Interactive movie

An interactive movie is a video game genre composed entirely of full-motion video of either animated or live-action footage. As the genre has fallen out of favor, the term is sometimes used, in a derogatory way, to describe games (usually computer role-playing games) that have a heavy emphasis on cut scenes and plot, at the expense of engaging gameplay.

Related Topics:
Video game genre - Full-motion video - Animated - Computer role-playing game - Cut scene - Plot - Gameplay

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This genre came about with the invention of laserdiscs and laserdisc players, the first nonlinear or random access 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) 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 books could be constructed from out-of-order pages.

Related Topics:
Laserdisc - Nonlinear - Random access - Videotape - Choose Your Own Adventure

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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).

Related Topics:
3D - Game Over

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The first interactive movie game was the coin-op arcade game Dragon's Lair, featuring a full-motion cartoon by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth, where the player controlled some of the moves of the main character. When in danger, the player was to decide which move or action, or combination to choose. If he chose the wrong move, he would see a 'lose a life' scene, until he found the correct one which would allow him 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 him to make. Despite the lack of interactivity, Dragon's Lair was very popular and addictive, and has since recieved a remake on modern day gaming consoles (except with a complete genre change).

Related Topics:
Arcade game - Dragon's Lair - Full-motion - Cartoon - Disney - Don Bluth

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Subsequent laserdisc-based interactive movie games followed Dragon's Lairs format, with slight variations. Space Ace, made the next year by the same company and animator, added "branching paths" to the formula, in which there were multiple "correct moves" at certain points in the cartoon, and the move the player chose would affect the order of later scenes. Super Don Quix-ote and Esh's Aurunmilla both overlaid crude computer graphics on top of the animation to indicate the correct input to the player.

Related Topics:
Space Ace - Super Don Quix-ote - Esh's Aurunmilla

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Because Dragon's Lair and Space Ace were immensely popular, they spawned a deluge of sequels and similar games, despite the astronomical cost of the animation. To cut costs, several companies simply hacked together scenes from obscure (at least to American audiences of the day) anime, creating games like Cliff Hanger (with footage from the Lupin III movies Castle of Cagliostro and Mystery of Mamo) and Bega's Battle (with footage from Harmageddon).

Related Topics:
Anime - Cliff Hanger - Lupin III - Castle of Cagliostro - Mystery of Mamo - Bega's Battle - Harmageddon

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The hardware for these games consisted of a laserdisc player linked to a processor 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 would be programmed to go to the next chapter in the successful story if a player pressed the right button, or to go to the death chapter if he pressed the wrong one. Because laserdisc players of the day were not robust enough to handle the constant wear placed on them by 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 readily display their video on standard, non-interactive laserdisc players; to this day they are still much sought-after by laserdisc collectors.

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Later laserdisc interactive movie games integrated more and more computer graphics with the pre-recorded video; for example, M.A.C.H. 3 and Cube Quest were vertical scrolling shooters that used the laserdisc video for the background and computer graphics for the ships. In the late 1980's, American Laser Games produced a wide variety of live-action light gun laserdisc video games, which played much like the early cartoon games, but used a light gun instead of a joystick to affect the action.

Related Topics:
M.A.C.H. 3 - Cube Quest - Vertical scrolling shooter - American Laser Games - Live-action - Light gun

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When CD-ROMs were embedded in home computers, games with live action and full motion video featuring actors were considered cutting-edge, and some interactive movies were made. Some notable ones (which, unlike Dragon's Lair, are considered adventure games) are Voyeur, ', ' and Psychic Detective. Others, in the action genre, are Braindead 13 and '.

Related Topics:
CD-ROM - Actor - Adventure game - Voyeur - Psychic Detective - Action - Braindead 13

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Some studios hybridized ordinary computer game play with interactive movie play; the earliest examples of this were the entries in the Origin Systems Wing Commander flight simulator series starting with Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. Between combat missions, Wing Commander III featured cut scenes 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 cut scenes.

Related Topics:
Origin Systems - Wing Commander - Flight simulator - Cut scene

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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.

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For these reasons, and after the evolution of more flexible 3D graphics, interactive movie games were soon forgotten. However, their legacy lived on in the form of the full-motion video cut scenes that appeared in many ordinary computer games as Moore's Law brought increased processing and storage capacity to personal computers and video game consoles alike.

Related Topics:
Moore's Law - Personal computer - Video game console

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It is also worth noting that when the DVD format was created in the late 1990s as a successor to laserdisc, its original specification included the ability to use an ordinary DVD player to play interactive games, such as Dragon's Lair (which was reissued on DVD) or games that are included as bonus material on movie DVDs.

Related Topics:
DVD - 1990s - Dragon's Lair

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