The interactive movie genre came about with the invention of laserdiscs. An interactive movie contains pre-filmed full-motion cartoons or live-action sequences, where the player controls some of the moves of the main character. For example, when in danger, the player decides which move or action, or combination to choose. In these games, the only activity the user has is to choose or guess the move the designers intend him to make.
Interactive movies usually differ from games that simply use FMV extensively between scenes in that they try to integrate it into the gameplay itself. This has been used in everything from racing games (Megarace) to fighting games (Supreme Warrior). Because of this, it is arguable that the term is more of an antiquated buzzword (like how many early 3D games were tagged as "virtual reality") than a real genre.
The term itself has come to be associated with a lot of clumsy, poor quality games from the early-to-mid '90s, and thus it is rarely ever used anymore. A few adventure game have tried to use the term to liken the storytelling of their games to those in movies, most notably the later Tex Murphy games and the more recent Indigo Prophecy, but few would include these in the same genre as games that used FMV in their gameplay.
Interactive movies have also been used within other games to keep the player alert. Games like Resident Evil 4 present obvious in-game prompts for the player to react to. Not doing so usually results in the player character either getting hurt, outright killed, or other unfortunate effects.
- Examples of interactive movies include: Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Night Trap.
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