Cut Scenes

The lurid graphics of the game box first migrated onto the computer in the form of splash screens, single screens presented at the outset of the game with its title and provenance. These screens were progressively gussied up with ever-better graphics, until they were quite swishy affairs. The next logical step was to integrate some of those flashy splash screens into the game. Cinematronics was one of the early perpetrators of this behavior, mixing great-looking stills with less-than-great-looking game screens. As the practice spread, it acquired the name cut scene to differentiate it from the splash screen.

Although there were many interesting variations on the idea, the scheme that best exemplifies it was the big hit of the early 90s, Wing Commander. This was a reworking of the Atari game Star Raiders for the PC, with cut scenes added. The player would fly out for some first-person space combat, at the end of which he returned to base where a new cut scene advanced the overarching story one more step. If the player survived enough missions, the entire story would be revealed, cut scene by cut scene. It may sound rather lame today, but back then, this was heady stuff.

The next step was the, video cut scene. In the early 90s, getting good full-screen, full-motion on the computer screen was a major technological hurdle. One of the earliest solutions was worked out by Graeme Devine, who teamed up with Rob Landeros to build a game using this great new technology. The result was a hugely successful Franken-game, The 7^th Guest. This game spliced a series of nicely done puzzles into another series of video squibs that advanced the story. The story didn't have much to do with the puzzles, but the technology was so impressive that most people didn't care they could see real video on their computer screens! The process continued with a number of later games such as the Final Fantasy series and the Metal Gear Solid series, and it has maintained some popularity.