# What classic piece of literature do you want to get the Dante's Inferno \[game\] treatment? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 16, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193 "2010-01-16T14:02:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/1 "2010-01-16T14:02:46Z")
As [Penny Arcade](http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/1/15/) recently revealed, the video game Dante’s Inferno is getting a novelization… of sorts. Only this “novelization” is the _actual 700 year old epic poem using branding and art from the video game._ This is obviously the awesomest thing EVER. Given that incontrovertible fact, what classic piece of literature should also get a modern video game and accompanying branded reprint? ---
**Author:** ![Carnacki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Carnacki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnacki)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/2 "2010-01-16T17:46:59Z")
Not really a classic, but how about [The Stranger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_%28novel%29)? First part would be GTA style where you go around killing people, and the second part is a court-room drama type game. Or maybe The Iliad would be better. Although it better have at least 5,000 hours of game time, to stay true to the story. ---
**Author:** ![Neverender](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/848f3c/32.png) [@Neverender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neverender)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/3 "2010-01-16T22:09:10Z")
I’d like to see Tad William’s Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy put into a game, though that’s hardly ‘classic’ literature. For the purpose of the thread, how exactly is ‘classic’ literature defined? I don’t know many people that have actually read much ‘classic’ literature to be honest, with the exception of The Hobbit and LOTR if those can be included. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/4 "2010-01-16T22:31:17Z")
_The Odyssey_ would make a fun RPG or maybe Zelda-ish adventure game. But what I’d really love to see is _The Iliad_ as a _Dynasty Warriors_ type game. Throw in some more classic Greek history and you’ve got a hell of a game. Imagine the Battle of Thermopylae playing as Leonidas. There’s a word for that: Bitchin’. KOEI get on this! King Arthur (_Mort de Arthur_ I think?), Robin Hood, and _Don Quixote_ would all make good RPG/adventures. Twenty bucks to anyone that can make a playable game out of _Ulysses_, though. For that matter, $100 for _Finnegan’s Wake_. 😃 (I missed **KidScruffy’s** mention, but fleshing out the idea is original enough. 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Daedelus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Daedelus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daedelus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/5 "2010-01-17T00:45:10Z")
Slaughterhouse-Five as a classic adventure game in the vein of King’s Quest. Or, if that’s not “classic” enough, The Grapes of Wrath á la Oregon Trail. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/6 "2010-01-17T02:10:23Z")
Paradise Lost. Just so you can play as the Morningstar and increase the overall outrage factor over games. ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/7 "2010-01-17T02:17:06Z")
_Gulliver’s Travels_ by Jonathan Swift. _Candide_ by Voltaire. _Hamlet_ by Shakespeare. I think all would make good games. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2010, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/8 "2010-01-17T02:20:37Z")
Beowulf. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/9 "2010-01-19T20:28:47Z")
Penny Arcade got it exactly right, honestly: Imagine _Moby Dick_ as a combination of Sid Meier’s Pirates! for searching and God of War for actually killing the whales. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/10 "2010-01-20T14:02:21Z")
Well obviously, _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and BFG-9000s_ ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/11 "2010-01-20T14:52:23Z")
_All Quiet on the Western Front_ - a first-person shooter, but you can’t really see who’s shooting at you and your squadmates die basically randomly all around you anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Carnacki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b5e925/32.png) [@Carnacki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnacki)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/12 "2010-01-20T20:44:16Z")
> [@MeDrewNotYou](#): > > _The Odyssey_ would make a fun RPG or maybe Zelda-ish adventure game. But what I’d really love to see is _The Iliad_ as a _Dynasty Warriors_ type game. Throw in some more classic Greek history and you’ve got a hell of a game. Imagine the Battle of Thermopylae playing as Leonidas. There’s a word for that: Bitchin’. KOEI get on this! > > King Arthur (_Mort de Arthur_ I think?), Robin Hood, and _Don Quixote_ would all make good RPG/adventures. > > Twenty bucks to anyone that can make a playable game out of _Ulysses_, though. For that matter, $100 for _Finnegan’s Wake_. 😃 > > (I missed **KidScruffy’s** mention, but fleshing out the idea is original enough. 😉 ) 🙂 I never played Dynasty Warriors, but if the game is anything like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, that would be an awesome genre for an Iliad game. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/13 "2010-01-20T20:50:19Z")
**Waiting for Godot**. If you do nothing, you win. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/14 "2010-01-20T22:25:07Z")
_Crime and Punishment_ and _Lolita_. ETA: Also, Kafka’s _The Trial_. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/15 "2010-01-20T22:27:01Z")
_The Cask of Amontillado_, made with the Dig Dug engine. ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/16 "2010-01-20T22:34:09Z")
My first thought was Hamlet, but I think it would be a very tricky thing. I think–if you wanted to do it right–it would have to be, like, a cross between an adventure-type and a stealth game. Yes, there is killing, but so little of it is overt. Most of the deaths should be sneak attacks, or the result of clever planning. And the primary goal should be figuring out what’s going on and gathering the evidence to finally act in the open. If the game company could do that, then it would indeed be kickass. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/17 "2010-01-20T23:05:39Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Waiting for Godot**. If you do nothing, you win. Heh. There was a long-ago sketch comedy TV show (not SNL, I think, but like it) that ran a fake commercial for the “My Dinner With Andre” video game. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/18 "2010-01-21T00:14:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **Waiting for Godot**. If you do nothing, you win. [http://www.oberlin.edu/stuorg/OGRE/godothome.htm](http://www.oberlin.edu/stuorg/OGRE/godothome.htm) There used to be a “Waiting for Godot” interactive fiction that used a Java Appelet. However, it’s no longer around. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/19 "2010-01-21T00:19:18Z")
> [@Carnacki](#): > > 🙂 > I never played Dynasty Warriors, but if the game is anything like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, that would be an awesome genre for an Iliad game. A RTK-style strategy set in the classic world would be great. KOEI already did a medieval fantasy and Genghis Khan themed game of the same type back in the SNES days, so it isn’t like they can’t take the same mechanics to a different setting. The _Dynasty Warriors_ series is somewhat unique, in that you’re one general or officer in an army fighting against the enemy numbering in the 100s to 1000s. The best comparison I can think of is _God of War_ style combat in a giant battlefield with your own army. Maybe you could call it a hack-and-slash game set in the Three Kingdoms era, but seeing a video of the game is probably best. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193/20 "2010-01-21T02:32:53Z")
> [@Carnacki](#): > > 🙂 > I never played Dynasty Warriors, but if the game is anything like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, that would be an awesome genre for an Iliad game. I believe Koei is making a game from Greek mythology. Their Canadian division is in charge of it, if memory serves me right. Unfortunately, I think it’ll be more Dynasty Warriors (crappy) than Romance Of the Three Kingdoms (good). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-classic-piece-of-literature-do-you-want-to-get-the-dantes-inferno-game-treatment/525193.md?page=2)