Stephen King Video Games


Doesn't it seem like there should be more games based on Stephen King books?  I'm still waiting for someone to give me an edition of THE  STAND Civ 5.  Really, no one has wanted to drive Christine?  Think about it -- it would be a lot more fun than Pole Position.  Actually, a lot of things were better than that game.

Here is a list of video games based on King's work.  I am not including Discordia.  If you know of others, tell me in the comments section (or email me).

1985: THE MIST:

Was a text adventure game.  Remember Zork?


1989: THE RUNNINGMAN

The Running man was released as a Commodore 64 game.  It also inspired a game called "Smash TV."




1992: THE DARK HALF:




www.giantbomb.com gives us this review of The Dark Half video game:
The Dark Half is a point and click story based adventure game based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. It was released in 1992 by Capstone and even though many consider it to be a terrible game, it is highly sought after and considered a cult hit.
The Dark Half was developed by Symtus and published in 1992 by Capstone. It is a ScummVM-esque point and click adventure game that is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Although the mechanics of the game are very similar to many adventure games released around the same time from LucasArts, it is possible to die / be arrested in the game, bringing your adventure to an eary finish. 
The game itself is a poor reflection of the novel and is riddled with plot holes and inconsistencies. Even with these inherent flaws, The Dark Half remains a cult classic, a title that is still highly sought after even this long after it's debut. The ease of getting a "Game Over" screen is such that it's vital to save often and in different files, which is a turn off for many gamers with games such as Monkey Island setting the benchmark of a "deathless" game.



1994: The Lawnmowerman 

This was a Sega Genesis game. I never got to play it because we were Atari people.  Then Commodore.  



For more, check out David Finniss article at voices.yahoo.com.
Finnis' article covers all of the above games,and also a wallpaper program called F13: "The only thing that I was able to find on my own was a program called F13. It wasn't so much a game as a program that gave you wallpapers for your desktop. There were some mini-games as well as an electronic copy of Everything's Eventual. It received a mixed review at best."

10 King Novels That Should Be Video Games:

I liked this article by Clayton Ofbricks: 10 Stephen King Novels That Should Be Video Games.  He gives a nice outline of how each game would be played out.
1) The Shawshank Redemption: 3rd Person Stealth Action 
2) The Stand: Post Turn Based Strategy 
3) The Green Mile: Construction and Management Simulation 
4) Misery: Tower Defense 
5) The Dark Tower: Action RPG 
6) Christine: Extreme Driving Sim 
7) Rose Red: Survival Horror 
8) Pet Sematary: FPS 
9) Salem’s Lot: Sandbox 
10) Cujo: Trivia
Or. . . you could just play The Sims 3 Supernatural!  Or, Naughty Bear.

10 comments:

  1. It really IS surprising that there aren't more King-based games, given how huge that industry is now.

    It's inevitable that they will happen. Sigh... I'd better go ahead and buy a system at some point, I guess.

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  2. Best Potential King Game adaptation ever? It! Like the Salem's Lot idea, it would be sandbox action.

    The player would get to choose between any of member of the Losers Club (except Stan) and their various styles, so to speak.

    The game would then open with the player returning to Derry and the first objective would be to meet up wit the other Losers.

    It would be followed by other challenges with certain levels taking place in flashbacks to your character's past and some even in Mike Hanlon's scrapbook.

    All the while you would have to avoid certain townspeople, not arouse suspicion and of course watch out, Pennywise might pop out anywhere.

    The whole thing could be designed along Alan Wake lines. The best part? Better Spider Creature design and pay off.

    One more thing, if you're a cemetery groundskeeper and someone asks you to open the tool-shed, the correct response is to stand up, dust off your knees look the other fellow square in the eye and go, "Well now, mind me asking why you're so all fired interested in usin' cemetery equipment?"

    ChrisC

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  3. You could probably get a heck of a video game out of Joe Hill's Locke & Key, too.

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  4. Just one question. Who or what is Zork!?

    ChrisC

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  5. Chris,

    Zork was a word-play game. Adventure. One step above those "choose your own adventure" books you had as a kid.

    So it would describe a situtuion: "You are in a forest with trees all around." You would type, "Go north" or "dig" or something like that. It was actually frustrating just trying to figure out what commands the game was looking for. As I recall, there were trolls and secret stair ways and all kinds of things. And. . . I think there was a Zork II.

    But, I do not know what or who a "Zork" is/was. I was just a child.

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  6. Oh, I get it now, thanks.

    ChrisC

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  7. The 1994 game Lawnmower Man was also released for Super NES.
    Also in 1994, a game called Cyberwar was released for PC. It's not really a King adaptation, but it is loosely based on The Lawnmower Man.

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  8. In my Advanced Composition class we are reading The Body and I really like it because I have seen Stand By Me and I like all the events that take place and I love the storyline.

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