Carmageddon
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| Carmageddon | |
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| Developer(s) | Stainless Games |
| Publisher(s) | SCi, Interplay |
| Engine | BRender |
| Release date(s) | July 30, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | BBFC: 18 (Uncut) ELSPA: 15+ (Cut) ESRB: Mature (M) USK: ab 12 (Cut) |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS |
| Media | CD-ROM |
Carmageddon is the first of a series of graphically violent driving-oriented video games produced by Stainless Games, published by Interplay and SCi.
The story of Carmageddon is based on the 1975 cult classic Movie Death Race 2000 Starring Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine. Taking place in the (then future) year of 2000, a contest was held to race and pick up points by hitting pedestrians with their cars. The cars in the movie were also fitted with weapons like Tommy Guns and Blades that extended over the length of the car body.
This also spawned a short lived comic book of the same name.
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[edit] Description
In Carmageddon, the player races a vehicle against a number of other computer controlled competitors in a (usually) suburban setting. The player has a certain amount of time to complete a specified number of laps of a course, but more time may be gained by going through checkpoints, collecting bonuses, damaging the competitors' cars or by running over pedestrians.
Races are completed by either completing the course as you would a normal racing game, wasting all other racers, or running over a set number of pedestrians (200 or so) before anyone else.
In many countries (including Germany and, for a short time, the UK), the game, when released, contained zombies or robots instead of people, as running over the undead was considered more acceptable by their respective ratings boards. Unofficial "blood patches" were rapidly released by members of the community to replace the zombie graphics and sound with the more gory versions, followed by official patches from the developers of the game that uncensors the game.
The game was notable for its realistic (if perhaps exaggerated) physics and for its in-game movie making features. It was also one of the earliest examples of go-anywhere 3D driving games, and may have influenced other later games including Driver and Grand Theft Auto III.
The game featured a music score version of Fear Factory's album Demanufacture.
The instruction manual for the PC CD-ROM version included a tongue-in-cheek dedication on the first page, which read as follows: The founders of Stainless Software Ltd, Patrick Buckland and Neil Barnden, would like to dedicate this game to their wives, Janet and Pauline, and to Patrick's children, Julianne and Sean, who all suffered from the hours needed to put this product together. However, dedicating something so sickly depraved and violent as this diabolical piece of soul-poison to them just wouldn't seem a very nice thing to do. So we won't.
[edit] Ports
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.
[edit] Expansion pack and compilation
Carmageddon Splat Pack is an official expansion pack released in 1997. The expansion pack includes:
- 20 new tracks
- 15 new opponent vehicles
- 9 new environments including "HELL"
- New network levels
- 3Dfx graphics support
- Advanced Red Eagle 2 and Hawk Deluxe
Carmageddon Max Pack which was also released in 1997 bundled the original game and it's expansion pack into one package. As a bonus, it also included a strategy guide, mousepad and a leather car key chain with Carmageddon's logo on it.
[edit] Sequels
This game was successful enough to spawn several sequels. The other games in the series are:
- Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now
- Carmageddon TDR2000
- Carmageddon TV (never released due to Gizmondo's demise)
- Carmageddon 4
