Wednesday, March 9, 2016

That's So Fake!

I've always found made-up videogames, invented solely to inhabit non-existent arcades in fictional stories told on the big screen, to be an intriguing bit of set dressing. Wouldn't it be wild if some computer programmer actually MADE a playable version of one of those fake games? Having personally played a round of Space Paranoids at Disney California Adventure, I can confirm that its happened at least once.

Below are nineteen screen caps from various fictional videogames created specifically for movies or television (plus I threw one wild weenie in there that kind of breaks the rules just to keep you on your toes). Can you name not only the movie/show the game appears in, but the name of the fictional game itself?

Answers will be posted in the comments.

Surprisingly (*cough* notsomuch *cough*) I'm not the first person to write on this topic (the internet is crawling with fictional videogame lists), but I was able to sneak in a few overlooked titles.

A great video from WatchMojo (which I used to source a few elusive screen caps) is embedded at the very bottom (...but watch it AFTER trying to name the screens, big cheater!)

Screen 1

Screen 2

Screen 3

Screen 4

Screen 5

Screen 6

Screen 7

Screen 8

Screen 9

Screen 10

Screen 11

Screen 12

Screen 13

Screen 14

Screen 15

Screen 16

Screen 17

Screen 18

Screen 19



SPOILER VIDEO!

2 comments:

Brother Bill said...

Screen 1: "Thou Art Dead" from Monster House (2006)
Screen 2: "Cereal Killer" from The Simpsons, S20E5: Dangerous Curves (2008)
Screen 3: "Domination" from Never Say Never Again (1983)
Screen 4: "Bishop of Battle" from Nightmares (1983)
Screen 5: holographic chess game (name unknown) from Futureworld (1976)
Screen 6: "Cavern of the Evil Wizard" from Big (1988)
Screen 7: "Galactic Border Patrol" from Strange Brew (1983)
Screen 8: "Starfighter" from The Last Starfighter (1984)
Screen 9: "Fix-It Felix Jr." from Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Screen 10: "Gangsta" from Clockers (1995)
Screen 11: "Bonestorm" from The Simpsons, S7E11: Marge Be Not Proud (1995)
Screen 12: "Buzz Lightyear Attack On Zurg" from Toy Story 2 (1999)
Screen 13: "Fight Man" from Eagle Vs. Shark (2007)
Screen 14: "Alien Child" from Her (2013)
Screen 15: "Ninja Ninja Revolution" from Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010)
Screen 16: "Wrestle Jam '88" from The Wrestler (2008)

Screen 17: Here's the one that not only breaks the rules but may technically not even qualify as "fake". It's "Armies of the Night", a videogame contained within another videogame, The Warriors (Rockstar, 2005) based on the movie The Warriors (1979). It's actually a fully playable mini-game that you can unlock while playing The Warriors. So if you can actually play it, what's so fake about it? Well, "Armies of the Night" is depicted as an upright arcade cabinet that takes quarters... and that only exists within the environment of the game The Warriors. Can U fake it?

Screen 18: military simulation game (name unknown) from Toys (1992)
Screen 19: "Global Thermonuclear War" from War Games (1983)

2 Warps to Neptune said...

I only got four! The Never Say Never Again game was super familiar, but I couldn't come up with it. I recall some kind of virtual reality game in a Seaquest episode. There was also one in Star Trek: The Next Generation.