Interactive Neo-Noir

[Fatigued Gumshoe]

Hey Everyone,

This is my first post and must say I'm ecstatic to find somewhere with a wealth of information on this genre I have fallen in love with. Please bear with me as I am not an expert on this genre.

The main reason I'm writing this is to chat a little bit about interactive Noir stories. We've all seen the classic films, read novels and short stories... but one form of Noir media that has a lot of untapped potential is interactive Noir.

Think about it: instead of watching Spade pursue the Maltese Falcon you get to find clues leading to the Maltese Falcon yourself AS Sam Spade. This is what drew me into Noir, an interactive Film/Game by the name of Tex Murphy - Pandora Directive. I played this game as a child and fell in love the style, the grit, the flawed protagonist. As I completed the games I craved more and stumbled upon an entire genre of films and stories that has really impacted my life.

Has anyone else had experience with interactive Noir stories? Please share as I have devoured my fill of films/novels and am seeking to once again return to a Noir world where I control the flawed character at the helm.

-James

[cigar joe]

Are there any examples of this?

[Nighthawk]

An interactive noir seems, by necessity, to exist only in the realm of video games. As far as these go, there are a few examples:

L.A. Noire, which was released last year to great fanfare, is the best contemporary example of what I would consider interactive noir.

Noir: A Shadowy Thriller (1996) was released back in the point-and-click adventure days of PC games. It ran on Windows 3.1, so if you can find a copy, you'll need to figure out a way to get it to run on a more recent OS. If you can't find a copy but still want to see what it looks like, someone has posted a walkthrough of the game on Youtube. Here's part one (you can get the rest of the links from the Youtube user's profile):

Grim Fandango (1998) is another noirish PC game from yesteryear: http://www.amazon.com/Grim-Fandango-...7578987&sr=1-2

There are also various contemporary point-and-click noir games out there as well. Some are free to play. I think you can find info about some of them elsewhere on this board (I just can't remember where).

[Steve-O]

in the 90s there was also a Black Dahlia computer game. It was next to impossible to finish... I tried!

I don't remember The Pandora Directive... but looking it up today I see it starred the voices of Kevin McCarthy and John Agar...

[Fatigued Gumshoe]

Thanks for the replies. I know of L.A Noire (which really, doesn't seem that noir to me) and Grim Fandango... however Noir - Shadowy Thriller and Black Dahlia are new to me! I'll check out those other ones for sure. Max Payne is solid noir for action fans.

Are there any choose your path novels? Maybe boardgames or perhaps an interactive story board where people can throw in components or ideas to contribute to a ongoing noir storyline?

The Tex games did have some pretty big name actors involved and at the time the technology was cutting edge. I highly recommend checking it out. There are three main games - Under a Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive, and Overseer. The Pandora Directive is my favourite as it has the right amount of humour, grit, character flaws and overarching plot. The other two are great as well, with Under a Killing Moon being a bit more on the humourous side and Overseer on the dramatic, serious side for the most part.

[cigar joe]

I still have a board game called "Gumshoe" based in San Francisco. It was fun to play. I'll have to find the box. I know it had a street map of late 1930's-40's San Francisco, a reverse look-up phone book, and a few other things.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3365/gumshoe

[Fatigued Gumshoe]

I still have a board game called "Gumshoe" based in San Francisco. It was fun to play. I'll have to find the box. I know it had a street map of late 1930's-40's San Francisco, a reverse look-up phone book, and a few other things.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3365/gumshoe

Interesting! I think I may have to look into this game. Thanks Cigar Joe!

As an aside, it actually looks like the original creators of Tex Murphy and creating a sequel after 14 years! Being funded through kickstarter - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...edora/comments

Exciting stuff!

[Film Noir Press - Noir news from the internet]

Chris Jones will get to reprise his role as Tex Murphy, the film-noir sci-fi investigator, as his studio’s Kickstarter campaign to raise enough funds for a new Tex Murphy adventure have been successful. Big Finish Games has said that Project Fedora will go into production once funding has been secured, and will likely take 12 to 14 months to complete.
Project Fedora will be produced in a similar style to Under A Killing Moon and the rest of the Tex Murphy games.

The Kickstarter campaign has gained over 5,700 backers to date, and the $450,000 target was beaten with nine days to go. The campaign is set to end on June 16. Big Finish Games set several new targets of 10 percent, 20 percent and 30 percent increase in the funding.
Each percentage increase will allow for more improvements and additions to the game, including bigger environments, as well as ports to both android devices and XBLA. If the 30 percent goal is met, then Big Finish will create the soundtrack to the game with a live orchestra. At press time the fund had reached just over $510,000--113 percent of the original goal.
Like all the games in the series before it, Project Fedora will tell its story through live-action video sequences with the user controlling Tex in explorable 3D environments. The story is also planned to continue where the previous entry in the series, Overseer, left off. The game will, according to the developer, be released without DRM.



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[spress]

Back in the 80's or 90's, I had a video game called KGB, which centered on a private detective in the Perestroika era. I had to send for the cheat sheet.