DVD Game Madness

While doing some research on FMV games in general I started looking into the console, PC, and arcade games that have been converted to DVD video format. This took much longer than I thought it would. Everytime I searched for a picture or link, more titles would pop up. A lot of these titles are fairly hard to find, even on the internet. I'm pretty sure this is the most comprehensive list of US released DVD games anywhere, as depressing as that might be.

England has a many, many more DVD games that the US does. Based on gameshows, long running soap operas, comedy shows, reality tv, the list goes on and on. Most of the DVD game titles over here are usually part of a board game, I've only listed titles that use just the remote.

In the US, Digital Leisure have released the most easily obtainable titles. So for there are 16(!) DVD games converted primarily from laserdisc arcade titles.

Dragon's Lair
Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp
Dragon's Lair III
Space Ace
Thayer's Quest
Mad Dog McCree
Mad Dog McCree II: The Lost Gold
The Last Bounty Hunter
Crime Patrol
Who Shot Johnny Rock?
Drug Wars
Space Pirates
Hologram Time Traveler
Shadaon

Dragon's Lair III is an odd one because it's actually just comprised of in-game footage of the Dragon's Lair 3D console game which you then control like a traditional Dragon's Lair game.

Are You All That? - DVDi developed this trivia party title and Digital Leisure published it but you wouldn't know by looking at their site. The only way I discovered it was by browsing their online shop. They also have a media page that I only was able to stumble across with a Google search. The company line says it all:

"Dr. Know-It-All Browne keeps score (so you don't have to). In his own charismatic, slang-infused style, the doctor will "dis" or give "props" to players as he sees fit."

That sure sounds "Off Da Hook" and "Bumpin", isn't that what the kids say these days? I also like how they portray the fact that repeated questions are unavoidable:

"Any repeated question is a valid question for the player who receives it. It will earn or lose a player points, just as any other question. Dr. Browne believes in rewarding players for paying attention and being sharp enough to remember previous game play. "Consider it a bonus gift... from me to you," he says."

Yes. It's a gift. I hope you're grateful to Dr. Browne.

Another video game to DVD game conversion is Lara Coft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure which uses footage from the 6th game The Angel of Darkness. It's out in the UK but the original December '06 US release was missed.

Speaking of video game to DVD conversions, I stumbled across a whole batch that have quite a sordid history. Here's what I was able to gather. Just before the dot-com bubble burst, Brilliant Entertainment had a browser plug-in that played 3D graphics movies based mostly on licensed properties. The software, called B3D, was eventually revealed to contain a spyware/adserver/distributed computing thing called Altnet that was in cahoots with Kazaa somehow. More info here and here. There were tons of different episodes and even more planned. You can read about those here and here.

You can actually still watch/play the Superman episodes on the UK Warner Bros site. It has the plugin to install and everything. Of course it will still be detected as spyware and/or a virus so downloader beware. I got it to run for a bit on Win2k and xp before my scanners decided otherwise.

How does this dead web software apply to DVD, or even games you ask? The episodes were all essentially no-lose choose your own adventure stories. Some were released as CD-ROM titles and thankfully for mankind, many of them were eventually ported to DVD video. They even received ESRB ratings. This is what I think is a complete list of titles:

Xena: Death in Chains
Xena: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Gravity Angels: Alien Discovery
Gravity Angels: The Betrayal
Gravity Angels: Payback
Gravity Angels: Death Force
Superman: Menace Of Metallo (unreleased)
Ace Ventura Pet Detective: The Case of the Serial Shaver
KISS Immortals
Choose Your Own Nightmare: Night Of The Werewolf
Choose Your Own Nightmare: The Curse of the Mummy
Choose Your Own Nightmare: Halloween Party
Choose Your Own Nightmare: Evil Pen Pal
Choose Your Own Nightmare: Bite of a Vampire

Silent Steel - A port of a Tsunami Media CD-ROM game, it's the first DVD game ever put onto a disc(1996)...but it wasn't actually released until a few years later.

I'm Your Man - Along with Mr. Payback, Ride For your Life, & Bombmeister(unreleased), it is one of four titles made with the Interfilm process and designed to be shown in a regular theater. Roger Ebert's review of Mr. Payback sums up the output. I'm Your Man is the only one on DVD so far. Each play through is only about 20 minutes.

The Misadventures of James Spawn - The first ever interactive movie produced specifically for DVD. A fresh off the boat stereotypical Indian man receives a ring that lets him wish for stuff. That description combined with the cover picture should give you an idea of the quality.

Stab In The Dark! - A murder mystery party on a DVD from what I can gather. It's put out by Drew's Famous so it could suck a lot.

Choose Your Own Adventure - The Abominable Snowman - And animated feature from the same company that publishes the classic books comes this animated feature featuring the voice talents of William H. Macy, Frankie Muniz, Felicity Huffman, and Lacey Chabert. It looks pretty interesting.

Scourge of Worlds: A Dungeons & Dragons Adventure - I'm surprised I hadn't heard of this one, it seems to have a bit of an underground following. It was released by Rhino and there's even a Special Edition version.

Tender Loving Care
Point of View
Created by some of the makers of the pioneering CD-Rom titles 7th Guest and 11th hour, these are a couple of the most well-known interactive movie titles. Both are less adventure game and interactive movie that changes according to the various psychological questions. The first four chapters of Point of View can be played online here. A great Gamespot article detailing the rise and fall of Trilobyte tells how Tender Loving Care caused some problems in the company before they split off as Aftermath. Tender Loving Care was also released as a normal movie in the UK.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
Dracula Unleashed
Both of these titles were widely released on various consoles and computers about a decade and a half ago so it's nice to finally see them with a nice video clarity. The easiest way to obtain both of these is from the Infinite Ventures online store.

Disney Dogs Edition: Blue Ribbon Challenge
Disney Princess Edition: Become The Ultimate Princess

These two Disney DVD Game World aren't just for kids, especially the Disney Dogs version which has a special difficulty level for hardcore Disney-ites.

Adventureville: The Cosmic Kitty Adventure - Look! Another "first".

Brain Quest: Ages 6-8
Brain Quest: Ages 8-10
Nancy Drew: Curse Of Blackmoor Manor
All from Brighter Minds Media, the Nancy Drew game is converted from the PC title of the same name.

Phantom of Inferno
Day of Love
Amusement Park
Tea Society of a Witch
Hourglass of Summer
Ishika & Honori
Exodus Guilty
Dragonia
All of these Herameki Anime Play titles are essentially visual novel PC titles converted to DVD Games, subtitles and all. The animation is fairly nonexistent, relying on still images with narration instead. More titles were planned, but they were eventually canceled in 2005.

Shrek Princess Club
Shrek Pick-A-Pair!
Shrek Castle Races
Shrek Totally Tangled Tales
Over the Hedge Wacky Moments in Human History
Madagascar Animal Trivia
JumpStart Power Prep
JumpStart PreK-1st Grade: Frankie's Field Trip
Discovery Channel American Road Trip
The Bible
Time Troopers
Show Me the WILD!
Santa's Trivia Game

b EQUAL has a large number of DVD games all based on licensed titles from Dreamworks, JumpStart, Discovery and History Channel, and oddly enough the classics Rankin-Bass TV special Santa Claus is Comin' to Town.

Doctor Who: Attack Of The Graske is a well made, fully playable online FMV game that seems as if it was developed for DVD, especially the bit about The Doctor syncing your remote with the sonic screwdriver.

Here is a nice 1996 essay exploring the current state of interactive media and movies.

Another 1996 DVD game article, this one approaching the topic from the technical aspect. Registration required(and highly reccomended).

The Cigar Deadline - An interactive movie of sorts on youtube.

InteractiveMovies.org - A nice list of FMV titles in various formats.

Interactive-Film.com - Proof that interactive movies aren't dead with more than a dozen recently made and playable online titles.