Looking Back at The 7th Guest and Phantasmagoria

The year was 1993 and video game narratives were growing up. And by ‘growing up,’ I of course mean ‘trying to be more like movies.’ There was a good reason for this, mind you. The increasing popularity of CD-ROM drives meant developers had the ability to create full motion cutscenes for their games, and they were convinced that this would enable them to beat Hollywood at its own game. After all, as a fictional game developer of the time would have said if he was real, “our movies will be interactive. Suck it Hollywood!”

A photographic artist's impressions of early '90s game developers. That dude in the front has awesome hair.

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