frosty
07-30-2010, 06:58 PM
Digital Pictures, the FMV game software developer that used to make games on PC and Sega CD back in the early 90's, got a lot more hate than they deserved. While yes, they did populate the gaming market with campy VIDEO games featuring low budget sets/effects/props and bad acting, they were pushing into new territory that nobody else dared to. It was the first true attempt at merging full motion video with video games, which produced results we still see in gaming today. For instance, you know all those amazing FMV sequences in God of War 3 that seamlessly blend FMV that takes things beyond a scale that PS3 can handle rendering at a decent frame rate with the actual in game assets it really is rendering, producing a visual result that is outright stunning? It was Digital Pictures that first started experimenting with that sort of thing on consoles.
http://cdn.livevideo.com/image/29/343529/524927_3s.jpg
For example, Sewer Shark. This game had you going into the sewers of some futuristic society to clean out the scum that has evolved via toxic mutations down there. It made a few attempts to string along some kind of a storyline, with a couple characters you interact with as the story plays out, namely the fat balding dude that for some reason is trying to stop you by sending "moles" after you in the sewers, as well as your trusty but rather odd assistant robot "Catfish" that farts fireballs to reduce methane levels ahead of you when they get too high. However, unlike the other FMV games out there, this game does not rely on it's story. And that is a good thing, because most of those FMV games did a terrible job at storytelling.
Instead, you end up doing a lot of what I mentioned previously, shooting at objects the Sega CD was rendering over the top of FMV clips of flying through various sewers (which looked remarkably good for it's day) such as "ratigators" and the menacing robotic "moles" as well. The only familiar aspect of the typical "press button when cued" FMV game it retained was pressing the button to make a turn in time to switch to another sewer pipe, avoiding an explosion that would have resulted when you hit the dead end of the previous pipe you were in.
Most of those mechanics have found their way into modern gaming, believe it or not. We still have the acting (which has gotten WAY better, thanks to folks like Nolan North), we still have the in game assets overlaid on top of FMV (Final Fantasy and God of War 3 make heavy use of this still), and we still have Quick Time Events. Yes, those QTE's we all know and love in modern gaming had their roots in games like Night Trap. Funny if you think about it, given all the hate games like that have received.
Speaking of Night Trap... That horribly campy game that kept me playing not because I enjoyed pressing one single button over and over again when the screen told me to, not because I enjoyed the horrible acting or writing, not because the cheesy vampire theme impressed me, but because it was a technological marvel. For the first time, I was able to show all of my other school kid friends (since I was the only one in town, ever, to have a Sega CD, I was the "cool kid" on the block) the wonders of how my video game console was no longer restricted to the pixelated cartoony graphics all theirs had, but could do REAL movies of REAL people just like TV! Of course, playing it now would lead to boredom if it weren't for the nostalgia factor, but it sure as hell was amazing back then.
http://www.sega-16.com/Features/Interviews/Rob%20Fulop/Night%20Trap.jpg
R.I.P. Dana Plato
Many of the games Digital Pictures made were terrible, but all of them had a sort of charm about them as well. Maybe it was just from the technological marvel of it all, maybe it was just the humor of the bad acting, but none the less I kept coming back for more. Few others did, which eventually drove them out of business, but nobody can deny the lasting contributions developers like them made to the gaming scene. They showed us what worked with FMV, and what didn't. Now that we're in an era where video games are taken seriously instead of regarded as a child's toy, the experimentation they did almost 20 years ago (man I'm getting old...) paved the way for us to properly blend the world of movies and video games. So for that, as well as all of the ooh's and aah's I got from my other 12 year old friends who were drooling over the Sega CD's AMAZING FMV capabilities, I thank you Digital Pictures. Looking back, you helped to define a part of my childhood. I almost feel tempted to pop in Sewer Shark for a good ol' walk down memory lane.
http://www.coolrom.com/screenshots/segacd/Sewer%20Shark%20(2).gif
"Shoot the tubes, DOGMEAT!"
http://cdn.livevideo.com/image/29/343529/524927_3s.jpg
For example, Sewer Shark. This game had you going into the sewers of some futuristic society to clean out the scum that has evolved via toxic mutations down there. It made a few attempts to string along some kind of a storyline, with a couple characters you interact with as the story plays out, namely the fat balding dude that for some reason is trying to stop you by sending "moles" after you in the sewers, as well as your trusty but rather odd assistant robot "Catfish" that farts fireballs to reduce methane levels ahead of you when they get too high. However, unlike the other FMV games out there, this game does not rely on it's story. And that is a good thing, because most of those FMV games did a terrible job at storytelling.
Instead, you end up doing a lot of what I mentioned previously, shooting at objects the Sega CD was rendering over the top of FMV clips of flying through various sewers (which looked remarkably good for it's day) such as "ratigators" and the menacing robotic "moles" as well. The only familiar aspect of the typical "press button when cued" FMV game it retained was pressing the button to make a turn in time to switch to another sewer pipe, avoiding an explosion that would have resulted when you hit the dead end of the previous pipe you were in.
Most of those mechanics have found their way into modern gaming, believe it or not. We still have the acting (which has gotten WAY better, thanks to folks like Nolan North), we still have the in game assets overlaid on top of FMV (Final Fantasy and God of War 3 make heavy use of this still), and we still have Quick Time Events. Yes, those QTE's we all know and love in modern gaming had their roots in games like Night Trap. Funny if you think about it, given all the hate games like that have received.
Speaking of Night Trap... That horribly campy game that kept me playing not because I enjoyed pressing one single button over and over again when the screen told me to, not because I enjoyed the horrible acting or writing, not because the cheesy vampire theme impressed me, but because it was a technological marvel. For the first time, I was able to show all of my other school kid friends (since I was the only one in town, ever, to have a Sega CD, I was the "cool kid" on the block) the wonders of how my video game console was no longer restricted to the pixelated cartoony graphics all theirs had, but could do REAL movies of REAL people just like TV! Of course, playing it now would lead to boredom if it weren't for the nostalgia factor, but it sure as hell was amazing back then.
http://www.sega-16.com/Features/Interviews/Rob%20Fulop/Night%20Trap.jpg
R.I.P. Dana Plato
Many of the games Digital Pictures made were terrible, but all of them had a sort of charm about them as well. Maybe it was just from the technological marvel of it all, maybe it was just the humor of the bad acting, but none the less I kept coming back for more. Few others did, which eventually drove them out of business, but nobody can deny the lasting contributions developers like them made to the gaming scene. They showed us what worked with FMV, and what didn't. Now that we're in an era where video games are taken seriously instead of regarded as a child's toy, the experimentation they did almost 20 years ago (man I'm getting old...) paved the way for us to properly blend the world of movies and video games. So for that, as well as all of the ooh's and aah's I got from my other 12 year old friends who were drooling over the Sega CD's AMAZING FMV capabilities, I thank you Digital Pictures. Looking back, you helped to define a part of my childhood. I almost feel tempted to pop in Sewer Shark for a good ol' walk down memory lane.
http://www.coolrom.com/screenshots/segacd/Sewer%20Shark%20(2).gif
"Shoot the tubes, DOGMEAT!"