For Hollywood producers, video games are becoming more than just kid stuff.
In the coming year, a broad range of well-known movie and television characters will be featured in software developed for home computers and game systems.This summer, for example, personal computer users will be able to take the role of Wayne or Garth - of "Wayne's World" fame - and help them keep their cable TV show on the air.
By early next year, game players will have a world of interactive Hollywood adventures opened to them.
At the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Chicago, software developers are touting new games featuring well-known Hollywood properties, including Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park," Sylvester Stallone's "Cliffhanger" and Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Last Action Hero."
"If you look at the entertainment business, movies, home videos and music all are stagnant industries, but the video-game business is on a dramatic growth curve," said Jeffrey Tarr, director of international sales for TecMagik, a California software company. This year, TecMagic will introduce the first of a series of video games featuring movie star Steven Seagal.
Advances in technology have simplified the process of marrying Hollywood and video games. Although most video systems cannot show film clips, many devices now can at least show choppy versions of film characters.
"What we're seeing before us is the merging of two very important entertainment industries," said Elizabeth Curran, vice president of licensing for Gametek, a Florida-based software development firm.
The game systems are nowhere near movie quality, but software developers are touting their new programs as a way for people to interact with movie characters in their own home.
For example, game developers used the blueprints for the mansion in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" in designing the game based on the movie.
"That gives a kind of realism where you can see the movie that night and then go home to play the game to continue to get the aura of the movie," said Alejandro Hernandez, spokesman for Sony Electronic Publishing Co.
Reselling movie characters through a video game is a largely untapped method for movie companies to merchandise their film properties. Video game licenses vary, but most represent a way for filmmakers to generate more royalty revenues while increasing the exposure of their movie.
Companies like Sony, which owns Columbia Pictures, are just now beginning to capitalize on the cross-licensing opportunities.
"The technology is changing so rapidly that Hollywood is getting fascinated by the new opportunities," said Angie Niehoff, vice president of Capstone Software of Miami, Fla.
For software makers, one advantage of licensing a movie property is the ready-made story line that can be used.
However, many developers must create alternative endings for the game because most players would be unsatisfied with merely re-creating the results of the movie.
"Our game is a `more adventures with Wayne and Garth' type of thing," Niehoff said.
The partnership with movie studios may also help software developers cut costs as video clips begin to be used increasingly in computer games, said Tarr of TecMagik.
He estimates that only a few days of filming for a video game can cost more than $100,000 if a company launches its filming efforts from scratch.
"That's a major investment," Tarr said. "And that happens to be something that the people in the movie business already know how to do."
Even so, licensing a well-known property can prove to be a doubled-edged sword, said Curran of Gametek.
After developing games based on the "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" TV shows, Gametek now plans to develop video games based on characters from the "Saturday Night Live" TV series.
Some of the games, due out by the first quarter of next year, may feature film clips of classic series characters such as the Coneheads, Curran said.
Although the recognition of a well-known TV show can attract buyers, some developers rely too heavily on the reputation of the movie property to sell their software, Curran said.