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When you think full-motion video games, only one piece of hardware comes to mind: the Sega CD. It boasts perhaps the largest selection of FMV titles, and not all of them are as bad as their reputation would have you believe. Some are actually pretty fun, even funny. Take Wirehead, for example. Cheesy and full of groan-inducing moments, it’s humorous enough to keep you engaged until the end.
The Sega CD sure does love it some full-motion video! Nowhere else can such a massive repository of the genre’s best (?) offerings be found, and few, if any, are more famous (infamous?) than Sewer Shark. Rob Fulop and Digital Pictures united to release the single best-known example of FMV any console has ever known, and we just had to cover it!
The impact Digital Pictures had on gaming is still being felt today. Sega-16 had an opportunity for some Q&A with former DP programmer Steve DeFrisco. He was there when FMV games were at their apex, and he now shares his insight on what it was like to work at such an intriguing company.
One of the first games on the Turbo Grafx-16 CDROM to drop people’s jaws was Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. An FMV game that proved much harder than it was interactive, it was eventually ported to the fledgling Sega CD (along with its sequel). Though it made impressive use of audio and video, the actual game itself wasn’t as ground-breaking, and many Sega CD owners today still steer clear of this one.
Star Wars fans rejoiced when LucasArts released Rebel Assault for PC CD-ROM in 1993. It featured the first new footage filmed since Return of the Jedi, a decade before, and it was the game everyone seemingly had been waiting for. Eventually ported to Mac and the 3DO, the game eventually made its way to the Sega CD. Since Rebel Assault was a game that pushed PCs of the time to the limit, you can imagine how the port turned out.