Gaming has seen its fair share of controversy over the last couple of decades - and while
violence and sexual content have long been a part of cinema and literature, games have
struggled to shed the idea that they exist purely as some form of childish entertainment.
Over the years, there have been number of titles in video game history that have helped
erode such taboos. I'm Stuart Brown, and this - is Game Over...
...and in this episode we're covering Carmageddon.
Originally published in 1997 for both MS-DOS and Mac, Carmageddon was published by London-based
Sales Curve Interactive, or SCi. 'The Sales Curve' started with ports of popular
arcade games to the home systems, such as Silkworm and Shinobi - and one of their early
original hits was a spiritual successor to Silkworm - SWIV.
Published under the 'Storm' label, as their current moniker 'The Sales Curve' wasn't deemed
suitable for games at the time - SWIV was popular for the solid vertically scrolling
shooter mechanics, and two-player co-operative play. With one player controlling the skies
in a helicopter and another in a jeep, SWIV was a blast to play and a commercial success.
SCI went on to publish a steady stream of games throughout the 90s, and in 1997 would
team up with the then unproven studio Stainless Software.
Stainless had existed since 1993, serving as a subcontractor for Argonaut games - and
producing multimedia titles for the Times-Mirror Company.
Carmageddon would be their first game as a studio, and one that would go on to stir quite
considerable controversy.
Ostensibly, Carmageddon is a racing game - it features all the usual stuff you'd expect,
from cars and checkpoints to laps and timers - but right from the chequered flag it was
apparent that this game's focus was not that of a typical racer.
Originally designed for destruction, Carmageddon started life as a destruction derby simulator,
with 3d graphics and realistic deformation and damage.
During its development, the game was intended to be an officially licensed 'Mad Max' game
- but this deal fell through, resulting in the transfer to a game inspired by the cult
1975 film, 'Death Race 2000'. It was at this time that pedestrians were
added - tying in to the movie's macabre scoring system for vehicular murder - simply put:
pedestrians for points. Unfortunately, the Death Race tie-in fell
through as well, but the game was left with heavy influence - and would finally adopt
its final identity as an entirely new franchise. The game's car design mirrors that seen in
its inspiral movie, with a serrated midline division and menacing frontend resembling
Frankenstein's 'monster', the appellation given to said protagonist's car in the film.
The characters seen in Carmageddon are as colourful as their movie counterparts, with
a cabal of anarchists, rednecks, nazis, gimps and russians - each with their own thematically
matched ride. With pedestrians, 5 opponents and a set of
race checkpoints there were multiple routes to victory - whether through pedestrian genocide,
annhilation of every last opponent - or of course, the boring option, by completing the
race conventionally. With a variety of environments to race in
- from urban streets, dusty deserts and industrial plants, amongst others - the worlds were open-ended,
more sandbox than racetrack. Your only real opponent was the clock - run
out of time and the race was over, and so earning bonus time by ramming other cars and
killing pedestrians is essential to complete the race.
Naturally, the more destructive means were the more appealing - and 'wasting' every opponent
was usually the swiftest route to victory. This was done by using your own vehicle to
impart as much kinetic force as possible upon your unfortunate victim. High speed head on
collisions - or better yet, crushing them against a hard surface - would damage and
ultimately destroy your opponent, earning you credits and bonus time.
Of course, they would attempt to do the same to you - but thankfully they lack the ability
to repair and recover themselves, which tilts the odds in your favour a little.
Damage modelling was fairly impressive for its time - with deformations and different
critical zones, you could be left with no steering, or a broken transmission rendering
you near immobile. In practical terms, this wasn't much of an
issue - the ability to repair your car mid-race eliminated any long-term effects brought about
by excessive collision. In a sense though, this is probably a good
thing - worrying about trashing your car might take away some of the reckless fun that can
be had in hunting down your foe. Killing all the pedestrians on a level would
also grant a victory - and a well-earned one at that, as tracking down the last of several
hundred peds is a herculean task indeed. With each race completed you gain ranks - and
the closer you get to the top spot, the harder the opponent you'll face.
While you start off racing against soft-skinned sports cars and buggies, eventually you'll
find yourself pitted against diesel-chugging armoured bulldozers, and a host of more aggressive,
tougher-to-kill opponents. The addition of police in later levels adds
to the challenge - as they've some of the toughest cars in the game.
Thankfully, you can upgrade your own ride - and with each defeated opponent there's
a random chance to take their car and use it in future races.
While some are better than others, once you gain access to Don Dumpster's bulldozer - crushing
even the high-level opponents and quashing the annoyance of the aggressive police is
a breeze. Upon completing the game, a sixth tier of
upgrades is unlocked - along with every single car in the game, along with the Enforcer - an
armoured police APC that outclasses nearly everything else in the game.
Carmageddon wasn't the only game influenced by Death Race 2000, nor was it the first to
stir controversy - in fact, there was a game just a year after the film's release, in 1976.
Exidy's Death Race was a crude replication of the pedestrian-for-points mechanic seen
in its namesake film - two crudely rendered racecars compete to mow down pixellated peds
and to rack up a superior score. Although tame by today's standards, the very
suggestion of automotive violence was enough to warrant massive outcry, and may be the
first video game to elicit such a response from the media.
The game was pulled off the market, with fewer than 1000 machines produced - and as a result
the original machines are a rare sight today. The early 80s saw the popularity of Mad Max
at the cinema, and a peak of interest in post-apocalytic vehicular combat themed games. One such game
was 'Car Wars', a board game featuring car-on-car combat, and the inspiration for 1985's Autoduel,
on the Atari 8-bit platforms. With top-down graphical combat and a host
of customisation options for your vehicle, it was an immersive role playing experience
with a distinct Mad Max flavour. 1986's Roadwar 2000 was similar, with a familiar
doomsday scenario and text-based combat. While such games were fun for those prepared to
invest the effort learning how to play them, these early car combat games lacked a certain
degree of arcade action and accessibility. Super Cars, and its sequel Super Cars II,
added heavy munitions into the mix with a solid top-down arcade-style racer.
With missiles and mines, winning the races required more than just skillfully navigating
the twisted circuits - but crafty use of violence as well.
For those who prefer their violence visceral and a little more hands-on, Road Rash on the
Sega Mega Drive had a fantastic blend of reckless motorcycle racing and heedless fisticuffs.
Few things are more satisying in life than stealing another biker's weapon, then pummelling
them into a collision with an oncoming car. Speaking of car collisions, one of the first
games to employ semi-realistic 3d deformation as a result of collision damage was Psygnosis'
Destruction Derby in 1995. Based on the real-life 'sport' of demolition
derby, the general goal of most of the race modes was to inflict as much damage as possible
upon your opponent by crashing, bashing and otherwise colliding with them.
Remedy, of later Max Payne fame, tossed their hat into the car combat arena with 'Death
Rally', a top down racer notable for the inclusion of killable pedestrians.
With tracks and weapons similar to the earlier Super Cars, Death Rally brought more customisation
options, more diverse tracks and cars, and smoother overall gameplay upon its release
in 1996. Just a few short months before the release
of Carmageddon saw Activision's Interstate '76 on the PC. With a laid-back 70s vibe,
and the prerequisite post-apocalyptic backstory, souped-up cars replete with rockets and oil
slicks, and miles upon miles of open highway.
With a long history of violent racing games, Carmageddon had its fair share of antecendents;
Quite why it elicited the degree of controversy it did at the time might just cooincide with
the higher level of scrutiny videos games were subject to as they became more 'realistic'.
The game failed to meet ratings standards in both the UK and Germany - and was even
banned outright in Brazil, resulting in the need to dial back the realistic violence by
replacing the human pedestrians with green-bleeding 'zombies' for a certifiable release.
After 10 months of appeal, the original gore was eventually approved, leading to the 'Splat
Pack' add-on, with more tracks, vehicles, and the option to turn the blood on.
It's tough to discuss controversy in video games without mentioning the infamous Grand
Theft Auto series - and, like Carmageddon, GTA has more than its fair share of vehicular
manslaughter. The original GTA was released just a few months
after Carmageddon, and from the outset offered a violent sandbox for the player, and score
rewards for mowing down peds - even a 'Gouranga!' bonus for taking out an entire troupe of Hare
Krishna at once. As you'd expect, GTA was no stranger to controversy
from the start - but it took the transition to a full 3D environment in GTA 3 for the
real disputes to begin. The ability to hire a prostitute then beat
her with a baseball bat to reclaim your cash was a hot media talking point, and this controversy
followed the series, perhaps reaching a peak with GTA: San Andreas, and the 'Hot Coffee'
backlash. Essentially a cut minigame featuring simulated
sex, it wasn't a part of the final game - but the very trace of it on disc was enough to
stir a considerable call for a withdrawal of the game from sale.
GTA IV is the most recent title in the series, and thanks to Natural Motion's Euphoria engine,
running over pedestrians is now more realistic than ever, with properly weighted bodies and
apt reaction to a 2-tonne hunk of steel travelling at high velocity.
Despite this, GTA IV has thus far avoided the level of negative attention that San Andreas
mustered, and despite murmurings of discontent from some groups, the series has never been
more popular.
Carmageddon was successful enough to warrant two sequels, although Stainless Software would
only be involved with the first. Carmageddon 2 kept much of the familiar formula
from the first game, but saw a transition to full 3d environments with hardware acceleration,
allowing for greater detail and more advanced damage modeling.
The pedestrians were now 3d models instead of 2d sprites, and were able to more convincingly
splatter and otherwise collide with your car and the surrounding environment.
With a soundtrack featuring Iron Maiden, and a zany collection of opponents and environments,
Carmageddon 2 was a fun addition to the series, lacking a little polish in places but maintaining
the same core gameplay as the original. Unfortunately Stainless weren't contracted
for the third in the series, Carmageddon TDR 2000 - released, appropriately enough, in
the year 2000. Australian developers Torus Games were brought
in, with most of their prior experience being development for handheld consoles.
This title is generally regarded as the weakest of the trilogy, bringing little new to the
table and marking the end of the series. The original developers, now known as Stainless
Games, dropped off the radar for some time after Carmageddon 2 - returning with Xbox
Live Arcade title, Novadrome. Much of their recent output has been smaller
titles intended for download, such as the popular Magic The Gathering: Duels of the
Planeswalkers on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN and PC.
Sales Curve Interactive, on the other hand, have been active throughout the last decade
- releasing titles such as the popular 'Conflict' third-person shooter series on the Xbox, including
'Conflict: Desert Storm' in 2002 - and the realistic rally simulator Richard Burns Rally,
in 2004. Carmageddon 4 was originally planned for release
in 2005, but the purchase of Eidos Interactive by SCi shelved the franchise.
SCi adopted the Eidos brand for most of their output and were now responsible for popular
franchises such as Thief, Hitman, and Tomb Raider.
There was another change of ownership in 2009, when Square Enix purchased Eidos PLc, forming
new division: Square Enix Europe. With forthcoming titles such as 'Deus Ex:
Human Revolution', Tomb Raider, 'Hitman: Absolution' and Thief 4, the Carmageddon franchise evidently
doesn't feature in Square Enix's future plans - and in fact they offloaded the rights to
the name this year, to the original developer - Stainless.
And so, a fourth game may yet see the light of day, with the original developers and a
reboot of the original Carmageddon title. Dubbed Carmageddon: Reincarnation, it's mooted
for a 2012 release - but details, publishers, platforms - all remain to be seen.
Odd to think that the chunky gore of Carmageddon could every be considered controversial, but
if nothing else it's a reminder of how far video games have come in the last decade.
It's a slow shift away from the mindset that videogames are for kids, and slow acceptance
that sex and violence might actually have a place in the interactive arts.
Far from inspiring real-life violence, games such as Carmageddon are an escapist's outlet
- a chance to defy rules and break laws without consequence, safely suspended in disbelief.
Join me next time when I'll be covering the puzzlingly cute suicide simulator, Lemmings.
And until then, farewell.