It seems to me that we've greatly underutilized the capability of DVD technology, as far as entertainment is concerned. I aim to remedy that. Back in my youth, the 'Choose Your Own Adventure' series books were quite popular, (at least with me, anyways). The genre's were usually mysteries or some sort of kids action plot. You'd read a few chapters, and then, have to make a decision on what the main character, usually yourself, would do next. Then you'd flip to the the corresponding page to that decision, and read on to discover your fate. (Although usually I'd find the best ending, and work backwards from there towards the beginning).
My proposal would be to apply that same genre to current video DVD systems. The story would be introduced for awhile, characters would be chosen, and you would select your decision on what to do next as the plot unfolded, and the system would then run the corresponding subplot track.
Any genre would work, anime, film noir, horror, classic Holmes whodunit, sci-fi...
It seems simple enough to bake really, and although I've not been successful in my searches, I'm surprised it hasn't been done; although I suppose immersive PC DVD games are quite baked.
Next up, the 'How to Host a Murder' DVD party game...-- RayfordSteele, Aug 27 2002 Choose your own adventure DVD.. http://www.dvdplane....asp?categoryid=276They call them "Multipath Adventures"... [Mr Burns, Aug 27 2002] Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy web site http://www.advancedfightingfantasy.com/The Fighting Fantasy books have been re-released. [Aristotle, Aug 27 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004] The obscure byline reference... http://www.dnaco.net/~mobrien/holmes/Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd century, a cartoon. [RayfordSteele, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Dragon's Lair re-release http://www.digitall...eases/pr020925.htmlAnimated "choose your own adventure" game [nizgy16, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] Make My Day http://www.makemydaydvd.comA choose-your-own-adventure comedy by some independent filmmakers. It's great! [natetrue, Nov 18 2005] Make My Day (new URL) http://makemyday.thehiddenframe.comAbove link is broken (domain expired) - use this one [natetrue, Dec 06 2006] Great Idea! I remember the 'gamebooks' by Ian Livinstone et al...they were pretty popular. Although there weren't quite so many different (and powerful) video games - so the gamebooks didn't have the same level of competition. Nowadays kids might find the choose-your-own-adventure dvds a bit too slow compared to some of the computer games.
Pastry from me however.-- Jinbish, Aug 27 2002 It's been done already... I was actually going to post this over a month ago, until I noticed it was baked.. Now, a choose your own adventure movie theater using voting of patrons as the deciding factor would be original...-- Mr Burns, Aug 27 2002 Dang, another baked idea. Why didn't I find those?-- RayfordSteele, Aug 27 2002 They had "multipath adventures" for CD before DVDs were on the market.
Fans of Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy books might be interested to know that the whole series has been re-released. You can now buy copies for your nieces, nephews and any direct descendants! [see link]-- Aristotle, Aug 27 2002 not Ken Livingstone's fighting fantasies?-- po, Aug 27 2002 I'm pretty sure the re-release of Dragon's Lair is pretty much this idea. Works on normal DVD movie players, see link.-- nizgy16, Dec 04 2002 I have produced a short film on DVD in the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure format. My intention was not to give the impression of a video game at all, but to open the doors of narrative film. I felt that the feel of a video game would add an element of novelty to the story being told. By allowing the audience to choose the film's path at various points in screening, the viewer is more engaged in the course of the story. I plan to return to this format for more projects in the future and it's great to hear that people are actually discussing this (soon to be) genre.
Will Lemke Seattle Wa.
WilliamLemke@hotmail.com-- WilliamLemke, Jul 31 2003 This is interesting. The choose-your-own-adventure DVD idea just occured to me, leading me to search the web to see if it had already been done. Apparently not, but I am also apparently not the first person to think of the idea.-- scottsb, Jun 19 2004 I've always felt that the Choose-your-own-adventure format was fundamentally flawed. Stories don't really work very well if you let the reader choose what happens, because their drama and satisfying-ness (is that a word?) need to arise from devices of the author such as foreshadowing and re-introduction. (Audience participation can work with oral story telling, but that has very little in common with the literary story telling of books and movies.)To give an example: in Lord of the Rings, there is a point where Frodo and Sam have to choose whether or not to kill Smeagol/Gollum. They choose not to, which about 2 books later leads to the story having a dramatic and satisfying ending. Killing Smeagol may have been the right choice from a winning-the-game point of view, but it would have been disastrous for the quality of the story.-- spacemoggy, Jun 19 2004 I'm currently working on a Choose your adventure DVD and I already have a Choose your adventure CD out. You can go to chooseyouradventure.net to find out more. Code-- code, Jun 28 2004 Can you electronically "stick your finger" in a chapter in the DVD so that if you made a wrong choice you can go back and make another choice?
Not that I ever did that. 0:)-- GenYus, Jun 28 2004 My friends and I spent more than a year perfecting Make My Day (linked above). I daresay it's the most perfect work of art to ever have graced the earth (that is, apart from my ultra-manly chiseled calf muscles).-- natetrue, Nov 18 2005 Video games at best have a few distinct endings (if they're programmed in). Choose your own adventure DVDs are a sort of medium between movies (wholly uninteractive) and video games (very interactive) which allow the director/artist more control over the experience. Make My Day specifically has 13 separate plotlines, each with their own separate story about them. Videogames and movies generally have a single plotline.-- natetrue, Nov 19 2005 random, halfbakery