Stephen King's Work Adapted to Video Games

David Finniss, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Sep 21, 2009 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

In addition to Associated Content, I also write for Examiner, focusing primarily on the work of Stephen King. One topic I looked into was whether or not any of his works had been made into video games. There certainly haven't been any for the newer consoles, but with all the movies that have been made, I found it odd that no video games tied into King's work. While a bit hard to find and not really well known, some Stephen King based video games have been made. I myself didn't find any after my original search, it was only through the diligence of others that the existence of these games was brought to my attention.

The only thing that I was able to find on my own was a program called F13. It wasn't so much a game as a program that gave you wallpapers for your desktop. There were some mini-games as well as an electronic copy of Everything's Eventual. It received a mixed review at best.

The first game I was told about was one based on the novel, The Running Man, which was written under the pseudonym of "Richard Bachman". The book involves a man getting involved in a deadly game show, where you essentially become a wanted man, being pursued by the general populace as well as hunters employed by the show. The game was only released on the Commodore 64. I think it would adapt well to current gen consoles though. It would incorporate a stealth element as well as chances for heavy FPS action.

Stephen King's short story, The Mist, was also made into a text based game by Angelsoft. You can find it by a simple google search. I tried to download it, but for reasons beyond my understanding, it didn't work. Maybe you will have better luck if you wish to play it.

Another computer game was based on King's novel, The Dark Half.

The only King material that got a video game adaptation was The Lawnmower Man. The game was released for the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. It was based on the movie, which was so different from the story that King asked for his name to be taken off of it. As such, I don't know if it technically qualifies.

I think a next gen rendition of Cell would be pretty cool. You could argue that it would be just another zombie game, but there's nothing wrong with zombie games. If anything, the more zombie games that are released, the better prepared we will be should they rise from the grave to try and overthrow society.

Going in the same survival horror vein, another game based on The Mist would be interesting to see. Getting a group of people together to try and fend off the ungodly horrors seems like it would be fun times.

A Dark Tower MMO has potential, being able to play as a gunslinger or as an agent of the Crimson King. Obviously it would have to take place well before the novels, much like the Knights of the Old Republic games take place long before Star Wars.

What I want to see most though is a tournament fighter with all of the Stephen King villains. Pennywise could battle Randall Flagg, an alien possessed Jonesy could battle a Tommyknocker possessed Bobbi Anderson, Jack Torrance could battle Annie Wilkes. There are tons of possibilities for cool fights to be seen.

With video game technology as advanced as it is, there is plenty of potential for a resurgence of King based games.

Published by David Finniss

I'm a freelance writer who lives in Wichita. I tend to write about whatever randomly pops into my head, generally geek related stuff about movies, comic books, and the like. I also write fiction and am cur... View profile

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Stephen King's Work Adapted to Video Games

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