Oddest game tie-ins

[Beagle 2]

I just heard Relax on the radio and it reminded me that when I was a kid, my next door neighbour had "Frankie Goes to Hollywood" for the C64. I never played it, but I often wondered exactly what you actually did. Apparently:

The game puts the player in Liverpool in search for the Pleasuredome. The player has to find and use various objects and play minigames to reach the goal. The player starts the game as a simple character, to reach the Pleasuredome one has to become a full person. To become a full person, the four attributes (sex, war, love and faith) must be filled to 99%. The attributes are boosted by completing tasks in the game. Additional pleasure points can be scored by playing the minigames. The four attributes are part of the symbols used on the covers of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's albums.

During the game a murder takes place. All the rooms the player can visit contain clues in order to find the murderer. The clues are in pairs, helping eliminate suspects. For example, you may be told "The killer is an atheist" and "Mr Somebody is a regular church-goer" - so Mr Somebody would be innocent. In theory the game cannot be completed without making the correct accusation (by returning to the room with the body) - there is a large bonus of Pleasure Points for naming the killer.

It sounds fucking amazing. Anybody ever play this?

[Big Jack McBastard]

Did they do 'Two Tribes' as a sequel? If not they missed a trick, it wouldn't have been too much trouble to knock up some very vague war game.

That INXS music video editor/mixer/'whatever the hell it was' thing on (was it the Mega CD?) always baffled me as to how it ever came into existence.

[Gavin M]

I'll see your Frankie and raise you:



http://www.switched.com/2011/01/08/the-thompson-twins-adventure-is-a-new-wave-blast-from-the-past/

[KLG-7B]

It's not a tie-in,[nb]sort-of tied-in with his band The Freshies, I suppose[/nb] but this game was written by Frank Sidebottom: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000544

[Pseudopath]

It sounds fucking amazing. Anybody ever play this?

Me and my brother had it on the Speccy, but I was too young to figure out what was going on. I remember it being mad as a box of frogs though. There's a YouTube walkthrough here if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hOH4JKfMY0

[Jemble Fred]

I remember playing that, but I only recently learned there was a Give My Regards To Broad Street game where you got to play as McCartney collecting bits of his studio tapes. I must seek that one out.

[Absorb the anus burn]

I remember playing that, but I only recently learned there was a Give My Regards To Broad Street game where you got to play as McCartney collecting bits of his studio tapes. I must seek that one out.

[KLG-7B]

Oh yeah, there was a Wham!-themed music program on the Spectrum called Wham! The Music Box.

See, America computer games history always leaves this stuff out. They're all completely unaware of the mad and charming things that exist, due to essentially missing out on an entire era of the industry.

[Rolf Lundgren]

Journey did one as well (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OlO-7MZZxU). What is it with bands who were big in the early/mid 80s releasing games? And more to the point why doesn't this happen now?

[Consignia]

I believe Ade Edmunson had a book called "How To Be A Complete Bastard", which was adapted into a computer game on at least Amstrad CPC. It was a bizarre one in itself, the objective being to ruin a dinner party by being as disgusting, vulgar and anti-social as possible. You could turn into a cooker by opening an umbrella in doors.

I think it was an accident, but they slipped the full version onto an Amstrad Action cover tape, so it ended up in my young hands with out parental guidance.

[Treguard of Dunshelm]

There was a room in that with a computer, which you could reset. Doing so would reset your CPC, which meant you had to spend ten minutes loading from tape again.

[mcbpete]

KP Skips is an obvious connection to stunt bike riding:



and Quavers with pushing over dominoes:

[El Unicornio, mang]

Street Fighter: The Movie game. A game based on a movie based on a game. All kinds of postmodernism going on with that idea.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The 80s are the best period for these. Yes Prime Minister at the Neighbours text advebture spring to mind.

I actually have The Thompson Twins on diskette AND Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Theyre shite.

[mcbpete]

Can't get the rights to make a game of the film ? Why not make a game based on the soundtrack of the film instead -

[KLG-7B]

Getting desperate now, but it's one of the world's weirdest things so I want to link to it anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwJBsYJ16IE

Deus Ex Machina, the Spectrum game with an odd audio tape featuring Jon Pertwee, Ian Dury and Frankie Howerd.

"I was conceived not in a test tube, but in a PINT MUG."

Dury bit starts here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=PNLN76sj-og&NR=1

Dury making a case for peace as Frankie Howerd spits "WAR CRIMES ARE EASY": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXFRzRh3Av4&feature=relmfu

[Default to the negative]

Even though they're about nothing more than running through interminable labyrinths and blasting demons, there were novelisations of Doom & Doom II. I read the first one as a kiddywink and quite liked it. They added some stuff, like a love interest character for Doomguy, but IIRC it was mostly about killing demons, running from them, and trying to conserve ammo. So, quite faithful to the game.

[Gavin M]

At the time of its release I thought nothing of it but now...why on earth did they make Subbuteo - The Computer Game?

[Beagle 2]

Getting desperate now, but it's one of the world's weirdest things so I want to link to it anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwJBsYJ16IE

Deus Ex Machina, the Spectrum game with an odd audio tape featuring Jon Pertwee, Ian Dury and Frankie Howerd.

"I was conceived not in a test tube, but in a PINT MUG."

Dury bit starts here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=PNLN76sj-og&NR=1

Dury making a case for peace as Frankie Howerd spits "WAR CRIMES ARE EASY": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXFRzRh3Av4&feature=relmfu

Wow, that's incredible. I've never heard of this before. There appears to be a recent sequel as well http://www.deusexmachina2.com/

Unfortunately I don't understand the website.

Edit: Aha, here's the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a6e6UyCr_I&feature=player_embedded

It looks a bit shit.

[Beagle 2]

Despite having hundreds of pirated ST discs a Dizzy game never came my way when I was a kid, much to my dismay. However, one day I did finally acquire Fast Food.



It was a load of shit, I was gutted. I understood Dizzy games were supposed to be expansive, clever and immersive. This was just a crappy pacman clone. However, I have just found out that it was originally supposed to be Happy Eater - The Game, and the deal fell through at the last minute, so they just replaced the little puking red fella with Mr Egg.

I'm pleased I ripped you off Codemasters. Pleased.

[mcbpete]

Chupa Chups, the food of choice for a ninja from the Nth dimension.



Lucozade - For making frogs turn super:





Penguin bars, helping a half mechanical fish (James Pond 2) to rescue the workers and defeat Dr Maybe:

[Default to the negative]

Zool's design was a thinly-disguised Sonic rip-off. Cool Spot, the 7-Up mascot, also followed the "big trainers and big attitude" model. That was just how you appealed to kids in the 90s. I have to say though, I don't think the snack and soda games count as odd tie-ins. McDonald's did this too, and it's just what you'd expect.

[mcbpete]

Ooh, totally forgot about this one -

[Consignia]

More recently there were some Burger King tie-ins for the 360:



Wasn't there a McDonalds game for the SNES, as well?

[KLG-7B]

It was a load of shit, I was gutted. I understood Dizzy games were supposed to be expansive, clever and immersive. This was just a crappy pacman clone.

It's actually quite well thought of as a Pacman clone! It had fun little animations too. It's not a bad game IMO, but irritating if you were expecting a proper Dizzy game.

My first Dizzy game (after rushing off to WH Smiths to buy one after I saw a walkthrough of Magicland Dizzy in a magazine and correctly identifying it as the best thing ever) was Panic Dizzy. Now there's disappointment.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

KP Skips is an obvious connection to stunt bike riding:

Blimey! There's a blast from the past! I remember playing that for ages as a kid - the music is forever burned into my brain.

[mcbpete]

Tell me about it, just reading your reply had Hubbard's background music going though my head (For those that don't know it, it's the music from 27 secs onwards - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5ZSF6A2HZ0 )

[SyntadxError]

panic dizzy

bubble dizzy was worse

[Phil_A]

http://www.b3ta.com/features/48kcelebrityawards/

Some fairly bizarre celeb tie-ins here. Not only Auf Wiedersehen Pet: The Game, but also a Benny Hill simulator and a Spanish platformer based on Sabrina "Boys, Boys, Boys" Salerno.

And of course, this old favourite:

[mcbpete]

http://www.b3ta.com/features/48kcelebrityawards/

Some fairly bizarre celeb tie-ins here. Not only Auf Wiedersehen Pet: The Game, but also a Benny Hill simulator and a Spanish platformer based on Sabrina "Boys, Boys, Boys" Salerno.

For some reason this picture has put me in hysterics -