Carmageddon - One of Davenport's Favorite Games to Play

Summary

It is like being a Death Race 2000 character. Carmageddon is the first of a series of graphically violent driving-oriented video games produced by Stainless Games, published by Interplay and SCi and released June 30, 1997 on Windows PC and Macintosh. It has the dubious title of being a poster child for video game controversy.

The game was notable for its realistic and ground-breaking physics, and for its in-game movie making features. It was also one of the earliest examples of a sandbox 3D driving game.

In this no rules racing game take part in crazy levels in different settings like cities and snowy mountain tops. Starting at the bottom of the barrel in 99th place, you have to make your way up to the top spot. Winning races is important, but so is massive amounts of destruction. Races are timed, but you can gain more time by damaging your opponents or running over pedestrians. There are also a number of powerups scattered around the track that can boost time, speed, and other bizarre effects. Crossing the finish line first is not the only way to beat a race. It can also be done by wrecking all of your opponents or killing all of the people strolling around the levels. The more destruction the better as this earns you points toward upgrades and repairs. You can also gain new vehicles by wrecking certain rivals’ cars enough times. Another fun feature of this title is that you can leave the race track at any time and just do some exploring, you never know what craziness you will find.

Carmageddon, as you can imagine, was censored or banned in several countries. It still managed to sell about 2 million copies upon its release. It did so well it managed to spawn a series containing 2 more games. Carmageddon is not for those who are easily offended or put off by gore. With its ridiculously violent and gory gameplay, and easy control scheme, Carmageddon is just an entertaining thrill ride. Put the pedal to the metal and annihilate everything in your path! Have fun!

Carmageddon is a graphically violent vehicular combat 1997 PC video game. It was later ported to other platforms (including this Mac OS release), and spawned a series of follow-up titles. It was inspired by the 1975 cult classic movie "Death Race 2000." The game was produced by Stainless Games, published by Interplay and SCi. In early 2012, it was announced that a new port of the game will be released for iOS and certain Android mobile devices.

In Carmageddon, the player races a vehicle against a number of other computer controlled competitors in various settings, including city, mine and industrial areas. The player has a certain amount of time to complete each race, but more time may be gained by collecting bonuses, damaging the competitors' cars, or by running over pedestrians. Races are completed by either completing the course as one would a normal racing game, "wasting" (wrecking) all other race cars, or killing all pedestrians on the level.

The game featured instrumental versions of songs from Fear Factory's album Demanufacture, with the song Zero Signal being used in the game's intro. The other songs from the album that appear are Demanufacture and Body Hammer. This video game is a must-have in the collection of Mac OS videogames.

Overview

For the uninitiated, playing Carmageddon is like being a Death Race 2000 character. Eight cars race through a locale full of unsuspecting pedestrians. When the race begins, you are confronted with a timer that constantly ticks toward zero; if it gets there, you lose. That is not much of a problem, though, because you add time to it by mowing down pedestrians and trashing your opponents’ vehicles. You even get bonuses for thinking of creative ways to do it, like power-sliding through a crowd of innocent bystanders, or performing stunts.

Victory is achieved by obliterating all of your opponents, killing everyone, or – if you absolutely must – completing the race. Overall, however, the game is more about mindless destruction than clean organized racing – other than feeding the timer, there are no rules. On the technical side Carmageddon features some very cool physics, including a deformation system. Trash your car long enough and you will eventually see pieces fly off and the body get twisted. The same goes for opponent cars. Each vehicle handles and looks differently, and every single one is hilariously designed with that hint of creative sadism in mind.

The levels are huge and open-ended. You can drive anywhere for miles before finally getting stopped by a barrier (a useful automap function lets you know exactly where you are). The tracks have a lot of jumps and hills to show off the car physics, and if you are skilled enough you can perform stunt jumps that reward you with credits. The levels are designed with fun in mind, so it won’t take long before you find a ramp or two. Power-ups are scattered all around, and they range from the simple (extra credits, extra time) to the truly bizarre (suicidal pedestrians, lunar gravity, the dreaded pinball mode).

So with all of this awesomeness to go around, is there anything wrong with Carmageddon? Yes, there is. For one thing, you will probably be stuck driving with your stock car through the entire ‘campaign’ races – all 99 of them – which can become surprisingly boring. Some of the other cars are drivable, but to get them you have to destroy them during a race, and even then you only get a small chance of the car being added to your garage. Only 9 out of Carma’s 30 cars can be grabbed this way.

Carma uses the stealworthy system of awarding the player with new cars, and it is not very reliable. Picture playing through Carma’s 99 levels and wasting every opponent driver on each map. All of that mass carnage amounts to 495 kills, out of which I barely got 7 vehicles, the majority of them no better than my stock car. To get every car in the race you have to complete the entire game, but by that time you probably will not care enough anyway.

The driving AI has its ups and downs. For one thing fellow racers are really easy to piss off. Gently budge into their car and you will be hounded for the rest of the race. Towards the end they completely hate you, ganging up on your car each time. But Carmageddon is a fun, dark game of roadside destruction all the same. You will love every bit of it despite its limitations.

Gallery

Choose Player.

Track map view

View from behind cehicle - snow level

Race Checkpoint ahead

Race Checkpoint in the snow

Red tire tracks

pedestrians in the way

Cows

Phone booths with people next to structure

Football field 2X Combination

Cunning Stunt Bonus

Select Track