'Myst': 5 Other '90s PC Games That Should Become TV Shows
The recent announcement that 1993’s finest PC puzzle game, Myst, will be finding its way to Hulu as an original series conjures up fond (and sometimes frustrating) flashbacks of sitting in front of a Macintosh or Dell — Nirvana and/or Janet Jackson blasting in the background — exploring the titular island’s deserted landscapes and discovering its many secrets. But Myst is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ‘90s PC games with serious TV potential. Here are six games that should be ported over from CD-ROM or floppy disk (remember those?) to the small screen.
Civilization (1991)
Sid Meier’s Civilization remains one of the all-time great strategy games, requiring players to use brains and brawn to build a sleepy collection of villages into a mighty, continent-spanning empire. Now that Game of Thrones has made that kind of imperial intrigue cool, there’s room for a (slightly) more realistic series that follows the growth of a civilization — from a city-state to sprawling mega-cities — over multiple seasons and hundreds of years.
Related: 8 More Classic Cartoons That Need to Be Revived After ‘Duck Tales’
Lemmings (1991)
Netflix is already reviving Inspector Gadget and Danger Mouse for a new generation of kids. That makes the streaming service the perfect candidate to transform this insanely addictive kids’ game into an insanely addictive kids’ show. Each level required you to clear an exit route that would lead as many of the suicide-prone titular creatures to safety as possible. The series wouldn’t have to be quite that dire; just recruit a skilled voiceover cast (Tom Kenny, Aisha Tyler, and Kirby Morrow would be a good start) and tell funny, pratfall-prone stories set in a lemmings-only community. And in a nod to the game (and South Park), you could have one designated lemming who perishes (non-violently, of course) each episode only to bounce back by the next installment.
Star Wars: X-Wing (1993)
Thanks to titles like The Secret of Monkey Island, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and, of course, everything Star Wars, LucasArts was the go-to gaming company for PC fans in the early ‘90s. (And, by the way, you can re-play some of those games right now.) X-Wing ranks as perhaps their finest achievement, boasting varied missions and excellent gameplay. It’s an easy concept to adapt to a series, too. Just plop a pilot behind the controls of an X-Wing and let them explore that far, far away galaxy, getting into firefights and meeting new allies (and enemies) along the way.
The 7th Guest (1993)
It may seem as cheesy as a Friday the 13th sequel these days, but back in ’93, if you could survive this haunted house brainteaser without screaming or backing away from the monitor in terror, you were the rock star of your gaming group. The mystery element — unlock the secret of what happened to spooky toymaker Henry Stauf and the six guests who visited his ghost-infested mansion — provides at least 13 episodes’ worth of plot. And let’s face it: The TV landscape needs a horror show that’s not just about zombies or Jessica Lange.
Quake (1996)
The successor of — and superior to — the popular first person shooter, Doom (which was adapted into a mostly-terrible 2005 Dwayne Johnson film), the first Quake spawned a best-selling franchise that followed humanity’s ongoing battle with invaders from another dimension. It’s basically the premise for the best James Cameron TV series that James Cameron never made. (But he still could!)
OK, gamers — anything we missed?
