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          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">- <a href="index.html">Contents</a><br>
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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 8</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../2.15/feat/index.html" target="">Livin' 
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  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
  life where everyone is Swedish?&quot;</font></p>
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../2.15/pixel/index.html" target="">Pixel 
  Obscura</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: Josh 
  Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
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              <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="http://www.foxinteractive.com">Fox 
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        <p align="LEFT"><img src="../images/pixel.jpg" width="190" height="227" align="RIGHT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../columns.1"><font size="-1">Pixel 
          Obscura </font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          Strange Moments: Film as Blueprint to Game.</font></p>
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        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Josh &quot;<a target="" href="mailto:josh@dawnofthedead.com">Dr.Rouge</a>&quot; 
          Vasquez</font></b></font></p><p align="right"> 
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        <br>
        <p align="LEFT"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">A 
          brief return to a certain family reuinion</font><font size="-1"> </font></i></p>
        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><img src="../images/letters/t.jpg" width="26" height="40" align="LEFT"></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">he 
          use of cinematic techniques in videogames is, if not always successful, 
          usually at least an interesting experiment in technology, genre and 
          storytelling. Up to this point I have been discussing games which pay 
          homage to, reference, borrow and outright steal material from both the 
          symbol archives of previously existing cinematic genres and the actual 

          structure of specific films. These games push both ways, depending on 
          what came before to provide some foundation from which they then seek 
          to create their own worlds. But what of games which are completely based 
          on films, that do not attempt any independence from the original source 
          because the sole reason they came into being is due to the fact that 
          the movies upon which they are based were very successful. These games 
          cannot (and do not) hide the fact that they are the product of a specific 
          industry machine. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> There is a twisted purity 
          about their silence. In my very first piece envisioned the film and 
          the videogame as distant siblings who, at some slightly sinister family 

          reunion, mated to produce the cinematic videogame. A game based directly 
          on a film, with no pretense of original storytelling, could be seen 
          as the severest, although purist, result of this inbreeding. It is the 
          mute older child standing in the middle of the room at the reunion, 
          glassy-eyed, indifferent to the routine it follows, oblivious to the 
          blueprints already drawn which completely chart its existence. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Both <b>Independence Day</b>, 
          developed and released by <a href="http://www.foxinteractive.com">Fox 
          Interactive</a> and <b>The Lost World: Jurassic Park</b>, developed 
          by <a href="http://www.dreamworksgames.com">Dreamworks</a> and released 
          by <a href="http://www.ea.com">Electronic Arts</a>, share this strangely 
          zombified existence. The difference, however, is that where one completely 
          gives itself over to the film, the other finds a way to downplay its 
          enslavement. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Independence Day</b>, 
          the Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin film, was the major movie going event 
          of the summer of 1996. It raked in truck loads of cash and proved a 
          great success, financially if not critically. It follows that a videogame, 
          another satellite in the marketing universe, would follow close on the 
          heels of such a triumph. The game's developers, conscious of the power 
          of name recognition and visual identification, made sure that the cinematic 
          portions of the game were entirely drawn from the film itself. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> The player watches as a 
          series of images used in the film unfold, basically retelling the premise 
          of the story (aliens have come to conquer earth) and establishing the 
          threat. The game then begins. What is so curious, and a little eerie, 
          about the setup is that while the visuals are just digitized copies 
          of the original scenes in the film (creepy in itself), they are also 
          just set to music and feature a complete lack of explicit character 
          reference. So Will Smith is no where to be seen even though many of 
          the objective special effect shots used in the game, particularly the 
          canyon duel between an alien and Smith, were originally intercut with 
          shots of Smith himself. It is an eerie opening sequence, devoid of a 
          "human" presence and built entirely out of ghostly fragments. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> This lack of originality, 
          or at least creative use of existing material, only serves to re-enforce 
          the image of the game as marketing slave to the <b>Independence Day</b> 
          phenomena. In all honesty I don't think that the developers ever envisioned 
          the game as anything else and that is disturbing in itself. <b>The Lost 
          World: Jurassic Park</b> is another example of a game based entirely 
          on a film franchise, but one which takes a "quieter," and therefore 
          more successful, approach. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> The game's only cinematic 
          section involves a series of computer images reminiscent of many shots 
          in both films. Images and text slide in and out of the frame with startlingly 
          rapidity. An animated stream of text, illustrations of a massive DNA 
          strand, the static haunted image of a diminutive dinosaur and various 
          rotating maps, flash by the viewer. There is a wonderful urgency to 
          the images, and although the text and visuals are similar to the many 
          computer sequences in the films, they work beautifully in the context 
          of the game. It is a "quiet" little snippet, a successfully subtle rehash 
          of previous material which helps the player dive right into the game. 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> In general the cinematic 
          sections of videogames rely on film traditions and techniques on a basic 
          level. When a game bases its entire life on a film, not trying to separate 
          itself to any great degree, it is up to the creators to decide how to 
          manipulate the material so as not to disrupt the viewers' marketable 
          identification with the specifics of the film but still take an inventive 
          approach. Hopefully one can avoid the strange moments one encounters 
          when coming face to face with the hollow "shudder of soulless commercialism. 
          </font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><i><font size="-1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">- 
          Josh &quot;Dr.Rouge&quot; Vasquez is a regular contributor to <font color="#804000"><b>loonygames.</b></font></font></i></p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> </font></i><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        Pixel Obscura logo illustrated and is &copy; 1998 Dan Zalkus. Pixel Obscura 
        is &copy; 1998 Josh Vasquez. All other content is &copy; 1998 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited...we 
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