Despite interactive movies being popularised by the massive storage of the cdrom format, one company was making them years before. Cinemaware's interactive movies were some of the most impressive games of the day. Their more notable productions include Rocket Ranger, The Three Stooges, Sinbad: Throne of the Falcon, Defender of the crown, It came from the desert, and Wings (The last two never made it too c64 or PC, afaik. Which is a shame, since both were very, very good.).

Making a plausable interactive movie on a commodore 64 is quite and amazing feat, imho. Everyone should play these games, if only once too see how far we havn't come!

They were bought out by mirrorsoft, and dissapeared from the face of the earth when they went broke

"It came from the desert" made it to the PC, with EGA graphics (1990). And they have made their new appearance debuting with "The Three Stooges GBA". It seems like they're going to recycle their games with enhanced media, some new levels, and perhaps fit the holes in the gameplay that feels obvious nowadays.
Another upcoming game is "Wings GBA", which back in its original form was quite captivating: An original 3d doubledecker flightsim (amongst other entertaining gamemodes), with a good storyline backing it up. Defender of the Crown will also get its remake.

Complete list of Games (platform: date, remakes are just ports):

  • Defender of the Crown (Amiga: 1986, PC: 1987 (Mindscape), GBA: 2002, DRE: TBA)
  • S.D.I
  • King of Chicago (PC: 1987)
  • Sinbad and the Throne of Falcon (PC: 1988)
  • Rocket Ranger
  • The Three Stooges (PC: 1987, GBA and DRE: TBA/2002)
  • Lords of the Rising Sun
  • TV Sports: Football (PC: 1989)
  • It Came From the Desert (PC: 1990)
  • TV Sports: Basketball (PC: 1989)
  • Antheads: It Came From the Desert II
  • Wings (GBA: TBA/2002)
  • TV Sports: Boxing
  • TV Sports: Baseball
  • The Kristal (PC: 1989)
  • Robin Hood: Defender of the crown (PS2 and PC: TBA/2002Q4)
DRE: Digitally Remastered Edition, available for PC and Mac.

For further reading: I want to recommend their website where you can download many of their games in various formats, and explore their stories.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.