Carmageddon
Encyclopedia
Carmageddon is the first of a series of graphically violent vehicular combat
video games produced by Stainless Games
, published by Interplay
and SCi. It was inspired by the 1975 cult classic movie Death Race 2000
.
The game featured instrumental versions of songs from Fear Factory
's album Demanufacture
, with the song Zero Signal being used in the game's intro. The other songs from the album that appear are Demanufacture and Body Hammer.
sim prototyped by Stainless Software
. This was signed by SCi in 1995, but the banger-racing angle was soon dropped and for a while the game was to use the Mad Max
license. This fell through, and was replaced by the Death Race 2000 license, as a sequel to the original film was at that time planned (it eventually emerged as a comic book). This introduced the running-over of pedestrians into the game. When this license also fell through, SCi and Stainless took the decision to proceed with the game anyway, creating their own IP
. The name "Carmageddon" was coined, and development proceeded with the designers allowed unusually free rein with regard to the content of the game.
Carmageddon was originally released on the PC
(for DOS
) in 1997, but was eventually ported
to Microsoft Windows
(1997), Macintosh
(1997), PlayStation (1999), Nintendo 64
(2000) and Game Boy Color
(2001). The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions of Carmageddon are more similar to Carmageddon II. The Nintendo 64 port was ill-received, being N64 Magazine
's lowest rated game at 8% from 1999 till 2004. A port of the first game was in development for the Gizmondo
, but was never released due to the system's demise.
and the Grand Theft Auto
series. The Carmageddon series has sold around two million copies according to Patrick Buckland and Neil Barnden, co-founders of Stainless Games.
and, for a short time, the UK
), the first release of the game was censored. They contained zombie
s with green blood or robot
s with black oil instead of people, as running over the non-human figures was considered more acceptable by their respective ratings boards. In the UK, SCi wanted to gain publicity for the game by submitting it to the British Board of Film Classification
(BBFC) to get an 18 rating, even though this was not necessary as the game contained no video footage. This backfired when the BBFC refused to certify the game unless all blood and gore was removed. After 10 months of appeal, the BBFC certified the original version. In some countries, the game was banned completely, including Brazil. In Portugal and Australia the game was passed completely uncut with an +18 and MA15+ rating, respectively.
SCi had originally planned Carmageddon 4 for a late 2005 release. Little to no information was released about the game, then SCi (now owned by Eidos
) put development on hold for unspecified reasons. SCi and Eidos went on to focus on other projects, while Square Enix Europe obtained the series IP
rights. On June 1, 2011, Stainless Games revealed that they had re-acquired the rights to Carmageddon. A new title, Carmageddon: Reincarnation, is in early development for a 2012 release.
In July 2011, the City of Los Angeles
launched a massive media campaign under the title "Carmageddon" to warn drivers about a major closure on the 405 Freeway during the weekend of July 15-17. Stainless Games capitalized on the coincidence to promote the new release by announcing on the official web site during that time that "L.A. Celebrates Carmageddon" and "Yes, it’s official! The news that Carmageddon is back has been such a hit in California, that the authorities have decided to dedicate a whole weekend to the game!"
Vehicular combat game
Vehicular combat games are typically video or computer games where the primary focus of play concerns automobiles or other vehicles, normally armed with guns or other weaponry, attempting to destroy vehicles controlled by the CPU or by opposing players...
video games produced by Stainless Games
Stainless Games
Stainless Games is a British video game developer based on the Isle of Wight that specialises in developing downloadable games for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade...
, published by Interplay
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
and SCi. It was inspired by the 1975 cult classic movie Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment...
.
Gameplay
In Carmageddon, the player races a vehicle against a number of other computer controlled competitors in various settings, including city, mine and industrial areas. The player has a certain amount of time to complete each race, but more time may be gained by collecting bonuses, damaging the competitors' cars or by running over pedestrians. Races are completed by either completing the course as one would a normal racing game, "wasting" (wrecking) all other race cars, or killing all pedestrians on the level.The game featured instrumental versions of songs from Fear Factory
Fear Factory
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...
's album Demanufacture
Demanufacture
Demanufacture is the second studio album by the Los Angeles industrial metal band Fear Factory. This is the band's first album with their classic line-up adding new bassist Christian Olde Wolbers. Many regard it as the band's best album and a heavy metal classic...
, with the song Zero Signal being used in the game's intro. The other songs from the album that appear are Demanufacture and Body Hammer.
Development
The game that became Carmageddon started out as "3D Destruction Derby", a Banger racingBanger racing
Banger Racing is a tarmac or dirt track racing type of motorsport event popularised in both North America and Europe and especially United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands in which drivers of old vehicles race against one another around a race track and the race is...
sim prototyped by Stainless Software
Stainless Games
Stainless Games is a British video game developer based on the Isle of Wight that specialises in developing downloadable games for Microsoft Windows and the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade...
. This was signed by SCi in 1995, but the banger-racing angle was soon dropped and for a while the game was to use the Mad Max
Mad Max
Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and revised by Miller and Byron Kennedy over the original script by James McCausland. The film stars Mel Gibson, who was unknown at the time. Its narrative based around the traditional western genre, Mad Max tells a story...
license. This fell through, and was replaced by the Death Race 2000 license, as a sequel to the original film was at that time planned (it eventually emerged as a comic book). This introduced the running-over of pedestrians into the game. When this license also fell through, SCi and Stainless took the decision to proceed with the game anyway, creating their own IP
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
. The name "Carmageddon" was coined, and development proceeded with the designers allowed unusually free rein with regard to the content of the game.
Carmageddon was originally released on the PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
(for DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
) in 1997, but was eventually ported
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
to Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
(1997), Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
(1997), PlayStation (1999), Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
(2000) and Game Boy Color
Game Boy Color
The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...
(2001). The PlayStation and Nintendo 64 versions of Carmageddon are more similar to Carmageddon II. The Nintendo 64 port was ill-received, being N64 Magazine
NGC Magazine
NGC Magazine was a British magazine specialising in Nintendo created consoles; which was first printed in 1997 and ran until 2006. N64 Magazine was the successor to Super Play magazine after it ended in 1996 as it retained many of the staff and the style of that publication...
's lowest rated game at 8% from 1999 till 2004. A port of the first game was in development for the Gizmondo
Gizmondo
The Gizmondo is a handheld gaming console which was released by Tiger Telematics in March 2005. The electronics design was undertaken by Plextek Limited and the industrial design by Rick Dickinson....
, but was never released due to the system's demise.
Reception and sales
The game was notable for its realistic and ground-breaking physics and for its in-game movie making features. It was also one of the earliest examples of sandbox 3D driving games, and may have influenced other later games including DriverDriver (video game)
Driver is a series of mission-based driving video games developed by Reflections Interactive , and originally published by GT Interactive and later by Atari. The gameplay consists of a mixture of action, driving, and third-person shooting in open world environments...
and the Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto (series)
Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
series. The Carmageddon series has sold around two million copies according to Patrick Buckland and Neil Barnden, co-founders of Stainless Games.
Controversy
In many countries (including GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and, for a short time, the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
), the first release of the game was censored. They contained zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
s with green blood or robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s with black oil instead of people, as running over the non-human figures was considered more acceptable by their respective ratings boards. In the UK, SCi wanted to gain publicity for the game by submitting it to the British Board of Film Classification
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
(BBFC) to get an 18 rating, even though this was not necessary as the game contained no video footage. This backfired when the BBFC refused to certify the game unless all blood and gore was removed. After 10 months of appeal, the BBFC certified the original version. In some countries, the game was banned completely, including Brazil. In Portugal and Australia the game was passed completely uncut with an +18 and MA15+ rating, respectively.
Expansions
The Carmageddon Splat Pack is an official expansion pack released in 1997. The expansion pack included new tracks, vehicles, environments, network levels and 3Dfx support. The Carmageddon Max Pack, also released in 1997, bundled the original game and its expansion pack into one package. As a bonus, it also included a strategy guide, mousepad, and a leather car key chain with Carmageddons logo on it.Sequels
The game was successful enough to become a trilogy. The other games in the main series are:- Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now
- Carmageddon TDR 2000
- Carmageddon: Reincarnation (in development)
SCi had originally planned Carmageddon 4 for a late 2005 release. Little to no information was released about the game, then SCi (now owned by Eidos
Eidos Interactive
Eidos Interactive Ltd. is a British video game publisher and is a label of Square Enix Europe. As an independent company Eidos plc was headquartered in the Wimbledon Bridge House in Wimbledon, London Borough of Merton....
) put development on hold for unspecified reasons. SCi and Eidos went on to focus on other projects, while Square Enix Europe obtained the series IP
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
rights. On June 1, 2011, Stainless Games revealed that they had re-acquired the rights to Carmageddon. A new title, Carmageddon: Reincarnation, is in early development for a 2012 release.
In July 2011, the City of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
launched a massive media campaign under the title "Carmageddon" to warn drivers about a major closure on the 405 Freeway during the weekend of July 15-17. Stainless Games capitalized on the coincidence to promote the new release by announcing on the official web site during that time that "L.A. Celebrates Carmageddon" and "Yes, it’s official! The news that Carmageddon is back has been such a hit in California, that the authorities have decided to dedicate a whole weekend to the game!"
See also
- Roadwar 2000Roadwar 2000Roadwar 2000, sometimes referred to as Roadwar 2K, is a 1986 computer game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc.. It is a turn-based strategy game set in a post-apocalyptic future which greatly resembles the world portrayed in the Mad Max movie series.-Description:In 1999, a terrorist group...
- GlidosGlidosThe word Glidos comes from the first part of the phrase "Glide API" and the word DOS. Paul Gardiner wrote this small Win9x/XP/Vista application to allow old games written for DOS using the 3dfx proprietary Glide driver to be played on and thus take advantage of the power in newer computer...
- Video game controversyVideo game controversyViolent video game debates often center on topics such as video game graphic violence, sex and sexism, violent and gory scenes, partial or full nudity, portrayal of criminal behavior, racism, and other provocative and objectionable material. Video games have been studied for links to addiction and...
- Death Race (1976 game)Death Race (1976 game)Death Race is a controversial arcade game, released by Exidy in 1976. While not the first violent video game to appear, it was the first video game to inspire a great deal of protest and controversy in the United States.-Overview:...
External links
- Official Carmageddon Website
- Carmageddon WebMaster Alliance Board active Carmageddon community site
- Carmageddon Wiki