Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy User Manual
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Trigger Happy
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produce an ET videogame, was so confident of its
success that it produced nearly six million copies. One
fly in the ointment: the game was terrible. Gamers
aren’t stupid. Most of the cartridges were eventually
buried in a landfill site in New Mexico, where one
hopes they will eventually provide some amusement for
archaeologists in the distant future.
Films based on videogames are even worse, as
anyone will testify who has giggled throughout the
truly spectacular artistic abyss that is Street Fighter:
The Movie, starring sex symbol Jean-Claude Van
Damme and renowned pugilist Kylie Minogue. Mortal
Kombat was not much better, and Bob Hoskins
displayed rather less animation than his pixellated
counterpart in Super Mario Bros. Meanwhile, the 2001
film of Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie,
abandoned the essence of the videogame character’s
graceful movement through space, seeking instead to
batter the viewer into submission with fast cutting and
special effects.
Postproduction computer manipulation of the film
image is increasingly common; director George Lucas
even prefers to modify his actors’ performances
digitally, so that a performer’s frown in take six might
be mapped onto his forehead in take three.