It's a long-held maxim that video game adaptations of movies are, on the whole, God-awful, with the exception that proves the rule of course being Rare's superb Goldeneye on the N64. However, in the less demanding world of TV entertainment, it's not a whole lot different; enterprising video game developers have gone about attempting to adapt a strange array of TV shows completely unsuited to the medium, resulting in some of the strangest, most awful games ever made. Of course, some TV shows lend themselves very well to the video game medium - and I think you can guess which ones - yet TV's track record is still just as risible as cinema's when it comes to being adapted into game form. Without any further ado, here are 10 awful video games based on TV shows...
10. Dallas Quest
As if the Dallas TV show wasn't absurd enough, in 1984 a company you've probably never heard of (Datasoft) released a video game for the Commodore 64 you've probably never heard of, one which somehow managed to out-Dallas the Larry Hagman-starring show in both its absurdity and unintentional hilarity. You play a private detective who is called into South Forks at the behest of Sue Ellen, in order to find a map that will allow her to become rich enough to live independently from J.R. Of course, J.R. hears the whole conversation, and so is clipping at your heels for the entirety of the game. Here's a horrid game that looks woefully dated even for its time, while expecting players to know what arcane terms mean, shoving in Dallas characters for no reason at all, and not even managing to capture the basic spirit of the series. It's not quite E.T. the Video Game, but it's not far off...