga and novel franchise that began in 1967. It was a collaboration in '' Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' by science fiction writer Kazumasa Hirai and manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. It was adapted into a 1983 ...
'' (1983), introduced in March 1983,
with the game released internationally in June 1983.
It introduced a new approach to video game storytelling: using brief full-motion video
cutscenes
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
to develop a story between the game's
shooting
Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...
stages; years later, this would become the standard approach to video game storytelling. ''Bega's Battle'' also featured a
branching storyline.
In the United States, the game that popularized the genre was ''
Dragon's Lair
''Dragon's Lair'' is a video game franchise created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth. The series is famous for its Western animation-style graphics and complex decades-long history of being ported to many platforms and being remade into television an ...
'', animated by Don Bluth and released by
Cinematronics.
Released in June 1983, It was the first laserdisc game released in the US. It contained animated scenes, much like a
cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...
. The scenes would be played back and at certain points during playback the player would have to press a specific direction on the
joystick
A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...
or the button to advance the game to the next scene, like a
quick time event
In video games, a quick time event (QTE) is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen instruction/prompt. It allows for limited control of the ...
. For instance, a scene begins with the hero, a knight named Dirk, falling through a hole in a drawbridge and being attacked by tentacles. If the player presses the button at this point, Dirk fends off the tentacles with his sword and pulls himself back up out of the hole. If the player fails to press the sword button at the right time, or instead presses a direction on the joystick, Dirk is attacked by the tentacles and crushed. Each unsuccessful move, however, would produce a few moments of black screen, when the LaserDisc switched to the scene showing the death of the character, which interrupted the continuous flow of gameplay found in other video game graphic systems of the time; this was a common criticism of some players and critics.
There were generally two styles of laserdisc games that emerged. Those that followed the lead of ''Astron Belt'' integrated pre-recorded laserdisc video with
real-time computer graphics
Real-time computer graphics or real-time rendering is the sub-field of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term can refer to anything from rendering an application's graphical user interface (GUI) to ...
and gameplay, making them more like traditional interactive video games. Those that followed the lead of ''Dragon's Lair'' integrated
animated cartoon
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
laserdisc video with quick time events, making them more like interactive cartoons. The latter style of laserdisc games were generally more successful than the former.
Real-time gameplay
Among those that followed the lead of ''Astron Belt'', combining pre-recorded video with
real-time computer graphics
Real-time computer graphics or real-time rendering is the sub-field of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term can refer to anything from rendering an application's graphical user interface (GUI) to ...
and gameplay, several were introduced at Tokyo's AM Show in September 1983, with its successor ''Star Blazer'' unanimously hailed as the "strongest" laserdisc game of the show.
Other games at the show included
Funai
is a Japanese consumer electronics company headquartered in Daitō, Osaka. Apart from producing its own branded electronic products, it is also an OEM providing assembled televisions and video players/recorders to major corporations such as Sh ...
's ''Interstellar'', a forward-scrolling
third-person rail shooter
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...
that used
pre-rendered
Pre-rendering is the process in which video footage is not rendered in real-time by the hardware that is outputting or playing back the video. Instead, the video is a recording of footage that was previously rendered on different equipment (typic ...
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...
for the laserdisc video backgrounds and real-time
2D computer graphics
2D computer graphics is the computer-based generation of digital images—mostly from two-dimensional models (such as 2D geometric models, text, and digital images) and by techniques specific to them. It may refer to the branch of computer ...
for the ships.
''
Cube Quest
''Cube Quest'' is a shoot 'em up arcade laserdisc game by American company Simutrek released in 1983. It was primarily designed and programmed by Paul Allen Newell, who previously wrote some Atari 2600 games. It was introduced at Tokyo's Amusemen ...
'', introduced at the same AM Show in Tokyo,
was a vertical
scrolling shooter
In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...
that used pre-rendered computer animation for the laserdisc video backgrounds and real-time
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...
for the ships. Later that year,
Gottlieb
Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The main office and plant was located at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s when a new modern plant and office was lo ...
's ''
M.A.C.H. 3
''M.A.C.H. 3'' is a shoot 'em up LaserDisc video game developed by Gottlieb and released for US Arcade video game, arcades in 1983 under their Mylstar brand. The player controls a high-speed fighter aircraft in one of two missions: either a "Figh ...
'' was a
vertical scrolling
A vertically scrolling video game or vertical scroller is a video game in which the Player (game), player views the field of play principally from a top-down perspective, while the background Scrolling, scrolls from the top of the screen to the bot ...
shooter game
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...
that combined live-action laserdisc video backgrounds with 2D computer graphics for the ships.
The ''
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...
'' (1984) arcade game included a Philips LaserDisc player to combine live action video and sound from the ''
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...
'' film with computer generated graphics and sound. The game used a special
CAV LaserDisc containing multiple storylines stored in very short, interleaved segments on the disc. The player would seek the short distance to the next segment of a storyline during the
vertical retrace interval
In a raster scan display, the vertical blanking interval (VBI), also known as the vertical interval or VBLANK, is the time between the end of the final visible line of a frame or field and the beginning of the first visible line of the next fram ...
by adjusting the tracking mirror, allowing perfectly continuous video even as the player switched storylines under control of the game's computer. This method of seeking was noted for being extremely strenuous on the player and frequently led to the machines breaking, slightly hindering the appeal of LaserDisc arcade games.
In the 1990s,
American Laser Games
American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created numerous light gun laserdisc video games featuring live action full motion video. The company was founded in the late 1980s by Robert Grebe, who had originally created ...
produced a wide variety of live-action
light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol.
Early history
The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing ...
LaserDisc video games, which played much like the early LaserDisc games, but used a
light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol.
Early history
The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing ...
instead of a joystick to affect the action.
Quick-time events
Among those that followed the lead of ''Dragon's Lair'', progressing pre-recorded video with
quick time events
In video games, a quick time event (QTE) is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen instruction/prompt. It allows for limited control of the ...
, was its successor ''
Space Ace
''Space Ace'' is a LaserDisc video game produced by Bluth Group, Cinematronics and Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video Systems). It was unveiled in October 1983, just four months after the ''Dragon's Lair'' game, followed b ...
'', another Don Bluth animated game released by Cinematronics later the same year. It featured "
branching paths" in which there were multiple "correct moves" at certain points in the animation, and the move the player chose would affect the order of later scenes.
The success of ''Dragon's Lair'' spawned a number of sequels and similar laserdisc cartoon games incorporating quick time events. However, original animation production was expensive. To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from Japanese
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
that were obscure to American audiences of the day. One such example was
Stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
's ''
Cliff Hanger
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode or a film of serialized fiction. A cliffhange ...
'' (1983), which used footage from the ''
Lupin III
, also written as ''Lupin the Third'', ''Lupin the 3rd'', or ''Lupin the IIIrd'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch. It follows the endeavors of master thief Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of Arsène ...
'' movies ''
Castle of Cagliostro
is a 1979 Japanese animated action-adventure comedy film co-written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, with animation produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS). It is the second feature film featuring Monkey Punch's master thief Arsène Lupin III, f ...
'' (directed by
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and manga artist. A co-founder of Studio Ghibli, he has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films, and is widel ...
) and ''
Mystery of Mamo
''The Mystery of Mamo'', also known as ''The Secret of Mamo'', is a 1978 Japanese animated science fiction adventure action comedy film; it is the first animated film of the ''Lupin III'' franchise created by manga author Monkey Punch. The film was ...
'', both originally animated by
TMS Entertainment
, formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946.
TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as ''Lupin the Third'', ...
. Anime-based laserdisc games helped expose many Americans in the 1980s to Japanese anime, particularly ''Cliff Hanger'' which exposed many Americans to ''Lupin III'' and Hayao Miyazaki before any ''Lupin'' or Miyazaki anime productions had officially been released theatrically or on
home video
Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...
in the United States.
In 1984, ''
Super Don Quix-ote
''Super Don Quix-ote'' (スーパードンキホーテ) is an arcade laserdisc video game released by Universal in 1984. In it, the player controls the knight Don as he attempts to rescue a princess from an evil witch.
''Super Don Quix-ote'' is ...
'', ''Esh's Aurunmilla'' and ''
Ninja Hayate
is a 1984 in video gaming, 1984 laserdisc video game first developed and released by Taito Corporation, Taito and Toei Company, Malone Films for arcade game, arcades in Japan and the United States. The game was later Porting#Porting in gaming, po ...
'' overlaid crude computer graphics on top of the animation to indicate the correct input to the player for quick time event scenes, which the 1985 games ''
Time Gal
is an interactive movie video game developed and published by Taito and Toei Company, and originally released as a laserdisc game in Japan for the arcades in 1985. It is an action game which uses full motion video (FMV) to display the on-scree ...
'' and ''
Road Blaster
is an interactive movie video game developed by Data East featuring animation by Toei Animation, originally released exclusively in Japan as a laserdisc-based arcade game in 1985. The player assumes the role of a vigilante who must avenge the de ...
'' also featured. ''Time Gal'' also added a time-stopping feature, where specific moments in the game involve Reika stopping time; during these moments, players are presented with a list of three options and have seven seconds to choose the one which will save the character.
Another example of an arcade LaserDisc game using a similar style would be ''
Badlands
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...
''.
Decline
After laserdisc arcade fever had peaked in 1983, the laserdisc arcade market declined in 1984. While there were some laserdisc arcade hits that year, such as ''Space Ace'' and ''
Cobra Command
Cobra (sometimes referred to as Cobra Command) is a fictional terrorist organization and the nemesis of the G.I. Joe Team in the Hasbro action figure toyline '' G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' and '' G.I. Joe: Sigma 6'', as well as in related ...
'', they were not able to achieve the same level of mainstream success as earlier laserdisc games the previous year. Following the end of the
golden age of arcade video games
The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development and cultural influence of arcade video games, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The period began with the release of ''Space Invaders'' in 1978, ...
, there were high expectations for laserdisc games to revive the arcade industry, but laserdisc games failed to live up to those expectations. Instead, the arcade market was being reinvigorated by
sports video games
A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport (s ...
such as ''
Karate Champ
''Karate Champ'', known in Japan as , is a 1984 arcade fighting game developed by Technōs Japan (which would later developing 1995 Neo Geo titles '' Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer'' with SNK) and released by Data East. A variety of moves can be per ...
'', ''
Track & Field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
'', ''
Punch-Out'' and several
Nintendo VS. System titles.
VHS and CD-ROM
In 1987, the game ''
Night Trap
''Night Trap'' is a 1992 interactive movie developed by Digital Pictures and published by Sega for the Sega CD. Presented primarily through full-motion video (FMV), ''Night Trap'' tasks the player to observe teenage girls having a sleepover vi ...
'', featuring full-motion video, was created for
Hasbro
Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...
's
Control-Vision
The Control-Vision (originally codenamed NEMO) is an unreleased video game console developed by Tom Zito. It is notable for using VHS tapes rather than ROM cartridges, prompting the creation of game content which survived on into much more advanc ...
video game system (originally codenamed "NEMO"), which used
VHS tapes. When Hasbro discontinued production of Control-Vision, the footage was placed into archive until it was purchased in 1991 by the founders of
Digital Pictures
Digital Pictures was an American video game developer founded in 1991 by Lode Coen, Mark Klein, Ken Melville, Anne Flaut-Reed, Kevin Welsh and Tom Zito.
The company originated from an attempt to produce a game for the failed VHS-based NEMO (vid ...
. Digital Pictures ported ''Night Trap'' to the
Sega CD
The Sega CD, released as the in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan, ...
platform, releasing it in 1992.
In 1988,
Epyx
Epyx, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher active in the late 1970s and 1980s. The company was founded as Automated Simulations by Jim Connelley and Jon Freeman, originally using Epyx as a brand name for action-oriented games before rena ...
announced three
VCR
A videocassette recorder (VCR) or video recorder is an electromechanical device that records analog audio and analog video from broadcast television or other source on a removable, magnetic tape videocassette, and can play back the recording. ...
games including one based on its video game ''
California Games
''California Games'' is a 1987 sports video game originally released by Epyx for the Apple II and Commodore 64, and ported to other home computers and video game consoles. Branching from their '' Summer Games'' and '' Winter Games'' series, t ...
''. They combined videotape footage with a board game.
From the late 1980s,
American Laser Games
American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created numerous light gun laserdisc video games featuring live action full motion video. The company was founded in the late 1980s by Robert Grebe, who had originally created ...
started to produce a wide variety of live-action
light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games, typically shaped to resemble a pistol.
Early history
The first light guns were produced in the 1930s, following the development of light-sensing ...
laserdisc games, which played much like the early cartoon games, but used a light gun instead of a joystick to affect the action. Meanwhile,
Digital Pictures
Digital Pictures was an American video game developer founded in 1991 by Lode Coen, Mark Klein, Ken Melville, Anne Flaut-Reed, Kevin Welsh and Tom Zito.
The company originated from an attempt to produce a game for the failed VHS-based NEMO (vid ...
started to produce a variety of interactive movies for
home console
A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than ...
s.
When
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...
s were embedded in home consoles such as the Sega CD as well as home computers, games with live action and full motion video featuring actors were considered cutting-edge, and some interactive movies were made. Some notable
adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
s from this era are ''
Under a Killing Moon
''Under a Killing Moon'' is a 1994 point-and-click adventure interactive movie video game. It is the third installment in the '' Tex Murphy'' series of adventure games produced by Access Software. In it, the detective Tex Murphy finds himself un ...
'', ''
The Pandora Directive
''The Pandora Directive'' is the fourth installment in the ''Tex Murphy'' series of graphic adventure games produced by Access Software. After its creators reacquired the rights to the series, it was re-released on Good Old Games in July 2009.
...
'' (both part of the ''
Tex Murphy
Tex may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tex (nickname), a list of people and fictional characters with the nickname
* Joe Tex (1933–1982), stage name of American soul singer Joseph Arrington Jr.
Entertainment
* ''Tex'', the Italian ...
'' series), ''
Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within'', ''
Voyeur
Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature.
The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". ...
'', ''
Star Trek: Klingon'', ''
Star Trek: Borg'', ''
Ripper
Ripper or The Ripper may refer to:
People
* Ripper (surname)
* Paul Burchill, ring name "The Ripper", a professional wrestler based on Jack the Ripper
* Kirk Hammett, nicknamed "The Ripper", the lead guitarist in the heavy metal band Metallica ...
'', ''
Snatcher'', ''
Black Dahlia
Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – January 14–15, 1947), known posthumously as the Black Dahlia, was an American woman found murdered in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Her case became highly publicized ow ...
'', ''
The X-Files Game
''The X-Files Game'' is an interactive movie point-and-click adventure video game developed by HyperBole Studios and published by Fox Interactive. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and PlayStation in 1998, and is based on the t ...
'', ''
Phantasmagoria
Phantasmagoria (, also fantasmagorie, fantasmagoria) was a form of horror theatre that (among other techniques) used one or more magic lanterns to project frightening images, such as skeletons, demons, and ghosts, onto walls, smoke, or semi- ...
'', ''
Bad Day on the Midway
''Bad Day on the Midway'' is a CD-ROM game written and directed by The Residents, animated and designed by Jim Ludtke, developed and published by Inscape.
The game takes place in the titular Midway where the player first takes control of Timmy, ...
'' and ''
The Dark Eye
''The Dark Eye'' (German: ''Das Schwarze Auge'', lit. "The Black Eye") is a German tabletop role-playing game with a high fantasy theme created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984. ...
''. Others in the
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
genre are ''
Brain Dead 13
''Brain Dead 13'' is an interactive movie video game developed and originally published in North America by ReadySoft on 15 December 1995 and in Europe by Empire Interactive on the same year for the MS-DOS. Unlike ''Dragon's Lair (1983 video game ...
'' and ''
Star Wars: Rebel Assault''.
Due to the limitation of memory and disk space, as well as the lengthy timeframes and high costs required for the production, not many variations and alternative scenes for possible player moves were filmed, so the games tended not to allow much freedom and variety of gameplay. Thus, interactive movie games were not usually very replayable after being completed once.
DVD games
A DVD game (sometimes called DVDi, "DVD interactive") is a standalone game that can be played on a set-top
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays DVDs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. Some DVD players will also play audio CDs. DVD players are connected to a television to wa ...
. The game takes advantage of technology built into the
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
format to create an interactive gaming environment compatible with most DVD players without requiring additional hardware. DVD TV games were first developed in the late 1990s. They were poorly received and understood as an entertainment medium. However, DVD-based game consoles like the
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...
popularized DVD-based gaming and also functioned as a DVD video player. In addition, the format has been used to import some video games to the DVD format, allowing them to be played with a standard DVD player rather than requiring a PC. Examples include ''Dragon's Lair'' and ''
Who Shot Johnny Rock?''. The
PC/console game ''
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness'' was released in 2006 as a DVD game entitled ''
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure''.
Japanese games such as
visual novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
s and
eroge
An ''eroge'' ( or , ''erogē''; ; a portmanteau of ''erotic game'' , ''erochikku gēmu'') is a Japanese genre of erotic video game. In 1982, Japan's Koei, founded by husband-and-wife team Yoichi and Keiko Erikawa (and later known for strategy ...
that were originally made for PC are commonly ported to DVDPG (a term that stands for ''DVD Players Game''). Instead of standard save methods, DVDPGs use
password save
A saved game (also called a game save, savegame, savefile, save point, or simply save) is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game.
From the earliest games in the 1970s onward, game platform hardw ...
systems. Similar game types include BDPG (
Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
Players Game) and UMDPG (
Universal Media Disc
The Universal Media Disc (UMD) is a discontinued optical disc medium developed by Sony for use on its PlayStation Portable handheld gaming and multimedia platform. It can hold up to 1.8 gigabytes of data and is capable of storing video games, ...
Players Game).
From the time of its original introduction, the DVD format specification has included the ability to use an ordinary DVD player to play interactive games, such as ''Dragon's Lair'' (which was reissued on DVD), the ''
Scene It?
''Scene It?'' is an interactive film series created by Screenlife Games, in which players answer trivia questions about films or pop culture. The games were first developed to be played with questions read from trivia cards or viewed on a telev ...
'' and other series of DVD games, or games that are included as bonus material on movie DVDs. Aftermath Media (founded by
Rob Landeros
Rob Landeros is a computer game designer and graphic artist. Together with Graeme Devine, he co-founded Trilobyte, where he created the highly commercially successful games ''The 7th Guest'' and '' The 11th Hour''. After leaving Trilobyte, he ...
of
Trilobyte) released the interactive movies ''
Tender Loving Care'' and ''Point of View'' (P.O.V) for the DVD platform. Such games have appeared on DVDs aimed at younger target audiences, such as the special features discs of the ''
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'' film series.
Live interactive movies
The world's first live interactive movie was ''My One Demand'' filmed and premiered on 25 June 2015. Created by Blast Theory, the film was streamed live to the TIFF Lightbox on three successive nights. The cast of eight included Julian Richings and Clare Coulter. Audiences in the cinema used mobile phones to answer questions from the narrator, played by Maggie Huculak and their answers were included in the voiceover as well as in the closing credits.
Modern developments
Later video games used this approach using fully animated computer-generated scenes, including various adventure games such as the ''
Sound Novel
A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...
'' series by
Chunsoft, ''
Shenmue
is an action-adventure game series created, produced and directed by Yu Suzuki. '' Shenmue'' (1999) and ''Shenmue II'' (2001) were developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega for Dreamcast. '' Shenmue III,'' developed by Suzuki's company Y ...
'' series by Sega, ''
Shadow of Memories
(''Shadow of Destiny'' in North America) is a mystery adventure game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and published by Konami. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001, it was later ported to Xbox (which is only releas ...
'' by
Konami
, is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...
, ''
Time Travelers
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to co ...
'' by
Level 5, and ''
Fahrenheit
The Fahrenheit scale () is a temperature scale based on one proposed in 1724 by the physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (1686–1736). It uses the degree Fahrenheit (symbol: °F) as the unit. Several accounts of how he originally defined his ...
'' by
Quantic Dream
Quantic Dream SA is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in May 1997, Quantic Dream has developed five video games: ''The Nomad Soul'' (1999), ''Fahrenheit'' (2005), ''Heavy Rain'' (2010), '' Beyond: Two Souls'' ...
. During many scenes, the player has limited control of the character and chooses certain actions to progress the story. Other scenes are
quick time event
In video games, a quick time event (QTE) is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen instruction/prompt. It allows for limited control of the ...
action sequences, requiring the player to
hit appropriate buttons at the right time to succeed. Some of these games, such as the ''Sound Novel'' series, ''Shadow of Memories'', ''Time Travelers'', ''
Until Dawn
''Until Dawn'' is a 2015 interactive drama horror game, horror video game developed by Supermassive Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Players assume control of eight young adults who have to survive on B ...
'', ''
Heavy Rain
''Heavy Rain'' is a 2010 adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game features four protagonists involved with the mystery of the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who uses extended periods ...
'', ''
Beyond: Two Souls'' and ''
Detroit: Become Human'', have numerous branching storylines that result from what actions the player takes or fails to complete properly, which can include the death of major characters or failure to solve the mystery.
Cast members' work during the 1990s on interactive movies'
chroma key
Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to ...
sets was different from traditional filmmaking: They performed multiple possible actions players choose in a game, usually looked into the camera to react to the player, and usually did not react to others on the set.
Such products were popular during the early 1990s as CD-ROMs and Laserdiscs made their way into the living rooms, providing an alternative to the low-capacity
cartridges of most
consoles. As the first CD-based consoles capable of displaying smooth and textured 3D graphics appeared, the full-FMV game had vanished from the mainstream circles around 1995, although it remained an option for PC adventure games for a couple more years. One of the last titles released was the 1998 PC and PlayStation adventure ''
The X-Files: The Game'', packed in 7 CDs. That same year, ''
Tex Murphy: Overseer'' became the first game developed specifically for
DVD-ROM
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
and one of the last "interactive movies" to make heavy use of live-action FMV. In 2014, the Tex Murphy series continued with a new FMV game, ''
Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure''.
With advances in computer technology, interactive films waned as more developers used fully digitized characters and scenes. This format was popularized by
Telltale Games
Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...
, achieving success in ''
The Walking Dead'' series of adventure games. These have sometimes been called interactive movies, as while the player can make choices that affect the game's overall narrative, they do not have direct control over characters, making the experience comparable to watching a sequence of cut scenes.
This idea was even further realized in
Telltale's ''
The Walking Dead'' series, where player actions can drastically change future games, for example, different characters may be alive in the end depending on choices made by the player in The Walking Dead season 1, but those same characters affect ''
The Walking Dead: Season Two''. Other examples of
episodic adventure games include Telltale's
The Wolf Among Us
''The Wolf Among Us'' is an episodic graphic mystery-drama adventure game developed by Telltale Games, based on Bill Willingham's ''Fables'' comic book series, to which it serves as a prequel. The game consists of five episodes that were re ...
series and the
Life Is Strange
''Life Is Strange'' (abbreviated ''LIS'') is a series of primarily episodic graphic adventure games published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. Created by Dontnod Entertainment, the series debuted with the eponymous first installment, ...
series, created by
Dontnod Entertainment
Don't Nod Entertainment SA (trade name: Don't Nod, formerly Dontnod Entertainment) is a French video game developer based in Paris. Founded in June 2008, it started development on '' Remember Me'' (2013). Because of its poor return on investmen ...
.
David Cage: videogames referred to as interactive films
![Heavy Rain logo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Heavy_Rain_logo.jpg)
At its release,
Heavy Rain
''Heavy Rain'' is a 2010 adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game features four protagonists involved with the mystery of the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who uses extended periods ...
(a 2010 video game by
Quantic Dreams) received very positive reviews and won several gaming and film and television awards. What is most striking, however, is the unanimity of critics in defining it an interactive-film more that a video game. This definition is certainly inspired by the phenomenon, typical of the Nineties, of films available in home video or computer that presented to the viewer a series of pre-recorded sequences, at the end of which it was possible to make choices that directly influenced the direction of the story.
Cage himself will define his Heavy Rain as an interactive film and, in fact, the goal of the video game coincides with the type of film just mentioned; to combine the interactive potential of the video game with the expressive richness of cinema. However, unlike its predecessors, Cage chooses not to work with live-action, but to use only synthetic images, avoiding, at least in part, the effect of estrangement typical of interactive films in the passage from moments of exploration to sequences of narrative exposure.
From the interactive films on DVD Cage assimilates two different aspects in his videogames, respectively the use of
Quick time events (QTE) and the freedom of choice left to the player to determine the development of the plot. In the gameplay of Heavy Rain, however,
QTEs are not used solely for the purpose of succeeding in certain actions but also as a vehicle to perform the countless narrative choices placed on the player. In the first case the player will find himself testing his reflexes by pressing the keys that will appear on the screen, In the second case, up to four different keys can appear to be pressed, each of the which represents a choice that will affect the narrative of the video game. As for non-interactive phases, it is difficult to distinguish from the interactive phases, as what can appear as a simple cutscene can often hide several
QTEs. Regarding identification with the main characters; Heavy Rain removes each element of the challenge typical of graphic adventures is removed to ensure that the player can be fully focused on it. Also, as already stated, in Heavy Rain there is no game over: depending on the player's actions and choices, the video game shifts to different storylines, culminating in one of the many endings planned for the story. The identification with the characters is not given only by the type of actions that we are asked to perform but also by how, at game design level, the player is required to complete
QTEs that aim to make the player feel the physical effort of the avatar. in an interview, director Cage stated that the game was to designed to be focused on physical immersion by letting the player controlling the animation of the character with the right analog stick. The idea behind this is to put the player further in the same physical space as that of the character. Although the innovation given by this type of mechanics in the gameplay is undoubted, interaction remains a very small part of the experience offered by David Cage's titles; The relationship between gameplay and cutscenes in Cage’s works is broken by what we could define as the insertion of the first into the second creating interactive cutscenes.
Another example comes from
Quantum Break
''Quantum Break'' is a 2016 science fiction action-adventure third-person shooter video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. The game centers on Jack Joyce ( Shawn Ashmor ...
, published by
Remedy in 2016. Between the game's acts, episodes from a TV show filmed in live action are displayed to the player: the scenes in these episodes change conforming to the decisions the player has taken and the objects he has interacted with. The looks of the characters are maintained between the live action sequences and the 3D computer generated ones, thanks to the use of the motion capture technique.
Interactive films in the internet era
With the advent of
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
annotations in 2008, a series of five ''
Interactive Adventures
Chad, Matt & Rob was an American group of filmmakers based in Los Angeles known for their short films that blend comedy with horror, adventure, and sci-fi.
Their most notable works include a series of ''Prank Gone Wrong'' found footage videos ...
'' were created by
Chad, Matt & Rob
Chad, Matt & Rob was an American group of filmmakers based in Los Angeles known for their short films that blend comedy with horror, adventure, and sci-fi.
Their most notable works include a series of ''Prank Gone Wrong'' found footage videos ...
that utilized the annotations to tell interactive stories that allowed the user to guide the narrative. The series included ''The Time Machine,'' ''The Murder,'' ''The Birthday Party,'' ''The Teleporter,'' and ''The Treasure Hunt.'' Annotations were removed from YouTube in 2019, which makes many of these videos unable to be interacted with.
In the 2010s,
streaming services
An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributors of s ...
like
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
started to grow in popularity and sophistication. By 2016, Netflix had started experimenting with interactive works aimed at children, including an animated version of ''
Puss in Boots
"Puss in Boots" ( it, Il gatto con gli stivali) is an Italian fairy tale, later spread throughout the rest of Europe, about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for hi ...
'' and an adaption of Telltale's ''
Minecraft: Story Mode''. Netflix's first major interactive film with live-action scenes was ''
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch'', a film in the ''
Black Mirror
''Black Mirror'' is a British anthology television series created by Charlie Brooker. Individual episodes explore a diversity of genres, but most are set in near-future dystopias with science fiction technology—a type of speculative fictio ...
'' anthology series and released in December 2018. Netflix worked with ''Black Mirror''s creator
Charlie Brooker
Charlton Brooker (born 3 March 1971) is an English television presenter, writer, producer and satirist. He is the creator and co-showrunner of the sci-fi drama anthology series ''Black Mirror'', and has written for comedy series such as ''Bras ...
to develop a narrative that took advantage of the interactive format, while developing their own tools to improve caching of scenes and management of the film's progression to use on future projects.
Reception
Although interactive movies had a filmic quality that sprite-based games could not duplicate at the time, they were a niche market— the limited amount of direct interactivity put off many gamers.
The popularity of FMV games declined during 1995, as
real-time 3D graphics gained increasing attention.
The negative response to FMV-based games was so common that it was even acknowledged in game marketing; a print advertisement for the interactive movie ''
Psychic Detective
A psychic detective is a person who investigates crimes by using purported paranormal psychic abilities. Examples have included postcognition (the paranormal perception of the past), Psychometry (paranormal), psychometry (information psychicall ...
'' stated, "Yeah, we know full-motion video games in the past sucked."
Cost was also an issue, as live action video with decent production values is expensive to film, while video shot on a low budget damages the overall image of the game. ''
Ground Zero: Texas'' cost
Sega
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
around US$3 million, about the same as a low-budget movie would cost in 1994.
Though not as crucial an issue as the limited interactivity, another issue that drew criticism was the quality of the video itself.
While the video was often relatively smooth, it was not actually full-motion as it was not of 24 frames per second or higher. In addition to this, the hardware it was displayed on, particularly in the case of the
Sega CD
The Sega CD, released as the in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. It was released on December 12, 1991, in Japan, ...
, had a limited color palette (of which a maximum of 64 colors were displayable simultaneously), resulting in notably inferior image quality due to the requirement of
dithering
Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise used to randomize quantization error, preventing large-scale patterns such as color banding in images. Dither is routinely used in processing of both digital audio and video data, and is often ...
. Game designer
Chris Crawford disparages the concept of interactive movies, except those aimed at elementary-school-age children, in his book ''
Chris Crawford on Game Design
''Chris Crawford on Game Design'' () is a book about computer and video game design by Chris Crawford. Although referred to as the second edition of '' The Art of Computer Game Design'', it is in fact a completely new book. It was published by Pe ...
''.
He writes that since the player must process what is known and explore the options, choosing a path at a branch-point is every bit as demanding as making a decision in a conventional game, but with much less reward since the result can only be one of a small number of branches.
Defenders of the genre have argued that, by allowing the player to interact with real people rather than animated characters, interactive full-motion video can produce emotional and visceral reactions that are not possible with either movies or traditional video games.
Other uses
Some studios hybridized ordinary computer game play with interactive movie play; the earliest examples of this were the entries in the
Origin Systems
Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert Garriott, Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres ...
''
Wing Commander
Wing commander (Wg Cdr in the RAF, the IAF, and the PAF, WGCDR in the RNZAF and RAAF, formerly sometimes W/C in all services) is a senior commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and air forces of many countries which have historical ...
'' series starting with ''
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger''. Between combat missions, ''Wing Commander III'' featured
cutscene
A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...
s with live actors; the game offered limited storyline branching based on whether missions were won or lost and on choices made at decision points during the cutscenes (''
Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom'', with some of the same actors, was similar).
Other games like ''
BioForge
''BioForge'' is a 1995 action-adventure game developed by Origin Systems and published by Electronic Arts for MS-DOS. Set in the future, the player controls an amnesiac cyborg trying to escape the research facility in which they are being held pr ...
'' would, perhaps erroneously, use the term for a game that has rich action and plot of cinematic proportions—but, in terms of gameplay, has no relation to FMV movies.
The term is an ambiguous one since many video games follow a storyline similar to the way movies would.
See also
*
Web documentary
A web documentary, interactive documentary, or multimedia documentary is a documentary production that differs from the more traditional forms—video, audio, photographic—by applying a full complement of multimedia tools. The interactive multim ...
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List of interactive movies
This is a list of interactive movies and interactive movie, interactive video game, games grouped by original year of release.
Pre-1970s
* ''Life Targets'' (1912)
* ''Auto Test'' (1954)
* ''Kinoautomat'' (1967)
1970s
* ''Wild Gunman'' (1974)
...
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Interactive cinema
Interactive cinema tries to give an audience an active role in the showing of movies.
Another newer definition of interactive cinema is a video game which is a hybrid between participation and viewing, giving the player – or viewer, as it were ...
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Interactive video
The term interactive video usually refers to a technique used to blend interaction and linear film or video.
History
In 1962, Steve Russell, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), created Spacewar!, the world's first inter ...
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Interactive art
Interactive art is a form of art that involves the spectator in a way that allows the art to achieve its purpose. Some interactive art installations achieve this by letting the observer walk through, over or around them; others ask the artist ...
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Art game
An art game (or arthouse game) is a work of interactive new media digital software art as well as a member of the "art game" subgenre of the serious video game. The term "art game" was first used academically in 2002 and it has come to be un ...
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Interactive Adventures
Chad, Matt & Rob was an American group of filmmakers based in Los Angeles known for their short films that blend comedy with horror, adventure, and sci-fi.
Their most notable works include a series of ''Prank Gone Wrong'' found footage videos ...
*
Chad, Matt & Rob
Chad, Matt & Rob was an American group of filmmakers based in Los Angeles known for their short films that blend comedy with horror, adventure, and sci-fi.
Their most notable works include a series of ''Prank Gone Wrong'' found footage videos ...
*
Full motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information duri ...
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Cheer screening
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Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...
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Pioneer LaserActive
The is a converged device and fourth-generation home video game console capable of playing LaserDiscs, Compact Discs, console games, and LD-G karaoke discs. It was released by Pioneer Corporation in 1993. In addition to LaserActive games, sep ...
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Halcyon Game System
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AnimePlay
Anime Play is a trademark used to refer to the visual novel games distributed by Hirameki International and a (discontinued) magazine profiling these games.
Anime Play DVD
Anime Play DVDs are the only English-language visual novels that are pla ...
* ''
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch''
References
External links
The Dragon's Lair Project: A repository of information about laserdisc video games"Laser Daze" from The Dot Eaters: Videogame History 101
{{VideoGameGenre
Video game genres
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Video game terminology