Bandersnatch (Netflix, 2018)
Netflix’s Bandersnatch is a unique viewing experience, allowing its participants to choose a different outcome at every scene – rendering a different, expansive way to interact with the storyline and its characters. The idea has its roots in the Choose your own adventure novels and interactive fiction, a genre which skyrocketed in the early days of home computing. We’ve all watched a movie or series and thought that we could have chosen something else: another door, a different person, something else to say. Interactive fiction in its various forms gives viewers unique power over the story’s outcomes. Alex J Coyne explores the interactive fiction genre, where it started and where it is today.
Choose your own adventure
The cave of time (1979) is the first Choose your own adventure book, transporting readers back in time through 40 different possible endings. (Book cover: Amazon)
The cave of time (1979) is the first Choose your own adventure book, transporting readers back in time through 40 different possible endings. It was a reading revolution, reportedly selling more than 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998. The Bantam Books series is still popular, with some titles today being published by Chooseco. According to Screen Rant, a graphic novel might soon electrify the series back into resurrection.
A novel with the concept of readers choosing their own outcomes throughout the story is called a gamebook. Technically, the first of its kind is considered to be a romance called Consider the consequences!, which bragged about “12 or more” different endings.
The popularity of Choose your own adventure has spawned similar concepts, including Give yourself goosebumps by RL Stine. Gems like Escape from the carnival of horrors and Trapped in the circus of fear takes young readers through dark situations – with multiple outcomes. It didn’t take long for the concept to blend with personal computing, evolving into interactive fiction games.
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction augmented the concept of traditional gamebooks by combining it with personal computers, allowing users text-based input and feedback to interact with the story. Colossal Cave Adventure (1975) is considered one of the earliest examples, with participants exploring a cave in Kentucky by typing in possible actions. Zork followed in 1977, originally developed as a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Zork was made to be more complex than, though inspired by, Colossal Cave Adventure. The Library of Congress has included Zork as one of the ten most important games ever made, alongside other classics like the first-person shooter Doom and the World of Warcraft series.
The Interactive Fiction Archive: www.ifarchive.org/
Interactive fiction also takes some of its inspiration from classics, like The hobbit (1982) for the PC and Commodore 64, and the loosely adapted The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy (1984). Pure, simple, text-based interactive fiction still remains popular. In fact, it’s had something of a resurgence, with multiplayer additions having online capabilities like Archaic Quest and Materia Magic. The Interactive Fiction Archive (hosted here) maintains a library of playable text-based adventures, including newer ones. Another form of interactive fiction later evolved to include graphics, while some incorporated point-and-click mechanics over text-based input.
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards (1987) is a notorious, adult interactive fiction augmented with risqué graphics. The game’s goal is simple: losing Leisure Suit Larry his virginity by sunset. Sure, the game was inappropriate – but it was also complicated and an apparent revolution in game design, measured by the genre’s subsequent popularity.
Die speletjie (The game) by François Bloemhof was an early attempt in Afrikaans, with the story being released alongside an interactive computer game.
The point-and-click genre
Interactive fiction would later sacrifice text-based prompts (eg, “Eat apple”) for clickable user-input options mixed with typing (or choosing) actions and dialogue options. Enchanted Sceptres (1984) is historically considered genre-defining. Its release later spawned games like Police Quest, Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island.
Point-and-click games focus on solving puzzles or mysteries, sometimes with a lack of clues and instructions. The Dark Half (1992) is a point-and-click adventure based on the Stephen King novel, taking full advantage of the visual aspects. It makes for an interesting window into the story, featuring familiar graphics and scenes.
Some point-and-click adventures went over the edge. Armed & Dangerous (also called Dementia) is considered impossible to solve with real-life logic, featuring a senile grandmother who has to rescue her family members from The Great Rabbit. Released in 1997, it’s a particularly good example of bad taste, though a rare classic for anyone who owns a boxed copy. One of the game’s first puzzles is solved by finding her oversized bra – which then functions as the game’s inventory for found or accessed objects. The game continues with interplanetary travel, fuelled by a contraption for which the user has to find individual parts.
Yes, the genre improved, if you’re wondering. Sam & Max Hit the Road (1993) is an anthropomorphic, dark and comedic journey reminiscent of buddy-cop movies. The Mystery of the Druids is a graphically improved adventure from 2001, which puts players on the trail of a mysterious cult. Secret Files: Tunguska (2006) is a similar adventure, taking players on a journey to find a missing scientist. Point-and-click games added visuals, for which text-based games lacked processing capacity.
Indie game developers and smaller studios continued to add good games to the genre. One worth mentioning focuses on mental health, and is called Milk Inside a Bag of Milk Inside a Bag of Milk. Players are tasked with purchasing and paying for a bag of milk – however, the player is given a view of schizophrenia with severe hallucinations, fear and delusions.
Perspective is what gives interactive fiction its potential and allure. Where does Netflix’s Bandersnatch fall on the genre spectrum? This takes us to one more stepping stone: interactive movies.
Interactive movies
Cliff Hanger (video game, 1983)
It wasn’t long before interactive fiction blended with movie production, giving rise to the niche concept of interactive movies. The initial “interactive movie boom” had a short lifespan, peaking at the same time as home video rental and devices like the Sega Genesis – and slightly declining with the introduction of devices like the PlayStation.
Cliff hanger was one of the first of its kind, released in 1983 and similar to the Choose your own adventure books with added audio-visuals. Players could choose various options with a controller, as the game proceeded through various animated or video scenes. Dragon’s lair (1983) was released the same year, introducing a hero called Dirk who made his way through a cartoonish castle. Space ace followed its success just four months later. Ground zero: Texas (1993) and The X-files game (1998) are two more gems of a short-lived, yet presently resurrected genre. Interactive movies have made a sudden comeback, partially helped by Netflix and Black mirror: Bandersnatch.
The resurrection of interactive movies: Bandersnatch
The unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt has a courageous, dark comedy premise, tracing the story of a woman who escapes a maniacal reverend’s underground bunker, and how she deals with modern-day society. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy versus the reverend follows the acclaimed story – however, as an interactive movie. Viewers can choose several paths, bringing us back to the “glory days” of interactive fiction that many people are still discovering.
Batman: Death in the family is a modern short story following the tradition, giving viewers Batman’s perspective.
Black mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) can be called genre-defining, and might have brought the entire genre back into public view and popularity. Bandersnatch is set in 1984, with viewers in control of a programmer tasked with coding a novel (called, appropriately, Bandersnatch) into a game. The interactive fiction horror story follows his possible descent into madness, or potential redemption, while battling with alternative realities and hallucinations.
If you’re wondering, Bandersnatch takes its name from Lewis Carroll’s stories, which had a creature described as long-necked and with a snapping jaw. While it originally capitalised on the Choose your own adventure name, this ended when Chooseco filed a lawsuit. The game is a dark morality exercise: what would you choose? Adding to its mystery, viewers are restricted from playing the game more than once – before it moves to the next episode in the series. (Of course, there are ways to lift this restriction and play more than once.)
Black mirror: Bandersnatch had a 170-page script, according to Wired.com. According to IGN, there are five main endings, although there are many different branches of possibility. It’s more than just a scary story, being an illustration of choice and consequence.
Interactive movies continue beyond Bandersnatch, including the likes of Cat burglar (2022), and it is a growing movement on streaming platforms like YouTube. They make you think, and you will walk away from them changed and sometimes disturbed: that’s the point of good art, isn’t it?
