Ground Zero: Texas by Sony Imagesoft and Digital Pictures hit the Sega CD in November 1993. This was another Full Motion Video (FMV) game for the fledgling CD based Sega Genesis add-on. It is interesting to know who was involved with this game though. This was also the first time a video game had to deal with unions to get released.

A story designed for a game

Ground Zero: Texas initially had ties closer to Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Invaders from Mars movies. It would go through some rewrites to become what gamers eventually got.

You are in control of the weapons defense’s setup around the town.  There are four cameras, each with their own defense methods available, in key locations. Using the special weapons, you can shoot the aliens disguised as citizens and stun them.

You job is to help collect clues to the special lock blocking access to the alien mothership. If you fail in your mission the United States government will blow the site with a nuclear bomb.

Ground Zero: Texas had Hollywood unions involved

Ground Zero: Texas made use of a full Hollywood film crew. This meant dealing with unions. The Director’s Guild, Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild all had to be dealt with during development. The director here was Dwight H. Little of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Marked for Death fame.

This was the first time a video game had to work with these unions. A Full Motion Video game from 1993.

A flash in the pan genre

Full Motion Video games never really took off. This is sad because much more capable hardware was less than five years out. While the genre is lacking in the way we know it, games like this attempted more. Ground Zero: Texas was Digital Pictures first game not previously made for an earlier platform. It shows too. While Night Trap and Sewer Shark had precious little interaction, this one gave you more to do. Like the vampire slumber party title before, you interacted with the game world via cameras. Here though, you could actually stop the enemy rather than wait for a specific time to roll by.

If only they had included Menacer support. Or mouse support. Sega Menacer support could have probably been included considering that peripheral was released the year before. We never got official mouse support in North America but the Sega Genesis did use popular controller connectors so it might have been possible.

Still though, Ground Zero: Texas is a decent romp. There are playthroughs available if you just want to watch a cheesy “found footage” style sci-fi romp.

Carl Williams

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