Tender Loving Care (video game)

Tender Loving Care is an interactive movie originally released on August 12, 1998 by Aftermath Media.[1][2] It is a psychological thriller starring Michael Esposito, Beth Tegarden, and John Hurt as Dr. Turner.[3] It was written and directed by David Wheeler and produced by Rob Landeros, who also designed the interactive features.[4] The game was originally produced with the intention of releasing the game under the Trilobyte label, but Landeros was fired from the company before it was released.[5] Tender Loving Care was later released under Landeros's new company, Aftermath Media, on CD-ROM, with the option for users to watch the movie as a feature-length film as opposed to interacting with the game.[6] In October 2012 the game was re-released under the Trilobyte Games label on the Apple iOS platform.[7] The game is based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Andrew Neiderman.[8]

Tender Loving Care
Tender Loving Care DVD Box
Directed byDavid Wheeler
Produced byRob Landeros (also designer)
Written byDavid Wheeler
Based onTender, Loving Care by Andrew Neiderman
StarringMichael Esposito
Beth Tegarden
John Hurt
Marie Caldare
Music byJohn Welsman
CinematographyCalvin Kennedy
Edited byMarie Walling Thompson
Distributed byAftermath Media
Release date
  • August 12, 1998 (August 12, 1998) (DVD, Windows)
  • September 10, 2012 (2012-09-10) (iOS)
Running time
117 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Michael Overton (Michael Esposito) and his wife Allison (Marie Caldare) are a couple who have been traumatized by the death of their daughter in a car accident. Allison has been especially affected, as she has been unable to even acknowledge that her daughter has died. She lives in a trance-like state and is unable to perform normal adult functions. Dr. Turner (John Hurt) recommends the Overtons hire a live-in nurse to assist with Allison's psychological healing. They hire a nurse recommended by Dr. Turner, Katherine Randolph (Beth Tegarden), whose unorthodox methods cause tensions to arise in the Overton home.

Interactivity

Producer/designer Rob Landeros described Tender Loving Care as not a game, but a film that the audience can have "a game-like experience while watching it."[9] The film is divided into a number of story episodes, between which the user interacts with the story in various ways.[10] After viewing a story episode, users are asked a series of questions by Dr. Turner to test their perception of what they have seen. Users are then allowed to navigate through a graphic reconstruction of the Overton house, where they may gather additional details of the story. Before returning to the film or Apple device, users must take a short Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which profiles the user's psyche. The film includes alternate scenes and multiple endings which can be influenced by the user's involvement.[11]

Development and release

Director David Wheeler, who co-wrote Trilobyte's The 11th Hour, initially envisioned Tender Loving Care as a non-interactive film but after production efforts fell through, he re-teamed with Trilobyte to develop the title as a game. Due to Trilobyte's difficulties, Wheeler and Rob Landeros founded their own company, Aftermath Media to complete the project.[12]

The game saw limited success in North America, where it was primarily released as a DVD-Video title, but was more successful in Europe, particularly in Germany where it was accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign. However, Wheeler stated that royalties for the German release were to be paid to Trilobyte, which by the time of release was defunct.[12] Landeros has stated that they never recouped the production budget.[9] The 2012 iOS release was censored to comply with Apple's App Store guidelines.[12]

Reception

In his book All Your Base Are Belong to Us, Harold Goldberg criticized Tender Loving Care as being the "wrong direction to take" with Trilobyte.[5]

gollark: Perhaps. I have no idea what it would put them in orbit of.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: The tuxcorp moonbase has been found sorely lacking.
gollark: The moon, but not the base, just the moon.
gollark: Also, we have a moonbase.

References
  1. Bates, Jason (August 12, 1998). "First FMV Games Hit DVD Drives". IGN. Archived from the original on November 17, 1999. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  2. "From Game to Movie". Billboard. Jun 1, 1996. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  3. "Hollywood Hard Drive". Entertainment Weekly. Aug 9, 1996. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  4. "IS IT A COMPUTER GAME, OR A MOVIE? VIDEO DISC `TENDER LOVING CARE' MINES VOYEURISM INSTEAD OF COMPETITIVENESS". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. October 2, 1997. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  5. Goldberg, Harold (2011). All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture. Three Rivers Press. p. 127. ISBN 0307463559.
  6. "Aftermath, Brilliant Digital debut DVD interactive videos". Billboard. Aug 30, 1997. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  7. "Medford software company creates mobile device game". Mail Tribune. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-07-05. Retrieved 2014-06-27.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. Böke, Ingmar (September 14, 2012). "Trilobyte - Rob Landeros". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
  10. Wolf, Mark (2007). The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to PlayStation and Beyond. Greenwood. p. 130. ISBN 031333868X.
  11. review of Tender Loving Care, at Allgame.
  12. Böke, Ingmar (December 4, 2013). "David Wheeler - The 7th Guest 3". Adventure Gamers. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
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