Hello! There's a Borg on the bridge!
February 17, 2024 3:13 PM Subscribe
Star Trek: Borg - Remastered is a 1996 FMV Star Trek game featuring John de Lancie remastered into HD & made playable in browser. yt trailer. A review of the original game.
A while back there was a video montage from a similar FMV Star Trek thing featuring Gowron, with clips of him repeatedly yelling stuff like "CHOOSE NOW!" and bugging out his eyes. Can't seem to find it now, though.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 3:36 PM on February 17 [8 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 3:36 PM on February 17 [8 favorites]
AlonzoMosleyFBI, I know just that clip, I think it was on Everything Is Terrible. I'm certain I can find it, I just need a few minutes to get to a Real Computer....
posted by JHarris at 3:43 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 3:43 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
Okay, the edited highlights version EIT posted I can't find and may have been taken down, but there are other Youtube uploads of nearly the entire tape, and this is one of them. At DragonCon 2023 there was someone who actually had the original package of the board game and tape right there. I considered buying it, but I don't have a VCR to play it on alas.
Ah here's a different compilation. "YOU! The one who is moving now. ANSWER!"
posted by JHarris at 4:07 PM on February 17 [5 favorites]
Ah here's a different compilation. "YOU! The one who is moving now. ANSWER!"
posted by JHarris at 4:07 PM on February 17 [5 favorites]
A true curiosity. I wonder how many of this type of game were made, and how brief the period is that they were a thing?
Wing Commander 3 is probably the biggest one. Starring Mark Hamill and some other people you might know.
MegaRace was (until just now when I checked and was proven wrong) one starring Don Knotts. (Except apparently it wasn't.)
I think the original Resident Evil had some... interesting... FMV? I didn't have a PS1.
FMV and 1990s CD-ROM. Name a more iconic duo.
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 4:10 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
Wing Commander 3 is probably the biggest one. Starring Mark Hamill and some other people you might know.
MegaRace was (until just now when I checked and was proven wrong) one starring Don Knotts. (Except apparently it wasn't.)
I think the original Resident Evil had some... interesting... FMV? I didn't have a PS1.
FMV and 1990s CD-ROM. Name a more iconic duo.
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 4:10 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
Oh yeah. Tim Curry in C&C 3? That was 2008, though? I think by then it had run its course. So you're probably mostly looking at late 90s through early 00s for this sort of FMV ...glory.
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 4:14 PM on February 17 [5 favorites]
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 4:14 PM on February 17 [5 favorites]
(3 comments in a row.)
I think it's kind of a known quantity now, but this seems like it would have been the vanguard of "virtually everything is CGI". I wonder how much of what you're seeing in these things is actors who basically have nothing to work with for the first time.
Green screens weren't new but this was an entirely new environment. The OP YT link is basically deLancie, a green screen and a director. I think actors usually have other actors, extras, sets, etc. You see the same thing in the Tim Curry YT. And without double checking the MegaRace FMV. It seems like it's basically "with no context at all, act directly into the camera". I bet that's a lot harder than working with a set full of people.
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 4:27 PM on February 17
I think it's kind of a known quantity now, but this seems like it would have been the vanguard of "virtually everything is CGI". I wonder how much of what you're seeing in these things is actors who basically have nothing to work with for the first time.
Green screens weren't new but this was an entirely new environment. The OP YT link is basically deLancie, a green screen and a director. I think actors usually have other actors, extras, sets, etc. You see the same thing in the Tim Curry YT. And without double checking the MegaRace FMV. It seems like it's basically "with no context at all, act directly into the camera". I bet that's a lot harder than working with a set full of people.
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 4:27 PM on February 17
The Digital Antiquarian has a deep dive on the making of Wing Commander III, and have a bunch of articles covering CD-ROM games from Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective to 7th Guest and beyond. (They haven't gotten to "Star Trek: Borg" yet, perhaps mercifully...)
posted by credulous at 4:57 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
posted by credulous at 4:57 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
A while back there was a video montage from a similar FMV Star Trek thing featuring Gowron, with clips of him repeatedly yelling stuff like "CHOOSE NOW!" and bugging out his eyes. Can't seem to find it now, though.
EXPERIENCE BEEZH!
posted by jumpercake at 5:03 PM on February 17 [10 favorites]
EXPERIENCE BEEZH!
posted by jumpercake at 5:03 PM on February 17 [10 favorites]
Here's the X-Files FMV game from '98 - includes most of the original cast (often briefly) and came on seven CDs.
One of the better FMV games of a time when the things were like a plague.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:26 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
One of the better FMV games of a time when the things were like a plague.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:26 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
I wonder how many of this type of game were made, and how brief the period is that they were a thing?
FMV games were a true fad for several years, most of them awful, a few of them good. Gaming people thought they the next generation of games technology for some reason.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:26 PM on February 17
FMV games were a true fad for several years, most of them awful, a few of them good. Gaming people thought they the next generation of games technology for some reason.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 5:26 PM on February 17
Perhaps the weirdest and most disappointing was Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, but check out the star power. Surely, none of them will speak of this title again.
posted by credulous at 5:36 PM on February 17
posted by credulous at 5:36 PM on February 17
Of course, Klingon FMV games are in-universe Star Trek canon now, thanks to LD’s Bat'leths & BiHnuchs.
posted by zamboni at 6:19 PM on February 17 [5 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 6:19 PM on February 17 [5 favorites]
A while back there was a video montage from a similar FMV Star Trek thing featuring Gowron, with clips of him repeatedly yelling stuff like "CHOOSE NOW!" and bugging out his eyes. Can't seem to find it now, though.
Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Klingon Challenge, the VHS-based game Bat'leths & BiHnuchs is riffing on. It does feature Robert O’Reilly, but (probably to avoid paying writers) he’s technically playing a different Klingon named Kavok.
Star Trek: Borg is not the only weird DeLancie Borg Trek product. The mercifully cancelled sequel to A Klingon Challenge was Borg Q-uest.
posted by zamboni at 6:46 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Klingon Challenge, the VHS-based game Bat'leths & BiHnuchs is riffing on. It does feature Robert O’Reilly, but (probably to avoid paying writers) he’s technically playing a different Klingon named Kavok.
Star Trek: Borg is not the only weird DeLancie Borg Trek product. The mercifully cancelled sequel to A Klingon Challenge was Borg Q-uest.
posted by zamboni at 6:46 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
FMV=full motion video (yes, I had to look that up--hope it helps others in a similar boat).
posted by sardonyx at 6:46 PM on February 17 [3 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 6:46 PM on February 17 [3 favorites]
Admittedly, spelling out the acronym doesn’t help much without context.
Full-motion video
Full-motion video
Full-motion video (FMV) is a video game narration technique that relies upon pre-recorded video files (rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models) to display action in the game. While many games feature FMVs as a way to present information during cutscenes, games that are primarily presented through FMVs are referred to as full-motion video games or interactive movies.posted by zamboni at 7:03 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
oh btw this thing uses "ai" to "remaster" the original video, in case that matters to you
posted by glonous keming at 7:39 PM on February 17 [4 favorites]
posted by glonous keming at 7:39 PM on February 17 [4 favorites]
I always felt like the late-90s era of FMV games was from that time period where 3d computer graphics were just reaching maturity. The limitations of home computers and consoles was such that it was just in that uncanny valley between "looks like computer graphics" and "looks realistic".
So you got a better visual experience from having greenscreen actors doing the work.
I also remember how in order to play the videos, I had to buy a whole separate MPEG Decoder Card to play games like Zork Grand Inquisitor.
Those were the days.
posted by jozxyqk at 7:51 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
So you got a better visual experience from having greenscreen actors doing the work.
I also remember how in order to play the videos, I had to buy a whole separate MPEG Decoder Card to play games like Zork Grand Inquisitor.
Those were the days.
posted by jozxyqk at 7:51 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
oh btw this thing uses "ai" to "remaster" the original video, in case that matters to you
I can't exactly pin down why, but this feels ok to me where other applications don't. I think it's something to do with it (I think) being more interpolation than extrapolation?
posted by juv3nal at 9:18 PM on February 17
I can't exactly pin down why, but this feels ok to me where other applications don't. I think it's something to do with it (I think) being more interpolation than extrapolation?
posted by juv3nal at 9:18 PM on February 17
I agree with juv3nal. It's not necessarily the tech, but the uses to which it's put (to create an endless spigot of bullshit so moneypeople can pay even fewer working artists), and the gigantic energy consumption of those large generative models.
posted by JHarris at 9:39 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 9:39 PM on February 17 [1 favorite]
I don't feel too strongly about it, but I think "remastered" is a little misleading and I'd prefer that cases like this be described as "upscaled". I'd opened a tab to look into exactly what constitutes a remaster in this context when glonous keming posted, saving me the effort.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 9:53 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 9:53 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
I loved this! Thanks for posting. It felt like being in a Star Trek episode. I got stuck in a seemingly endless loop, where I had to stun a borg instead of killing it, but couldn't quite figure it out.
posted by Monzz at 2:24 AM on February 18
posted by Monzz at 2:24 AM on February 18
At DragonCon 2023 there was someone who actually had the original package of the [Klingon Challenge] board game and tape right there. I considered buying it, but I don't have a VCR to play it on alas.
I own that. Got it cheap at a Half Price Books in Wisconsin IIRC. The game board is a nice map of the -D and I have a vague, scarcely-begun project to homebrew up an actual, playable board game using that board, and of course ignoring the VHS tape.
You gotta say this for the FMV era: they picked some of the absolute must-have actors to do it—O'Reilly, DeLancie, Curry. I kind of wish it would come back nowadays so we could get the likes of Nicolas Cage, Christopher Walken, and dare I dream, Werner Herzog. I envision some of the same energy from Zach Galifinakis's excellent "Gravy Robbers" segments from Tim and Eric.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 6:02 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]
I own that. Got it cheap at a Half Price Books in Wisconsin IIRC. The game board is a nice map of the -D and I have a vague, scarcely-begun project to homebrew up an actual, playable board game using that board, and of course ignoring the VHS tape.
You gotta say this for the FMV era: they picked some of the absolute must-have actors to do it—O'Reilly, DeLancie, Curry. I kind of wish it would come back nowadays so we could get the likes of Nicolas Cage, Christopher Walken, and dare I dream, Werner Herzog. I envision some of the same energy from Zach Galifinakis's excellent "Gravy Robbers" segments from Tim and Eric.
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 6:02 AM on February 18 [1 favorite]
Christopher Walken, eh? Then you want to dig up your old copy of Privateer 2, where your player character, Clive Owen, can hobnob with none other than Brian Blessed, Jurgen Prochnow, John Hurt and Christopher Walken in all their 640 x 480 glory.
posted by Silentgoldfish at 6:15 AM on February 18 [7 favorites]
posted by Silentgoldfish at 6:15 AM on February 18 [7 favorites]
AlonzoMosleyFBI: Believe it or not, there's THREE things that could be from: the TNG VCR board game (subtitled 'A Klingon Challenge'), the game Star Trek: Klingon, or the game Star Trek: Klingon Academy.
posted by BiggerJ at 2:58 PM on February 18 [1 favorite]
posted by BiggerJ at 2:58 PM on February 18 [1 favorite]
O’Reilly is in Star Trek: Klingon (actually as Gowron, this time), but not Klingon Academy, as far as I know.
posted by zamboni at 3:42 PM on February 18 [1 favorite]
posted by zamboni at 3:42 PM on February 18 [1 favorite]
A while back there was a video montage from a similar FMV Star Trek thing featuring Gowron, with clips of him repeatedly yelling stuff like "CHOOSE NOW!" and bugging out his eyes.
This was definitely a plot point in Lower Decks, haven't seen anything in non cartoon format.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:02 PM on February 18 [1 favorite]
This was definitely a plot point in Lower Decks, haven't seen anything in non cartoon format.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:02 PM on February 18 [1 favorite]
That was surprisingly fun! I’m curious as to how well it worked as a piece of commercial entertainment as it’s essentially a video choose your own adventure novel, but I really enjoyed the first person perspective on some solid star trek sets. The characters were also a nice ensamble despite having to paint them very briefly and broadly. DeLancie definitely earned his paycheck.
posted by Kikujiro's Summer at 4:13 AM on February 19
posted by Kikujiro's Summer at 4:13 AM on February 19
oh btw this thing uses "ai" to "remaster" the original video, in case that matters to you
using AI to remaster a game about the Borg feels oddly appropriate.
posted by atom128 at 7:09 AM on February 19
using AI to remaster a game about the Borg feels oddly appropriate.
posted by atom128 at 7:09 AM on February 19
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