10 Movies That Directly Influenced Gaming

The movie-game spin-off seems to be a dying breed.

One of the main reasons is because the vast majority tend to be awful, and the few that aren't break the trend by letting developers take their time, rather than rush to produce a tie-in for the film's release.

For example, Batman Begins is an underrated game, full of brilliant ideas that couldn’t be fully utilized in time for the market window. So rather than make a game to the movie's sequel The Dark Knight, Rocksteady took a completely different approach, building an adventure in their own universe which would end up becoming Arkham Asylum.

Other franchises like Mad Max, Spider-Man, and The Avengers eventually followed suit.

Even though we may no longer see obvious tie-ins, films have been influential on the gaming world since the very beginning, and it is a trend that still exists today.

Official or unofficial, obvious tributes or stolen ideas, these are the films that helped mould gaming into an entertainment powerhouse even more profitable than the Hollywood productions that preceded it.

Games Influenced: Space Wars, Lunar Lander, pretty much every sci-fi video game ever.

Let us begin with the obvious one. Star Wars has had an impact on everything, A force so big that people can love (hey original trilogy) hate (howdy prequel trilogy) and be disappointed in (whassup sequel trilogy) all at the same time.

It influenced so much, and the world of gaming is no exception.

It helps that the first film was released just at the point of the first arcade mega boom. Pre-1977, the year of our lord and the release date for A New Hope, cabinet games had you play as cowboys or race-car drivers with options such as Gun Fight and Night Driver. 1978 onwards that all switched to piloting star-fighters and blowing things up with lasers with games like Space Wars, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaxian, and Lunar Lander.

Star Wars is a mishmash of genres that features both sci-fi and fantasy elements, from flying ships, swinging swords, blasting lasers, and a little bit of magic, that makes it a beacon of infinite possibilities for game developers to draw inspiration from both officially and unofficially.