Games influencing other media

[Ady]

I was round a friend's house the other night and saw an episode from a new series on Sky One called Kingdom Hospital.

I was astonished by the intro, which looked like something from the Silent Hill games, by virtue of its imagery, graphics and music.

I pointed this out to my friend, but he didn't understand what I meant (he's not a gamer).

So, can anyone think of any other examples where gaming's tentacles of influenced have made an impact in non-gaming media?

If so, please mention them here.

[mats_j]

The conveyer belt part in Star Wars: Episode 2 (I think it was) was very much like a platform game. I remember thinking that they were bound to release a game based around it, although they never did (to my knowledge)...

[Shibusawa jr.]

From the little bit of radio chatter I pick up at work it is clear that Vice City influenced a lot of DJ's. Now I can't listen to 'Died in your arms tonight' without thinking of some game character wasting everything in his vicinity while circling a chopper above Starfish Island.

[E. Randy Dupre]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that about the conveyor belt bit in SWII. I'm pretty sure somebody from Lucasfilm is on record as saying that the pod race was included in Part I simply so that they could get a game out of it. Says more about that film than anything else, really.

(By the way, Ady, I think the Kingdom Hospital intro credits are *cough* influenced *cough* by Six Feet Under, more than anything else.)

[Papercut]

Kingdom Hospital is a remake of Lars Von Trier's Danish horror/soap The Kingdom, which predates Silent Hill. The influence is more likely to be the other way around.

[Adrock]

or simple a rehash of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace?

[darkangel]

How about the Simpsons, there are many good examples for the Simpsons but I can only re-call one.

Homer was trying to stuff luggae into the boot of the car, and he said something line, "I know how do do it" and Suddenly the luggage came down like Tetris Blocks and he was humming the Tetris theme

And what about that Film which came out in the 80s, "The Wizard".
It was just a 90 min Advert/Sneak peek for Super Mario Bros 3

[hankwangford]

Homer was trying to stuff luggae into the boot of the car, and he said something line, "I know how do do it" and Suddenly the luggage came down like Tetris Blocks and he was humming the Tetris theme

That was absolutely class! First he stacks the luggage, then imagines the rest of the family as Tetris blocks. The look on Lisa's face when he turns Bart into an L-shape and puts him in upside down kills me.

[James Harvey]

How about the Simpsons, there are many good examples for the Simpsons but I can only re-call one.

Homer was trying to stuff luggae into the boot of the car, and he said something line, "I know how do do it" and Suddenly the luggage came down like Tetris Blocks and he was humming the Tetris theme

And what about that Film which came out in the 80s, "The Wizard".
It was just a 90 min Advert/Sneak peek for Super Mario Bros 3

These are a homage and a corporate cash-in respectively, not really examples of games influencing other media.

[Marvelon]

Can't remember the name of the song, but there's a Kylie video where the backgrounds look like Rez-lite so to speak, this video wa sreleased about 3-4 months after tha gem, about the right time span I'd say.

[Colonel Billy-Bob]

I'm certain the Resident Evil series of games has brought about the resurgence in popularity of zombie flicks. For everyone that missed the Romero classics first time around, Resi introduced them to the joys of pumping buckshot into walking corpses.

Just think of Spaced series one, episode three when Tim gets paranoid after a lengthy Resi session. And that episode was the inspiration behind Shaun of the Dead.