This Quiz is Not About Movies!

Answer: New Mexico

"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was an adventure game released for the Atari 2600 in December 1982, several months after the classic sci-fi film debuted. Atari had hoped to capitalize on the film's success and produced what they felt were enough games to satisfy that year's holiday demand. However, the video game's development was rushed and ultimately flopped. Today, it is often considered to be one of the worst video games ever made.

The failure of the "E.T." video game, combined with an already saturated video game market, led to a major recession in the video game industry the following year. In September 1983, thousands (if not millions) of "E.T." game cartridges (along with other excess Atari products) were believed to have been buried at a landfill near Alamogordo, New Mexico. In April 2014, an excavation team managed to dig up over a thousand "E.T." games from the landfill.

Answer: Four

The original "Top Gun" film starring Tom Cruise was released in May 1986. In November 1987, Konami published the video game "Top Gun" for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It is a first person shoot 'em up which puts players into the cockpit of an F-14 Tomcat. Despite being inspired by the film, the "Top Gun" NES game does not incorporate the movie's main plot into its campaign.

"Top Gun" for NES features only four missions, but they are fairly difficult to get through due to the complex tasks of landing on an aircraft carrier and carefully aligning your plane up to a refueling boom, which can take time to master. "Top Gun" was seen as being fairly successful and Konami later released a sequel game for the NES titled "Top Gun: The Second Mission" (1989/1990).

Answer: Total Recall

"Total Recall" is a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that was released in June 1990. In "Total Recall", Arnold plays a construction worker from the future named Dennis Quaid, who is hooked up to a virtual dream machine which implants fake memories of him being a secret agent involved in a mission to Mars. A video game of "Total Recall" was released for the NES in August that same year.

In the film, Arnold's character was chased by thugs into a subway station. The station was equipped with huge x-ray scanners designed to detect hidden weapons, which showed the bones of Arnold and several security guards when they passed behind it. The second stage of the "Total Recall" NES game is based on this scene. It takes place almost entirely behind the x-ray allowing the player to see Arnold's 8-bit bones as they progress through the level.

Answer: Super Scope

"The Hunt for Red October" movie was released in March 1990 and stars Sean Connery as a rogue Soviet submarine captain who defects to the United States. Several video games were made based on the movie, including one for the NES in 1991, as well as the Game Boy in 1991/1992. Both are side-scrolling games where players are required to navigate a submarine around underwater obstacles whilst battling enemies.

In 1993, a Super Nintendo version of "The Hunt for Red October" was released. It features similar gameplay to the NES and Game Boy versions albeit with stronger graphics. In addition, the SNES version of "The Hunt for Red October" is one of only eleven games to be able to utilize the Super Scope, however it can only be used during first person bonus stages. The Super Scope is a large light gun similar to the Zapper that was released for the original NES.

Answer: Aladdin

"Aladdin" was one of several movies that defined the Disney renaissance era (1989-1999). It was first released in November 1992 and received two Academy Awards. "Aladdin" is unique amongst the video game community in that two different platforming games were made for the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis.

The Super Nintendo version of "Aladdin" was developed by CAPCOM, who became famous for developing the "Mega Man" series. The Sega Genesis version of "Aladdin" was developed by Virgin Interactive, who also published games based on "The Lion King". "The Jungle Book" and "Pinocchio". There is often debate amongst gamers as to which version of the "Aladdin" video game is better.

Answer: Nintendo Virtual Boy

"Waterworld" is a film starring Kevin Costner, whose character lives on a future Earth where the ice caps have melted flooding nearly the entire planet. The movie was released in July 1995. Video games based on "Waterworld" would be released later in December 1995 for the Super Nintendo and Game Boy.

In addition to the SNES and GB versions, a "Waterworld" video game was developed for Nintendo's ill-fated Virtual Boy. The Virtual Boy was first released in July/August 1995. It was Nintendo's first attempt at creating a portable console with three-dimensional graphics. Unfortunately, the Virtual Boy flopped and was discontinued in Japan in December 1995. It was discontinued in North America in August 1996. Only 22 games were ever made for it.

Answer: GoldenEye

"GoldenEye" was the seventeenth film of the James Bond spy movie franchise. It was released in November 1995 and was the first James Bond film to feature Pierce Brosnan as 007. Later in August 1997, Nintendo released the first person shooter game "GoldenEye 007" for the Nintendo 64 console.

"GoldenEye 007" is often considered to be one of the most successful video games to be based off of a movie. It helped to revolutionize the first person shooter genre for video game consoles as they had previously been developed primarily for PC. In addition, "GoldenEye 007" was praised for its popular multiplayer mode. "GoldenEye 007" was re-released for Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch in January 2023, with the Switch version being given exclusive access to the game's multiplayer function.

Answer: Seven Samurai

"Seven Samurai" was released in May 1954 and is of the many classic martial arts films directed by Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998). The film focused on 16th century Japanese farmers who sought to protect their crops from bandits by acquiring the services of seven ronin warriors. "Seven Samurai" was praised by critics from around the world and became an inspiration for later movies such as "The Magnificent Seven".

Nearly fifty years after the movie's release, the hack and slash adventure game "Seven Samurai 20XX" was released for the Sony PlayStation 2. It debuted in Japan in January 2004 and made its way to North America and Europe in March and April later that year. "Seven Samurai 20XX" is largely based on the film. However, instead of taking place in the past, the game takes place in the future where human bandits have been replaced with mutants and cyborgs.

Answer: The Chronicles of Riddick

"The Chronicles of Riddick" is a sci-fi action series starring Vin Diesel as a futuristic antihero by the name of Richard B. Riddick. The first film of the franchise titled "Pitch Black" was released in February 2000. This was followed up by the sequels "The Chronicles of Riddick" (June 2004) and "Riddick" (September 2013).

"The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay" is an action adventure stealth game that was produced for the Microsoft Xbox in June 2004 to coincide with the release of "The Chronicles of Riddick" film. "Escape from Butcher Bay" is set before the events of the original Riddick film "Pitch Black". The success of the game led to the development of a sequel "The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena" which was released in April 2009 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Answer: The Godfather

The classic Mafia movie "The Godfather" starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino was released in March 1972. The film received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards and even a Grammy Award for its soundtrack. In 2006, Electronic Arts published "The Godfather" video game for nearly all available platforms (PC, PS, Xbox, Wii). It is an open world game similar to 3-D "Grand Theft Auto" games.

"The Godfather" game introduced an original character named Aldo Trapani, who becomes involved with the Corleone family and witnesses key events from the film. In addition, several of the film's actors such as James Caan (Sonny Corleone) and Robert Duvall (Tom Hagen) reprised their characters' voices in the game. The success of "The Godfather" video game led to the release of a sequel based on the "The Godfather Part II" in April 2009.