Ahh! The days of FMV

Head · Post by **Head** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:06 pm

I miss those good ol days of games that had Full Motion Video using live actors... and sometimes well known stars. I used to think how cool that was to see actors like Christopher Walken in my game. For nostalgia's sake, I would love to just take a day and view all the movies in some of my favorite FMV games. Games like:

Wing Commander's 3 & 4
Privateer 2 the darkening
The Crusader games Remorse/Regret
Dark Forces: Jedi Knight

I'm pretty sure I'm missing a few titles. I wonder if there is any way to view those FMVs.

~Head

Reemul · Post by **Reemul** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:34 pm

Ripper - with Christopher Walken is one i remember, came on 9 discs

warning · Post by **warning** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:37 pm

Don't forget Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. The best in the series.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:47 pm

I have very fond memories of the first Command and Conquer game.

I actually tried figuring out how to extract the music files from the CDs a few months ago, but gave up.

I remember playing that game and watching those FMVs in total awe.

Back then, I guess I was pretty easy to impress.

Jancelot · Post by **Jancelot** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:06 pm

Wasn't there an FMV game with Rob Schneider in it?

Found it, A Fork in hte Tale. Turns out he just did the main voice-over for it, though. But it was an all FMV action/adventure game.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:26 pm

Dont forget these 3 gems...Terra Nova, Heavy Gear, and C&C

Defiant · Post by **Defiant** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:32 pm

Reemul wrote:Ripper - with Christopher Walken is one i remember, came on 9 discs

6 Discs.

Black Dahlia, by the same people, was 8 discs.

(of course, I remember the days when games came on up to 14 floppy disks.... which meant in some cases a lot of disk swapping or a long installation)

Then there was Dark Side of the Moon, Point of View, Klingon Academy, the Tex Murphy series, In The First Degree

Of course, there were a lot of awful ones, like Psychotron or Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective or Mad Dog Macree or Mode.

Thin_J · Post by **Thin_J** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:39 pm

Smoove_B wrote:I have very fond memories of the first Command and Conquer game.

I actually tried figuring out how to extract the music files from the CDs a few months ago, but gave up.

I remember playing that game and watching those FMVs in total awe.

Back then, I guess I was pretty easy to impress.

Given that C&C was the first PC game I played after playing nothing but the first two Dune Games and Megarace, I thought it was pretty damned cool too.

You're also not the only one who spent ages trying to find a way to get that music off the CD.

Head · Post by **Head** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:06 pm

Thin_J wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:I have very fond memories of the first Command and Conquer game.

I actually tried figuring out how to extract the music files from the CDs a few months ago, but gave up.

I remember playing that game and watching those FMVs in total awe.

Back then, I guess I was pretty easy to impress.
Given that C&C was the first PC game I played after playing nothing but the first two Dune Games and Megarace, I thought it was pretty damned cool too.

You're also not the only one who spent ages trying to find a way to get that music off the CD.

From what I remember -- those were CD music tracks that would play in any CD player. Wouldn't NERO or some other ripper program be able to convert them to WAV, MP3 or OGG for you?

Oh... and apparently I did forget quite a few titles that had FMV. Geez, I hear that Clive Owen, the star of Privateer 2 is up for an Academy Award this year for Closer, and is the front runner for being the new James Bond.

\/\/olverine · Post by **\/\/olverine** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:22 pm

I enjoyed the FMV's in Phantasmagoria, and still enjoy them in the Myst games (Myst: Revelation has live actors).

Thin_J · Post by **Thin_J** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:25 pm

Head wrote:From what I remember -- those were CD music tracks that would play in any CD player. Wouldn't NERO or some other ripper program be able to convert them to WAV, MP3 or OGG for you?

It never worked when I put it into the CD player. Also.. at the time I had windows 3.1 and no internet so you'll have to forgive me for the lack of NERO

Post by **ImLawBoy** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:04 pm

Didn't MechWarrior 4 have FMV? I don't remember if there was anyone "famous" in it, though.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:46 pm

FMV games pretty much killed my interest in computer gaming in the mid 90s. sooo glad that's over...

(although 3D-everything isn't so great, either. how many games do you know of that can do convincing looking-and-animated 3D-modeled people? it has improved, though...back then, it was inexcusably bad.)

ChaoZ · Post by **ChaoZ** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 1:46 pm

I played the C&C games beyond their fun limits just to see the FMV sequences. I'm deeply saddened that they were dropped from Generals.

Red Alert 2 had the best FMV sequences. Easily added 20% to its score in my book.

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 1:57 pm

I enjoyed the XFiles game. It was all FMV. Had an interesting story, lots of little goodies and easter eggs around. Pretty fun for a fanboy like myself

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 5:25 pm

Red Alert 2 had the best FMV sequences. Easily added 20% to its score in my book.

Was that the one with Kari Wuhrer?

Thunderspark · Post by **Thunderspark** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 10:27 pm

Daehawk wrote:
Red Alert 2 had the best FMV sequences. Easily added 20% to its score in my book.
Was that the one with Kari Wuhrer?

Yup. The FMVs were quite nice and made it a lot better for me too. I miss the FMVs from games too...especially like Red Alert 2 where they had a different one after every mission. I actually skipped Generals because they dropped the movies.(that and I also heard that there wasn't a really integrated storyline...just a bunch of missions put together)

I also liked the movies in all the Wing Commander games.

BigBoneTone · Post by **BigBoneTone** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 5:20 am

I remember how excited I was as a young teen to see Ginger Lynn in Wing Commander, so sassy!

Loved Gabriel Knight 2, my wife and I would cringe every time Gabe ran his hand thru his hair (about twice a minute). I was stunned when I saw Gabe turn up in a 10 second cameo as a waiter on Frasier, guess that acting career didn't quite turn out...

I miss FMV as cut scenes, but they were crazy to make full games out of them.

JayG · Post by **JayG** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 12:54 pm

The Tex murphy games were fun in a kinda c-movie awful acting kind of way.

I also loved the Wing COmmander games, and Privateer 2 was probably my favorite FMV game ever released, either that or GK 2.

I miss the days of decent adventures.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 1:42 pm

I miss some of those FMV game series also. Not all but a lot. Good times. I like to go back and rewatch the WC 3 and 4 ones.

I SOOOOOO want to play Privateer 2 cause Ive never played it through or seen all the movies in it. Ive not cheated and used a movie viewer either cause i keep telling myself i will actually play it again someday....even though deep down i know i wont. There is only ONE thing keeping me from playing P2 and that is the lame programming decision to not allow you to jump if there is even 1 enemy on radar. Even if he is a million miles away you have to kill him..but by then there are new ones coming in..it never ends and you can never jump. Hated that. If I could find a cheat or patch to kill that feature id play it in a heartbeat.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 2:30 pm

I think I only ever played two full FMV games. Star Trek: Klingon and Police Quest: SWAT, the forerunner of the later SWAT series.

I do miss FMV cutscenes, though. The usual exagerated feature, plasticesque cutscene characters just look awful to me.

Tim Frederick · Post by **Tim Frederick** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 6:55 pm

Loved the FMV in Tex Murphy series, C&C series, Wing Commander series, Privateer 2, Dune 2000, 7th Guest and others... I think it really did add a lot to the game, and nothing like the expectation of FMV sequences to motivate you to finish one more level.

Anyone know what the current status on the proposed new Tex Murphy game is?

Gedd · Post by **Gedd** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 10:44 am

I loved FMV games, but only when the FMV was used particularly well and not just for the sake of the medium. I hate that they're pretty much gone completely these days.

The Wing Commanders were my favorites, hated it when they stopped using them. The C&C/Red Alert ones were also well done, although I think the director of the RA2 videos probably looked for any excuse he could to get Kari to bend over the map table. The Tex Murphy movies may have been cheesy, but it really fit with the mood of the games, and I found myself believing in the characters.

One not mentioned here was Mission Critical, which didn't have a lot of FMV in it, but is one of my favorite games of all time (I'm way overdue for a replay). Michael Dorn did a great job as the Captain.

Papageno · Post by **Papageno** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 12:31 pm

Hey, no one has mentioned Hardwar. That had some good FMV in it.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 10:10 pm

I think it was called "Silent Steel"? A submarine FMV game. I bought the DVD version, but I've tried it on every single DVD rig I've owned and can't get the video to play. Just sound.

And "Night Trap" with Dana Plato. A few years ago I was looking for that game for my collection, but since her death, the prices skyrocketed. This apparently happens to all great art...

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Fri Feb 04, 2005 10:13 pm

Tim Frederick wrote:
Anyone know what the current status on the proposed new Tex Murphy game is?

hell I didn't know there was one in the works. I was enthralled with that series. I remember playing "The Pandora Directive" on a dark and stormy night, with the curtains blowing in the room and thunder and lightning outside. A perfect gaming experience.