CarnEvil
Encyclopedia
CarnEvil is a rail shooter arcade game
using a light gun
. Released by Midway Games
on October 31 (Halloween
), 1998, the game focuses on the protagonist fighting their way through a supernatural carnival
that features horror-themed twists on many familiar amusement park elements.
. The main character (called "Jacob" in the manual) is riding a tractor
-drawn trailer that serves as the transport of Spooky Sam's Ghost Tour. The tour embarks on a path through the town cemetery
. According to local legend, if a golden token is inserted into the mouth of the jester's head on top of the tombstone of a Professor Ludwig von Tökkentäkker, a haunted and twisted amusement park
will rise from the depths.
Jacob decides to leave the tour with his friend Betty to investigate this legend, where he finds the tombstone in question. He approaches the tombstone to find a golden token sitting in a small hole beneath it. Surprised, the main character inserts the coin
into the stone jester's mouth. As described in the legend, the jester head comes to life and raises the legendary undead carnival from the ground. As the entire cemetery is transformed, the main character obtains a shotgun
from the shooting gallery
at the entrance to fight his way through hordes of monsters, zombies, and insects to escape.
Jacob faces hordes of crazed enemies in the three attractions - the Haunted House, Rickety Town, and the Freak Show - and must defeat a strong boss character at the end of each, as well as sub-bosses that appear from time to time. After escaping from all three areas, he moves on to the main attraction, the Big Top circus, and battles past deadly clowns and circus animals to reach the center ring. Here he is captured and hauled up to Tökkentäkker's zeppelin
to face both him and his jester Umlaut. Tökkentäkker is defeated when the player knocks him into the zeppelin's propellers, shredding him and sending the ship down in flames.
The next morning, Jacob wakes up in the cemetery, which has returned to normal. Seeing the token pop out of Tökkentäkker's tombstone, he re-inserts it for a repeat performance as Betty screams for him to stop.
Occasionally, a girl (Betty) will appear amidst a group of monsters as an innocent. Shooting her when she appears earns a life penalty, but does not garner any long-term consequences or changes to the game.
Health and weapon power-ups can be found throughout the game. Weapons available include a machine gun, shotgun, flamethrower, acid bath gun, and an increase in the gun's magazine capacity. They can be obtained by shooting floating icons, such as a shotgun shell or a barrel of acid, and cannot be reloaded. Grabbing these power-ups also provides bonus points to the player.
A software setting allows operators to replace Junior, a giant deformed baby, with a demonic teddy bear
named Deaddy as the boss of the Freak Show level.
and designed as a dark ride
. The player enters through the foyer and moves through the den, hallways, and kitchen before ascending to the second floor and onto the roof. Here, one of the ride's cars knocks the player down into the graveyard for the boss fight.
Rickety Town- A traditional carnival setting that contains rides, game stalls, and a food court
. The most prominent ride is the Christmas-themed "Slay Ride" roller coaster, which starts and ends the stage and delivers the player to the boss fight.
Freak Show- An exhibition of the bizarre and astounding. The player begins in the sideshow area, then proceeds through a museum of oddities and a monkey house before entering a Tower of London
-themed Chamber of Horrors. A grisly assembly line
underneath the Chamber allows the player to escape and reach a giant playpen for the boss fight.
Ludwig von Tökkentäkker's Big Top- An immense circus tent that serves as the main attraction of CarnEvil. The player enters the tent and fights toward the center ring, using a cannon
, trapeze
, and tightrope to reach it. Once here, the player is hauled up to Tökkentäkker's zeppelin
for the final battle.
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
using a light gun
Light gun
A light gun is a pointing device for computers and a control device for arcade and video games.Modern screen-based light guns work by building a sensor into the gun itself, and the on-screen target emit light rather than the gun...
. Released by Midway Games
Midway Games
Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...
on October 31 (Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
), 1998, the game focuses on the protagonist fighting their way through a supernatural carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
that features horror-themed twists on many familiar amusement park elements.
Plot
CarnEvil is set in the fictional town of Greely Valley, IowaIowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
. The main character (called "Jacob" in the manual) is riding a tractor
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
-drawn trailer that serves as the transport of Spooky Sam's Ghost Tour. The tour embarks on a path through the town cemetery
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
. According to local legend, if a golden token is inserted into the mouth of the jester's head on top of the tombstone of a Professor Ludwig von Tökkentäkker, a haunted and twisted amusement park
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
will rise from the depths.
Jacob decides to leave the tour with his friend Betty to investigate this legend, where he finds the tombstone in question. He approaches the tombstone to find a golden token sitting in a small hole beneath it. Surprised, the main character inserts the coin
Coin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
into the stone jester's mouth. As described in the legend, the jester head comes to life and raises the legendary undead carnival from the ground. As the entire cemetery is transformed, the main character obtains a shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
from the shooting gallery
Shooting gallery
A Shooting gallery or Shooting Gallery is a carnival game typically featuring a pellet gun and numerous moving mechanical tracks with small targets worth various minor prizes or points towards a major prize...
at the entrance to fight his way through hordes of monsters, zombies, and insects to escape.
Jacob faces hordes of crazed enemies in the three attractions - the Haunted House, Rickety Town, and the Freak Show - and must defeat a strong boss character at the end of each, as well as sub-bosses that appear from time to time. After escaping from all three areas, he moves on to the main attraction, the Big Top circus, and battles past deadly clowns and circus animals to reach the center ring. Here he is captured and hauled up to Tökkentäkker's zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
to face both him and his jester Umlaut. Tökkentäkker is defeated when the player knocks him into the zeppelin's propellers, shredding him and sending the ship down in flames.
The next morning, Jacob wakes up in the cemetery, which has returned to normal. Seeing the token pop out of Tökkentäkker's tombstone, he re-inserts it for a repeat performance as Betty screams for him to stop.
Gameplay
CarnEvil consists of four levels, each ending with a boss fight. The first three levels can be played in any order, but the fourth cannot be accessed until all three are cleared. The players shoot enemies on the screen while progressing through amusement park-themed horror environments. The gameplay is considerably violent and features strong bloody scenes throughout.Occasionally, a girl (Betty) will appear amidst a group of monsters as an innocent. Shooting her when she appears earns a life penalty, but does not garner any long-term consequences or changes to the game.
Health and weapon power-ups can be found throughout the game. Weapons available include a machine gun, shotgun, flamethrower, acid bath gun, and an increase in the gun's magazine capacity. They can be obtained by shooting floating icons, such as a shotgun shell or a barrel of acid, and cannot be reloaded. Grabbing these power-ups also provides bonus points to the player.
A software setting allows operators to replace Junior, a giant deformed baby, with a demonic teddy bear
Teddy bear
The teddy bear is a stuffed toy bear. They are usually stuffed with soft, white cotton and have smooth and soft fur. It is an enduring form of a stuffed animal in many countries, often serving the purpose of entertaining children. In recent times, some teddy bears have become collector's items...
named Deaddy as the boss of the Freak Show level.
Stages
Haunted House- A Victorian-style mansion surrounded by a graveyardGraveyard
A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...
and designed as a dark ride
Dark ride
A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride where riders in guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music, and special effects....
. The player enters through the foyer and moves through the den, hallways, and kitchen before ascending to the second floor and onto the roof. Here, one of the ride's cars knocks the player down into the graveyard for the boss fight.
Rickety Town- A traditional carnival setting that contains rides, game stalls, and a food court
Food court
A food court is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining. Food courts may be found in shopping malls and airports, and in various regions may be a standalone development...
. The most prominent ride is the Christmas-themed "Slay Ride" roller coaster, which starts and ends the stage and delivers the player to the boss fight.
Freak Show- An exhibition of the bizarre and astounding. The player begins in the sideshow area, then proceeds through a museum of oddities and a monkey house before entering a Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
-themed Chamber of Horrors. A grisly assembly line
Assembly line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with handcrafting-type methods...
underneath the Chamber allows the player to escape and reach a giant playpen for the boss fight.
Ludwig von Tökkentäkker's Big Top- An immense circus tent that serves as the main attraction of CarnEvil. The player enters the tent and fights toward the center ring, using a cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
, trapeze
Trapeze
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances...
, and tightrope to reach it. Once here, the player is hauled up to Tökkentäkker's zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...
for the final battle.
Characters
- Player 1 ("Jacob")- A local teenager and the protagonist of the game. After hearing the legend of CarnEvil, he takes Spooky Sam's Ghost Tour through the local Greely Valley Cemetery to see whether the stories are true. When he sees the professor's grave, he ditches the Ghost Tour and foolishly puts the token into the mouth of the Jester Skull. As Tökkentäkker and his minions emerge from the depths of the earth, the player learns that CarnEvil is beyond anything the legend described and grabs a pump-actionPump-actionA pump-action rifle or shotgun is one in which the handgrip can be pumped back and forth in order to eject a spent round of ammunition and to chamber a fresh one. It is much faster than a bolt-action and somewhat faster than a lever-action, as it does not require the trigger hand to be removed from...
shotgunShotgunA shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...
from the shooting gallery, realizing that he must either fight his way out or die in the evil amusement park.
- Ludwig von Tökkentäkker- The creator and owner of CarnEvil and the main antagonist of the game, he takes on all challengers who enter the Big Top. He sports a ringmaster outfit and brown hair, and he wears a monocleMonocleA monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the vision in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string. The other end of the string is then connected to the wearer's clothing to avoid losing...
set with an admission token. Although he is mentioned quite frequently, he only appears during the opening cutscene and as the final boss of the game, using a musketMusketA musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....
and throwing fireworksFireworksFireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
.
- Umlaut- A floating skull with a jester hat and sharp needle teeth; the game's secondary antagonist, he only serves Ludwig von Tökkentäkker and will answer to no one else. He is known for taunting the player with rhymes and poems during the loading screens and frequent images of him can be seen throughout CarnEvil. He becomes a sub-boss just before the final battle with Ludwig von Tökkentäkker.
- Betty- A teenage resident of Greely Valley, Betty is one of the passengers on Spooky Sam's Ghost Tour. She becomes trapped within CarnEvil when it emerges, and appears from time to time during the game. Shooting her costs the player some health.
Trivia
- In a nod to the Mortal Kombat series(which was also made by Midway as well as CarnEvil), a midgit clown in the Big Top level might say "Get over here, kid!", referring to Scorpion, who is an iconic fighter from the Mortal Kombat games.
- There is a pizza in the food court section of Rickety Town that is in the shape of Pac-ManPac-Manis an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,...
, which was once of Midway's earlier games.
- The hero from another Midway arcade title Trog!Trog!Trog! is an arcade game developed by Midway Games for the arcade, and later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System and DOS by Acclaim Entertainment, Inc....
can be found in the Freak Show level of the game as an attraction in the background. He is frozen in a block of ice and labeled "Frozen In Time!" The dino characters also appear as enemies in the Rickety Town level of the game.
- Both the "Flem the Fly" creatures in the Freak Show level and the enemies in GalagaGalagais a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan and published by Midway in North America in 1981. It is the sequel to Galaxian, released in 1979. The gameplay of Galaga puts the player in control of a space ship which is situated on the bottom of the screen...
make the same sound when shot.
- In the surgical arena section of the Big Top level, a chalkboard turns around on its axis to reveal a rather dimwitted- looking portrait of Umlaut with the words, "Umlaut is a kiss ass."
- Before a level begins, Umlaut will fly around a spinning spiral background, and will recite a poem for that level. Pressing the trigger during this allows for the color on Umlaut to change.
- Throughout the Haunted House level, the players can fnd portraits of Evil Marie throughout her childhood. The first is after the player defeats the mid-boss Hambone; in the section where a trap door opens with bats, there is a painting of Evil Marie as a child, with a blood-ridden dress. She holds a blood axe behind her. This is actually a version of the painting "The Daughters of Edward Darley, through the original painting is without the blood and axe. The second detail is in the kitchen, where we see a child-made crayon drawing with Evil Marie chopping of a man's head on a fridge. The third detail is a wall that opens to reveal a secret passageway up to the attic. It shows an adult Evil Marie playing a harp.
- One of the clown enemies of the last level is named "Mr. Ozob". "Ozob" is BozoBozoBozo or bozo may refer to:*The Bozo people, a fishing people of the central Niger delta in Mali*The Bozo languages, languages of the Bozo people*Bozo the Clown, a clown character very popular in the United States...
spelled backwards.
CarnEvil original soundtrack
The original score for CarnEvil was composed by Midway's Kevin Quinn.- CarnEvil Introduction- 1:38
- CarnEvil Superbeast- 0:30
- Select Your Doom- 1:03
- Christmas Wonderland- 1:06
- Big Bunyan Ride!- 1:22
- The Garage (Bumper Cars) - 1:30
- Krampus- 1:31
- Haunted House- 1:07
- Freak Show- 0:52
- The Chamber of Horrors- 1:25
- Junior- 1:24
- Ludwig von Tökkentäkker's Big Top- 1:04
- The Final Ring- 1:04
- The Baron's Airship- 1:17
- Credits- 2:35