Videogame Rating Council
Encyclopedia
The Videogame Rating Council (V.R.C.) was introduced by Sega
of America in 1993 to rate all video games that were released for sale in the United States
on the Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear
, Sega CD, and rarely, some computer games. The rating had to clearly appear on the front of the box and on all the advertisements for the video game.
The rating symbols appear above in their standard black and white format, but were typically recolored when appearing on actual box art.
enforced strict content guidelines for games released on its hardware, Sega differentiated itself with a more liberal content policy, allowing for the depiction of blood and graphic violence in software released on its home consoles, provided that the publisher label the game's packaging with a generic "Parental Advisory" warning.
The first company to take advantage of this greater levity was publisher Razor Soft. In 1990, they released a Sega Genesis port of the 1988 home computer game Techno Cop
, which depicted criminals and civilians (some of whom were children) spraying what appeared to be blood when shot at. Even with its graphic content, the game had limited commercial success.
In 1991 Razor Soft released a second home computer port for the Genesis titled Stormlord
, a fantasy adventure game centered around the rescue of female fairies from an evil queen. The nude fairies found in the original release were edited for the Genesis version, wearing revealing clothing instead. Like Techno Cop, Stormlord found limited critical and commercial success.
That same year Tengen
released the popular arcade game Pit Fighter for the Sega Genesis. The fighting game's characters were created by digital filming. The characters looked realistic and the game was a preview of what Midway Games
would perfect with its Mortal Kombat arcade game. Pit Fighter had limited success because while its fighting looked more realistic than anyone had ever seen before on the Genesis, the animation was choppy and control did not provide the player with many fighting moves. Razor Soft would try and create a popular fighting game when it released Activision
's Mondu's Fight Palace for the Sega Genesis, under the title of Slaughter Sport, which created characters through the traditional means of animation, however the game's alien characters had a certain subtle mature allure. One of the characters was a female punk that would attack with her mohawk hair
.
In 1992 Namco
released Splatterhouse 2
for the Sega Genesis. In the game you played a male character who wore a cursed mask, and had to fight the forces of evil to save your girlfriend. The blood in the game was green ooze that came out of the monsters that you killed. As with the case of the two Razor Soft games, Splatterhouse 2 had a parental advisory label on the game's box in tiny, red print. Splatterhouse 2 was a commercial success and led to the release of Splatterhouse 3
in 1993.
These games represented a small trickle of pre-V.R.C. games for the Sega Genesis. Most games were suitable for all audiences and most of these more mature games had limited commercial success because the blood or partial nudity was treated as a gimmick. Yet, two Sega Genesis games in 1992 created a national debate over the content of video and compelled Sega to develop the Videogame Rating Council.
The video game company Acclaim
brought the video game to the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo
in 1993. Both Sega and Nintendo ordered the game's graphic violence and blood to be toned down.
However, Sega allowed the player to restore the controversial content with a secret code, announced the creation of the Videogame Rating Council and gave Mortal Kombat a MA-13 rating. The result was that the Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat outsold the Super Nintendo version. However, the commercial success of the game, including a marketing campaign by Acclaim to prepare consumers for "Mortal Monday", and the fact that the Videogame Rating Council opened the doorway for games to be sold on a Sega console system with adult content promoted national outrage.
Mortal Kombat was not the only game to prompt Sega to create the video game rating.
ported the popular arcade game Lethal Enforcers to the Sega Genesis and Sega CD platforms. In this first-person shooting game, players shoot at digitally-created images of criminals. The game worked with a blue light gun called the Konami Justifier
that was packaged with the game, and could be used to shoot at the game's criminals with, as opposed to simply using the regular controller.
The major difference in each game was the setting and the introduction of games on a Compact Disc
(CD). A CD could store much more data than memory on a cartridge and thus replaced the digitally created characters with streaming
, full motion video
. In 1993, American Laser Games
ported their laserdisc arcade game Mad Dog McCree
to the Sega CD system. This game was set in the Old West. In 1994, Who Shot Johnny Rock?
changed the setting to the era of 1920's American gangsters, while Drug Wars
was set in the contemporary environment of the US Drug Enforcement Agency's War on Drugs
.
Digital Pictures
entered into the first person shooting genre with zombies Corpse Killer
in 1994 and space aliens in Ground Zero: Texas
. Sega even got into the genre with enemy aircraft in Tomcat Alley
. These full motion video Sega CD games had cheesy actors, low budget special effects and the Sega CD video capabilities were nowhere near film quality. Often the full motion video was not full screen and it looked grainy and pixelated due to the hardware limitations of the Sega CD. Yet, the graphics were realistic enough to ensure that the games automatically received an MA-13 or an MA-17 rating.
released a second type of full-motion video game based on voyeurism
.
The premise of Night Trap
was borrowed from slasher film
s. Sometime in the 1980s, a group of attractive college co-eds drive up to a lakehouse for a weekend slumber party only to find out that their friendly hosts—the Martin family—are Yuppie
Vampires and that house is invaded by the "Augers." Your mission is to watch the events going on in the rooms to trap the Augers, save the college girls and their kid brother. The game has a timer running and you must figure out when you have to switch the cameras to trap an Auger, save one of your special forces soldiers—including Kelli (Dana Plato
)—or listen to when the Martin family decided to change the security code. Once you memorized what camera you needed to view at what time, the game became a simple mad rush to switch between cameras leaving little time to watch the story unfold. Needless to say Night Trap has not aged well as full motion video games quickly became an "interactive" fad that died quickly.
Yet, in 1992 Night Traps extensive full motion video was groundbreaking and while the game's content was within the boundary of a PG-13 rating, the fact that it had scenes with red liquid in jars and another scene with a female in a nightgown being attacked hinted at what full motion video could do in the future. Sega gave Night Trap a MA-17 label and the video game industry soon forgot about full motion video games because consumers grew weary of playing games that were either a format of a first person perspective shooting game or a format of switching between cameras in a house or hotel.
Night Trap is remembered by many because it was the game most often cited by media watchdog interest groups and members of the U.S. Congress
that the video game industry was allowing games with graphic sex and violence in them.
. The old Sega ratings can still be found on video games and advertisements that appeared from 1993-1994.
In addition, Sega of America never released brochures to the public or explained the qualifications for a game getting a particular rating and thus there seemed to be inconsistencies. For example, the Sega CD editions of two computer games; Rise of the Dragon and Snatcher
both got the MA-17 label and it was assumed that it was because of the violence, profanity, and sexual innuendos that existed, but Sega never explained. Another example, would be the fact that the Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat was given a MA-13 label, while the Sega CD version of the game was given a MA-17 label, with the only major content difference between the two games was that you needed to enter in a secret code in order for all the blood and graphic violence to be seen in the Sega Genesis edition. In the Sega CD edition the player had to enter in a secret code which would actually tone down the blood and graphic violence.
The game Castlevania: Bloodlines
was rated GA despite scenes of blood and gore (zombie
s being cut in half, or having their upper torsos burst into bloody messes, and Harpies that can be decapitated with the wounds gushing blood), not to mention the dripping blood in the intro sequence of the game.
The unreleased game Mega Man: The Wily Wars
was rated MA-13 despite there being no blood or graphic violence.
Further complicating the situation was that games sold for the Sega home console systems were still being censored. Despite the MA-17 label, both Rise of the Dragon and Snatcher had some of the mature images edited. Even Sega of America did not seem to be taking its own rating system seriously as it radically altered Streets of Rage 3
before it was sold outside of Japan, including the removal of a playable gay character. One game "Corpse Killer" received a MA-17 for "Zombie and Voodoo themes" though there was very little blood in the game.
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
of America in 1993 to rate all video games that were released for sale in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on the Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear
Sega Game Gear
The was Sega's first handheld game console. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the TurboExpress....
, Sega CD, and rarely, some computer games. The rating had to clearly appear on the front of the box and on all the advertisements for the video game.
Ratings
The three different ratings were as follows:| GA — General Audiences: Appropriate for all audiences. No blood or graphic violence. No profanity, no mature sexual themes and no usage of drugs or alcohol. Examples of games receiving this rating were: Castlevania: Bloodlines Castlevania: Bloodlines Castlevania: Bloodlines is the only Castlevania video game released on the Mega Drive/Genesis. It was developed and published by Konami, and was first released in North America, on March 17, 1994. Its Japanese title is . This version featured a considerable amount of violence, with the American... , Disney's Aladdin Disney's Aladdin (video game) Disney's Aladdin is a series of video games based on the 1992 motion picture of the same name. Unlike most cross-platform games, the five versions are each significantly different games rather than all being ports of a single source.-Mega Drive/Genesis version:The game from Virgin based on the 1992... , Ecco the Dolphin Ecco the Dolphin Ecco the Dolphin is a puzzle video game released in 1992 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The central character, Ecco, is a bottlenose dolphin controlled by the player through a progression of side-scrolling aquatic levels... , Earthworm Jim Earthworm Jim Earthworm Jim is a run and gun platform video game starring an earthworm named Jim in a robotic suit who battles evil. Created by Doug TenNapel and designed by David Perry, the game was developed by Shiny Entertainment and Playmates Interactive Entertainment, released by Sega for the Mega... , Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a 1994 platform video game in the Sonic the Hedgehog series for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It was developed in the United States by members of Sonic Team working at Sega Technical Institute, and was published by Sega, debuting worldwide in the first half of 1994... , and most sports and puzzle games. |
|
| MA-13 — Mature Audiences: Parental Discretion Advised. The game was suitable for audiences thirteen years of age or older. Game could have some blood in it and more graphic violence than a "GA" game. Examples of games receiving this rating were: Beavis and Butt-head Beavis and Butt-head (video game) Beavis and Butt-head is a video game based on the MTV animated series Beavis and Butt-head, revolving around the title characters' attempts to find the torn-up ticket pieces all over Highland to go to a GWAR concert, in the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version. In the SNES version, the plot involves of... , Bram Stoker's Dracula, Flashback: The Quest for Identity Flashback: The Quest for Identity Flashback, released as Flashback: The Quest for Identity in the US, is a cinematic platformer developed by Delphine Software of France, a now defunct company, and published by U.S... , Super Street Fighter II Super Street Fighter II is a head-to-head fighting game produced by Capcom originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1993. It is the fourth game in the Street Fighter II sub-series of Street Fighter games, following Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting... , Lunar: The Silver Star Lunar: The Silver Star is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts and Studio Alex for the Mega-CD console. Originally released in Japan on June 16, 1992 to critical acclaim, the game was translated and released in English by Working Designs the following year... , Eternal Champions Eternal Champions Eternal Champions is a 2D fighting game originally conceived by Scott Berfield, produced by Mike Latham for Sega of America and was developed by the Sega Interactive Development Division.... , Mega Man: The Wily Wars Mega Man: The Wily Wars Mega Man: The Wily Wars, released in Japan as is a video game compilation by Capcom for the Sega Mega Drive. The game features remakes of the first three Mega Man games that were originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Wily Wars was released in cartridge format in Japan and... (unreleased) , and Wing Commander. |
|
| MA-17 — Mature Audiences: Not appropriate for minors. The game was suitable for audiences seventeen years of age or older. Games could have lots of blood, graphic violence, mature sexual themes, profanity, drug or alcohol usage. Examples of games receiving this rating were: Night Trap Night Trap Night Trap is a video game that was released in North America on October 15, 1992 originally for the Sega Mega-CD. It was filmed over a three week period in 1987 for an unreleased game entitled "Scene of the Crime"... , Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out! is the fifth entry in the Leisure Suit Larry series of graphical adventure games published by Sierra Entertainment. Originally developed for DOS, a remake was produced in CD-ROM format a year after its release. The enhanced version of the game offers... , Lethal Enforcers Lethal Enforcers Lethal Enforcers is a 1992 shooting game released for the arcades by Konami. It is best known for its revolver-shaped light gun known as the Konami Justifier, its digitized graphics, and the controversy over its content.Home versions were released for the Super NES, Sega Genesis and Sega CD during... , Mortal Kombat II Mortal Kombat II Mortal Kombat II is a competitive fighting game originally produced by Midway Games for the arcades in . It is the second game in the Mortal Kombat series. Like its predecessor, various home versions were produced... , Rise of the Dragon Rise of the Dragon Rise of the Dragon is a graphic adventure game that was released in 1990 for DOS and Macintosh and later remade for the Sega CD as well as the Amiga. It was one of the few adventure game titles developed by Dynamix, a company that was better known as an action and flight sim game developer... , and the Sega CD version of Mortal Kombat. |
|
| NYR or, Not Yet Rated: This rating only appeared in advertising and indicated that the game had not yet been rated by the V.R.C. The modern equivalents would be ESRB's RP (Rating Pending) rating and PEGI Pan European Game Information Pan European Game Information is a European video game content rating system established to help European parents make informed decisions on buying computer games with logos on games boxes. It was developed by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe and came into use in April 2003; it... 's TBC label. |
The rating symbols appear above in their standard black and white format, but were typically recolored when appearing on actual box art.
Before the Videogame Rating Council
While rival console manufacturer NintendoNintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
enforced strict content guidelines for games released on its hardware, Sega differentiated itself with a more liberal content policy, allowing for the depiction of blood and graphic violence in software released on its home consoles, provided that the publisher label the game's packaging with a generic "Parental Advisory" warning.
The first company to take advantage of this greater levity was publisher Razor Soft. In 1990, they released a Sega Genesis port of the 1988 home computer game Techno Cop
Techno Cop
Techno Cop is a 1988 action video game for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS and ZX Spectrum. It was subsequently ported to the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1990...
, which depicted criminals and civilians (some of whom were children) spraying what appeared to be blood when shot at. Even with its graphic content, the game had limited commercial success.
In 1991 Razor Soft released a second home computer port for the Genesis titled Stormlord
Stormlord
Stormlord is a game developed by Hewson Consultants in 1989 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC and DOS-based computers...
, a fantasy adventure game centered around the rescue of female fairies from an evil queen. The nude fairies found in the original release were edited for the Genesis version, wearing revealing clothing instead. Like Techno Cop, Stormlord found limited critical and commercial success.
That same year Tengen
Tengen (company)
Tengen was a video game publisher and developer that was created by arcade game manufacturer Atari Games.-History:Atari had been split into two distinct companies. Atari Corporation was responsible for computer and console games and hardware and owned the rights to the Atari brand for these domains...
released the popular arcade game Pit Fighter for the Sega Genesis. The fighting game's characters were created by digital filming. The characters looked realistic and the game was a preview of what 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...
would perfect with its Mortal Kombat arcade game. Pit Fighter had limited success because while its fighting looked more realistic than anyone had ever seen before on the Genesis, the animation was choppy and control did not provide the player with many fighting moves. Razor Soft would try and create a popular fighting game when it released Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
's Mondu's Fight Palace for the Sega Genesis, under the title of Slaughter Sport, which created characters through the traditional means of animation, however the game's alien characters had a certain subtle mature allure. One of the characters was a female punk that would attack with her mohawk hair
Mohawk hairstyle
The mohawk is a hairstyle in which, in the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaven, leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair...
.
In 1992 Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...
released Splatterhouse 2
Splatterhouse 2
Splatterhouse 2 is a sidescrolling beat 'em up video game released in 1992 on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis home video game console by Namco. It is the sequel to Splatterhouse....
for the Sega Genesis. In the game you played a male character who wore a cursed mask, and had to fight the forces of evil to save your girlfriend. The blood in the game was green ooze that came out of the monsters that you killed. As with the case of the two Razor Soft games, Splatterhouse 2 had a parental advisory label on the game's box in tiny, red print. Splatterhouse 2 was a commercial success and led to the release of Splatterhouse 3
Splatterhouse 3
Splatterhouse 3 is the title of a video game released by Namco for the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1993. It is the sequel to Splatterhouse 2 and was one of the first games to be given a rating by Sega's own Videogame Rating Council. In North America the game was given a MA-13 rating by the council for...
in 1993.
These games represented a small trickle of pre-V.R.C. games for the Sega Genesis. Most games were suitable for all audiences and most of these more mature games had limited commercial success because the blood or partial nudity was treated as a gimmick. Yet, two Sega Genesis games in 1992 created a national debate over the content of video and compelled Sega to develop the Videogame Rating Council.
Mortal Kombat
Previous attempts had been made at making an arcade fighting game that had realistic graphic violence and gore. Mortal Kombat was the first arcade game to combine realistic digitally created characters with the graphic violence and gore without making the objective mistakes that video & computer game reviewers would point out. The game had a wide range of fighting moves and combination of fighting moves that the player could learn.The video game company Acclaim
Acclaim Entertainment
Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...
brought the video game to the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
in 1993. Both Sega and Nintendo ordered the game's graphic violence and blood to be toned down.
However, Sega allowed the player to restore the controversial content with a secret code, announced the creation of the Videogame Rating Council and gave Mortal Kombat a MA-13 rating. The result was that the Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat outsold the Super Nintendo version. However, the commercial success of the game, including a marketing campaign by Acclaim to prepare consumers for "Mortal Monday", and the fact that the Videogame Rating Council opened the doorway for games to be sold on a Sega console system with adult content promoted national outrage.
Mortal Kombat was not the only game to prompt Sega to create the video game rating.
Lethal Enforcers
In 1993, KonamiKonami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
ported the popular arcade game Lethal Enforcers to the Sega Genesis and Sega CD platforms. In this first-person shooting game, players shoot at digitally-created images of criminals. The game worked with a blue light gun called the Konami Justifier
Konami Justifier
The Konami Justifier was a light gun used in numerous video arcade and home console games developed and/or published by Konami and Sega. Konami manufactured variations of the gun for the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Super Nintendo, and PlayStation consoles. The gun was similar in appearance to a Colt...
that was packaged with the game, and could be used to shoot at the game's criminals with, as opposed to simply using the regular controller.
The major difference in each game was the setting and the introduction of games on a Compact Disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
(CD). A CD could store much more data than memory on a cartridge and thus replaced the digitally created characters with streaming
Streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...
, full motion video
Full motion video
Full motion video based games are video games that rely upon pre-recorded TV-quality movie or animation rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models to display action in the game. In the early 1990s a diverse set of games utilized this format...
. In 1993, American Laser Games
American Laser Games
American Laser Games was a company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico that created a wide variety of light gun laserdisc video games. The company was founded in the late 1980s by Robert Grebe, who had originally created the system to train police officers under the company name ICAT , and adapted the...
ported their laserdisc arcade game Mad Dog McCree
Mad Dog McCree
Mad Dog McCree is the first live-action laserdisc video game released by American Laser Games. It originally appeared as an arcade shooting game in 1990....
to the Sega CD system. This game was set in the Old West. In 1994, Who Shot Johnny Rock?
Who Shot Johnny Rock?
Who Shot Johnny Rock? is the title of a live-action full motion video laserdisc video game produced by American Laser Games and released in the arcade in 1991, as well as for DOS, Sega CD, 3DO and CD-i in or around 1994...
changed the setting to the era of 1920's American gangsters, while Drug Wars
Drug wars
Drug wars may refer to:* War on Drugs, as led by the United States of America* Mexican Drug War, as led by Mexico* Puerto Rican Drug War* Drugwars, a video game...
was set in the contemporary environment of the US Drug Enforcement Agency's War on Drugs
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
.
Digital Pictures
Digital Pictures
Digital Pictures was a worldwide American video game developer, founded in 1991 by Ken Melville and Tom Zito.On the Sega CD versions of certain games, if they are played on the systems "audio CD" mode, there is a short track of a phone ringing with a male voice answering "Good afternoon, Digital...
entered into the first person shooting genre with zombies Corpse Killer
Corpse Killer
Corpse Killer is a game released for the Sega CD, Sega CD 32X, 3DO, Sega Saturn, Windows 95 and Macintosh computers that features full motion video in a format similar to other games developed by Digital Pictures. Each version of the game is identical except for two major differences. The quality...
in 1994 and space aliens in Ground Zero: Texas
Ground Zero: Texas
Ground Zero: Texas is a full motion video game, released for the Sega Mega-CD in November 1993. The game relies heavily on video footage, with which the player interacts. It contains 110 minutes of interactive footage from four different cameras. It was directed by Dwight H...
. Sega even got into the genre with enemy aircraft in Tomcat Alley
Tomcat Alley
Tomcat Alley is an interactive movie FMV video game developed by The Code Monkeys for Mega-CD. It was the first, and only, Mega-CD game to feature extensive full screen, full motion video...
. These full motion video Sega CD games had cheesy actors, low budget special effects and the Sega CD video capabilities were nowhere near film quality. Often the full motion video was not full screen and it looked grainy and pixelated due to the hardware limitations of the Sega CD. Yet, the graphics were realistic enough to ensure that the games automatically received an MA-13 or an MA-17 rating.
Night Trap
Games such as Lethal Enforcers restricted game play to shooting digitally created criminals, zombies and aliens. In 1992 Digital PicturesDigital Pictures
Digital Pictures was a worldwide American video game developer, founded in 1991 by Ken Melville and Tom Zito.On the Sega CD versions of certain games, if they are played on the systems "audio CD" mode, there is a short track of a phone ringing with a male voice answering "Good afternoon, Digital...
released a second type of full-motion video game based on voyeurism
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....
.
The premise of Night Trap
Night Trap
Night Trap is a video game that was released in North America on October 15, 1992 originally for the Sega Mega-CD. It was filmed over a three week period in 1987 for an unreleased game entitled "Scene of the Crime"...
was borrowed from slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
s. Sometime in the 1980s, a group of attractive college co-eds drive up to a lakehouse for a weekend slumber party only to find out that their friendly hosts—the Martin family—are Yuppie
Yuppie
Yuppie is a term that refers to a member of the upper middle class or upper class in their 20s or 30s. It first came into use in the early-1980s and largely faded from American popular culture in the late-1980s, due to the 1987 stock market crash and the early 1990s recession...
Vampires and that house is invaded by the "Augers." Your mission is to watch the events going on in the rooms to trap the Augers, save the college girls and their kid brother. The game has a timer running and you must figure out when you have to switch the cameras to trap an Auger, save one of your special forces soldiers—including Kelli (Dana Plato
Dana Plato
Dana Michelle Plato was an American actress notable for playing the role of Kimberly Drummond in the U.S. television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.Plato appeared in over 100 television commercials as a young girl...
)—or listen to when the Martin family decided to change the security code. Once you memorized what camera you needed to view at what time, the game became a simple mad rush to switch between cameras leaving little time to watch the story unfold. Needless to say Night Trap has not aged well as full motion video games quickly became an "interactive" fad that died quickly.
Yet, in 1992 Night Traps extensive full motion video was groundbreaking and while the game's content was within the boundary of a PG-13 rating, the fact that it had scenes with red liquid in jars and another scene with a female in a nightgown being attacked hinted at what full motion video could do in the future. Sega gave Night Trap a MA-17 label and the video game industry soon forgot about full motion video games because consumers grew weary of playing games that were either a format of a first person perspective shooting game or a format of switching between cameras in a house or hotel.
Night Trap is remembered by many because it was the game most often cited by media watchdog interest groups and members of the U.S. Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
that the video game industry was allowing games with graphic sex and violence in them.
Entertainment Software Rating Board
Sega phased out the Videogame Rating Council in late 1994 when the entire American video game industry agreed to follow the independent Entertainment Software Rating BoardEntertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...
. The old Sega ratings can still be found on video games and advertisements that appeared from 1993-1994.
Criticism
Many video game reviewers and consumers saw the introduction of the Videogame Rating Council as a sign that Sega of America was no longer going to censor the content of video games sold for a Sega home console. While Sega had tolerated blood and graphic violence in video games pre-V.R.C., nudity, profanity, and homosexuality had remained prohibited themes and were often removed before an original computer game or a role-playing game was released for the English speaking Sega market.In addition, Sega of America never released brochures to the public or explained the qualifications for a game getting a particular rating and thus there seemed to be inconsistencies. For example, the Sega CD editions of two computer games; Rise of the Dragon and Snatcher
Snatcher
is a cyberpunk-themed graphic adventure game produced by Konami, originally released in Japan for the NEC PC-8801 and MSX 2 computer platforms in 1988. It was followed by a CD-ROM-based remake released for the PC Engine video game console in 1992, which was subsequently ported and localized into...
both got the MA-17 label and it was assumed that it was because of the violence, profanity, and sexual innuendos that existed, but Sega never explained. Another example, would be the fact that the Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat was given a MA-13 label, while the Sega CD version of the game was given a MA-17 label, with the only major content difference between the two games was that you needed to enter in a secret code in order for all the blood and graphic violence to be seen in the Sega Genesis edition. In the Sega CD edition the player had to enter in a secret code which would actually tone down the blood and graphic violence.
The game Castlevania: Bloodlines
Castlevania: Bloodlines
Castlevania: Bloodlines is the only Castlevania video game released on the Mega Drive/Genesis. It was developed and published by Konami, and was first released in North America, on March 17, 1994. Its Japanese title is . This version featured a considerable amount of violence, with the American...
was rated GA despite scenes of blood and gore (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 being cut in half, or having their upper torsos burst into bloody messes, and Harpies that can be decapitated with the wounds gushing blood), not to mention the dripping blood in the intro sequence of the game.
The unreleased game Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Mega Man: The Wily Wars
Mega Man: The Wily Wars, released in Japan as is a video game compilation by Capcom for the Sega Mega Drive. The game features remakes of the first three Mega Man games that were originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The Wily Wars was released in cartridge format in Japan and...
was rated MA-13 despite there being no blood or graphic violence.
Further complicating the situation was that games sold for the Sega home console systems were still being censored. Despite the MA-17 label, both Rise of the Dragon and Snatcher had some of the mature images edited. Even Sega of America did not seem to be taking its own rating system seriously as it radically altered Streets of Rage 3
Streets of Rage 3
Streets of Rage 3 is a side-scrolling beat 'em up released by Sega in 1994 for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It is the last part of the Streets of Rage series. It was later released for the Japanese version of Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and for the Wii Virtual Console...
before it was sold outside of Japan, including the removal of a playable gay character. One game "Corpse Killer" received a MA-17 for "Zombie and Voodoo themes" though there was very little blood in the game.