Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Games. Show all posts
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: TriviaOr. . . you could just play The Sims 3 Supernatural! Or, Naughty Bear.
Play THE MIST Video Game
Well, come on in . . . TO THE MIST! Check out archive.org/Stephen_Kings_The_Mist_1985, which is a text based game (remember Zork?)
This is also a time warp back to the sweet year of 1985. That doesn't seem so long ago -- does it? I am a huge fan of internet archive, which not only has some old games, television shows and movies, but lots of vintage radio shows.
Anyway -- jump on in to the Mist. . .
The game notes are from my friend Chris Calderon.
Some differences between the game and novella:
As in both book and film, the player is given the part of David Drayton, however, Norton is nowhere to be seen, and Billy has apparently been left "in the care of Mr. Eagleton", "somewhere safe". The Eagleton character doesn't appear in either book or film.
Mrs. Carmody and Mrs. Reppler are present, however unlike the book or film, the other shopper immediately form a cult around her the instant the mist strikes, we're talking like no more than a second after. You apparently can't either restrain or take out Mrs. Carmody like in the book. All the happens is time is wasted and after a certain number of turns, the crowd feeds you to the mist. Would you like to try again?
Mr. McVey the butcher is nowhere to be found.
The encounter with Norm the Bag Boy goes very differently.
Ollie is there, however he pretty unhelpful, and far from the picture of calm confidence in both of the other incarnations. This version just sits and panics.
Surprisingly, the game does bear a similarity to the movie in that both offer an explanation for the Mist. In the film, this info is alluded to by a doomed Army MP. In the game, a notebook belonging to an Arrowhead Project employee is discovered lying in a dumpster, however never encounters this character in person.
Now for the real scary part, THE GAME FORCES YOU TO GO OUT INTO THE MIST!
Players are going to need to read Gaming after 40's article about the text adventure. It presents a lot of essential info for playing the game, and is the closest to a manual players are likely to get. A link for Gaming after 40 can be found here:
Stephen King Meets Super Mario
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| culturepopped.blogspot.com |
This is re-posted with permission from: www.backofthecerealbox.com by Drew Mackie
For you who don’t follow video games, a quick preface: 2002 saw the release of Super Mario Sunshine, the Hawaiian shirt-wearing black sheep of the series that sent Mario off to face all manner of tropical danger during an island vacation. One of the areas Mario must hop through is Sirena Beach, which exists in a state of perma-sunset and which is home to the Hotel Delfino and more than its share of ghost problems. In fact, Mario’s first mission in this area pits him against this weird, manta ray-shaped shadow that emerges from the ocean and slowly slimes over the whole resort. Mario can only kill it by repeatedly attacking it, breaking it down into smaller and smaller mantas until the smallest of them die for good.
Here’s a video of the manta monster in action:
Note that the music is appropriately creepy and
David Lynch-y. I though this would be the extent of pop-cultural connections to
be made, but that’s apparently not the case. The “cloudbush”
thread, an ongoing NeoGAF message board discussion that’s been trying to
find “mind-blowing” video game trivia since 2008, makes an interesting point
about the Super Mario Sunshine manta. (It’s not the first surprising
connection it’s made, and this isn’t the first one I’ve noted on this
blog.) Basically, the whole scene could be a riff on The Shining.
At the end of the book, when Wendy and Danny are fleeing the burning Overlook
with Dick Halloran — remember, the Scatman Crothers character doesn’t get axed
to death like he does in the movie — only Dick looks back, and when he does he
sees something odd... even in the context of everything else that happens in
The Shining.
From the window of the Presidential Suite he thought he saw a huge dark shape issue, blotting out the snowfield behind it. For a moment it assumed the shape of a huge, obscene manta, and then the wind seemed to catch it, to tear it and shred it like old dark paper. It fragmented, was caught in a whirling eddy of smoke, and a moment later it was gone as if it had never been.These creatures aren’t the same, and the message board post incorrectly calls the Shining manta “paper-thin,” when it’s actually the Mario manta that gets called that. The Shining text does eventually compare its manta to paper, however. And both mantas fragment into nonexistence. Debatable physical qualities aside, how many giant manta shadows can you think of that are associated with pop culture hotels that have serious ghost problems? That’s a fairly specific condition, you must admit. I have no idea whether the similarity might be intentional, but on coming to your own conclusion, please consider about these two points. First, I would have never thought that a Legend of Zelda game would have been inspired by Twin Peaks, but it happened, and weirder things have inspired video games. Second, Nintendo loves obscure references. Even Super Mario Sunshine is full of them. The whole Sirena Beach map, for example, is designed to look like a Gamecube controller. See?
The controller of the system you’re using to play the very game is less out-of-nowhere than The Shining, as far as references go, but I feel like the hidden controller at least shows that Nintendo sometimes operates on a subtle level. Someone just casually playing the game probably wouldn’t notice either — the hidden controller or a debatable nod to a Stephen King novel. I’m not sure who at Nintendo could say with any certainty “Yes, it’s supposed to be The Shining” or “No, who are you and how did you get past security?” but at the very least, this must be a very specific, very strange coincidence a double ghost hotels and oversized mantas that have both fragmentary and papery qualities.
Where Is Danny
Where Is Danny Torrance? is an experimental Google Chrome project that uses both mobile and desktop to unlock the secrets of Stephen King's long-awaited sequel to The Shining.
REDRUM Game
Big Fish Games has released a first person adventure game titled "REDRUM" for Android, Ipad, iPhone and Windows.
This was published in 2008, so I suspect it's not really got much to do with Mr. King except the title.
Description
A little girl called Rose is an asylum patient, afflicted with mental images of death and other macabre visions. With the help of her psychic powers, she starts unraveling a plot against her life by an evil doctor.Redrum is a horror-themed hidden object game. As usual, the objective is to find and click on all the objects from a list, as they lay scattered on gruesome scenes of murder and other creepy places. Roses are also hidden on the scenery. They add more hints to the magnifying glass at the bottom that, when clicked, highlights the location of one of the list items. There are two modes, with or without the time limit.
A bonus round appears at the end of each chapter. In one of them, the player has to make anagrams with refrigerator magnets. Another makes the screen all segmented, and replaces the object list with the screen portions that must be found. In one, the goal is to find several instances of the same object.
www.mobygames.com
Stephen King Apples To Apples
I play Apples to Apples with my kids. You draw cards, then a category is put down, and people try to match their card to the category. A judge decides which card (usually a noun) matches the the category. Wasn't I surprised last night when Stephen King was laid down as an answer. Doesn't matter what the category was -- it won.
THE SHINING Board Game
How much of a cultural icon is Stephen King? I notice his name appears quite frequently these days as a game question. Playing EYE TO EYE tonight, where players try to write the same answers as other players to a given subject. We all cringed when the category was, "Stephen King books." Humm, so many. Which ones would my friends choose? Knowing so many was suddenly a problem.
King has also been a Jeopardy category.
Makes me wonder. . . what board game best lends itself to a "Stephen King" edition?
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| PHOTO CREDIT |
OR, even better: THE SHINING Game. This one's for real!
THE SHINING GAME
"The Shining" is a game based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. One player controls the evil and sentient Overlook hotel, the other the Torrence family, winter caretakers of the haunted estate. Using ambient hedge animals, terrifying phantoms and possibly human possession, the hotel tried to claim young, psychically gifted Danny as it's own - by killing him. But Danny and his family will not go gentle into the dark night.
This game was designed with the knowledge and assistance of Stephen King, who was one of the first play-testers. It is available for free download at http://micro.brainiac.com/contest-games.html.
Winner of the first Microgame Design Contest, in 1998.
This is from the review of THE SHINING game, discussing the game play itself:
The game starts just as a huge approaching winter storm front has been announced on the news. The forecast is for several inches accumulation each hour over the next 12 hours. Wendy has to tell the family to prepare for the storm. That's the moment that the ghosts give up all pretense to lurking and the hunt is on!
One person is the Torrence family player while the other plays the House. There are numerous ways to win, but victory boils down to driving the enemy from the field of battle. To me, that seems a bit strange for a game about a haunted house. Think of it as a light wargame.The game covers just the battle of Overlook Hotel so there's really no exploration of a haunted house involved. That's not really a detriment as it makes the game short and action-packed, almost cinematic (if everyone gets in the spirit of things).
Players alternate turns hunting each other's units, or trimming the hedge. The Torrence family can either mentally combat the ghosts or physically attack the topiary outside. Those possessed hedge sculptures can actually do some damage if you don't cut them down to size early on. Ghosts can attack either mentally (possession) or physically (poltergeist). Decoys just look scary, once they're revealed they are removed. All units go down in ability as they take hits (kept track of on a separate record sheet provided). So a unit's values on its counter represent only the unit's conditions at the start of the game. Combat is different for each type of being doing the attacking (human, ghost or topiary). That takes a little getting used to and means that the numbers on the counters cannot be easily compared.
Implements of destruction and the snowmobile are located in the garage. There's a knife in the kitchen. Certain other rooms must contain a haunt. Otherwise the rooms are pretty much the same. Except that the elevator is the only way to get from floor to floor, and it's never where you want it to be.
It took us a couple of false starts before we got the hang of playing THE SHINING. Jack should get the axe from the garage and start trimming the hedges (and stay away from ghosts). Danny should dispatch the haunt in the playground and then head inside to terminate ghosts (and avoid topiary). And poor Wendy has to race downstairs to monitor Boiler pressure. We soon learned that the major concern of the Torrence family was not the ghosts, but the Boiler! Without almost constant supervision, the Boiler pressure will build until it explodes and the whole hotel burns down. This has happened in every game I've played. Sounds like an insurance con to me...
Can everybody flee the hotel in time? Will they turn into depraved fiends due to the mental corruption of the ghosts? Will Hallorann get here in time (summoned by Danny's "Shining") to save the day?
THE SHINING packs a goodly few surprises and fun. And it's free. Of course, you'll want to add a few "house" rules of your own to season to taste.The full review is at: boardgamegeek.com
Eric Walkuski at joblo.com explains, "THE SHINING was turned into a board game back in 1998, apparently with the assistance of Stephen King himself. And it's not a board game you go out and buy - you can actually print it out and play it ASAP! One player controls the evil and sentient Overlook hotel, the other the Torrence family, winter caretakers of the haunted estate. How awesome is that?"
Just for fun, check out Emily Temple's article, "10 Literary Board Games for Book Nerds," because you know you reading Animal Farm isn't enough -- you've got to play it.
RELATED: Stephen King Video Games
REDRUM the game
Redrum is murder spelled backward. It is also the name of a new selection of mystery games. I found it at Target. As far as I know, Redrum was not used as a popular term until The Shining. I believe King totally made it up. Interesting to see it appearing on Non-King products.
http://target.com gives the following description:
"""An Eerie Hidden Object Collection
Includes 4 Games: Dead Diary, Time Lies, Curse of the Witch Crow, and the Flying Dutchman.
Dead Diary - Help solve a series of grisly murders and put an end to Dr. Fraud’s twisted experiments.
Time Lies Track down evil Dr. Fraud to end his terrible crimes and free the souls of the victims and put an end to their nightmares!
PLUS Bonus Games:
- Curse of the Witch Crow
- The Flying Dutchman"""
- Release Date: March 9, 2012
- Platform:PC Games
Stephen King Jeopardy: THE ANSWERS
Here are the answers from the first round of Jeopardy on Thursday, March 5. The questions were categorized around the theme Stephen King.
Firestarter
$200: It is not known whether Mrs. O’Leary’s cow started Chicago’s great fire, but it did start in one of these structures. (What is a barn)
400: After 2/3 of Rome burned in 64 A.D., Nero blamed this obscure new religious sect. (What is Christianity)
$600: In 1917 a fire on a TNT-Laden ship in this Nova Scotia capital led to the biggest pre-atomic man-made explosion. (What is Halifax)
$800: Shockingly, a 2002 fire that blackened 200 square miles near Denver was started by an employee of this federal service. (What is What is the Forest Service)
$1,000: After London’s Great Fire of 1666 started, this diarist said he buried a “Parmazan cheese as well as my wine.” (Who is Samuel Peeps)
Needful Things
$200: To break in this piece of baseball equipment, you’ll need some good oil, rubber bands & patience. (What is a mitt or glove)
$400: On June 27, 1915 residents of this state needed sunscreen when it saw 100 degree temps; July usually tops out at 59 degrees in-lands (What is Alaska)
$600: To make goulash like aunt Gyongyi did, you’ll need this Hungarian red pepper condiment. (What is paprika)
$800: Latin term for the minimum number of members needed by parliamentary law to conduct business. (What is a quorum)
$1,000: About seven inches long, this pinkish gland produces 2 hormones needed to regulate the body’s sugar balance. (What is the pancreas)
IT
$200: A Tantrum. (What is a fit)
$400: An unpleasant taste or a type of ale. (What is bitter)
$600: 4-Letter verb meaning to move about with rapidity. (What is flit)
$800: Silvery reflective decorative material that comes in tiny bits – work it, sister! (Glitter)
$1,000: A public prayer, or catalog of events. (Litany)
Carrie
$200: In 2009 she hit the charts with “Cowboy Casanova.” (Who is Carrie Underwood)
$400: Debbie Reynolds is the mom of this Actress & Writer. (Who is Carrie Fisher)
$600: She’s played the manola blahnik-shod Carrie Bradshow on TV & in film. (Who is Sarah Jessica Parker)
$800: “Hollywood Arms”, a play by this comedienne; her daughter Carrie Hamilton, opened soon after Carrie died in 2002. (Who is Carol Burnette)
$1,000: She played trinity in the “Matrix” films. (Who is Carrie Anne Moss)
The Shining:
$200: This word for illicit whisky comes from its being made at night. (What is moonshine.)
$400: Some frogs eat so many of these, sometimes called lightening bugs that they glow. (What are Fireflies)
$600: A mini-studio that’s part of Fox is named for this item that beams above the 20th Century Fox logo. (What is searchlight)
$800: The folks who make Kiwi shoe polish instruct once the shoe polish has dried, do this to bring it to a shine. (What is buff)
$1,000: This “Sphere” the visible surface of the sun, is only 300 miles thick, a tiny fraction of the sun’s 430,000-mile radius. (What is the photosphere.)
Stephen King
$200: Many of Stephen King’s stories and novels are set in this state, his birth place. (What is Maine)
$400: Beware of dog, specifically the St. Bernard gone berserk in this bestseller. (Who is Cujo)
$600: This nickname for death row at Cold Mountain peitentiary is also the title of a serial novel by King. (What is The Green Mile)
$800: Be careful if you mess with teen misfit Carrie White, who has this ability to move things with her mind. (What is Telekinesis)
$1,000:(Daily Double), Arnie Cunningham owns the Jealous & Deadly Christine, a Plymouth of this appropriate model. (What is a Plymouth Fury)
Jeopardy Board
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| Image Credit: Jeopardy Productions, Inc |
Hillary Busis at EW posted this picture of the Jeopardy board. popwatch.ew.com
She writes,
Why did the show’s writers honor King? Simple: They’ve been waiting decades for an opportunity to just name a category “It.”
Stephen King Catagory On JEOPARDY
Stephen King's newsletter has released word that tonight's episode of Jeopardy will feature a complete board of questions related to Stephen and his body of work
geeksofdoom.com offers this interesting info:
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| image credit: www.geeksofdoom.com |
Either way, it should be a fun half hour for all as you’ll get to test your Stephen King acumen. A small treat is also in store for King fans, which we need to keep hush hush here, but it will be revealed on the program Tuesday, so tune in to Jeopardy! to find out. Check your local stations for air times.
Let's play along. Post your scores here!
THANKS TO Angie Godsey at goodreads.com Stephen King Fans
Stephen King's Influence On Video Games
Check out 1up.com's article, "Stephen King's Influence on Video Games: How The Mist inspired and shaped Half-Life and Silent Hill." 1up.com
The article notes that even though King is not a gamer, "even though King doesn't play, his works have been referenced and celebrated in many titles." These include games such as Alan Wake, and the multi player game The Secret World, which "directly references one of King's most popular recurring characters, the demon Flagg, through a street name." (Cool, I didn't know that)
The references go on and on, but are highlighted by Silent Hill
Check out my article Stephen King Video Games.
The article notes that even though King is not a gamer, "even though King doesn't play, his works have been referenced and celebrated in many titles." These include games such as Alan Wake, and the multi player game The Secret World, which "directly references one of King's most popular recurring characters, the demon Flagg, through a street name." (Cool, I didn't know that)
The references go on and on, but are highlighted by Silent Hill
Silent Hill is packed with references to Stephen King's work (one biggie is "Bachman Road," which refers to the author's old pen name), but the fog that shrouds the haunted little town practically has King's signature all over it. The snowy mist is home to twisted creatures that The Mist's Mrs. Carmody might be familiar with. Moreover, the fanatical Dahlia Gillespie might find a friend in Margaret White, the equally fanatic antagonist of King's Carrie.
Harry Mason's tour of Silent Hill begins with a particularly inspired scene: he battles with a pterodactyl-like creature that comes crashing through the window of the diner he's sheltering in, a tribute to an iconic moment from The Mist wherein a leathery bird-monster breaks through the window of the supermarket.
But Silent Hill also utilizes the quieter horror themes woven through The Mist. Like David Drayton, Mason is an everyman who needs to do his best in a strange place that wants him dead. His ammunition is limited, his skill with firearms average at best, and he can't sustain too many hits. His survival depends on speed, wits, and pure luck, as does Drayton's. When you have two rounds in your gun and you're up against a mantis-lobster that's five times your size, there isn't room for error.The full article by Nadia Oxford is HERE.
Check out my article Stephen King Video Games.
Is Naughty Bear Really CARRIE ?
A few months ago my insane little sister -- Miss Conservative -- introduced me to a an absolutely crazy (and very bad) game called, "Naughty Bear." It's like GTA with bears. . . or something like that. "It's not that bad," she said, "it's just Teddy bears."
Truth be told, the game is hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing.
And, since I am reading The Drawing of the Three, I found myself thinking: Eddie Dean would like this game.
Naughty bear is an angry little bear because he is rejected by the other smurfs --I mean bears. Naughty bear shows up at the party and things get messy. The player (Naughty Bear) gets right down to business, chopping up his fellow bears -- stabbing -- axing -- burning -- and so on. It's really crazy.
After leaving my sisters house, I promptly forgot about the game. Until I read Eric Thornton's review at
www.rantgaming.com. Thornton makes a connection to Carrie that I think is quite insightful. Could that be why the game is so much fun? Because we identify with that little bear the same way we identify with Carrie White?
Thornton writes:
Naughty Bear follows the anthropomorphic escapades of an isolated teddy bear whose behavior isn’t so much naughty as viciously homicidal, albeit in a quasi-understandable, Stephen King’s Carrie kind of way that appeals to the pariah in all of us, or at least it would, had the game been competently designed.
Yeah, Thornton isn't thrilled with the game. Nor was I deeply hooked. Come on, it's not like this is Civ.V ! But it was strangely fun, in a Carrie White sort of way. Makes we wonder if there will be a Carrie video game. I would probably hate it.
So, what Stephen King books would make good video games?
- Strategy: A Civ version of The Stand would rock!
- Action: The Runningman would make a fun set up for a game. Obviously, your goal should not be to fly a plane into a building. . .
- Fantasy: The Eyes of the Dragon. King created an entire world it would be fun to roam.
- Horror: Cell. You know killing zombies is fun.
LINK: Alan Wake Review
What Alan Wake does well is tell a story. LoProto writes:
It’s easy to equate most bits of horror as a throwback to early Stephen King, but the story woven within this tale of darkness truly is reminiscent of classic psychological horror. Following Wake on his journey to uncover the truth behind Caldron Lake, his missing wife, and the Dark Presence rings true of classic novelized horror. Throughout, “Alan Wake” feels less like a video game and more like an interactive Lovecraftian novel as the writer’s mind is bent and twisted to a point where most people would be unable to return from.
The full review is HERE.
Have you played Alan Wake? Tell me what you think.
Review Of ALAN WAKE for PC
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| photo credit: Gaming Nexus |
It's taken a while for Alan Wake to come to the PC. Gaming Nexus offers a very balanced review of the game and the changes made to the PC platform.
Sean Colleli's writes, "Simply put, Alan Wake plays like a Stephen King novel turned into a TV miniseries turned into a videogame. This is intentional by Remedy and this narrative complexity is one of the game’s strengths. With such a massive volume of written work and so many movie and TV adaptations, I’m surprised Stephen King hasn’t been either adapted or imitated into a game before now. Well Mr. King now joins the ranks of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe by having his core themes represented very strongly and elegantly in an interactive experience."
The full review is HERE.
Stephen King Bingo
These are Stephen King bingo cards. No, I don't know why. No, I don't understand. No, I don't play bingo. No, I don't know why you would need a program to make little cards.
Here's what the website says:
These cards are about Stephen King Books. These are some of the most famous works written by Stephen King. These include words like Black House, Desperation, IT, Salem's Lot, and The Running Man.
We made the cards using Bingo Card Creator. You can download a PDF file of eight cards ready to cut up and play. http://www.bingocardcreator.com/bingo-cards/literature/stephen-king-books
Aren't you glad you know that?
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