Contemptuous pros and drunk Royal Shakespeareans: Horror stories from the early days of videogame voice acting

GamesAdventureBroken SwordContemptuous pros and drunk Royal Shakespeareans: Horror stories from the early days of videogame voice actingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

The bar is high for videogame voice acting in 2024—it’s hard to accept anything less than excellence after the likes ofBaldur’s Gate 3andDisco Elysiumand so many other games have elevated their scripts with powerful performances. But back in the ’90s, that was far more the exception than the rule, a topic PC Gamer recently discussed with veteran game developers duringa roundtable interview.

“One of the hurdles, first of all, was the disdain that they had for videogames, like ‘I’m a real actor, but whatever this is, it’s gonna be silly,'” said Jordan Mechner, creator of Prince of Persia and the adventure gameThe Last Express.

Even when actors were brought in to work on a game, the circumstances of capturing their performances back then—especially for a rotoscoped production like The Last Express, which blurred the lines between analog and digital—were completely foreign to most of them.

“As storytellers, to try to get them to believe in the reality of this character and this world without having a set built with costumes and all of the paraphernalia that would put them in the mood was a challenge in itself. But it was so magic every time, that moment when the actors’ eyes would light up and they would suddenly realize that this was a real character, a real situation, and they would start doing what they were capable of and what they were trained to do.”

Khris Brown, who served as a voice editor and director at LucasArts in the ’90s and later atUbisoft, remembered that for most actors “their only understanding of media was really linear.”

“Explaining interactivity, explaining the possibility of multiple outcomes and tracking emotional consistency throughout the multiple outcomes was a whole thing. It was a learning process for us as well: How are we going to structure the scripts? How are we going to set up the recording so that the actors can stay in their own emotional moment?”

As Mechner said, “The contempt from actors” was a real challenge for other early adventure games to incorporate voice performances, like Charles Cecil’s 1994 point-and-click Beneath a Steel Sky. At that time, Cecil’s studio Revolution Software was small, with a team of a dozen or so people making the game. It was just his second game as a project lead.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

“My sister’s friend’s boyfriend was at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he said ‘oh I’ll get some mates and they can organize a studio,” he remembered. “The studio was actually his mate’s front room at Balam High Street. You won’t know Balam High Street, but all the buses go past and everything would shake. It was absolute chaos—we didn’t actually have a [voice] director, and I didn’t really know what I wanted. So they’d go ‘how about this?’ and put silly voices on. But I remembered them going off for lunch, and him saying ‘C’mon lads, let’s go off to the pub.’ And I said ‘really, should you be going to the pub?’

“‘Yeah, it’ll be fine, it’ll be great. We’ll loosen up.’ They came back after about an hour and a half and must have had about three pints. I said ‘thank goodness they’re back.’ Then, hang on a second: ‘Lads, who wants to have a spliff upstairs?’ So they came down drunk and stoned. You can imagine the quality.

“I’m very grateful to [publisher] Konami—Konami, in America, got this [recording] and said ‘we cannot understand a word of it.’ So we actually re-recorded with proper actors and got it right. But that was a baptism of fire.”

Mechner luckily fared better on The Last Express, perhaps partially due to its unique production process. Mechner explained that the performance capture on The Last Express and his next game, 2003’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time “was the opposite of the way that most games do it.”

“Instead of doing the cinematics and then bringing in actors to do the voices, we started with just a sound room and had the actors do the dialogue as if it were a radio play, and then created the animation and the cutscenes later to match the edited version of the sound they’d done. The idea being that this would get a more spontaneous and organic performance. But it really gave the actors the possibility to improvise and find the characters in the recording booth, which is actually the way that Disney did it for animated features. Bring in actors, let the actors do what they’ll do—sometimes they’ll do something crazy, create a new voice or whatever, and then take the best of that. Then the animators have the job of creating the visuals to match.”

You can check out the rest of the ’90s PC gaming veterans roundtable in the YouTube and Spotify embeds here, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

More about adventureThank Goodness You’re Here! reviewTrain like you game with this adventure-inspired workoutLatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

More about adventureThank Goodness You’re Here! reviewTrain like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

More about adventure

Thank Goodness You’re Here! reviewTrain like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Personal Trainer Tyler Buckingham and the Train Like You Game logo

Train like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

Wordle answers

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

See more latest►

Most PopularPiranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod sceneSorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our faultTeam Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40KIs the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anythingIf you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 offAMD is now reportedly making all-American Ryzen 9000 CPU dies at TSMC’s Arizona fabI tried a sim racing rig that generates ‘wind’ at CES 2025 and it’s claimed to help keep VR nausea at bayFinal Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their altsTikTok’s time in the US may be ticking to a close as it makes a last stand in the Supreme Court, though Trump now says he ‘opposes banning’ it

Most Popular

Piranha Games will lay off employees after Mechwarrior 5: Clans ‘performed below projections’

Marvel Rivals’ latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene

Sorry everyone, Minecraft 2 is cancelled, and it might be our fault

Team Fortress 2 just had the single biggest trade in its history, with ‘the absolute best hat you can get’ going for around $40K

Is the new RTX 5070 really as fast as Nvidia’s previous flagship RTX 4090 GPU? Turns out the answer is yes. Kinda.

Elden Ring: Nightreign is getting a closed network test, and I’m totally not fuming because PC players aren’t invited to the party, or anything

If you’re a content creator and gamer looking for a CPU upgrade, this Ryzen 9 9900X deal will get you $90 off

AMD is now reportedly making all-American Ryzen 9000 CPU dies at TSMC’s Arizona fab

I tried a sim racing rig that generates ‘wind’ at CES 2025 and it’s claimed to help keep VR nausea at bay

Final Fantasy 14 communities panic as it turns out change to blacklisting, meant to help reduce stalking, also lets players use mods to track their alts

TikTok’s time in the US may be ticking to a close as it makes a last stand in the Supreme Court, though Trump now says he ‘opposes banning’ it

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals