While computer games pilfer (and are pilfered for) the annals of Hollywood, there are scant few games in the vast library of interactive entertainment which take their inspiration from novels, pulp fiction, high-brow literature and other variations of the written word*. Sure, there're your Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings spin offs, but those come as much from the movie adaptations as from the great texts themselves. To my mind, the only truly excellent adaptation in a game from the printed page is American McGee's Alice, which took Lewis Carroll's drug-fuelled fantasy and weaved it into a twisted and beautifully-realised game for the gothic generation.
If you wanted to argue that other titles have emerged from dusty old tomes, you might say Oddworld's Oddysee series is based on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, you could note the nod of the Halo creators to Iain M. Banks' ring world in Consider Phlebas (and others) and you could point out the hugely successful Nancy Drew series by legendary girl games developers Her Interactive and the Rainbow Six series by Tom Clancy. Please don't mention the truly terrible 1999 version of War of the Worlds, a game which was more closely based on the rock opera by Jeff Wayne than the magnificent fiction from H.G. Wells.
The point is, it can be done and doing so doesn't require dredging up the old ludology/narratolgy debate about the relative importance of gameplay versus plot. There are - quite literally - millions of truly amazing characters out there just waiting to be put on the next generation of games consoles, the great majority of whom do things that can be put into a game. Here are five that I'm rushing to my closest library to see:
*comic books and graphic novels notwithstanding
Geek Love (Katherine Dunn): Possibly one of my favourite books of all time, Geek Love is a story about a circus sideshow family, created by the parents through poisonous concoctions ingested by the mother, Lily, when she was pregnant with each of her living (and non-living) children. Siblings include a pair of Siamese twins, a telepathic child, a megalomaniacal boy named Arturo with fins for arms and legs and an Albino dwarf with an incredible voice. It's part World According to Garp, part Frankenweenie, and all love. In the game, the player could take each of the characters through an adventure-style plot, including the father (the amateur chemist who has to get the mixture right or the mother dies), Lily (the increasingly barmy woman who teeters in and out of reality but can really geek - bite the head off a chicken - like a pro), the twins (who play the piano to keep the enemy at bay), the telepathic boy (who uses his powers to steal money undetected from the wallets of strangers, and to sedate Arturo's faithful as they go through the process of increasing amputation), Arturo (whose cult following is based upon his amazing underwater performances and the power of persuasion), and the honey-voiced dwarf (who acts as ring leader and who, later, must convince her grown daughter to keep her tail). There's plenty to work with there!
Perfume (Patrick Suskind): Suskind's love story about a damned perfumer whose desire to capture the purest odour drives him to kill is set in Gras, France and other stunning locations throughout Europe in the historical past. The game would play like Metal Gear Solid without the guns, as the player would make his or her way through cobbled streets in search of the victims for the gruesome distillation process. There would be a whole variety of puzzle elements, including finding the best sources and recipes, mixing the potions correctly and wearing certain scents for certain purposes (stealth, capture, falling in love, inspiring hate). It may require the player to invest in a smell-o-vision add on for the games console - but what a gimmick that would be!
Emma (Jane Austen): This could be the breakthrough that kicks off the development of intelligent games that appeal to women! Like the interactive fiction game Façade which is currently sweeping accolades from all sorts of sources, Emma the game would be an interactive relationship balancing act, as the selfish main character attempts to match make for all of her friends while missing out on the goods herself. Instead of balancing budgets with in-game mana and other traditional forms of game currency, this title's economic principle would rest on reputation (both Emma's and the Socioeconomic Status of her potential matchees), positive and negative vibes levied at Emma and the success of the pairings - kinda like the principle put in place for Grand Theft Auto 2, but without the carjacking. The player would make decisions with a drop down menu of conversation choices and would have to choose her and her friends' outfits strategically. Bonus points for novel use of the flirting command with inappropriate matches for herself.
Through a Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick): This title may actually already be in production, as the animated movie counterpart - with Keanu Reeves - is due for release early next year. Typically Dick - and not far off from many plots of existing games - the game would place the player in the role of a cop seeking out a dealer of a hugely dangerous narcotic, unravelling the mystery using multiple media (both in the game and outside of it), in a similar way to last year's tremendous In Memoriam. Twists and turns abound in a way not seen in interactive entertainment since the first Silent Hill.
Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson): This is the big kahuna, the one which so many online games manufacturers are gunning to make. Stephenson's superb 1992 novel has captured the imagination of designers and the geek elite primarily because of his principle of the Metaverse - a vast, immersive online parallel universe in which the players have complete freedom to create and populate. It was once the vision of the Internet, and now it's becoming reality through products like There.com and Second Life.
