Before GTA: The Blood, Guts & Gore Of Carmageddon
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Controversial video games is common place in modern video gaming, but it was back in the 90s that graphics first went gory. As computing moved from the blocky 8-bit 80s into the bloody 16-bit 90s, and the gloriously gory 32-bit towards the end of the 90s. With the introduction of the Intel 80486 chip in 1989, and the first Pentiums in 1993, PC gaming went through a renaissance during the 90s. With blood, guts and gore being the cornerstone of many games released during the period. In 1993 the seminal first-person-shooter Doom was released, followed a year later by Doom 2. The the PC's capabilities to run full-motion-video (FMV), point-and-click horror adventure games like Phantasmagoria (1995) and Harvester (1996) were both released. All of these games found themselves involved in varying levels of controversy for their gory content in the media. Then in 1997 Stainless Games released a driving game (not a genre previously associated with controversy), inspired by the 1975 sci-fi horror movie Death Race 2000. Carmageddon would be one step too far for many, who worried about the increasing violence in video games.
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There had already been a video game based on the movie, as in 1976 the arcade machine Death Race had caused a stir in the media. The game with its very basic monochrome graphics was famous for being one of the first video games to ever court controversy. Mowing down blocky looking stick figures with your car was just too much for parents in the mid-70s, so when the all out gore-fest of Carmageddon was released over 20 years later, it was bound to cause some consternation among the conservatives in society. I was working in a computer store at the time of the game's release, and recall how we revelled in the tongue-in-cheek way the game purposely went for the jugular. It screeched into stores, pulling a hand-brake turn, and screamed to be banned.
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Initially the game was developed as a "destruction derby" style game, and even toyed with being developed as a licensed game version of Mad Max. However as the Mad Max licence fell through, the makers picked up the Death Race 2000 licence, as there was a planned sequel being considered around that time. The sequel never happened, but the vehicular violence of Carmageddon went ahead anyway.
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In many countries the game was either banned outright, censored or released with a movie style adult only certification. In the UK the manufacturers submitted the game to the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC), for classification. The result being that they were forced to remove the "red" blood and guts, replacing it with "green" blood. The pedestrians were changed to zombies, to make the violence more palatable. Eventually however, after a nearly a year of battling with the censors, the game was granted a certification to be released uncut. In 1997 The makers released an expansion pack for the game, called the Carmageddon Splat Pack. Which aside from giving players new vehicles, tracks and environments to play, it utilised 3Dfx technology to up the quality of the on-screen gore.
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Vintage Horror Games You May Have Missed - Some of the creepiest and best horror themed vintage video games that may have slipped under your radar.
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Phantasmagoria: Vintage Gore In FMV! - The controversial survival horror adventure game, and one of the first games to use Full Motion Video. Or just a bad b-movie you had to play!
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