Has there ever been a game directly based off of a book?

[saxist01]

Some for H.P. Lovecraft's stuff.
Parasite Eve was based off a book, too.

And Sam and Max came from a comic book, if that counts.

Yar, wasn't Bethesda's Call of Cthulhu: DCotE pretty closely modelled after Lovecraft's Innsmouth in plot as well as setting?

Actually, Eternal Darkness was admittedly influenced by the writings of H.P.

Lovecraft

And technically there has not yet been a movie based on The Hobbit yet

I'm not defending the OPs attitude here, but yeah, there was [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077687/], much as many fans would like to forget it.

There are, however, plenty of games [http://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/] based on Tolkien's work [http://www.thangorodrim.net/] that have nothing to do with the movies.

And as terrible as the movie was, I believe it was the basis for the Lemmywinks episode of South Park. So it had some value . . . 30 years later.

 

[.[B@lL15T1C].]

There was a "The Hobbit" game...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(2003_video_game)

Read the full OP, you idiot.

the hobbit hasn't been made into a film yet. And it was written before the lord of the rings.

There was that fellowship of the ring game, made me glad they'd left tom bombadil out of the films.

 

[murphy7801]

Theres a new Dante's Inferno game in production.
It looks like.. ugh. I actually liked Divine Comedy too...

yer I prefer the divine comedy to the inferno and game is just a mockery

 

[Beltom]

Since when was "Hte Hobbit" a spin-off of anything? It
was written before Lord of the Rings!

It was?

The Hobbit was written before WW2 and published in 1937. The Lord of the Rings was published in 1952.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings#Publication_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit#Publication
Check your information before you start calling out people.

 

[Nerdfury]

And technically there has not yet been a movie based on The Hobbit yet

I'm not defending the OPs attitude here, but yeah, there was [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077687/], much as many fans would like to forget it.

There are, however, plenty of games [http://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/] based on Tolkien's work [http://www.thangorodrim.net/] that have nothing to do with the movies.

Ha! Yes, there's that - though OP can't seem to get himself straight in this post. Though the The Hobbit game of yore (an old text-command-with-graphics kind of deal) wasn't based on the cartoon "movie" (can 77 minutes be a 'movie'?) at all, so it counts!

Technically, too, you could say that Baldur's Gate, Icewind ale, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights and all such related games are based from Dungeons and Dragons, which is sourced from a book.

There was a "The Hobbit" game...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(2003_video_game)

Read the full OP, you idiot.

That was unnecessary, considering you edited your original post to cover yourself.

And technically there has not yet been a movie based on The Hobbit yet, and so D_987's post is accurate. Additionally, there was actually a game based on The Hobbit long before Peter Jackson did his grisly work and gave us the The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.

And let's not forget the game based off of The Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, as well as various games based off of their Dragonlance series.

I DIDN'T EDIT IT!!! I MENTIONED THE HOBBIT BECAUSE I HAD ALREADY THOUGHT OF IT!!!

CAAAPS LOOOCK!!! AND EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!

No, really, OP - now you're just embarrassing yourself. You may not have learned this yet, but there's really no harm in editing your posts and admitting you've made a clarification. This does not make you a lesser person - in fact, it makes you a better person by admitting you've lacked thought, and then made a decision to think things through a little more.

I think this post has well and truly proven that there are multitudes of games based directly from books and novels.

 

[chstens]

Since when was "Hte Hobbit" a spin-off of anything? It
was written before Lord of the Rings!

It was?

It most certainly was, Tolkien wrote it after WW2, to escape reality, people wanted a sequel, and that's when he wrote Lord of the Rings.

 

[johnman]

Roadside Picknick - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.(not directly though, but they idea comes from the book).

Well the film was based on the book and the game was based on both of those and real life events. All the anomalies described in the book are in the game, as is the nuts and bolts method of finding them.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Since when was "Hte Hobbit" a spin-off of anything? It
was written before Lord of the Rings!

It was?

It most certainly was, Tolkien wrote it after WW2, to escape reality, people wanted a sequel, and that's when he wrote Lord of the Rings.

It was. And if you read the books in order (The Hobbit, Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, and Return of the King) they make a hell of a lot more sense. I initially read them with The Hobbit last and later read it first and read the rest in order and found that out. Personally, I like The Hobbit a lot better than the rest of the trilogy and dont care too much for any of the movies....

American McGee's Alice is a continuation of the book Alice in wonderland.

actually the title is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll....I love this game and this book. Don't remember where I put it.....and then the second book, Through the Looking-Glass....I actually own both books in one.
"Set years after Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the game features an older, more cynical and macabre incarnation of Alice."
taken off of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee%27s_Alice

they are suppose to be making a sequel and a movie....I'm antsy waiting for the movie. But will boycott Sarah Michelle Geller playing Alice if it comes down to it....I can think of plenty of others who would be better for the role.....

anyways though there is also American McGee's Grimm based off of Grimm's Fairy Tales(another book i own as well)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee%27s_Grimm

and then I am looking forward to

Theres a new Dante's Inferno game in production.
It looks like.. ugh. I actually liked Divine Comedy too...

I love the Divine Comedy. Need to finish it though once I find it again. I'm in Paradiso.

Timeline was based on the book of the same name, but that was such a shitty game.

and a movie came out based off the book and was a shitty movie.....I quote that book often. It kills me to see Crichton's work butchered like that (the movie) too many inconsistencies.




also, side note: I'm not trying to be a ***** or anything by correcting you, I'm just OCD and very anal retentive to stuff like that. Fault of mine.

 

[Nerdfury]

Since when was "Hte Hobbit" a spin-off of anything? It
was written before Lord of the Rings!

It was?

It most certainly was, Tolkien wrote it after WW2, to escape reality, people wanted a sequel, and that's when he wrote Lord of the Rings.

It's pretty sad, actually, that people don't know that - as young as the OP is. But it's nice to know that WW2 gave us something creative other than WW2-based FPS games!

 

[brodie21]

there should be a starship troopers one. the book was excellent

 

[Woem]

Let's not forget Dune, Dune II and Dune 2000.

 

[brodie21]

Since when was "Hte Hobbit" a spin-off of anything? It
was written before Lord of the Rings!

It was?

It most certainly was, Tolkien wrote it after WW2, to escape reality, people wanted a sequel, and that's when he wrote Lord of the Rings.

It's pretty sad, actually, that people don't know that - as young as the OP is. But it's nice to know that WW2 gave us something creative other than WW2-based FPS games!

yeah, the Lord of the Rings was a sequel to the Hobbit. the hobbit introduced the west to adult fantasy fiction, before the hobbit any fantasy was considered childish

 

[Vrex360]

DO I say it? Do I say it?
What the hell....

Halo was itself inspired on several old works of literture including old mythology... there are others as well, religious texts also get a mention but ultimatley despite having quite a few literary referances it wasn't directly based on them... just kinda had similar themes.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Betrayal at Krondor. Actually, all of the Krondor games (There was 3 iirc). All based off Raymond E. Feist's Krondor books (and his extended universe, but most of his books past krondor and magician were shit).

Still, BoK was an awesome rpg, and still is (I just recently re-played it). Very might & magic without the flaws.

 

[GrinningManiac]

Theres a new Dante's Inferno game in production.
It looks like.. ugh. I actually liked Divine Comedy too...

I still can't work out how they're going to do this without offending the ENTIRE of christiandom AND making a half-arsed DOOM hell level rippoff

Not sure how Dante's Inferno the game would piss off Christendom any more than Dante did back when he wrote the original poem. The Divine Comedy has never been regarded as holy writs or anything, most Christians I know don't seem to regard it all. The game will probably just piss off people in the normal way any video game involving demons and hell does.

I see what you mean, but even if Christians largley disagreed with the book, it was still a book about a part of 'their' religion, and even as a non-practising Roman Catholic myself, I still think that It's one thing to depict hell in a different way like Dante did, it's quite another to make an action game based off said depiction

 

[The3rdEye]

there should be a starship troopers one. the book was excellent

There was, two in fact. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/starshiptroopers2000/index.html and http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/starshiptroopers/index.html

 

[Ranthus]

Since when was "The Hobbit"(correction by Ranthus) a spin-off of anything? It
was written before Lord of the Rings!

I said this before ANYONE ELSE did...

It was?

Same as the other guy. If you had read my post on page 2, you would know this. And all the people on the new page saying it was written after WW2 obviously know nothing...LotR was made after WW2, but The Hobbit...that was PUBLISHED, let alone written, in 1937. As I said earlier, that's 17 years before the first Lord of the Rings book.

And I am willing to bet you edited the OP...why would someone say "The Hobbit" right after you said spinoffs like "The Hobbit" don't count?

*Thorin plays a song about gold*