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Genre, platform, and the read-first call. Empty searches are written down.
Checking the shelves…
50 games
01 · 2015 · CD Projekt
The Witcher saga — Andrzej Sapkowski
A sequel to the books, not a retelling. It treats the saga's ending as history.
02 · 2011 · CD Projekt Red
The Witcher saga — Andrzej Sapkowski
Another post-saga Geralt story, tighter and more political than the first game.
03 · 2007 · CD Projekt Red
The Witcher saga — Andrzej Sapkowski
The first game, and already a sequel. The story starts after the books.
04 · 2018 · CD Projekt Red
The Witcher saga — Andrzej Sapkowski
Queen Meve's campaign during the books, including the day she knights Geralt.
05 · 2007 · Turbine, later Standing Stone Games
The Lord of the Rings — J. R. R. Tolkien
Your own character, walking through the war of the book.
06 · 2003 · Inevitable Entertainment, The Fizz Factor, and Saffire
The Hobbit — J. R. R. Tolkien
A pre-film action game that sticks closely to Tolkien's plot.
07 · 1982 · Beam Software
The Hobbit — J. R. R. Tolkien
The 1982 illustrated text adventure. It is the book, plus puzzles.
08 · 1990 · Interplay Productions
The Fellowship of the Ring — J. R. R. Tolkien
Interplay's 1990 role-playing adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring.
09 · 1995 · Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions
Guards! Guards! — Terry Pratchett
Rincewind, voiced by Eric Idle, in a plot loosely taken from Guards! Guards!
10 · 1996 · Perfect Entertainment
Reaper Man — Terry Pratchett; Moving Pictures — Terry Pratchett
Rincewind again, borrowing the spine of Reaper Man and bits of Moving Pictures.
11 · 1999 · Perfect Entertainment
The Discworld novels — Terry Pratchett
An original hard-boiled case in Ankh-Morpork. Pratchett interfered, on purpose.
12 · 1986 · Delta 4
The Colour of Magic — Terry Pratchett
The one early Discworld game that follows a novel closely. It did not sell.
13 · 1999 · Legend Entertainment
The Wheel of Time — Robert Jordan
A 1999 first-person shooter based on the series, not billed as a retelling of one volume.
14 · 1988 · U.S. Gold and Strategic Simulations
Dragons of Autumn Twilight — Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
A 1988 brawler wearing the first Dragonlance novel.
15 · 1985 · Telarium
Nine Princes in Amber — Roger Zelazny; The Guns of Avalon — Roger Zelazny
Telarium's 1985 illustrated interactive fiction of the first two Amber books.
16 · 2012 · Cyanide
A Song of Ice and Fire — George R. R. Martin
Cyanide's 2012 RPG, based on the novels, with television details added late.
17 · 2014 · Telltale Games
A Song of Ice and Fire — George R. R. Martin
A show-licensed side story that also uses the novels' places and people.
18 · 2005 · Traveller's Tales and Amaze Entertainment
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — C. S. Lewis
A movie game of a book. The novel is the better version, and the shorter one.
19 · 2001 · KnowWonder (Windows) and Westlake Interactive (Mac)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone — J. K. Rowling
The PC game is based on the novel, and it follows Harry's first year through the confrontation.
20 · 2007 · Shiny Entertainment and A2M
Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) — Philip Pullman
Mostly the film, partly the novel, and finished from a shooting script the film then changed.
21 · 2000 · Rogue Entertainment
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — Lewis Carroll; Through the Looking-Glass — Lewis Carroll
A cruel Wonderland after the books, not a retelling of them.
22 · 2011 · Spicy Horse
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — Lewis Carroll; Through the Looking-Glass — Lewis Carroll
The sequel to American McGee's Alice. Carroll is the landscape, not the plot.
23 · 2010 · Visceral Games
Inferno — Dante Alighieri
A hack-and-slash that borrows Hell's floor plan and invents a Crusader named Dante.
24 · 2013 · Inkle
Sorcery! — Steve Jackson
The gamebooks, rebuilt. Playing this is a way of reading them.
25 · 2017 · Daedalic Entertainment
The Pillars of the Earth — Ken Follett
The novel, told in three point-and-click books. It is the plot.
26 · 2009 · Sich Studio and TaleWorlds
With Fire and Sword — Henryk Sienkiewicz
A Mount & Blade sandbox loosely hung on Sienkiewicz's war, and on the sequels' wars too.
27 · 2020 · Koei
Romance of the Three Kingdoms — Luo Guanzhong
A strategy campaign of the period. The English title names the novel; the Japanese title names the history.
28 · 1989 · Koei
Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan) — traditionally linked to Shi Nai'an
Koei's strategy game of the Water Margin. The Japanese title says so outright.
29 · 1989 · Infocom
Shōgun — James Clavell
Dave Lebling's 1989 Infocom adventure, based on Clavell's novel.
30 · 2010 · 4A Games
Metro 2033 — Dmitry Glukhovsky
The same journey through the Moscow Metro, with Glukhovsky letting 4A change things.
31 · 2019 · 4A Games
Metro 2035 — Dmitry Glukhovsky
A sequel to the novel Metro 2035, not a retelling of it. The game is the journey out.
32 · 1984 · Infocom
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams
Adams and Steve Meretzky, riffing on the book and hiding the jokes behind cruel puzzles.
33 · 1988 · Interplay Productions
Neuromancer — William Gibson
A loose 1988 adventure in Gibson's novel. The prose is the part that matters.
34 · 1995 · Cyberdreams and The Dreamers Guild
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream (short story) — Harlan Ellison
Ellison expanded his own short story into a grim point-and-click. Read the story first. It is short.
35 · 1996 · Dynamix
Rendezvous with Rama — Arthur C. Clarke; Rama II — Arthur C. Clarke
Sierra's expedition game, built from Rendezvous with Rama and Rama II together.
36 · 2023 · Starward Industries
The Invincible — Stanisław Lem
A 2023 first-person adaptation of Lem's novel. The discoveries are the story.
37 · 2014 · Inkle
Around the World in Eighty Days — Jules Verne
Verne's wager, loosened until his route is one thread in three quarters of a million words.
38 · 1998 · Square
Parasite Eve — Hideaki Sena
Not the novel. The sequel to the novel, with a New York cop named Aya.
39 · 1984 · Byron Preiss Video Productions and Trillium
Fahrenheit 451 — Ray Bradbury
Bradbury helped. The game still starts five years after his novel.
40 · 1987 · Atlus (Famicom) and Telenet Japan (computers)
Digital Devil Story — Aya Nishitani
The start of Megami Tensei, and an adaptation of Nishitani's novels. He worked on it.
41 · 1992 · Cryo Interactive
Dune — Frank Herbert
Cryo's 1992 mix of adventure and strategy, loosely following Paul Atreides.
42 · 2023 · Shiro Games
Dune — Frank Herbert
A 4X about dominating Arrakis. The books supply the world, not Paul's chapters.
43 · 2016 · Artefacts Studio
The A.B.C. Murders — Agatha Christie
A point-and-click that keeps the novel's plot, solution included.
44 · 2005 · AWE Productions
And Then There Were None — Agatha Christie
The 1939 plot, plus a new playable character and extra endings. The novel came in the box.
45 · 2007 · AWE Productions
Evil Under the Sun — Agatha Christie
Poirot's case, framed as Hastings playing Poirot. The novel is still the case.
46 · 2006 · AWE Productions
Murder on the Orient Express — Agatha Christie
The 1934 plot, with an extra ending the novel does not have.
47 · 1998 · HeR Interactive
Secrets Can Kill — Carolyn Keene
Loosely based on the 1986 Nancy Drew Files book of the same name. A remaster followed in 2010.
48 · 2006 · EA Redwood Shores
The Godfather — Mario Puzo
Licensed from the 1972 film of Puzo's novel. An original mobster walks through the famous scenes.
49 · 1998 · Red Storm Entertainment
Rainbow Six — Tom Clancy
The novel and the game were written side by side. They share the conspiracy.
50 · 1988 · MicroProse
Red Storm Rising — Tom Clancy
Sid Meier's submarine sim of the novel's war, not a tour of its chapters.