Top 5 Full Motion Video (FMV) Games of All Time

They are always trying to do new things in video games. This has been going on since the dawn of video games. One thing that they tried to do in the 80's and 90's was to make games with video. These kinds of games are called full motion video games. There is some debate over what counts like does it have to be a live video or can you use animation? At the time of these games they were a popular novelty which quickly faded and died. I can recall thinking they seamed so cool but they were always pricey to play in arcades.This article is going to be liberal in what it considers Full Motion Video. So here are the 5 best Full Motion Video games.

5. Action Max
Technically the Action Max is a system but it only played FMV games. This is a great example of the novelty of these games . To be honest I do not know the names of any of the games. I wanted so bad when I first saw it but by the time I had a birthday or Christmas the system was already off the shelves. The games were all gun games from what I recall and have heard. There was a fighter pilot game and a similar game with spaceships. To be honest I still kind of want one. The only problem with the Action Max was that it was easy to memorize the games and they then got boring.

4. Mad Dog McCree
Mad Dog McCree was one of the popular FMV games. As a kid I always wanted to play it but it cost more then all the other games. Gund games are always cool and one that took you to the Wild West was pretty cool. I think I played in once at Disneyland originally. I have played the game on a home arcade since then. It was popular but soon people realized that the acting was bad and the game pretty simple and repetitive. Mad Dog McCree is still a popular game though for the genre with re-releases being made.

3. Space Ace
Following the popularity of Dragon's Lair Space Ace was released. Space Ace was rarer to find in arcades though but not as rare as Dragon's Lair II. Space Ace was a little harder then Dragons Lair. The trick to the game was watching others play and then memorizing the game. Unlike Dragons Lair which got to be random early on Space Ace was linear which made it easier to know what to do but you might not see others get as far while Dragon's Lair you could memorize all the scenes up until the end. Space Ace has a cool space theme and great animation. Space Ace has been re-released and you can still play it.

2. Time Traveler
Time Traveler may not be a game people think when they think Time FMV games. However it really pretty much is. The thing about Time Traveler that it is known for is being a "hologram" game. Technically it really was not but who cares. This is another game I recall seeing at the local arcade and wanting to play but it was expensive to play maybe as much as a dollar. I never got to play it as a kid because it was always at miniature golf places and we got to play mini-golf not video games. However it has been re-released to the computer so now I own it and in 3D. However you really have to play this in the original hologram cabinet for the true experience. When I was older I found an arcade at the beach that had a Time Traveler cabinet and would play every time I went but they either moved it or got rid of it and I have not seen it the last few visits. Sega made another similar game using the same cabinet which is rarer called Holosseum which sounds boring but was a fighting game which sounds cool but that games is rare and I have known few people who have ever played or even seen one.

1. Dragon's Lair
This was the most popular of all FMV games. When it came out is was super popular. It made fortunes for arcade owners. There have been many ports and sequels showing how popular a game it was. While a few FMV has sequels this is the only one to have spawned a franchise that is still alive today. I can recall first seeing this at the Disneyland arcade in Tommorowland. I got to play it once because it took all the money my parents gave me to play in the arcade just to play. I was young and died fast so I had to hang around and watch others play so my parents did not realize I spent my money so fast. The other memory I have is playing this at home on my arcade with a friend who had to beat it and he took hours it was not until 1 or so in the morning he beat it.

The FMV games were a nice fad. It is amazing how popular they were for such a short time and then everyone stopped caring so quickly. You can still find some of these games ported or even occasionally in the arcades. If you do you should give one a try for the nostalgia.