My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon part 5...

In the history of Carmageddon, the Splat Pack expansion is always glossed over. It does not get nearly enough respect from game journalists, or game historians. Those that know could testify to how important it was in shaping the franchise. Carmageddon came out in February of 1997, the Splat Pack was ready by November of that same year. I consider it to be a more complete vision of what Stainless Games wanted to release on day one. It added eight new environments, with several levels dedicated specifically to multiplayer games. Plus it added 18 new cars, including multiple color version of the new Eagle, and Hawk. The version 2 cars had updated bodies. Many noticed that the Eagle was less aerodynamic. It now looked like a bruiser, closer to the Batmobile from the Batman Animated Series than a dupe of a '70s exploitation film. The Hawk on the other hand had all of its angles pushed further, making it more into a science fiction racer. 

They were not the only cars to be replaced for the drivers. Stig O’Sore previously drove the Volkswerker, an armored Volkswagen Beetle. In the Splat Pack he had the much sportier Carrerasaurus by Porky Motor Corp. It looked like a Porsche with metal Stegosaurus plates welded over the top. Fans enjoyed the changes to the game. The graphics had a bump thanks to the native support for 3D acceleration. There was also a patch to add 3DFX support to the original Carmageddon. For those that lived in a country with the “zombie" or censored version, the devs included a Blood Pack file to restore the game to its full blood, and guts glory. When it came to stirring up controversy Stainless wasn't messing around with the Splat Pack. There was a level that had you racing around a prison, running over inmates, and cops alike. The final stage of the game, the Ring of Fire, took place in a cemetery filled with mysterious hooded figures. A mausoleum portal took the racers straight to Hell which was made up of fire, brimstone, demons, and a disco club. If you reached the lowest point on the map you actually came across a gigantic model of the devil. Where he's seating in front of his P666 computer playing Carmageddon. Talk about being self aware! The media stirred up more controversy. Princess Diana had died in a car accident in August 1997, a few months before the Splat Pack dropped. The studio was asked to change the name of Die Anna out of respect. The studio did not.

Stainless was very much counterculture to the games industry, and for many they were counterculture to good taste. They seemed to love the fans, but not the business so much. Every chance they could they stuck their collective middle fingers up to the establishment. Studios were expected to submit a list of cheat codes so magazines could publish them. In Carmageddon typing a short phrase on a keyboard would enable a power up, as if the cars had driven over a barrel. Stainless made sure that magazines would have a hard time printing the phrases. Things like WEHATEMARIO, HAMSTERSEX, and SEXWITHFISH were just some of the individual codes you could enter. There was a master code that allowed you to type a number for a particular power up. This code was IBETYOUCANTPRINTCUNT. You can imagine that this didn't make things easier for publisher SCi. Players were very much on board with this brand of humor. Stainless reciprocated the love by dropping the dev tools to the modding community, which began calling themselves the CarMod Community. This was an international effort, as there were literally fans of the game all around the world. Their updates became CarModgeddon. People like CoffeyCup, and Crimson in the late '90s began releasing new skins for cars, and tracks. The Third Reich Mod for Carmageddon was arguably their most ambitious work. This patch replaced the theme for Bleak City, turning it instead into Berlin during World War II.

The modders went so far as to add goose-stepping Nazis where there were normally pedestrians. They replaced the Cops with SS APC’s, and added a few seconds of Hitler giving a speech on the projection screens in the game. The level had a story, somewhere in the city Hitler was giving a speech to his base, it was up to the racers to find out where he was hiding, and kill him. As if running over pedestrians wasn’t already fun, the mod made it a pleasure to mow down Nazi’s by the hundred. It was another example of the British humor that Stainless had built their reputation on. This time however, it came from fans, and Stainless gave it their blessing. I was eager to see what other changes the community would drop. Since I did not have a computer at home I had to wait to get to work to try out each update. My coworkers, and I got a chance to download every patch as it was released. If a new skin didn’t work, or was just plain ugly, it was easy restoring the original files from the CD. The one thing that many in the community missed was having access to the original Eagle, and Hawk. Yes, the new versions were nice, but so too were the first ones. The modding community released a patch that would allow players to choose any version. They then set their eyes on fixing what Stainless didn’t get around to.

One of the biggest disappointments in the original release was the car driven by Ed 101. It was a sporty Japanese-styled import called the Tashita Coupe. Fans didn’t have a problem with how it looked or handled. They didn’t have a problem with Ed’s design either. It was great storytelling that a robot went rogue, and entered the Carmageddon tournament. This wasn’t however the car that we were promised. In their website, and official material. It was stated that when Ed 101 went against his programming he stole a prototype race car for the tournament. This car looked like a UFO, the type of vehicle used in the F-Zero series by Nintendo. Of all the rides in the game, it was possibly the one I most look forward to stealing. You can imagine how disappointed I was that the car ended up looking like a Toyota Supra with a blade splitter up front. Again, it was fun in game, but not what I was promised. Stainless had meant for the car to be in the game all along. They just didn’t have the time to finish the model. 

Stainless actually left the textures for the flying car in the Devil's Canyon Mining Town game files. They invited the community to see what they could come up with. Modders found the file names, they were clearly labeled pieces for fins, a cockpit, and boosters. They got to work. Before too long they had a patch in place, and released it to the world. Players were welcome to use either of Ed 101's cars in game. The community figured out a clever way to make the prototype appear like it was floating. There were four wheels under the body, however they did not have a texture applied to them, so they were invisible. The only clue that there were wheels was when the car skidded out, it left behind the streaks from where the tires should have been. It was a clever work around, and remains one of the most fun surprises I’ve ever had in my time playing games. The community then set their sights on an even more complex file. They wanted to know if they could restore Tanka to its original design as well. I mentioned previously that Stainless couldn’t get the trailer mechanics working properly in their engine. So they cut out the back half, and left the cab to bounce about in the game. 

It took years but modders Carnage / Crimson eventually figured it out, as did Toshiba-3. Not only that, fellow community member Trent took up the challenge to get the tanker up and running in the later release of Carmageddon Reincarnation. The community that modified the games had as much passion for the IP as the people that created it. In some instances Stainless did reach out to the best modders, and offered them work. They would actively listen to the fans, and run polls on fan favorites. This helped shape the direction of the series. None of this would have been possible if the Splat Pack, and the modding tools had never been released. It opened our eyes to the possibility of changing an already published game. It’s certainly rare for a developer to have an open dialogue with audiences today. Most studios are insulated, and many online forums have devolved into shouting matches. For what it was worth the ones coming together under the Carmageddon banner seemed to vibe well together. This was something that never came up in any "making of" articles.

The Splat Pack had many other things going for it. Stainless never stopped working once Carmageddon went gold. There were many ideas that they had written down that they meant to be released in the original game. Several cars, and characters that appeared in the Splat Pack were in the works from the very beginning. Time, money, and resources just meant that they were left out. The success of that first game, plus the audience reception, gave them the push to complete the Splat Pack, and finish the vision they had originally. The additional vehicle types provided a bigger cross section of the Carma experience. Other studios may have been content to just draw up race cars with spikes for an expansion, and call it a day. Stainless was anything but an ordinary company. The vehicle types often came out of left field. An ambulance coated in blood, driven by the mad surgeon Sawbones was listed in the early concept drawings. The Blood Mobile was now official. The Ramraider, an SUV with a battering ram  driven by USA sports fanatic Big Daddy was now plowing through opponents. Other cars were jabs at Stainless' contemporaries. A blue, and white-striped muscle car, the Stodge Barger, driven by Carkey, and Clutch, was a direct call-out to the Picard Piranha, and Groove Champion from Interstate ’76.

The Splat Pack made the monster trucks bigger, like Herman Monster and his Monster Masher. The 10-foot tires were based on the tires used by Bigfoot V, and Bigfoot VII. It added a rampaging diesel truck to the lineup, Mother Trucker, and her Rig O’Mortis. It added full-blown race cars like the Fearari F999 driven by Ashteroid. The studio also expanded on the Auto Scum gang member rides. The Mech Maniac got the smallest car in the expansion, the slippery little Grunge Buster. Sports cars, trucks, just about anything with wheels was well represented. One of the influences for the studio, and a movie that isn’t always given enough credit for in car circles, was the Italian Job. I’m talking about the original from 1969, not the remake from 2003. The scene stealers were three Mini Coopers hauling a ton of stolen gold out of Italy. The stunt driving was amazing, and the producers made it look like the little cars were unstoppable. It inspired the Killer Coop, driven by Mike O’Kane (Michael Cain was the star of the film). It stood to reason that the mighty British Cooper with a jousting lance attached to the door would symbolize Britannia in the game. It would surely slay the giants of the tournament, and bring home the glory.

At the end of 1997 there was no argument. Carmageddon, and the Splat Pack were certified hits. In spite of all the negative publicity the outlets came to a consensus. This was a great game. To help get the title on as many computers as they could SCi bundled the game, and expansion together as the Max Pack. It was uncensored, as the developers had originally meant it to be. The bundle was nominated for Computer Action Game of the Year in the 1998 D.I.C.E. Awards. The awards given to Carmageddon were numerous, here's a sample; Winner - Best Action Game - Ultra Game Players, Game of the Year - PC Zone Magazine, 5 out of 5 - Computer Life, 4 out of 5 - Next Generation, 4 out of 5 - C:/Net’s Game Center.com, 9 out of 10 - Computer & Net Player, GameRevolution - B+, GameSpot - 8.8 out of 10. The quotes in the reviews did the team at Stainless proud. “Very playable, and addictive" - PC Gamer, “A complete blast to play" - Computer & Net Player, and “It’s been a long time since a driving game has been as much fun as Carmageddon." - Computer Gaming World. This was vindication for everything the studio had gone through in the prior three years. With everything they learned from Carmageddon, and the Splat Pack they were ready to go even bigger in a sequel. We will talk about that in the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon part 4...

I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about how seriously developers take their art. The team at Capcom working on Resident Evil was said to have studied up on human decomposition, parasites, and viruses in order to make realistic zombies. Hideo Kojima would bring in military contractors to advise his Metal Gear Solid team. In some retellings they gave the team the ability to opt out of the battlefield lecture because they could not unlearn the horrors of war. Over at Polyphony there was a team whose responsibility was traveling the world, recording the actual sounds of modern, vintage, and racing cars to make Gran Turismo accurate. In all of those instances the teams were large, and specialized. None of those people could hold a candle to the dozen people working at Stainless Games. Patrick Buckland was the lead programmer, and co-founder of Stainless Software. Neil Barnden was the other co-founder, and lead artist. They started working on a car game that centered around crashing in 1994. They wanted a high-quality 3D engine, a library of unique vehicles with realistic physics, the ability to go anywhere on an open world map, and the ability to run over pedestrians. Today you could name a few franchises that do this, but it seemed impossible decades ago. Especially for a very small team. This was uncharted water not only for their studio, but pretty much for the entire industry. Carmageddon was born because nobody told them what they couldn’t do.

The studio was familiar with the BRender 3D engine from other projects they had worked on. As they were starting to put together car models they needed to figure out how they were going to create pedestrians. They needed reference material to work from. This was when Tony Taylor stepped up, and donated his body to the cause. They would go out to a parking lot where Tony had all the protection that a helmet, pair of gloves, and some cardboard tucked under his shirt could provide. The studio would then proceed to hit him with a car over, and over. Making sure to get shots from multiple angles. He challenged them to go faster, and faster at him, hoping to get a shot of him rolling completely over the roof. At about 35mph he ended up going through the windshield instead. Nearby residents called the police because they were sure they had just witnessed a murder. It wouldn’t be the first time the people at Stainless would be suspected of criminal mischief. Almost everyone at the studio was engaged in acts of vandalism, and destruction for the sake of “research."

The team, and engine could not create both 3D car models, and 3D pedestrians at the same time. There was just too much work to do that on any reasonable time table. They still wanted a library of different pedestrian types to work from. That was how Tony got involved. He would act out different scenarios, and pretend to be running for his life. Animators worked from this footage when they created the male, and female sprites that would be used in game. The animators then asked for reference material so they could create explosions in the game. They needed references for car explosions, power up barrel explosions, and anything else in the game that might go kaboom! The team used that as an excuse to take propane tanks to an undisclosed area, and shoot them with rifles. They also took a car that had been trashed in a banger race out to a field. Where they then ran out an extension cord, Buckland put a bunch of aerosol cans in a microwave, set the timer, and ran for his life. Banger racing was invaluable for recording the sounds of actual car collisions. Just to be sure that the studio got enough reference material they ran over real estate posts, and studied the damage to the car. No word on if they replaced those signs, but I doubt it. There are stories of home made bazookas, destroying the chandelier that used to hang in their office space, and tons of mayhem during holiday parties. Again, all in the name of research.

The studio cranked away diligently inventing a new genre. Their art team creating new cars, and characters that would have fit in the pages of a comic book, or possibly a James Bond film. Making sure that the game was ready for both the Mac, and Windows meant that they were pulling double duty. Not every publisher had the luxury of hiring a separate developer to handle the adaptation. LAN play was in the cards, and they were all eager to test on that, but the team also needed to make sure they had a demo ready first. This would be used to get certification with game rating boards, and also be used to help promote the title. Time was of the essence, and they couldn't waste it chasing bugs. The studio got creative with the engine when they came across a new issue. One of the first challenges they had to figure out was in making the Hawk, and Eagle. The stars of the game had to be balanced from a game play perspective. It wouldn’t be difficult to assign them similar stats. The graphics engine however required them to be modeled on the same body, but be visually distinct. A paint scheme was not enough to set them apart. Since the modelers were not allowed to create two separate bodies they instead used a reflective texture to create a windshield, and make the Hawk appear like a mid-engine car, and a transparent texture to make the Eagle look like a front engine car. It was an example of the creative problem solving at Stainless. Future versions of those two cars would get their own models.

Another thing that was in the planning stages, and actually promised to audiences, was a vehicle with a trailer. One of the racers was a madman in a hazmat suit known as Firestorm. He drove a stolen tanker truck called Tanka. The website, and official art of the vehicle showed this well in advance. This design was very futuristic, it definitely captured the science fiction world that Stainless wanted to convey. Those playing the demo, myself included, were hyped on seeing the actual truck in the finished game. There was a problem however. No matter how hard the developers at Stainless tried, the trailer portion gave nothing but problems to the physics engine. Sometimes it would clip through the model, and cause the truck to be stuck. Other times a collision would break the model, leaving it inert. There were issues getting it to shift its virtual weight, and turn realistically. There was no way that they would have all the complications sorted in time for release, so they cut out the trailer. This cab-only version of the truck was labeled as a Cheat car, but it was anything but ideal to drive. Without the trailer to balance the front end it bounced around awkwardly in the game. It was difficult to control at any speed, making it of no use in single, or multi-player games. Broken models aside, there was a bigger issue that Stainless, and SCi had to deal with. As much fun as audiences were having with the game demo, there were many seeing this as the next major controversy.

The media began painting Carmageddon as too violent, as too extreme. It was not funny, or enjoyable according to them. The game debuted around the time that Congress in the USA was holding hearings on violence in video games. The popularity of titles like Doom, Mortal Kombat, Twisted Metal, and Killer Instinct had caught their attention. It took a few years for violent games to make it to the floor for an inquiry. Pop culture trends that that were “corrupting the youth" had been the focus of politicians for several generations. It happened with comic books, rock and roll music, heavy metal music, gangster rap music, and now violent games. Adding Carmageddon to the debate was literally pouring gasoline on the fire. The arguments against these things were disingenuous. They never put the media in context. You could take a portion of any creative work out of context to build an argument. A car accident is not funny, a hit, and run is not funny, a traffic fatality is not funny. Why then should a game featuring any of these elements be published? What possible entertainment value do they have?

Violence, blood, and gore had actually been used for comedic effect for decades. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is considered a comedy classic. It was released in 1975, the same year as Death Race 2000. One of the scenes features King Arthur hacking the limbs off of the Black Knight. The Knight considered the fight a draw once he has been reduced to a stump. There is a power up in Carmageddon that also blows the limbs off of pedestrians, it is called “tis but a scratch," a line borrowed from the movie. In the Addams Family movie from 1991 the brother, and sister pair of Pugsley and Wednesday Adams cut each other open during a sword fight for a school play. They proceed to shower the audience in gallons of blood. It is arguably the funniest scene in the movie. These are examples of an absurd kind of humor. There is nothing inherently funny about amputation, or blood loss. This changes when they are presented in an absurd context. 

To find entertainment value in violence, blood, and gore supposedly goes against our moral compass. It is ironic to laugh at things like this. One of the reasons that people gravitate to these forms of entertainment is for escapism. People do not watch police procedurals because they are criminals at heart. People do not read true crime thrillers because they want to learn how to kill. There is control in the entertainment they consume, rather than the media they are bombarded with. People of every age, and demographic are saturated with images of war, violence, and civil unrest by the news. Viewers cannot control what gets played on the television, only whether or not they want to change the channel, or turn the TV off. When they choose to read a true crime story, watch a horror movie, or play a violent game, they are in control of the media. They know that they are safe, they can get lost in this world, and can control how they choose to react. These things are never debated by the politicians, or news outlets. They only seek an alarmist sound bite. Whatever grabs headlines, and helps keep their agenda on the air is the true goal. As much hand wringing as there was in Congress things were a thousands times more heated overseas in Parliament.

Stainless Games was dragged by just about every media outlet. Nothing they did, or said seemed to convey any truth about their title. Carmageddon was never meant for kids, despite the news perpetuating the myth that the entire game industry targeted children exclusively. The Gen-Xers that made up the majority of game players in the ‘90s were adults, and entering professional careers when Carma came out. Somehow that entire demographic was never brought up alongside the alarmist headlines. When Stainless did interviews, even on the radio, they were set up with loaded questions. Imagine being asked “Why do you think death is funny? Is running over veterans funny?" Stainless would dig their heels in while defending the game, but the attitude did more to hurt their case rather than help. Being contrary, and leaning into the dark humor did not go over well with audiences. Stainless would talk about their game on the air, only to have a parent that lost a kid in a traffic accident be the counter argument. They would talk about the blind pedestrians power up, only to have a the disabled community write the outlets to say there was nothing funny about blindness. 

By picking individual elements out in the game the news took it completely out of context. Just as congress did with fatalities in Mortal Kombat, and gun violence in shooting games. Member of Parliament Greg Pope took exception to the game as well. By using his last name the newspaper headlines made a gigantic scandal out of a game yet to receive certification. Many countries, such as Australia, refused to import the game at all. They were asking for all sorts of things to be removed. At the very least it would have to be censored before they would even give it a rating. Don't get me started on how many concessions had to be made to get the games ported to the home consoles! SCi relented in several cases. Swapping out the pedestrian blood, and guts for green slime. Calling pedestrians mutants, or zombies would get around the ban. In the German N64 version the pedestrians were replaced by green-blooded dinosaurs! Some boards refused a rating at all, they did not want to be associated with the title. One of the most vocal was the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which rates movies, as well as video games for content. The US equivalent would be the ESRB.

Stainless was very stand offish with the whole process. The issue was one of free speech, and it was taken up by George Carman a QC (Queen’s Counsel), and barrister. The court showed that this form of entertainment was protected, and essentially forced the BBFC to give it a rating. In an interview with Edge magazine (issue 190) Matt Edmunds, one of the programmers remembers taking the game to the BBFC, and letting them play. They were laughing, and having a blast. They got mad at themselves for liking it. Edmunds recounted “They said it made them enjoy the experience of running people over." In the end they gave it a 15 rating, the same rating they had ascribed to the VHS version of Death Race 2000. “No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a 15 rated video work."

When I read the story of the BBFC I remembered how our college was a microcosm of politics. Carol our Dean was a woman held in high regards. She had crafted school policy for some of the biggest colleges in Southern California. Several of her policies are still in use today! She would never be seen playing this game, or admit to it. Yet she actually had fun when she tried out Carmageddon at our department party. Not that it mattered for Stainless, all of the negative publicity had done its damage. Only deviants could possibly enjoy the title. For the rest of history Carmageddon would be associated with controversy instead of the fact that it was a great game. Normally this would be the end of the experiment. Publishers could not be expected to take this kind of heat again. Stainless Games was nowhere near done pushing the envelope. An expansion, and the fan community would pull together to make a great game even better. We will look at this on the next blog. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!