About This Quiz
FMV (short for full motion video) games revolutionized the industry when they came into being in 1983. Dragon's Lair was one of the first, and who among us didn't shell out the hefty 50 cents a go to try and help the hapless knight Dirk Daring rescue Princess Daphne from the evil, sulfurous claws of the dragon Singe? These games incorporate clips of full-motion video played from laserdisc to move the game action along. How many of them can you recognize?
The first video games were simple creatures, full of badly pixelated creatures, blobby-looking spaceships and barely decipherable words on the screen. Vector graphics helped a little, but the straight-line nature of games like Tempest made character design difficult, since it's hard to draw humans out of straight lines. The splashes of full motion video in the FMV games gave a cinematic feel, although occasionally the production values could make the dramatic into the absurd unintentionally.
In the end, it was technology that killed FMV as a serious game format. The laserdiscs were fragile and expensive, and while technology improvements brought the games back briefly in the '90s, these days you'll only find FMV used as clips within a larger game. The Resident Evil games are a great example of that, using the video segments for exposition. But grab a handful of quarters and see how many of these classic games you remember!
Night trap is a horror-themed FMV adventure game in which players must use a hacked surveillance system and a series of traps in order to protect a group of teen girls from vampire-like creatures.
Advertisement
Unstoppable Gorg is a 1950s-themed sci-fi tower defense FMV game which follows a group of scientists who discover Planet X, which is inhabited by a species called Gorg. Players must help the captain in order to defend the space station from the attacks of this new race.
Advertisement
Contradiction is an FMV mystery adventure game where players take in the role of Detective Jenkins, who must interview and interrogate characters from the village of Edenton. Their job is to identify the contradictions in their story and confront the lying character.
Advertisement
Tomcat Alley is an FMV game in which player must control a U.S. Navy pilot and man the weapons of an F-14X combat aircraft to help to take down rogue communists. The game also stars actress and producer Dorothy Duder.
Advertisement
Space Ace is a laserdisc animated FMV game which follows the adventures of Dexter (Ace) on his mission to stop the villain Commander Borf, from turning the people on planet Earth into infants. Players must use a joystick in order to move the character through a series of obstacles.
Advertisement
Surgical Strike is an FMV game where a group of high-tech guerrillas has started an all-out war. The UN created an elite team known as the Surgical Strike whose job it is to find and kill the people responsible. Players control a hovercraft equipped with machine guns and rockets.
Advertisement
Fahrenheit is an FMV adventure game in which players must take on the role of a rookie firefighter whose job it is to guide a team through burning buildings to not only rescue victims but to also dispose of hazardous material all on a limited oxygen supply.
Advertisement
The 7th Guest is an adventure FMV game where players take on the role of Ego, who finds himself invisibly observing a party hosted by a toymaker with a criminal past named Henry Stauf. The party quickly turns gruesome, and it is the player’s job to uncover his real plans.
Advertisement
Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold is an FMV game and the sequel to Mad Dog McCree. In this game, the players are transported back to the Wild West where they must defeat numerous bandits, Indians and Mad Dog, in order to get the lost gold.
Advertisement
Ground Zero: Texas is an FMV game which is set in the small town of El Cadron, Texas. Players must use four cameras which are mounted with guns in order to help the townspeople to survive an alien invasion.
Advertisement
Midnight Raiders is an FMV game where players must rescue the world’s leading biochemist who has been kidnapped and forced to create a toxic formula capable of destroying the world as we know it.
Advertisement
Her Story is an FMV game in which players must search through a database of police interviews and use the clips in order to solve the case of a missing man named Simon. Most of the interviews revolve around the man’s wife, Hanna Smith.
Advertisement
Road Avenger is a post-apocalyptic FMV game which follows an ex-cop on his mission to avenge the murder of his wife. He uses his highly modified car to help him take down the gang which was responsible for his wife’s death.
Advertisement
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Volume II is an FMV game which is based on the character created by Arthur Conan Doyle. It follows the same format as the first game in which clues led the player to scenes where they must solve cases.
Advertisement
Double Switch is an FMV game which is the successor to the game Night Trap. In this game, the player must help Eddie (played by Corey Haim) to protect the apartment’s tenants from thieves and burglars while he is trapped in the basement.
Advertisement
Phantasmagoria is a horror-themed point-and-click adventure FMV game where players control the lead character, Adrienne Delaney, a mystery novelist who purchases a mansion with her husband which is filled with secrets, including a demon.
Advertisement
The X-Files Game is a point-and-click FMV adventure game which was based on the television series, The X-Files. Set sometime during the show’s third season, the game follows a young FBI agent who is assigned to investigate the disappearance of two people.
Advertisement
Who Shot Johnny Rock? is an FMV game which follows the murder of a popular nightclub singer during the 1920s in Chicago. Players take on the role of a private detective whose job it is to find the murderer.
Advertisement
The Bunker is a horror FMV game which follows a character named John who lives in a decommissioned bunker and is the only remaining survivor of a nuclear attack. Players must explore the bunker in order to unlock the character’s childhood memories in order to find out what really happened in the bunker.
Advertisement
Dracula Unleashed is an FMV game which is set a few years after the events in Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel. Players take on the role of a wealthy Texan who travels to England in order to investigate the death of his brother.
Advertisement
Cliffhanger is a laserdisc FMV game which is loosely based on that of The Castle of Cagliostro. It follows a character named Cliff as he tries to rescue Clarissa from the evil Count Draco who wants nothing more than to marry her.
Advertisement
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger is the third installment in the Wing Commander game series and picks up where the second game left off. In the space combat simulator game, players must complete missions and destroy enemy aircraft.
Advertisement
Slam City with Scottie Pippen is a one-on-one basketball FMV game where players take on the role of a rookie street basketball player, who has to make his way up the food chain in order to take on NBA All-Star Scottie Pippen.
Advertisement
Late Shift is an adventure crime thriller FMV game which follows a mathematics student who was forced into robbing an auction house. The player's choices, from the very first one, will determine the outcome at the end of the game.
Advertisement
Bioforge is an adventure FMV fame which is set far into the future where the universe is run by an organization known as “the Reticulum” which is opposed by a fanatical religious group known as “the Mondites”. The goal is not immediately obvious, but players must solve a series of puzzles to figure it out.
Advertisement
The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery is a point-and-click adventure FMV game and is the sequel to Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.
Advertisement
Mansion of Hidden Souls is an adventure and puzzle FMV game in which the player explores a mysterious butterfly-infested mansion in an attempt to find their missing sister. The players must solve a series of puzzles to gain ground in their search.
Advertisement
Time Traveler, or Hologram Time Traveler, is an FMV game which follows American cowboy Marshal Gram as he saves the world (and Princess Kyi-La) from an evil scientist named Lord Vulcor, who has found a way to manipulate time.
Advertisement
Supreme Warrior is a first-person FMV martial arts game which is set in 16th century China. Players take control of a mysterious martial arts warrior who must protect half of a magical mask from the warlord Fang Tu and his minions.
Advertisement
Prize Fighter is a first-person, black and white boxing game in which players must take an upstart boxer known as “The Kid” through different opponents, each of which increases in strength.
Advertisement
Dragon’s Lair is a laserdisc FMV game which follows the protagonist Dirk the Daring, as he attempts to rescue the beautiful Princess Daphne who has been locked away in a castle by the evil dragon named Singe.
Advertisement
Corpse Killer is an FMV shooter game which follows a hero who has landed on a strange island only to be bitten by a zombie. To defeat the crazy scientist creating them and to save himself from completely turning, he must find the antidote.
Advertisement
Wirehead is an FVM game in which players control the movements of a man named Ned Hubbard through an implant in his brain, to escape a group of thugs and to save both himself and his mentor.
Advertisement
Heart of Darkness is an FMV game in which players take on the role of a child called Andy who goes on a mission to rescue his dog who has been kidnapped by shadow creature and in doing so, faces his fear of darkness.
Advertisement
The 11th Hour is a puzzle adventure FMV game which is the sequel The 7th Guest. It takes place almost 80 years after the events of The 7th Guest and players must return to the Stauf mansion in order to solve new puzzles and investigate the disappearance of Robin Morales.
Advertisement
Sewer Shark is a rail-shooter FMV game which is set in a future where humanity has been forced to live underground. Players must assume the role of a rookie pilot who receives transmissions to kill one million pounds worth of creatures.
Advertisement
Mad Dog McCree is an FMV game in which players take on the role of the new deputy in town, who is put in charge of taking down the outlaw Mad Dog McCree and his band of gunslinging crooks.
Advertisement
The Daedalus Encounter is a sci-fi FMV game which player take on the role of a man who has been brought back as a cyborg after a serious space accident. He must save the lives of his companions by solving a series of puzzles.
Advertisement
Time Gal is an FMV game which follows Reika Kirishima as she travels through time to stop an evil thief named Luda from using a time-traveling device in order to become Supreme Leader of the World.
Advertisement
Ripper is an FMV point and click adventure game set in a 2040 New York where a killer by the name of “The Ripper” is on the loose. Player take on the role of an investigative reporter who receives letters from The Ripper after each murder, and it is his job to uncover who it is.
Advertisement