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!

My favorite games of all time, the story of Carmageddon part 3...

Carmageddon would never have been developed by any major studio in the ‘90s. No AAA team would  approach the idea. Management would fire anybody that had pitched something similar. Decades later some of the biggest games revolve around sex, guns, violence, and fast cars. Studios are falling over themselves to corner the mature market. The biggest of the mature titles is the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series. GTA V has made Rockstar Games an unbelievable amount of money. Disney, and 20th Century Fox tout the billions made by Avatar, and the Avengers. When it comes to a return on an investment nothing comes close to GTA. Avatar for example made $2.8 billion, on a budget of $237 million. That’s impressive but GTA V made $6 billion on a budget of $265 million. Even if you factor in marketing costs the numbers are simply unbelievable. When GTA was first released in 1997 it was nowhere near as notorious as Carmageddon. I would often have a laugh when people would ask “if you love Carmageddon, why don’t you like GTA?” Back then the camera was top-down, and the game play didn't compare. I would sometimes move the camera to top down in Carma, and say, “there, now it’s GTA.” To be fair there was one other major studio that beat both Stainless Games, and Rockstar to the punch. That was SingleTrac, and their breakout hit Twisted Metal, which was published by Sony.

It was not surprising that Sony published Twisted Metal. They understood that the audiences growing up on consoles were getting older. They were targeting the families that already had a Sega, or Nintendo system. Most of those kids had outgrown Sonic, and Mario. They wanted a game with more blood, and action.  If it wasn't on the Sega, or Nintendo machines, they were willing to switch. The wave of violent fighting games, and 3D shooters in the early ‘90s, such as Atari’s Primal Rage, Rage’s Killer Instinct, Midway’s Mortal Kombat, and id's Doom were proof that mature titles were selling. Aside from fighting games where else could the genre incorporate violence? David Jaffe and his team at SingleTrac melded vehicle combat, with a first person shooter. Throw in an over-the-top story involving a tournament, and you’d think that Stainless Software was poaching the concept. The ideas featured in Twisted Metal, and Carmageddon actually came from many different places. Vehicle combat was nothing new, and had roots in traditional tabletop gaming.

Steve Jackson Games was responsible for publishing dozens of original tabletop gaming systems. Those are the ones that require dice, some miniatures, and a score sheet. One of the more popular titles was Autoduel. This role playing system from 1985, received a PC game by Origin Systems in 1987. The rules of Autoduel would eventually become standardized in GURPS, the Generic Universal Role Playing System, which was first published in 1986. These systems, and games were based on an even older Steve Jackson game. Car Wars the tabletop game series first published in 1980. It has always remained popular in the tabletop gaming community. The sixth edition was published in 2019. The newest tabletop game to join the genre was called Gaslands. It was released by Osprey in 2017. Games Workshop released Dark Future in 1988. It faded in popularity over the years but was brought back as a PC game with Dark Future: Blood Red States in 2019, by developer Auroch Digital. All of these titles had a hand in influencing the creation of the vehicle combat genre. 

Video games would bring the tabletop experience to life. I already mentioned Twisted Metal, however the ‘90s, and ‘00s saw the genre grow. Twisted Metal received a number of sequels. I will talk about the varying quality of those later. Other publishers knew the trend was coming, and had their own games lined up. One of the more stylish entries was Interstate ’76 by Activision. The game came out in 1997 same as GTA, and Carmageddon. Its physics engine was amazing, and stylish polygons gave it a retro feel. The combat mechanics found the line between Twisted Metal, and Carmageddon. The sequel was Interstate ’82, which came out in 1999. The series also inspired the Vigilante 8 games, which were designed with consoles in mind rather than the PC. Rogue Trip Vacation 2012 was a spiritual successor to Twisted Metal by SingleTrac. It came out in 1998. David Jaffe wouldn’t touch another vehicle combat game until 2007, when Incognito Entertainment released Calling All Cars! Not to be outdone Slick Entertainment released Scrap Metal for Xbox Live in 2010. All of those aforementioned games had tremendous planning, and lots of market research. This ensured the publisher could have a game delivered on time, and on budget. Carmagedon wasn't the result of spreadsheets, and data analysis. It came about more by accident.

When the developers at Stainless would get bored with racing games, they would turn around, and see what chaos they could create by driving head first into traffic. They saw that most games handled collisions poorly, if at all. Some didn’t even allow you to turn around completely. They were fans of Banger Racing. It was a sort of demolition derby-style race that had a following in Britain. They knew that there was a market for a game like that, and started putting together a prototype. The work they were doing would influence a generation of game developers. These included Criterion, famous for the Burnout series, Evolution Studios which created MotorStorm, Black Rock Studio which developed Split/Second, and Rockstar which created GTA. Fellow UK developer Reflections Interactive actually beat them all to the market. They released Destruction Derby for the Playstation in 1995. For a console game the physics engine was amazing. It gave a real sense of weight, and speed to the cars. Vehicles were deformed in pileups, this was the opposite of Gran Turismo, where Sony promised the manufacturers that their cars would never so much as be dented in the game. This focus on realism was also very noticeable when compared to Twisted Metal. The engine Reflections built got better in the Driver series, and Stuntman for the Playstation 2, both of which added different types of vehicles.

Destruction Derby, and Twisted Metal helped put the Playstation on the map in 1995. Stainless had started working on their own vehicle combat system in 1994. One of the things they were trying to figure out was how to avoid pedestrians in their open-world game. They decided they should make running them over a part of the game play. There weren’t any publishers willing to take the call to talk about their idea. Fellow Brits at Sales Curve Interactive (SCi) had worked with Stainless in the past. Having the studio adapt PC games for the Mac. They decided to take a chance on the game. To increase the odds of getting published they were looking for a license to attach the game to. One of the front runners was the Mad Max series. The trilogy by George Miller started in 1979, and had sequels in 1981, and 1985. The films had a cult following the world over. The title character fought roving gangs in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It is entirely possible that Max Damage was named after Mad Max. At the very least some of the “Auto Scum” gang members in Carmageddon could be traced to designs featured in the Miller films. The series was big enough to be recognized, but not so big as acquiring the license would be wildly expensive. SCi had difficulty finding out who owned the rights to the property. Since Miller had made the films in Australia, different studios in the US, and the UK were responsible for rights, and distribution.

SCi hit a literal dead end trying to get the rights for Mad Max. They didn’t pull the plug on Stainless. They kept them in business by assigning them other projects in the interim. While doing research SCi discovered an even older cult film revolving around cars, and violence. This film had even more in common with what Stainless was going after, including awarding points for killing pedestrians. Death Race 2000 had been released in 1975. Featuring David Carradine, an actor that became famous from the TV show Kung Fu. As well as a young Sylvester Stallone before he created the first Rocky movie. The characters were very crass, and over-the-top. Carradine played two-time winner Frankenstein, “who lost a leg in ’98, an arm in ’99, with half a face, and half a chest, and all the guts in the world.” His face was covered by a rubber mask, and he sported a helmet similar to Darth Vader’s two years before Star Wars premiered. Many people noticed that Kutter from Carmageddon looked very similar to Frankenstein. Stallone played mob enforcer Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, his moll Myra was played by Louisa Moritz. These were not unlike Alfonzo Spaghetti, and Madam Scarlett respectively. There were many more such characters in the film, such as Nero, Calamity Jane, and a Nazi named Matilda the Hun. Each character  had an outlandish supercharged race car, covered in spikes, horns, and even teeth. The Hawk, and Eagle from Carmageddon were undoubtedly based on The Monster.

In the film the high-speed cars run a transcontinental rally, rather than just around a city. The rule changes for the year 2000 were explained in the film; women are worth 10 points more than men in all age brackets. Teenagers are worth 40 points. Toddlers under 12 are worth 70 points. Anyone over 75-years-old was worth 100 points. The movie featured nudity, sex, drug use, vulgar language, and misogyny, on top of all that violence. Of course audiences accepted that this was a dark comedy set in a dystopia. Many films from the ‘70s were about exploitation. Death Race 2000 had shlock value like other titles from that era. With the fancy sets, actual race car props, and various locations used, it was essentially a polished “grindhouse” movie. A full year later the video game industry had its first controversial game. The title was called Death Race, it had nothing to do with the movie, you could imagine that many people assumed it did. Exidy had released its first title Destruction Derby (no kidding!) in 1975. Their follow up was Death Race, in which the Grim Reaper in a hot rod drove over “gremlins,” and not people. Each time players ran over a character there would be a scream, followed by a tombstone left on the screen. The game made headlines as parents were upset with the content, trying to get arcade operators to pull the cabinet. Reporters were shocked as well, and published brutal reviews. This negative publicity of course increased orders through 1977.

SCi had no luck with the owners of Death Race 2000 either. They were afraid that a video game allowing you to run over pedestrians was too controversial. It would bring down the value of their film. Yes, the same producers that had no problem with Sylvester Stallone punching his girlfriend in the face, a man getting stabbed in the crotch by a bumper-mounted knife, a Nazi expounding the values of the master race, and Frankenstein assassinating the President of the USA was okay. A video game with only a fraction of that content was simply too much! The talks seemed to be going well for Stainless, or so they thought. The studio didn’t even get a chance to change the program name before the it was published. If the title managed to suddenly quit on the Mac, or PC it would say that “Deathrace” has crashed. This did not deter the team from putting their efforts into making the best game that they could. That was easier said than done. No other studio had attempted what they were going for. Stainless didn’t really work from a template, they literally made things up as they went along. Part of this meant doing research on actual car crashes, as well as running over pedestrians. No, really!

On an earlier blog I mentioned that Tony Taylor played Max Damage in the “Prat Cam.” He was a general handyman, and a friend of the team. He was also a sort of amateur stuntman. When the studio was recording footage for the Prat Cam he yelled, and jerked himself around as if he was in the Eagle. In order to get the shot of him getting crashed into from behind he had the team hit him as hard as they could in the back of his head with a pool cue. Thankfully he was wearing his helmet at the time. It was only the beginning of his exploits. I think the statute of limitations has expired on the things that Stainless Games had gotten away with during the development of Carma. Frankly it’s a miracle that nobody was killed! We will look at what the creative, and physical risks the studio took 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 2...

When the final version of Carmageddon was released in February 1997 it was so much greater than I could have anticipated. I brought the box purchased from CompUSA (ask your parents) into the computer lab early on a Saturday. I didn’t normally work weekends, thankfully we were only open for a half day. After we rushed the last student out we locked the lab doors, and fired it up, sitting through the opening cinema and getting hyped. The intro animation was burned into the memories of a generation. So much so that a fan recreated the opening using the in game camera of the latest version of the game. You can watch the original intro below, be forewarned, it mirrors the dark violence of the series.  

 

It turned out that not all of the cars, and features were available from the start. Which bummed us out, we were ready for multiplayer madness out of the box. It made sense from a game play standpoint. What was the point of playing if you had access to every level, and every car right away? You had to earn everything, as it was with all great games. It made me appreciate having to grind through the experience, and sharing everything I earned with the staff. I would gladly go through the game on breaks, and after work. Mastering every stage, and vehicle along the way. I even wrote up a 70-page strategy guide for my coworkers by taking screenshots, and writing tips for each level. I even included bios, and maps. I’m sure it’s saved on some Zip drives in my garage (again, ask you parents). If you’ve never played we should begin with the stars of the game. The biggest titles always had some sort of main character, or mascot that they could build a franchise around. Carmageddon was no different. Even though it was about vehicle combat the game had two stars; Max Damage, and Die Anna. Each with own signature car, the Hawk, and Eagle respectively. Think of the relationship between the characters, and their cars just like the stars in the Twisted Metal series. They were interconnected.

Max, and Die Anna were seen on the “Prat Cam” it was supposed to be the drivers in the cockpit reacting to the race. The two would laugh like maniacs as they ran over people, whip their head around after getting in a wreck, scream as they fell off of a building, and even swear under their breath. It gave a lot of personality to the characters, and added another layer of dark humor to an already absurd premise. At the start of the game the cars were nowhere near as fast, or as powerful as they were in the demo. They were easy to wreck, and could be pushed around by opponents, and police cars alike. Earning enough credits to power up the vehicles, and unlock opponents would test my patience. It turned out that the demo stage, and cars were approximately where the cars would have been at about 90% through the game. Their armor, their offense, and their engines had been heavily upgraded by that point. There were many miles of virtual racing to actually get to this point in the full release.

The game began with you ranked 99th in a tournament. Your goal was to finish every race in the series, and become #1. There were almost 40 levels in the game in which to accomplish your goal. Players could skip ranks depending on how many points were earned during each level. It was not uncommon to jump 7 ranks or more for a particularly violent contest. The specific how, and why the Carmageddon tournament was created was never fully explained. This was perfectly fine, as audiences were left to fill in the blanks. Between the opening cinema, and clues picked up from the races we could gather all the information we needed. The tournament was held all around the world, and only the most dangerous racers were invited. These included murderers, celebrities, gang members, cops, and even robots. When races took place in a city, the outskirts, and main roads were walled off. Anyone that remained inside was left to fend for themselves. Other stages were set on an island, or enclosed circuit. This was also not a post-apocalyptic race for survival. You could never mistake the locations for the wastelands of the Mad Max universe. The Carma world was set in living, breathing factories, towns, and vacation resorts. The tournament was a violent satire of the real world. Take it as a futuristic gladiator battle, broadcast to the masses to appease their blood lust.

The rules for the tournament were simple. Each race could be won in three ways, you could complete the required laps, destroy all of the opponents, or kill every pedestrian on the map. The third was the most difficult, but also potentially worth the most points, and prestige. The opponents themselves were a cross section of archetypes, and stereotypes from pop culture. You can imagine that the Black community did not like the representation in the game. There was the pimp-coded Otis P. Jivefunk, and his leopard print top “Caddy Fat Cat.” To be fair the Caddy Fat Cat was the car I used most often in the game. It was fast, heavy, and could take a lot of damage. Then there was the former football star-turned-murderer OK Stimpson, driving a “Fraud Broko.” For those that don’t know the story he was based on; former pro football star O.J. Simpson killed his ex-wife, and her boyfriend in 1994. He was caught in a Ford Bronco during a slow speed pursuit as he tried to flee the country. I would argue that Stainless Games wasn’t making fun of one ethnic group as much as every person in the game was an ugly parody. Also Stainless admits that they pre-censored themselves. They had men, women, cops, and elderly people that you could run over in the game. Artist Terry Lane put his foot down when they said pregnant women should be pedestrians too. They were also mindful that if they had Black pedestrians the racists would go out of their way to only run them over. So they made all the pedestrians white in the first game. They wanted audiences to know that all pedestrians were equal targets in their world. Black, and brown pedestrians, as well as better Black driver archetypes would appear in the sequel.

These drivers, as offensive as they were, and their respective vehicles did not all show up right away. As with all great game design, the opponent rides were equal to, or slightly better than the Hawk, and Eagle at the start of the game. Early races were long, drawn out battles. Opponents smothered players at every turn. Throw in the police which were randomly dispersed through each stage, and the car battles became harder. Only by winning races and increasing your stats could you hope to make the later stages any easier. To balance out the game more difficult opponents would join the tournament as players increased in rank, and as their car became faster, and stronger. Every opponent vehicle had its own strengths and weaknesses. Some were blindingly fast, some were heavily armored, but all could potentially be unlocked. In order to do so you had to outrank your opponents, and destroy them in the level. Once acquired you could drive that specific car, and also increase its armor, offense, and engine. Every vehicle in the game was unique with the exception of Halfwit Harry, and his sister Burly Shirley. Harry, and Shirley had a respective green, or pink Hummer-type off roader. In any instance the diversity of vehicle types, the way they controlled, and benefits really gave Carmageddon a lot of replay value. Some of the cars were labeled Cheat, not necessarily because they had an outright advantage, but because unlocking them seemed to be more random than other cars.

The full version of the game also meant that we had a soundtrack to play along with. Original music was one one of my elements of great game design. Carma did not disappoint. So what kind of music went well with all of that mayhem? We needed something that could get the adrenaline pumping right away. So it was heavy metal of course! Not just any type of metal, but industrial, and electronic. The tempo, and riffs hit like a punch to the chest. They seemed to go very well to create an aggressive, yet also futuristic atmosphere. The biggest name on the soundtrack was Fear Factory. Three of their songs appeared in the game, including Zero Signal, which was also on the Mortal Kombat movie soundtrack. Composer Lee Groves had several tracks as well, which complimented the themes of the major areas of the games. These included “industrial, coastal, desert, and winter wonderland.” Stainless sound designer, and composer Chris Melchior had a few tracks, including music on the expansion as well. The music, screaming peds, explosions, and collisions all blended perfectly. They audibly brought audiences much deeper into this world.

The sudden increase in car types, and multiplayer game modes went over great at work. The other lab techs also began using their break time to get better at Carma, and learn which cars were most advantageous. We began setting parameters on which vehicles were allowed in certain game modes. Some cars were banned outright because they were simply too powerful, or because they had some other unfair property. Stella Stunna for example, a rubber-clad sadist, drove “Electric Blue.” Her car had a built in Electro-Bastard Ray. This was normally a power up that only lasted for a few seconds in other cars. For Stella it was permanently enabled, and could zap pedestrians with a bolt of lighting from up to 10 meters away. This meant that she could easily rack up points in multiplayer games, and power up her vehicle on the fly. This left no pedestrians for the rest of the players.

The other car that was banned from competition was The Suppressor. In the game, as in real life, the cops had access to the biggest and baddest vehicles. The squad car in Carmageddon weighed almost 3 tons, and could go 150mph. It much closer to a supercharged armored personnel carrier rather than the traditional cop car. A group of them could turn any stage into a nightmare, With about 90% of the game complete players would have earned heavy-hitters that could eventually take out a squad car. However the supreme heavy hitter in the game was called The Suppressor, piloted by Police Chief Biggun. It weighed 5 tons, and could reach 250mph. The first time I saw it was actually on the stage featured in the demo. You can imagine my surprise. I was going through the route that I had raced hundreds of times before. I reached the top of a skyscraper, and it was waiting where no cops were previously. I had a fraction of a second to ask myself “what the hell is that?” Before it ran me off the roof and destroyed me with a couple of hits.

I fought tooth and nail against the Suppressor again, and again with different rides until I was able to unlock it. My favorite heavy-hitter was the Plow, a four wheel drive bulldozer formally piloted by Don Dumpster. I used that to great effect against the cops in the game. In LAN matches when using the Plow I would sign in as El Don. Once the Suppressor was in the garage the rest of the game played relatively easily. Again traditional game design dictated that the best weapons were only accessible near the end of the title, otherwise the experience would have felt cheap. The team at Stainless Games knew what they were doing. They even went so far as to highlight it as the vehicle you were rewarded with in the final game cinema. During the awards ceremony the organizers of the tournament are presenting a trophy to an unknown driver. Then in the dark a six-wheeled beast rides up the podium, and flattens everyone, including the cup. I suppose the lesson for Carma was never was about becoming the best, it was about the enemies killed along the way... We were having an absolute blast at work. With the exception of Stella, and Chief Biggun, all of the cars were fair game in multiplayer modes. Depending on my competition I would choose the car that would be the biggest nightmare for them. This frustrated my coworkers to no end. For every one game they won I would often win the next eight. 

   

The end of the semester tournaments were even more exciting now. Not only that, but as our computer lab expanded, we had more hires that were becoming solid players. The bigger labs also meant that we were getting more attention from other departments looking to create their own computer labs. Carol was our Dean, and would show our labs off to other college admins. This included the VP, and President Carol stopped by for the end of the semester party one year. She was always a bubbly presence, and welcome whenever she visited. She wanted to sit in on our tournament, and see what the fuss was about. The boss lady Alison wasn’t too sure about it, but I insisted. Carol gasped when she found out the game was about racing, and running over pedestrians. After the initial shock wore off she asked, “is it okay if I try it?” We had her sit down, and watched as she drove around the virtual block a few times. She screamed when she began running over pedestrians, “oh no, oh no!” Then she began giggling as she started running into other drivers. After a few minutes she was red in the face from laughing at the mayhem she had participated in. She assured Alison, and even Phyllis our department head, that the game was as much fun as advertised. From that moment on we would be sure to invite her to the tournament each semester. She would decline, but asked that we enjoy ourselves. I can’t imagine that any other college had an administrator that was half as cool. Carol eventually became a Dean at an even bigger college. She retired years ago, but we stay in touch on Facebook.

It turned out that as other departments opened up their own computer labs they were eager to hire our staff. In a few instances they had poached talent from our labs. Carol, Phyllis, and Alison met with the other departments. They said they did not mind sharing talent, or having lab techs train alongside us for a few weeks so they could get up to speed. Poaching our team was not a good look. I remained with our department because as I discovered from my friends in IT that the other labs had far more restrictions than we had. They had their computers on lock down. No games, no demos, no fun. The IT department mostly left us to our own devices because we were good at maintaining our own systems, updates, and security. When I wasn’t playing the game I was researching it. I learned lots about Carma from the game forums, including how it was made. It turned out that there was a huge challenge in trying to get it published. It made me appreciate it that much more. We’re going to look at why nobody was willing to sell Stainless a license in the next entry. 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 1...

I was reminded about one of my favorite games of all time recently, and I decided to do a blog about it. As I started to think about what to say it dawned on me that the game deserved so much more than a single post. A lifetime ago I created a series on 1UP covering my favorite games. Each Friday for 20 weeks I unveiled the most important games to me. The criteria was simple. If I was stuck on a deserted island, and could only play one game for the rest of my days which one would it be? Most of my friends, and family knew what the number one game was. The fun part was guessing what the other nineteen would be. Instead of just reposting the series here, as I had with other classic entries, I decided to review the list. Perhaps it was time to rewrite it, change the order of games, or even replace some entirely. I would be starting in the middle of my list, game #5 to be precise. It was important to do a deep dive, and put this game in context rather than just highlight a few points with some screen shots. I think that is something that is missing with a lot of games journalism. Many are quick to drop a review, or do a making-of series, but they don’t put the game in context. I think it’s important that people know about the market, what their contemporaries were doing, or even what was happening in the world at the time. I plan on doing the same for all the other games that I consider my favorites. So let’s get into it.

Chances are you’ve heard of the game Carmageddon. Maybe you’ve played it, maybe you even have a mobile version on your phone right now. Or maybe you weren’t even born when the series came out. Anything is possible, so let me try to explain why this game was special to me. I have a list of Four Elements that make a great game, if you can hit all four points simultaneously then you have the perfect title. My four rules are: Control is king, Create an Immersive World, Make this an Original Experience, and the Music must be icing on the cake. The first rule is simple, you can have a game with so-so graphics, and art design, but if the control is rock solid then I am in 100%. The visuals aren’t as important to me. Creating an immersive world means just that. Show, and don’t tell me about this world. Can I pick up clues about this world just by looking, and exploring? What shaped it, how long has it been there? If the game can do this without having it explained in lengthy cut scenes then I’ll fall right into it.

Another important question I ask about the title. Is this an original experience? Is the game doing something that has rarely, if ever, been attempted? To put it in other words, does this have original game play? Lots of games try new material, and fail. It’s hard to get publishers to take a risk on a new idea, rather than a sequel. When the studio tries something new, and gets it right however, the whole world pays attention. Lastly, does the music, and does the sound design help with the experience? Having a bunch of songs from pop artists, or celebrity voice actors in a game does nothing for me really. Sometimes original music, or non-mainstream music gets the most effective response. Every game on my favorites list has these four elements, the degree of how much each element comes through helps make a good game become excellent. Carmageddon does a smashing job (no pun intended) of getting all of the elements right.

I would have laughed if you told me while I was growing up that one of my favorite games of all time would be on the PC. It was an impossible idea. Nobody in my family, or extended family owned one. Computers were for rich people. My brothers, and I were mostly console players. Our parents made just enough to afford a small apartment, and get a console every few years, and a handful of games which we all had to share. Like many Gen-Xers we grew up at the literal dawn of the console. Our first system was the Atari 2600. This was followed by the NES, Genesis, SuperNintendo, Nintendo64, Saturn, GameCube, Dreamcast, Playstation, Xbox, Wii… well you get the idea. We had almost all of the major consoles at one point, or another, including several portable systems. We also had a local arcade so we considered ourselves well-rounded game players. The one thing we never had was a PC. Those were for our rich friends. A $1000 PC was simply out of the question for a family of modest means. Thankfully when we visited our friends in middle school, and high school we got a chance to try out the hottest PC games. When we entered college it was the first time that computers were freely accessible to us. That was the moment that everything changed for me as a game player.

I spent a lot of time in the computer lab doing tons of writing for my history, English, journalism, anthropology, and creative writing classes. The lab techs were mostly in the university, and working part-time in the computer lab as well. They showed me how to use the PC, and Mac computers. Each day my head was overflowing with new ideas. My teachers were amazing in class, but I’d learn a lot of new things from the computer techs as well. The lab coordinator was an amazing lady named Alison. She would see me there every day doing homework, and she noticed that I’d help the people that came into the lab that didn’t know how to work a computer. I had such a natural calm disposition that she offered me a job. I thought she was joking, until a few months later when she asked me again to work for her. I couldn’t believe I was being offered a part-time job to essentially do my homework, and help the occasional student with questions. I accepted, and it was a crash course in learning the other programs on the Mac, and PC that I would have to help with. Over time my brothers were also hired in the labs. One of my favorite resources was a magazine called MacAddict. It wasn’t as stuffy as the other Mac magazines. It was definitely written for my demographic. It helped me learn the ins-and-outs of the system. Plus it came with a demo CD. Each month I’d get to check out some tools, and apps. Some were useful for work, most were garbage. Of course the best part were the game demos.

My world of gaming had expanded exponentially thanks to the lab. Mac, and PC demos were now available to my brothers, and I. We learned of new titles months in advance, we got hands-on time with games that helped shape various genres. Including what we thought were smaller studios that would eventually change the world. One of those was a company called Bungie. People were familiar with the first person shooter (FPS) thanks to games by id studio. Titles like Wolfenstein 3D (1992), and Doom (1993) were familiar to us. My brothers, and I got to play the PC versions when we visited our friends in high school. After high school, as the FPS genre evolved we were able to try out demos, and eventually full titles for games like Marathon (1994), and Quake (1996) in the college computer lab. Sometimes we’d get the console version, and sometimes we were content that we got to experience the computer-exclusive. Our friends that were console purists had no idea what they were missing out on. We had friends that swore up, and down that Nintendo was the only company that could make great games. We had Playstation fans that pledged allegiance to Sony, even though they had barely entered the market. My brothers knew that the world of gaming was so much bigger than they could have known, if only they tried out all of these awesome games. Oni, also by Bungi was one of the last demos we played. Most of the lab techs finished university, by 2001 or had transferred. Halo was originally announced for the Mac, which made us happy. When Microsoft bought out Bungie, and made Halo an Xbox exclusive we knew the console wars of our adult years would never be the same.

In the mid ‘90s there wasn’t a Steam Store, the internet was restricted to dial-up modems at home. Rich kids maybe had fiber, or ISDN so their dad could work at home. So there was not really a way to download game demos. Physical media was important, and demos came on CD which were included with most magazines. This was true for console games as well. I remember when the college was connected to the internet, starting with the library, our building. That was another momentous change for my gaming experience. But I digress… One of the MacAddict issues had a demo for something called Carmageddon. I ran it on one of our computers after the lab closed, and I was hooked right away. As a console player the game pad was everything. I was never used to keyboards to control the action. Even games that used a joystick connected to the computer seemed awkward to me. In a matter of moments I got familiar with driving the car in the game, and even moving the camera around without a game pad. The 3D in the game was revolutionary at the time. Yes, the Playstation, N64, and Saturn were already out. They were doing decent 3D games, but the Mac, and PC were on another level. The complexity of the models, the textures, physics, lighting, and effects were well above what home consoles could do at the time. As much fun as I was having it was also maddening playing the demo. Like most demos it was timed. After 4 minutes the game would exit back to the main menu. I reloaded the demo again, and again, hour after hour, day after day. I played the demo more than any other preview we had gotten at the time. I got my brothers, and coworkers hooked on it as well. We all knew that when the game was officially released we would be getting it.

It seemed like forever until the final game did come out. Until then I scoured the internet for anything I could find on the game. Thankfully there was a website, and news on the game. I researched everything I could about the title, about the studios creating it. I had never heard of the developer Stainless Software, or the publisher SCi. I began visiting game forums, and seeing the reaction of other players. It seemed that those lucky enough to get the demo were having a blast as well. There were many countries that hadn’t gotten it yet, because of the violent content. They were eager to see what the fuss was about. One the forums I found showed players how to make an image of the demo off of the CD, and save it to the computer. Even better there was a way to disable the time lock. With this knowledge I ended up making copies of the demo for my coworkers, and they happily installed it on all the systems in the lab. Now we could play on any computer we wanted, as much as we wanted.

The demo gave players just enough time to do a lap on “Blood on the Rooftops.” One of the latter stages in the game. I got to the point where I could run the entire course very quickly, and didn’t have to waste my 4 minutes. Without a time limit I ended up exploring every square inch of the map. Learning where all the streets, and alleys intersected. I learned which ramps could take me to the tops of every skyscraper. I managed to reach the elevated train track, that I had thought was impossible to access before. I memorized every group of pedestrians, every power up on that map. These were important because in the actual game you only started with a minute, or two on the countdown clock. The only way to earn more time was to run over pedestrians, about 15 seconds per person. The old joke between teenagers driving, and saying that running over this person was worth so many points had come true. Wiping out a group earned a bonus multiplier, as did creative ways of splatting pedestrians. Dropping on them from above, smearing them against a wall, scaring them with a horn honk before the kill were all rewarded behavior. It was raucous, and everyone in the lab that tried it loved it despite the dark material.

The control was rock solid, capturing one of the important elements that I had talked about earlier. If I had to describe the actual game play I would say that Carmageddon was the definition of the impossible racer. The physics were groundbreaking. The cars acted as if they had weight, and heft, especially at speed. They all handled realistically, more or less. It was what the cars that were capable of that made the game so much fun. The vehicles were almost indestructible. In any other game a car that hits a wall at 300 mph would explode. In Carmageddon it might just crumple the body a little. The vehicles behaved like Hot Wheel toys being thrown around a freshly mopped kitchen floor. Ram them as hard as you want, and they’ll keep coming back for more. Instead of orange plastic tracks, or a stack of books acting as a ramp the game featured some of the most fantastic levels ever designed. These courses had tunnels, massive jumps, chicanes, and drop offs. The cars could even operate under water, in acid, toxic waste, snow, and lava. Some stages were on raceways, and others were on rooftops of massive skyscrapers. Blind intersections where two cars could collide at high speed, and send one of them flying a few hundred feet straight up in the air was the rule, not the exception. This helped create a breakneck (no pun intended) pace for gameplay. Drivers and opponents were always willing to go full-tilt at each other, or even at the police that patrolled the race, because the cars would mostly survive the wreck.

Carmageddon, many fans shortened it to “Carma,” is something that seems to be universally appreciated by people that tried it. The more people you could get to join the game the better it became. Within a few minutes any person that I introduced the game to was shouting "holy shit" at every crazed jump, and high speed wipeout. People often say that Carma would be perfect if only it had weapons, like the Twisted Metal series by Sony. I say they are missing the point. The cars are the weapons, the diversity of cars you can drive, are akin to the different guns in any first person shooter (FPS). In Twisted Metal the vehicles didn’t behave like cars at all, they acted like FPS characters. They bounced around the screen, automatically flipped themselves over, and did lots of impossible things. The mass and momentum of real cars took a literal back seat, and that was fine. The designers at SingleTrac didn’t want to slow down the game play with the experience they wanted to capture. Carmageddon is more focused on the vehicles. The car destruction is everything, but not the only thing. There is no more rewarding experience than catching up to a race in progress and wiping out the opponents with a runaway plow. Or dropping down on an unsuspecting rival that is hobbling on its last three wheels.

There was much more to Carma than a demolition derby. There were the power ups to learn about. Scattered all over the stage were red, blue, yellow, and black barrels. If you ran over them they rewarded you with a random power up. Some only gave you extra points, or time. Some made pedestrians explode, or go blind temporarily. Other barrels changed the physics, and behavior of your car. For example some made it so your wheels had no traction, as if they were coated in oil. Some made your car as dense as granite so that even the smallest car could send opponents flying. Other power ups changed the physics of the world, so all of the cars floated as if they were on the moon, or they scraped the ground as if they were rolling on the surface of Jupiter. Again, these power ups lasted only a few seconds so that they wouldn’t kill the experience. Even better, they would regenerate after several minutes. Learning the placement of specific barrels would become critical in multiplayer games. The original game did not support online play, like most of its PC predecessors multiplay was achieved via local area network (LAN).

I ended up hosting Carmageddon LAN parties in our computer lab even before the final game was released. I would buy little prizes through the semester, and at the end of the quarter would host a tournament. Using the demo we would  go to one of the available computers, and all start at the same time. We would have a race to complete the required laps. I would run my computer on the projector, so everyone could see where I was at any point. Later on as the technology in the lab changed I could broadcast random players on the screen. The winners would get a gift card, music CD, or Hot Wheels car to celebrate the occasion. This was on top of the soda, and pizza provided by Alison. Did I forget to mention what a great boss she was? It was a great way to let off steam after a season of hard work, as well dealing with rude teachers, and students. I often took myself out of the competition because I was too good at the game. All that extra time I put in with it really paid off. My coworkers said that would change once the final version was released. I looked forward to the challenge.

Our world was about to change when the full version was released. Would our boss, and even department head allow one of the most controversial games of all time continue to be played at school? What would happen when the Dean of the college found out what we were up to? I will talk about all that in the next blog. I hope to see you back for that! 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!

Robo-D, the tiny Disney robots from Japan. A 1UP Classic...

Friends, today we're going to look at my favorite capsule toys, the Robo-D series by Yujin. The parent company Takara Tomy has been in the business for a long time and has the Disney license for a number of unique products. I had mentioned the detailed figures the company produced with the Epic Mickey capsule toys blog. Many years prior they released a series of figures that were absolutely brilliant. The 1-inch plastic robots shaped after the Disney mascots were among the most unique figures I had ever seen. A decade ago I had seen these figures in a Japanese toy magazine. I knew that they would never appear in the US and was saddened with that realization. The tiny figures were meant to be won in capsule toy (vending machine) prizes and not for sale in any Disney park. However there were stores that did nothing but sell these prizes directly to the consumer. My big brother surprised me by tracking down the set and giving them to me for my birthday almost a decade ago.

The figures were reminiscent of classic wind-up tin toys. The small rivets, boxy proportions, tubes and dials that made up the details were amazing. The hard plastic figures looked as if they were metal toys. The initial release featured Pluto, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald. On the backs of the figures were wind up keys featuring the initial of the character. They had the illusion of being wind-up toys but the arms, legs and keys were simply springs. The figures did not move. Yujin did release a set of figured that did move but they were larger and did not quite have the same proportions or charm of the original Robo-D series.

As the years progressed Yujin would revisit or update the line. They released a matte painted version of the figures called the Robo-D Zero version, a 5-inch version of Mickey, Minnie and Goofy and keychain versions of the original lineup as well. A few years ago they revisited the line and added new members. Robo-D version 2.0 featured Pete, Popotto (a Japanese character), Mickey with wheels and a paint gun, Winnie the Pooh and Bambi. The new figures kept the same color scheme and proportions of the original cast. As he was in animated form so too did the Pete figure impose over the rest of the cast. Pete was the heftiest of all, he was about 2 inches tall and about 2 inches wide as well.

The figures were instantly collectable and something not really seen in the west. They married the classic Disney designs with a nostalgia of tin robot toys that never existed.

The most recent Robo-D release, Version 3.0, saw more familiar faces but also a bold redesign for Donald. The updated Duck featured him riding atop a UFO sporting a removable visor.

The new lineup also updated Mickey slightly, with a large rocket booster belt. The new robots included Chip and Dale, Daisy and Popotto's girlfriend. Disney fans and collectors owe it to themselves to track down these figures. It might be hard to find the first generation of figures but V.2 and V.3 still appear in circulation. Thanks to eBay it has never been easier to collect rare items from around the world.

Happy hunting!

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!