racketboy.com

Hey y'all! Sorry this is a day late and minimalist. I'm at mom's house for Easter, and she's kind of a luddite, so I'm having to do this on my phone. I'll spruce it up when I get home in a couple days. But without further ado...

IT'S TIME FOR SOME FULL MOTION BIDEO GOODNESS!

The criteria for this month are simple.

1. The game must have at least some live-action full motion video be it a cut scene or digitized actors

2. The game must have a release date (in any region) between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 1999. I defer to Bone and Bogus to determine what is an adequate pre-1990 exceptions as they're the hella old and FMV game experts, respectively.

Otherwise, have at it! Like I said, I'll spruce this up a bit in a couple days. Apologies in the meantime.

For this month, I plan to play Phantasmagoria...

...off the Annihilator album Never, Neverland!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZU6i8EUcxk

I kid...partly. I still plan to listen to the song. But I'll also be playing the FMV point-and-click adventure game Phantasmagoria:



Proof for the non-believers that this counts:


It's sure to be a face-ripping good time!

Here are some very helpful links for folks who are interested in the history of FMV games including the unreleased VHS game console, Project NEMO!

A very thorough interview with Tom Zito, founder of Digital Pictures and the man responsible for the NEMO

The history of Digital Pictures that is nice and succinct and offers insight into a variety of very specific games

It is fascinating to see the role of Nolan Bushnell in the process and to learn about the behind the scenes business side of making these games and the issue with Night Trap and the United States government.

As for games I am playing, I have started up Voyeur, one of the games built for the NEMO but was later ported to other platforms. The game is a simple predecessor to night trap, where you monitor a corrupt businessman running for president to dig up dirt on him. You are in an adjacent building from his mansion home with recording devices and must scan the rooms in his home in real time to find out who in his family he is going to kill and either inform the victim before it happens or record the murder and call the police.

Clearly one is the best ending, and another is the good ending. Fail, or inform the wrong person and you get the bad ending.

In my first playthrough I didn't fully get the point, watching the murder and then informing the wrong person instead of calling the police, but the game is roughly and hour of gameplay so it is easy to go back and try again.

It does have replay because who he decides to murder changes with each playthrough and it is extremely easy to miss out on scenes throughout the mansion. I'll play some more and comment with some screenshots as well.

Probably sitting this month out. Night Trap was delayed on Xbox One, and the REmake abandons the live action cut scenes.

I've got a few classic '90s live action FMV-infused games queued up. High quality historically significant stuff indicative of this genre's worth. I'll try to get the first one knocked out soonish.

Okay, is a game like D eligible? I would think so? I have that!

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Okay, is a game like D eligible? I would think so? I have that!

I don't remember it having live actors?

noiseredux wrote:

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Okay, is a game like D eligible? I would think so? I have that!

I don't remember it having live actors?

It does not sadly! But!!! You could play, It Came From the Desert on Turbograffx 16 cd!!! I know it is sooooo comparable!!!

Oh man this "live actors" thing is killin' me!!!

Now that I think of it, some old WRPG dungeon-crawlers have FMV characters. Hmmm.....

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Oh man this "live actors" thing is killin' me!!!

Now that I think of it, some old WRPG dungeon-crawlers have FMV characters. Hmmm.....

Stonekeep