In the first The Electronic Reader Experience via Video Games post I explained how videos games are a new, electronic reader experience. In it I explored two games embedded into digital text: Encarta ‘95 and Story of the Lost Dot. In this post I’ll look at video games that are somewhat faithful adaptations of the books they are based upon. There are quite a few out there and I cannot cover them all so I’m going to select a few that appeared on multiple ‘best book to video game’ lists.

Adaptations in the book world are nothing new. You might be thinking of books turned into movies or plays but books themselves can also be remade, they’re called editions. There are hardcover and paperback editions of books, and comic books can be individual issues or gathered together as anthologies. These editions keep the contents the same and adjust the binding holding everything together. Lewis Carroll went a step or two further issuing four editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland between 1865 and 1890. Two had the same contents but different bindings {covers} so they could be sold at different price points, one version included the sequel Through the Looking Glass, and Nursery Alice adapted the stories altogether to make them more palatable to a younger audience (Lastoria, 2019). Walt Whitman famously edited and adjusted the contents of Leaves of Grass issuing new editions up until he died; there were six American editions alone (O’Driscoll, 1999; The Walt Whitman Archive, n.d.). Also consider how science and history books and textbooks have the edition listed right in the title. This is because, while the book may cover the same topic, the content has been adjusted and updated with the times. This is not unlike how books are adjusted for the digital environment. In the case of video game editions, they are adjusted to become interactive.

*Cyberpunk 2077 image is used for effect only; the game is based on a role playing book game Cyberpunk 2020 but the new video game was preceded by comics of the same name.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was originally a short story by Harlan Ellison published in 1967 first in Worlds of Science Fiction magazine and later in a short story collection by the same name {that’s two versions already, if you’re counting} (encyclopedia.com, n.d). The short story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where human-made computers join into one master computer that kills all but five humans who must “play out its sadistic and revenge-filled games” (encyclopedia.com, n.d., third paragraph). The premise of this story was just begging to be a video game.

Gamers got their wish with a computer game of the same name which Harlan Ellison is credited on, originally released on 1996; it’s still available on STEAM. From all accounts, the game seems just as darks and twisted as the story but instead of reading about the five characters, players become one of the characters and attempt to save themselves and the others from the master computer. Neither the book nor the game sound like they have good endings (Corbett, 2021; encyclopedia.com, n.d.). With the author working on the adaptation, this one is true to the original version with necessary modifications to translate it to a more interactive digital format.

Cover image of Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy

Rainbow Six is a novel by Tom Clancy published in 1998. Over the course of 912 pages readers follow a former Navy SEAL, John Clark- from earlier novels by Clancy, as Clark joins an international task force to combat terrorism (tomclancy.com).

The Rainbow Six Siege game, not only bearing Clancy’s name but also based on the book, was released to gaming devices in 2016. Five players join up to fight another five player team; one team attacks an objective while the other defends it with the underlying premise of combatting terrorism, just like in the novel. This isn’t a ‘may the best shooter win’ scenario, taking a page from the international teams Clark worked on the story, players must create a plan of defense or attack before the action begins. Scattered throughout the game are images and stories of terrorism. The action of the game brings Clancy’s fictional stories to life as readers and players work to execute and survive missions (Davenport, 2015).

Other book to game adaptations include Metro 2033 which is based on the book of the same name with the author credited as a writer on the game; and The Binding of Isaac based on the story from the Old Testament.

Storytelling and sharing information seems inherent to humans and it is and underlying purpose of books. It only makes sense that when a new storytelling format is created, like video games, that books will find their way in.

Citations

Cengage. (n.d.). I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream | Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopedia.Com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream

Cobbett, R. (2021, July 4). Crapshoot: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, a game censorship made unfinishable. Pcgamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/saturday-crapshoot-i-have-no-mouth-and-i-must-scream/

Davenport, J. (2015, December 4). Rainbow Six Siege review. Pcgamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-siege-review/

Lastoria, A. (2019). Lewis Carroll, art director: Recovering the design and production rationales for Victorian editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Book History #22, pp. 196-225.

O’Driscoll, M. J. (1999). Whitman in the archive: Leaves of Grass and the culture of the book. ESC: English Studies in Canada, 3-4(25). https://doi.org/10.1353/esc.1999.0022

Rainbow Six - Tom Clancy. (n.d.). Tom Clancy.Com. https://tomclancy.com/product/rainbow-six

The Walt Whitman Archive. (n.d.). U. S. editions of Leaves of Grass - The Walt Whitman Archive. https://whitmanarchive.org/published/LG/index.html

*Some citations for web resources are linked directly in the post (in blue).