The Great Gatsby As 8-bit Video Game

It’s not often a literary platformer is released in the gaming world, but that’s what developer Charlie Hoey and his friend Pete Smith have done with their 8-bit version of the quintessential Great American Novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the game you play a hat-throwing Nick Carraway walking around in your high society, necking cocktails, defeating butlers and bottle-throwing drunkards, and generally being a bit of a dapper chap.

What’s also great is the elaborate back story they created about how they found a NES cartridge at a yard sale that’s an "unreleased localization of a Japanese cart called “Doki Doki Toshokan: Gatsby no Monogatari.” The ruse was completed with artwork for a fake magazine ad (below) produced by illustrator Michael DiMotta. A fun scam and a fun game, go play it here.

And if your literary gaming needs aren’t completely sated from playing that, you can indulge yourself with an 8-bit version of Samuel Beckett’s expectant classic Waiting For Godot. It’s just as absurd as the play, featuring quite a lot of very little. Check out the action packed trailer below and go play the game here. We can’t wait for Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground to work its bitter way into this new video gaming genre.