

Carmageddon seeks Kickstarter cash comeback - xd
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18009412

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samlittlewood
I really hope this pans out well - I was one of the authors of the software
renderer they used - and, if I recall correctly, there was some serendipity in
the game's origins:

We had a PC version going well (DOS, Windows, ... FM Towns!), but needed a
good PPC mac port and some demos. We met Patrick & Neil through game industry
networking, they contracted for this and got coding.

We had specced some ghastly 'design by committee' ideas for demos, details of
which are fortunately lost in the mists of time. Thankfully, they kinda
ignored the daft ideas and started playing with cars, physics & deformation,
and the game was born.

The comments about Patrick's stock car racing are not far off - On one of my
support trips to the Isle of Wight, I arrived to find a pile of police cars
and Patrick's station wagon (proper US one - timber an all) with a broken wind
shield. They had been filming footage for rotoscoping the peds by the simple
expedient of Patrick driving at his mechanic (John?) who then rolled over the
roof of the car - safety equipment was several layers of jumpers. ISTR the
windshield broke when the car was not going fast enough to carry the victim
over the roof.

Local offices had complained (I'm sure Patrick jumping out from behind cars
with a pretend bazooka whilst being filmed did not help either :-)

~~~
flannell
I do love these insights into the old days. If this works then maybe other old
skool developers might fancy a pension top-up. Hopefully Ian Bird or Julian
Gollop are listening!

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xd
Kickstarter page:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmagedd...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmageddon-
reincarnation/)

$15 for a copy of the game has to be worth it.

~~~
SquareWheel
Keep in mind it's a potential copy of the game. Nothing is guaranteed, even if
the goal is reached.

~~~
xd
True, but maybe they could release the original game onto steam as a
consolation; I'd be happy with that. Wait a minute , why didn't they do that
in the first place, surely that would have raised a fair amount of money in
itself.

~~~
redthrowaway
I imagine porting it to keep it working with modern systems would be non-
trivial. I know I can barely get most games from that era to run on my laptop.

~~~
pygy_
That's where Good Old Games (aka GoG) comes to the rescue...

They sell vintage games, updated to run on modern systems. AFAIK, they adapt
the games themselves (DOSBox for DOS titles, patches and custom settings for
Windows titles.) The prices on the home page span between $3 and $30.

The problem in this case is that the authors don't own the game, Square Enix
does.

<http://www.gog.com/>

<http://www.dosbox.com>

~~~
redthrowaway
Thanks, I'll check it out if I ever stumble across any of that much-fabled
"free time".

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mattbee
Another Carmageddon connection: Patrick Buckland, the Stainless Games founder,
also wrote Mac shooter Crystal Quest which was the reason I don't remember
most of 1988.

~~~
samlittlewood
Indeed - 'that sound effect' emerging from a cubicle warren always made me
smile.

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DigitalSea
The original Grand Theft Auto. If this game comes back, it has a lot to live
up too. The original was a staple of my childhood, the graphics were cutting
edge when this game came out, if they remake it, it better be more than just a
modern adoption of the original, people expect way more from games these days.
Could this work?

~~~
davidjgraph
No. No, it couldn't work. Clearly while we bask in the glory of Carmageddon's
pixelated decapitations, we'll all be too misty eyed to consider anything
other than some pleasant childhood memory that occurred =/-5 years of playing
Carmageddon.

That said, if Carmageddon and World of Tanks had babies, I'd want to be at the
birth.

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robgough
Is it just me, or is there nowhere on that page actually linking to the
kickstarter project?

~~~
bogdand
I've also noticed this.
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmagedd...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stainlessgames/carmageddon-
reincarnation/)

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smickie
From what I've heard, Carmageddon was a fantastic game, however... I had the
N64 version, it was one of the buggiest game I have ever played.

It was always fun watching the AI navigate tricky sections of straight road.

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josefresco
Hopefully it's better than TDR 2000 and comes with real blood right out of the
gate as opposed to the green zombie toning down treatment. Loved this game,
fond memories of playing over the LAN at college.

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Derbasti
I happily spent my $30 on that Double Fine project. Then Leisure Suit Larry
came up, then numerous other remakes, now this...

Frankly, many a developer has produced crap games for a great franchise. I
don't like spending money on crap games. Now maybe all of these will turn out
great! But maybe not.

I am pretty sure Double Fine will be able to crank out great stuff like they
always do. Al Lowe is a big name, too, even though his last big success is
already ancient history.

But this one... Just as venture capitalists won't fund people they don't
trust, I won't kickstart something with dubious value. I rather give to
charity than support people who might waste it.

If it turns out great, I'll happily buy it though. If you can't convince me of
that though, I rather give the same money to a cool open source project.
Seriously, I do this regularly.

~~~
mdesantis
If you played to Carmageddon you would not be in doubt, I think

~~~
SpiderX
If you played the sequels, you would be in doubt.

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zephjc
My friends and I in high school loved the game, and we frequently played it at
LAN parties on our PPC macs. Unfortunately if it crashed, it would crash on
ALL the computers and bring them all down, requiring system restarts. (Ah, the
joys of MacOS before OSX)

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julianz
Now this might be a Kickstarter I could get behind! I used to love this game.

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zht
I absolutely loved this game. I remember playing the crap out of the time-
limited demo version over and over again as a kid because I couldn't afford
the full version.

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bostonvaulter2
Does it say what Operating Systems it will run on anywhere? Maybe it's just
Windows?

~~~
masklinn
> We plan to produce a Mac OSX version shortly after the PC release, with Xbox
> 360 and PS3 following as soon as possible afterwards. (And on to even more
> platforms, as funds and time allow...)

They'll be using Steam for PC/Mac, if the rumors of Steam/Linux come true
that'll probably make it more likely for them to port.

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berntb
Ahhh, the only driving games I really enjoyed in my "youth" was Carmageddon
and Car Wars.

If they add kids among the pedestrians and a non-Windows version, I'll invest.
:-)

~~~
masklinn
From the Kickstarter FAQ:

> We plan to produce a Mac OSX version shortly after the PC release, with Xbox
> 360 and PS3 following as soon as possible afterwards. (And on to even more
> platforms, as funds and time allow...)

No word on children, but they probably wouldn't be far-fetched considering the
original one had both old ladies with walkers and women with strollers.

