# FMV series: recording order and acquisition plan

Updated October 28, 2026. The goal is the strongest R.I.P. FMV video series: comedy, an actual challenge, unusual productions and revealing version comparisons. **Budget and current ownership do not determine the order.** Eligibility now comes from reviewed format facts and a pre-2000 qualifying release, including later footage-preserving ports/remasters. The legacy FMV prominence score and Titan rank do not decide inclusion. The [pre-2000 eligibility checklist](rip-fmv-checklist.md) is the wider candidate pool. These32 games are explicitly selected in `data/rip-fmv-series.json` and appear in the separate [R.I.P. FMV section](../rip-fmv.html). More eligible games can be flagged for later episodes without changing the general FMV catalog.

**Record Tomcat Alley, Burning Soldier and Midnight Raiders first as practice productions. Save Dragon’s Lair for recording slot 12.** Those first three let you learn commentary, recording, editing and the challenge format before spending a major classic’s first-play footage. Tomcat Alley is the planned first published episode. Sewer Shark at #5 is the first major flagship after the three published practice episodes and Wirehead.

**Publish the practice games as episodes 1–3:** Tomcat Alley → Burning Soldier → Midnight Raiders. Follow with Wirehead at #4 and Sewer Shark at #5. The numbered rotation is the planned public episode order; recording can happen out of order for preparation and comparison footage. Preserve the first attempts, and describe any prior practice honestly. These are real early episodes with complete stories, not private rehearsals. No episodes are claimed recorded or published yet.

The opening rotation keeps 31 previous selections and replaces Her Story (2015) with Double Switch (1993) at #31. Her Story is retained under `futureSeries` in the machine-readable rotation for a separate later-FMV series. The rotation retains its October 27 Titan-rank snapshot; current live rankings may change as releases are researched. The [full guide](fmv-play-guide.md) supplies purchase links, archive status and edition caveats; the [machine-readable rotation](../tools/play-guide/rotation.json) records the selected releases and episode purposes.

The [Tomcat Alley episode-one brief](episodes/01-tomcat-alley.md) expands the first selection into challenge rules, capture steps, an edit outline and a shot list.

## What the first productions should teach

1. **Tomcat Alley — Sega CD:** build a complete short narrative from a mission, a failed attempt, practice and an outcome. The training exercise is making an episode, not proving this is an easy game.
2. **Burning Soldier — 3DO:** practice readable action coverage, commentary during play, and a montage that explains improvement. It changes the visual subject immediately.
3. **Midnight Raiders — Sega CD:** practice the channel’s bad-game voice. Explain what makes a failure confusing or funny, and end with an honest outcome rather than pretending an unfinished run was a clear.
4. **Wirehead:** make the first branching-film story. Then **Sewer Shark** becomes the first recognizable flagship candidate.

Before recording Dragon’s Lair, finish and review at least two full cuts. You should be able to hear the commentary clearly, follow the challenge without extra explanation, understand a failure montage, and see why the ending pays off the opening. Recording eleven games alone is not a quality gate. If the cuts still do not work, rehearse again before using the classic’s first attempt.

## The 32-game recording rotation

The sequence alternates recognizable classics, discoveries and deliberate camp/disaster turns, with occasional story projects and port-comparison events. A discovery can be a great game. Camp is an editorial role; it does not mean every game in that lane is bad.

| Record | Game / main challenge edition | Role | Titan rank | FMV | Episode question |
| ---: | --- | --- | ---: | ---: | --- |
| 1 | **Tomcat Alley — Sega CD** | Camp | 124 | 10/10 | Can I win an action movie from the back seat? |
| 2 | **Burning Soldier — 3DO** | Discovery | 312 | 9/10 | The movie keeps going. My aim does not. |
| 3 | **Midnight Raiders — Sega CD** | Camp | 554 | 10/10 | How seriously can I train for this helicopter movie? |
| 4 | **Wirehead — Sega CD** | Discovery | 501 | 10/10 | Can I learn the right route through a live-action chase? |
| 5 | **Sewer Shark — Sega CD** | Camp | 20 | 10/10 | Can I become good at the worst job in the sewer? |
| 6 | **The Hive — PlayStation** | Discovery | 298 | 9/10 | Why did a movie studio make this insect shooter? |
| 7 | **Supreme Warrior — Sega CD** | Camp | 64 | 10/10 | Can I train for a kung-fu movie that fights back? |
| 8 | **Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. I — Sega CD** | Classic | 7 | 10/10 | Can I solve one case before Holmes humiliates me? |
| 9 | **Mad Dog McCree — 3DO** | Classic | 4 | 10/10 | Does shooting an actual western make me an actual gunslinger? |
| 10 | **Psychic Detective — 3DO** | Discovery | 50 | 10/10 | Whose mind should I jump into to solve this movie? |
| 11 | **The Masked Rider: Kamen Rider ZO — Sega CD** | Camp | 451 | 10/10 | Can I survive being dropped into a tokusatsu movie? |
| 12 | **Dragon's Lair — PC** | Classic | 1 | 10/10 | Can I finally beat the game that sold the laserdisc dream? |
| 13 | **Crime Patrol — 3DO** | Discovery | 32 | 10/10 | Does police training survive an American Laser Games movie? |
| 14 | **Tender Loving Care — PC** | Discovery | 70 | 9/10 | Is this a thriller, a questionnaire, or a psychological examination? |
| 15 | **A/X-101 — Sega CD** | Disaster / camp | 559 | 9/10 | Can this space-war movie earn its dramatic briefing? |
| 16 | **Night Trap — Sega CD / 32X CD** | Classic | 2 | 10/10 | Can I save everybody while watching the wrong camera? |
| 17 | **Road Avenger — Sega CD** | Classic | 5 | 10/10 | Can I drive through an entire animated revenge movie? |
| 18 | **The Daedalus Encounter — 3DO** | Discovery | 47 | 8/10 | Can I solve puzzles while trapped in a science-fiction production? |
| 19 | **Slam City with Scottie Pippen — Sega CD** | Camp | 91 | 10/10 | Can I get good at basketball by watching Scottie Pippen? |
| 20 | **Time Gal HD-Remaster — PC** | Classic | 14 | 10/10 | Can I learn to survive every century? |
| 21 | **Brain Dead 13 — 3DO** | Discovery | 21 | 10/10 | How many cartoon deaths does it take to learn a castle? |
| 22 | **Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine — Sega CD** | Camp | 534 | 9/10 | Can I hold down a job as a space-truck driver? |
| 23 | **D — 3DO** | Classic | 8 | 8/10 | Can I solve this nightmare within its two-hour limit? |
| 24 | **Snow Job — 3DO** | Discovery | 321 | 8/10 | What did the 3DO hide in this filmed mystery? |
| 25 | **Area 51 — PlayStation** | Classic | 34 | 9/10 | Did the arcade alien invasion survive the move home? |
| 26 | **Fahrenheit — Sega CD** | Discovery | 90 | 10/10 | Can I rescue people from a movie that is on fire? |
| 27 | **Fox Hunt — PlayStation** | Camp | 100 | 10/10 | Can I survive Capcom’s extravagant spy comedy? |
| 28 | **Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire — PlayStation** | Classic | 30 | 9/10 | Can I survive starring in a new Star Wars production? |
| 29 | **Corpse Killer — PC** | Camp | 27 | 10/10 | Does a restoration make this zombie movie any less ridiculous? |
| 30 | **Phantasmagoria — PC** | Classic | 19 | 8/10 | Can a seven-CD haunted house sustain an interactive movie? |
| 31 | **Double Switch — Sega CD** | Camp / surveillance | 18 | 10/10 | Can I follow the story while every room demands a perfectly timed trap? |
| 32 | **The X-Files Game — PlayStation** | Discovery | 26 | 10/10 | Can I solve a television episode from inside the television? |

## Why each arc works

### 1–8: learn the show, then establish the show

- **1. Tomcat Alley:** Practice a compact beginning, failure montage and verdict; learn to comment while choosing actions.
- **2. Burning Soldier:** Practice explaining a video-background shooter and cutting repeated attempts into an intelligible improvement story.
- **3. Midnight Raiders:** Practice affectionate bad-game comedy, clear failure explanations and an honest finish or stopping point.
- **4. Wirehead:** First substantial branching-movie episode; use a route diagram and preserve the funny wrong turns.
- **5. Sewer Shark:** First major flagship after the early practice episodes: a recognizable Sega CD identity, character comedy and a visible learning curve.
- **6. The Hive:** A PlayStation discovery with filmed briefings and CG action; make the obscurity itself the hook.
- **7. Supreme Warrior:** A deliberate disaster episode; show what the input asks and what the player actually understands.
- **8. Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. I:** First slower investigation: turn witness interviews and deductions into a story without spoiling the answer in the opening.

### 9–16: peripherals, branching stories and the first big classics

- **9. Mad Dog McCree:** First gun/CRT event, contrasting pad play with the intended arcade-style interaction.
- **10. Psychic Detective:** A rare branching discovery with a genuinely different interaction; show one clear route before comparing alternatives.
- **11. The Masked Rider: Kamen Rider ZO:** Lighter camp after two complicated episodes; the footage supplies the spectacle.
- **12. Dragon's Lair:** First major classic and Port Problems milestone, after eleven practice productions. Compare clean arcade-style playback with the 3DO and Sega CD interpretations.
- **13. Crime Patrol:** Reuse the now-proven gun setup; explain what changes from Mad Dog rather than repeating its episode.
- **14. Tender Loving Care:** An adult psychological discovery; distinguish the modern presentation from the original profiling behavior.
- **15. A/X-101:** A deliberate bad-game counterpoint after a quiet story episode.
- **16. Night Trap:** Mid-series surveillance event: Sega CD/32X CD challenge, 3DO comparison and anniversary restoration footage.

### 17–24: animated action, strange sports and 3DO discoveries

- **17. Road Avenger:** A stylish classic after live-action surveillance; compare one matching sequence rather than pausing for an exhaustive port catalog.
- **18. The Daedalus Encounter:** A substantial 3DO discovery; connect each puzzle to the film situation so the episode stays comprehensible.
- **19. Slam City with Scottie Pippen:** The sports-FMV disaster turn changes both subject and rhythm; keep the complete four-disc set ready.
- **20. Time Gal HD-Remaster:** A clean animated classic with theatrical failures; explain HD presentation versus the Sega CD English localization.
- **21. Brain Dead 13:** Animated horror discovery; make the pattern-learning visible instead of presenting a random death compilation.
- **22. Loadstar: The Legend of Tully Bodine:** A camp navigation episode far enough from Sewer Shark to support a useful callback.
- **23. D:** A contained cinematic classic; record a full uninterrupted attempt before building the edit.
- **24. Snow Job:** A rare discovery earned by an established audience; give its investigation a complete episode arc.

### 25–32: recognizable action and larger filmed stories

- **25. Area 51:** A recognizable action reset after two longer story productions; show why this conversion feels different from the filmed gun games.
- **26. Fahrenheit:** A discovery built around rescue decisions and timed exploration, with Sega CD/32X CD comparison material.
- **27. Fox Hunt:** A rare camp event; three discs of ambition should produce a focused challenge, not a scene-by-scene recap.
- **28. Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire:** A recognizable classic to introduce the last arc; separate spectacle from the controls that gate it.
- **29. Corpse Killer:** Camp with a clear version-comparison thesis: modern PC footage plus a 3DO original when useful.
- **30. Phantasmagoria:** The first large Sierra horror production in this sequence; record it as one focused project.
- **31. Double Switch:** A return to filmed surveillance, trap timing and simultaneous stories. Reuse the existing [Double Switch brief](episodes/02-double-switch.md); its filename preserves an older episode number, while the current rotation slot is 31. Optional anniversary footage remains eligible as a restoration of the 1993 game.
- **32. The X-Files Game:** A filmed-mystery finale; use the PS1 four-disc version for the console challenge and research the PC presentation as comparison material.

## Scope reconciliation

All 32 selected consumer records pass the current core/pre-2000 family policy. Time Gal HD-Remaster is retained because it preserves the 1985 animated FMV game; its 2025 PC release is not a new story original. Dragon’s Lair and Corpse Killer can use official restorations of their original games, with the captured edition labeled. Double Switch, Sewer Shark and Night Trap remain core targets regardless of their reviews. No game is excluded for being bad.

This rotation is a production plan, not a claim that language, capture equipment or completion routes have been tested. Imports and ambiguous historical cases remain visible in the full checklist and review appendix.

## Which versions make the strongest episodes

**Use a main challenge edition and targeted comparison footage.** A Port Problems episode needs the same scene, input or failure across versions; collecting every port is not a prerequisite. Use an official modern restoration where it materially improves what viewers can see, and original console footage when the interaction or historical limitations are the point. Do not substitute an unrelated remake because its title matches.

- **Dragon’s Lair, #12:** play an arcade-faithful PC release for the main animation and challenge. Capture matching 3DO and Sega CD sequences to show the home-port compromises. This is a researched event after practice, not the channel’s rehearsal game.
- **Night Trap, #16:** use the original Sega CD/32X CD edition for the console challenge, the 3DO version for comparison, and the PC anniversary edition for clean restoration footage. The regular Sega CD and 32X CD discs are distinct editions; label each capture correctly.
- **Mad Dog McCree, #9, and Crime Patrol, #13:** plan a working 3DO GameGun/compatible CRT setup as part of the episode concept. Include a pad comparison so viewers see what the accessory changes. Record the actual display/gun interaction as well as the clean game feed; a scaler does not make an original gun work on a flat panel.
- **Road Avenger, #17:** Sega CD is the challenge edition. The Japanese PlayStation compilation is a comparison candidate from the guide, with the exact compilation, language and matching scenes checked before recording.
- **Time Gal, #20:** the PC HD remaster gives clear animated footage and a practical challenge. It lists English interface and Japanese audio, without English audio/subtitles. The Sega CD English localization is a distinct comparison, not the same presentation.
- **D, #23:** the 3DO original gives the episode a specific historical version. Record the full attempt and real time limit; edit only after preserving the continuous source capture.
- **Corpse Killer, #29:** use the PC anniversary edition for the main restored presentation and selected 3DO material when comparing the original. Its camp value should survive the cleaner image.
- **The X-Files, #32:** the PS1 four-disc release is the console challenge. Compare the PC version only after checking its actual presentation and working capture route; do not imply that every old PC disc installs on current Windows.

The Hive and Rebel Assault II need their complete two-disc PlayStation sets; Fox Hunt needs three and The X-Files four. Brain Dead 13 needs both 3DO discs and an identified Disc 1 revision; Psychic Detective has three discs and The Daedalus Encounter four. Snow Job needs its complete English two-disc set. Slam City needs all four Sega CD discs. For Fahrenheit’s 32X CD comparison, obtain the matching original discs and follow its key-disc startup sequence. These details affect what can actually be recorded.

## Acquisition plan: prepare episodes, not spending waves

Purchase price is reference data in the guide, not a reason to move a better episode later. Acquire the best appropriate release, working hardware and comparison material when the episode calls for them. Rare copies such as Snow Job and Fox Hunt can be secured early without moving their recordings forward. Nothing has been purchased or newly marked owned.

| Have ready before recording | What to acquire or verify | Editorial purpose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Practice productions, #1–3 | Correct-region Tomcat Alley and Midnight Raiders Sega CD discs; English Burning Soldier 3DO disc; working capture chains for both consoles | Establish a repeatable recording and editing process on two different systems |
| Format and launch candidates, #4–8 | Wirehead, Sewer Shark, Supreme Warrior, Sherlock Holmes Vol. I; complete English PS1 The Hive plus compatible PlayStation hardware | Branching film, navigation, combat, deduction and a rare rail shooter give the opening variety |
| Gun event, #9 | 3DO Mad Dog McCree, GameGun, compatible CRT and a tested way to document the physical interaction; prepare Crime Patrol for #13 | The peripheral is the episode’s central comparison, not a shopping footnote |
| First classic, #12 | Official PC Dragon’s Lair/Trilogy release plus 3DO and Sega CD comparison discs | Make a polished comparison event after the production gate is met |
| Surveillance event, #16 | Correct Sega CD/32X CD Night Trap edition, 3DO original and PC anniversary edition | Compare the same trap, camera transition and video scene across versions |
| #17–24 | Correct original sets for Road Avenger, Daedalus, Slam City, Brain Dead 13, Loadstar, D and Snow Job; PC Time Gal HD remaster | Mix animation, sports, vehicle camp and longer 3DO productions without repeating the same challenge every week |
| #25–32 | Area 51, Fahrenheit, Fox Hunt, Rebel Assault II and X-Files originals; PC Corpse Killer anniversary and Phantasmagoria; Sega CD Double Switch with optional anniversary comparison | Prepare the larger projects while retaining short action/camp resets |

Use the per-game guide for storefront and My Abandonware checks. Steam/GOG availability is distinct from an archive listing, and complete disc data is distinct from a small rip. For an unavailable usable purchase, document and test the preservation/emulation route before promising that episode. Original PS1 discs require compatible hardware; PS5 does not play them.

## Production rotation and completion rules

Keep one principal episode in capture and one in edit. Research the next game while the current cut takes shape. Bank the first two finished episodes before launching. The planned public opening is Tomcat Alley, then Burning Soldier and Midnight Raiders. Recordings and comparison pickups can happen out of order, while the published rotation builds toward Dragon’s Lair at #12.

Use the channel’s existing structure: cold open → challenge → blind attempt → investigation → training → final attempt → verdict. Aim for a coherent story before deciding its length. Capture failures and dead ends, but cut repetition that does not teach the viewer or advance the joke.

Each challenge is an official speedrun only when its current board/category and rules have been verified. Otherwise use a clearly declared personal speed-clear or completion challenge. A funny complete playthrough can make a stronger video than an any% route that skips the defining film scenes. No new leaderboard or record claims are implied by this order.

Long investigations are **episode productions**, not homework running alongside several other games. Complete the capture project for Snow Job, Phantasmagoria or The X-Files before opening another long mystery. Double Switch provides a change to timed surveillance between the last two. Her Story moves to a future series about later FMV originals. The Beast Within remains a strong later PC episode candidate, rather than a mandatory side playthrough throughout this season.

If a timing-heavy game stops producing useful footage, end the practice session, research the obstacle and return with a specific test. A failure episode needs an understandable conclusion; it does not need a fabricated victory or an endless montage. Never advertise a rehearsal time as a record.

## Scope and evidence

The 32 selections cover Sega CD, 3DO, PlayStation and PC, combining live action, animation and pre-rendered video. Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties stays outside this 8–10/10 core because the catalog rates its mostly still-photo presentation 1/10. Harvester and the lower-FMV Tex Murphy games remain possible separate exceptions.

The rotation’s Titan ranks retain the October 27 snapshot (Double Switch added October 28); they do not determine eligibility. Edition details and ratings come from [the catalog](../data/games.json), [the full guide](fmv-play-guide.md) and [the retained research](../tools/play-guide/README.md). Episode hooks, sequencing and production gates are editorial recommendations. Capture setups and completion routes still require the episode’s own test; no new playtesting, purchases, recordings or ownership changes are claimed.