Interactive film

Lore & Background

This genre came about with the invention of LaserDiscs and LaserDisc players, the first nonlinear or random access video play devices. The fact that a LaserDisc player could jump to and play any chapter instantaneously meant that games with branching plotlines could be constructed from out-of-order video chapters, in much the same way as Choose Your Own Adventure books are constructed from out-of-order pages. Interactive movies were animated or filmed with real actors like movies (or in some later cases, rendered with 3D models) and followed a main storyline. Alternative scenes were filmed to be triggered after wrong (or alternate allowable) actions of the player. A popular example was the 1983 arcade game Dragon's Lair, featuring animated full motion video by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth, where the player controlled some moves of the main character. There was only one possible successful storyline in Dragon's Lair; the only activity the user had was to choose or guess the move the designers intended them to make. The hardware for these games consisted of a LaserDisc player linked to a processor configured with interface software that assigned a jump-to-chapter function to each of the controller buttons at each decision point. Later advances in technology allowed interactive movies to overlay multiple fields of FMV, called "vites", in much the same way as polygonal models and sprites are overlaid on top of backgrounds in traditional video game graphics.

Reader's Guide

The earliest rudimentary examples of mechanical interactive cinematic games date back to the early 20th century, with "cinematic shooting gallery" games in the United Kingdom. The first successful example was Life Targets, released in the UK in 1912. Capitol Projector's 1954 arcade electro-mechanical game machine Auto Test was a driving test simulation that used a film reel video projector to display pre-recorded driving video footage. An early example of interactive cinema was the 1967 film Kinoautomat, written and directed by Radúz Činčera, first screened at Expo '67 in Montreal. An early example of an interactive movie game was Nintendo's Wild Gunman, a 1974 electro-mechanical arcade game that used a pair of 16mm film projectors to display live-action full-motion video footage. In 1979, Kasco released The Driver, a hit electro-mechanical arcade game with live-action 16mm film projection of a car chase filmed by Toei. In 1975, Nintendo's EVR Race was a horse race betting arcade game that used Electronic Video Recording technology to playback video footage of horse races. Another horse race betting game, Electro-Sport's Quarter Horse (1982), was the first arcade game to utilize a LaserDisc player. An early attempt to combine random access video with computer games was Rollercoaster, written in BASIC for the Apple II by David Lubar, published in the January 1982 issue of Creative Computing. The first major arcade LaserDisc video game was Sega's Astron Belt, developed in 1982 and released in Japan in March 1983. The next LaserDisc game to be announced was Data East's video game adaptation of the Japanese anime film Genma Taisen (1983), introduced in March 1983, released internationally in June 1983. In the United States, the game that popularized the genre was Dragon's Lair, released in June 1983, the first LaserDisc game released in the United States.

Did You Know?

• The earliest known interactive cinematic game was Life Targets, a shooting gallery game released in the UK in 1912.
• The 1967 film Kinoautomat used a live moderator to ask the audience to choose between two scenes.
• Dragon's Lair (1983) had only one possible successful storyline; the player had to guess the correct move at each decision point.
• The first arcade game to use a LaserDisc player was Electro-Sport's Quarter Horse (1982), a non-interactive horse race betting game.

From Shooting Galleries to Film Projectors: The Early Years

The concept of audiences physically engaging with moving pictures stretches back further than most assume. In 1912, a British arcade attraction called Life Targets let players fire at a cinema screen showing filmed targets; hitting the right spot at the right moment paused the reel and registered a score. These cinematic shooting galleries, often featuring safari animals captured in British imperial colonies, enjoyed a brief run across Britain before fading after the 1910s. Decades later, Capitol Projector's 1954 Auto Test used a film-reel projector to display pre-recorded driving footage, awarding points for correct decisions in what was essentially an educational simulation rather than a racing game. The 1967 film Kinoautomat, written and directed by Radúz Činčera and first screened at Expo '67 in Montreal, took a bolder step: a live moderator on stage posed binary choices to the audience, and the voted-upon scene played next. By the mid-1970s, Nintendo's Wild Gunman (1974) paired 16mm live-action footage of gunslingers with a light gun, while its EVR Race (1975) let players wager tokens on horse races played from videotape, going on to top Japan's medal-game charts for three consecutive years. Kasco's The Driver (1979) brought a Toei-filmed car chase to arcades via 16mm projection.

The LaserDisc Revolution and Dragon's Lair

The invention of LaserDiscs and their players marked a turning point. Unlike linear videotape, a LaserDisc player could jump instantly to any chapter, making it possible to assemble branching narratives from out-of-order video segments—much like a Choose Your Own Adventure book is built from shuffled pages. This capability gave rise to the 1983 arcade hit Dragon's Lair, whose full-motion animation was created by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth. The player controlled the hero's moves at danger points; choosing correctly advanced the story, while a wrong pick triggered a "lose a life" scene. Crucially, only one storyline could succeed—the user's role was essentially to guess the designer's intended action. The hardware paired a LaserDisc player with a processor running interface software that mapped each controller button to a specific chapter jump. Because arcade-grade wear quickly degraded the players, they needed frequent replacement. The discs themselves were standard LaserDiscs; removed from the cabinet, they would play their footage on any ordinary player. Later, technology allowed multiple full-motion video layers, called "vites," to be overlaid similarly to sprites in traditional game graphics.

Two Industries, One Term

The phrase "interactive film" carries different meanings depending on which industry you ask. In the video game world, it designates a subgenre of movie games: titles that present scripted, cinematic gameplay through full-motion video, whether animated or live-action, following a main storyline with alternative scenes filmed for wrong or allowable alternate actions, including "Game Over" sequences. In the film industry, the same term refers to interactive cinema, where one or more viewers can directly influence the events unfolding on screen. This distinction highlights a fundamental tension: the game-industry version treats interactivity as a layer atop a predetermined narrative, while the film-industry version positions the audience as active participants shaping the story in real time. The 1967 Kinoautomat exemplifies the latter, using a live moderator and audience vote to determine which scene follows. Meanwhile, Dragon's Lair, despite its arcade popularity, belongs firmly to the former: its single correct path and guess-the-move structure made it a cinematic presentation of a game rather than a genuinely branching film.

From Text Adventures to Vites: Technical Evolution

The technical architecture of interactive films evolved steadily from mechanical roots. Early systems like Nintendo's EVR Race relied on videotape playback, while Quarter Horse (1982) became the first arcade game to incorporate a LaserDisc player, though it merely replayed pre-recorded horse-race footage for betting purposes. A more ambitious fusion of random-access video and computing came with Rollercoaster, a text adventure written in BASIC for the Apple II by David Lubar for David H. Ahl, editor of Creative Computing; the program could trigger a LaserDisc player to play selected portions of the 1977 American feature film of the same name. In the Dragon's Lair era, the controller was programmed so that activating the correct button at a decision point jumped to the next successful-story chapter, while the wrong button sent the player to a death chapter—mirroring the "go to page 7" or "go to page 8" instructions in a Choose Your Own Adventure book. As rendering technology advanced, interactive movies moved beyond single full-motion video tracks, overlaying multiple FMV fields known as "vites" in the same layered fashion that sprites sit atop backgrounds in conventional game graphics, and some later titles replaced live-action or 2D animation with 3D-rendered models.

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