We continue with this special whose objective is to take a look at the relationship between the world of video games and that of literature . Perhaps from the outside this relationship can go something unnoticed but not only does it exist, but it generates a lot of material.
There are many video games that have based their stories on novels, as we could see in the first post of this special, but there are also a large number of novels that have emerged as a result of video games. We must not lose sight of the fact that the games have their own scriptwriters and that, in addition, in many cases, they are themselves in charge of collecting their own stories and releasing them in a completely different format from the original.
Sometimes these novels are nothing more than ports , if the expression may be permitted, but in many other cases they serve to expand information on the universes initially created to be enjoyed with a pad or a mouse in hand and today we are going to see a few examples of this.
Tomb Raider
Our friend Lara Croft not only has a ton of video games and a couple of movies behind her back, but her adventures also came to take shape on paper.
Specifically, three novels have been written so far based on the popular Eidos saga: ‘The Amulet of Power’ (Mike Resnick, 2004), ‘The Lost Cult’ (EE Knight, 2004) and ‘The Bronze Man’ ( James Alan Gardner, 2005).
The three novels are based on the events related in the games of the series, although in ‘The lost cult’ there are, apparently, some references to the second film of the series, ‘Tomb Raider: the cradle of life’ . As a curiosity, it should be noted that the novel ‘The Bronze Man’ is told in the first person from Lara’s point of view.
Hello
‘Halo’ has given enough of itself in the world of literature and, apart from a graphic novel ( ‘Halo Graphic Novel’ , Marvel Comics) and a four-issue comic series ( ‘Halo: Uprising’ , Marvel Comics) , has given us five science fiction novels based on his universe.
En orden cronológico son las siguientes: ‘Halo: la caÃda de Reach’ (Eric Nylund, 2001), ‘Halo: The Flood’ (William C. Dietz, 2003), ‘Halo: First Strike’ (Eric Nylund, 2003), ‘Ghosts of Onyx’ (Eric Nylund, 2006) y ‘Halo: Contact Harvest’ (Joseph Staten, 2007).
Mass Effect
We are going to continue with science fiction, where one of the great titles of the XBox 360 catalog, ‘Mass Effect’ , has also had its share of books. In this case , Bioware’s spectacular galactic RPG features a couple of novels by writer Drew Karpyshyn, who in turn is the main screenwriter of the video game.
The first one, ‘Mass Effect: Revelation’ (2007), works as a prequel to the game and reveals a lot of information about the characters, the various locations, etc. while ‘Mass Effect: Ascension’ (2008) is just the opposite and places us two months after the events that occurred in the video game.
Resident Evil
Without a doubt, the ‘Resident Evil’ saga is one of the ones that has given the most novels. The vast majority of them have arisen from the hand of Stephanie Danielle Perry, a writer specialized in adapting fantasy, science fiction and horror works such as ‘Star Trek’ or ‘Aliens’ , for example.
In chronological order the novels based on ‘Resident Evil’ written by SD Perry are the following: ‘The Umbrella Conspiracy’ (1998, based on ‘RE1’), ‘La Ensenada Calibán’ (1998, original novel), ‘The City of the Dead ‘ (1999, based on’ RE2 ‘), ‘ Underworld ‘ (1999, original novel), ‘ Nemesis ‘ (2000, based on’ RE: Nemesis ‘), ‘ Veronica Code ‘ (2001, based on’ RE: Code Veronica ‘), ‘ Hora Cero ‘ (2004, based on’ RE0 ‘), ‘ Umbrella Chronicles Side A and B ‘ (2008, based on’ RE: Umbrella Chronicles’) and ‘Los Illuminados’ (based on’ RE4 ‘ ).
Apart from these novels by SD Perry, there are five others that emerged in Japan: a trilogy in 1998 ( ‘Hokkai no Yoju’ , by Kyu Asakura) and two more novels in 2002 ( ‘To the Liberty’ , by Suien Kimura and ‘Rose Blank ‘ by Tadashi Aizawa), although only the latter two were translated into a language other than Japanese and in 2006 they were released in German.
Doom
The saga ‘Doom’ has also given for a few books. If I have not miscounted there are currently six novels and a book called ‘Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture’ (David Kushner, 2003) in which the author wants to offer us his vision on the influence of id Software in pop culture, with a special emphasis on the figures of John Carmack and John Romero.
Four of those six novels that I was commenting on are jointly written by Dafydd ab Hugh and Brad Linaweaver and are these: ‘Knee-Deep in the Dead’ (1995), ‘Hell on Earth’ (1995), ‘Infernal Sky’ (1996) and ‘Endgame’ (1996). The first two start from the games ‘Doom’ and ‘Doom II’, while the other two explored new paths.
In 2008 the saga was resumed on a literary level and Matthew J. Costello, screenwriter of ‘Doom 3’ and ‘Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil’, launched the novel ‘Doom 3: Worlds On Fire’ to which he follows, already in March 2009, another book called ‘Doom 3: Maelstrom’ . There remains a third novel that would close this trilogy, although we still don’t know much about it.
I end this second post of the special dedicated to video games and literature with some titles that have served as a basis when writing novels and that, for reasons of space and mental health of the writer, have been left out. Novels based on ‘Diablo’, ‘The Myst’, ‘Warcraft’, ‘Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars’, ‘Baldur’s Gate’, ‘Hitman’, etc., etc., etc. that demonstrate the good relationship that exists between both worlds.
In the next post in this special we will relax a bit and take a look at some of the worst video games based on novels that have stepped on our systems.
Image | stephmcg
| Videogames and literature (I): from novel to videogame
