Tom Zito: Full-Motion Video Games Are the Future (Interview Reenactment w/ Jed Pressgrove)
34Welcome to Interview Reenactment Theater, where we recreate some of the greatest video game interviews of all time. Today's episode reenacts Next Generation magazine's 1995 interview with Tom Zito, best known for his time developing full-motion video games. In this interview he explains why FMV is the future and how he couldn't care less about Link's plight in The Legend of Zelda.
CAST: Cyril Lachel as Next Generation, Jed Pressgrove as Tom Zito.
Tom Zito made a name for himself peddling a line of full-motion video games on CD-based consoles. He was a founding member of Digital Pictures, which would go on to create such classics as Night Trap, Double Switch, Corpse Killer, Marky Mark: Make My Video and Ground Zero: Texas. Instead of focusing on great gameplay, Tom Zito chose to highlight the cheesy scripts and B-grade actors.
This interview is interesting because it comes right before polygons changed the way video games were made. Up until this point most games were developed using 2D sprites, but the switch to polygons allowed developers to create a more cinematic experience (as seen a year later with Resident Evil). With 32-bit systems capable of creating interactive 3D environments, Tom's full-motion video was starting to look stale.
Next Generation doesn't let Tom get away with spin. They press him on many of the downsides to full-motion video, and even get him to admit his true feelings about Princess Zelda. In this 1995 interview, Tom is out hawking Maximum Surge, a game that was later canceled.