A review by Michael Santovec for
KEGS (Komputer Enthusiasts of Greater Seattle) - October 1997
(Rev. Feb. '98)
So Many Pedestrians, So Little Time
Carmageddon is a racing game with a twist. Or should I say a twisted racing game?
Interplay advertises this as "the racing game for the chemically imbalanced".
The various race courses do have a predefined circuit with check points and number of laps. And you do get
points for going through them in order. But that's not the point of the game. The point of the game is to do massive
property and bodily damage. You get more points for that. You aren't restricted to the streets. You can go anywhere,
including sidewalks, parks, a football stadium, building tops, rivers, over cliffs, etc.
You want to smash your opponents (before they do it to you). If you totally demolish an opponent's car, it will be available to
you in a future race (fully repaired). Splattering pedestrians, football players and farm animals is your greatest source of points.
And you get bonus points for artistic impression (e.g. two at once, backing over them, pile-driving them into a building, etc.).
You don't get any points for running over someone already dead, but they do make a satisfying squish. There are also all sorts
of power-ups giving you extra points, time, repairs, invulnerability, etc. Time is your greatest limitation. The race is over if
you run out of time and you'll not get any points for that race. So bonus time awards are very important. You finish a race
and get the most points by wasting all your opponents. The other way to finish a race is to follow the course and complete the laps.
But you don't get many points that way.
Your car does get damaged by running into things, such as buildings, mountains, barricades, mines and other cars.
And some of the power-ups are actually power-downs. You will need to periodically repair the car as it gets less powerful
and harder to control. Fortunately you can make repairs without stopping. But repairs do cost you points. And points at the
end of race determine if you move up in the rankings. The points also allow you to upgrade your car with better armor, engine and
offensive capability. There aren't any guns or missles. Your car itself is the weapon.
You start at the bottom of the rankings at level 99. At the bottom you have a choice of three race courses (downtown, national park
and ski resort), and no choice of car. As you move up, different races courses and environments (36 in total) are available
and you can get a choice of car. Your computer generated opponents also get more difficult. In addition, you also have
a choice of three difficulty levels from "as easy as killing bunnies with axes" to "harder than French kissing a cobra".
There is also the option of playing against up to 5 live opponents via an IPX network.
Look and Feel
As with similar games, you get to adjust the level a graphic detail to get a reasonable playing speed on your particular system.
You also get a choice of two view points: cockpit or external (you can instantly switch at any time). I prefer the cockpit view
because you feel more like you are in the game rather than just watching. The game also has an instant replay. You can go
back for a more careful look at the gore, just in case you missed any detail. In the instant replay you can switch views (you don't
want to miss any of the angles).
The sound effects are good. These include screaming pedestrians, mooing cattle, crashing and splattering sounds, and crude
remarks by the driver. If you do the full install, the game will play some musical interludes from CD audio tracks. Although the
game includes some midi files and the sound setup program has a midi configuration option, you can't actually select a midi
device because the setup.ini file is missing any midi device definition entries. Reportedly, the developers weren't happy with
the midi quality and decided to disable it. However, they didn't clean out all the bits and pieces.
The entire game can be played from the keyboard. You can optionally use the mouse for menu options (the mouse pointer
is a severed hand dripping blood). The game can also be played using a joystick or steering wheel controller (which appears to
the system as a joystick).
You can remap many of the keys or controls. You do so by selecting a function, then pressing the desired key, joystick button,
move the joystick, or steering wheel or foot pedal. But I found it difficult to configure the joystick and steering wheel.
For example, you can select Accelerate, then move the joystick forward, or depress the gas foot pedal.
The problem was that when moving the joystick forward, the game configuration was overly sensitive
and could interpret that as moving left or right. Likewise, pressing a button on the sterring wheel could get interpreted as turning
the wheel. It took numerous tries to get all the movements configured. The configuration needs to be less sensitive to joystick
movement, such as requiring movement of a quarter of the range before recognizing that as the selection.
I found it more difficult to control the car with the joystick than in some other racing games. Again, the game is too sensitive to minor
movements. I had much better control with the keyboard. The problem is that driving by keyboard is awkward. And after a few minutes
of play, hand cramps set in. Using a steering wheel controller with foot pedals was a vast improvement. This lets you use your driving
experience which gives much better control of the car. Game play is more comfortable and natural (if you consider splattering
pedestrians natural). If you spend any significant time playing racing games, I strongly recommend a steering wheel. I have a
MAD KATZ Analog Steering Wheel and Foot Pedals controller for PCs.
This is one of the cheapest (about $60) ones on the market. Even so, it works well. There are numerous other brands
available.
Help and Hints
The Interplay web site has very little in the way of help and hints.
A better site is SCi Games which is the developer of the game.
SCi also distributes the UK version of the game, whereas Interplay has repackaged the game for the US.
There are some differences in the versions, so some of the notes you find may not apply to your version.
For example, the US version uses BAT files to start the program. On a more interesting note, the British
censors required that the company replace red-blooded pedestrians with green-blooded zombies in order
to sell the game in the UK. The UK version of the Splat Pack includes a patch for the
original UK Carmageddon in order to get the same red-blooded pedestrians as the US version.
There are also a number of Carmageddon fanatics out there, and they've got web sites! A good one to start with is the
Carmageddon.com Web Page. You'll find hints, cheat codes,
FAQs, game editors, saved games, and links to other sites.
Splat Pack
If you don't get enough carnage in the original Carmageddon, there is the Splat Pack add-on.
More pedestrians, more courses, more opponents, more gore.
You must have the original game installed on your PC in order to install the Splat Pack. And it will ask for the original CD-ROM in
order to complete the install. However, once installed, it plays as a separate game. It must be installed into its own directory.
And you start over at level 99 with a wimpy car and few credits. You need to work your way back up to level 1,
earning credits along the way in order to beef up your car.
The Splat Pack has 21 new courses in 9 environments. These include a Mayan theme resort where you can race down
the hotel hallways, an Ice Station, and a Castle theme park. There is also a conventional race course. But as this is
Carmageddon, you are free to go anywhere, including the grand stands. The final course is Hell. There you'll
even meet old Satan himself, larger than life, and see what he uses his computer for.
Many of the same opponents and cars from the original game are retained. But there are also new ones.
The look and feel of the game is the same as the original. Other than the opening sequence and the new courses, you won't be
able to tell the difference from the original.
The Splat Pack has two versions of the game: a standard VGA version and one enhanced for video cards with the 3Dfx chip.
Also on the CD-ROM is the 3Dfx enhanced version for the original game. This is also available for download from the
Interplay web site.
System Requirements
The minimum requirements include: MS-DOS 6.2 or above (runs under Windows 95), Pentium/90, 16 MB of RAM
(24 MB if running in a DOS session under Win95), 4x CD-ROM, VGA or SVGA (1 MB RAM) video card, and most sound cards.
A variety of joysticks and steering wheels are also supported.
The original Carmageddon requires 20 MB of disk space (about 300 MB for a full install with the cut-scenes).
The Splat Pack need 32 to 150 MB of disk space in addition to whatever the original game is using.
This was tested with DOS 6.22 and Win95 (both MS-DOS Mode and a DOS session within Win95),
Pentium/133, 32 MB of RAM, 2x and 16x CD-ROM drives, joystick and steering wheel controller with foot pedals.
The 4x CD-ROM is required to properly play the cut-scene animations (game introduction, end of race celebrations, etc.).
Slower speed CD-ROMs can't keep up. The animations will break up, or possibly crash the program. Even with the 16x
CD-ROM, there were occasional problems playing the introduction (this is more likely to happen in a Win95 DOS session than
in Win95 MS-DOS Mode or DOS 6.22). There are
three workarounds. You can cancel the animations when they start (e.g. click the mouse). You can add "-nocutscenes"
to the command to start the game. Or you can copy them to the hard disk (directory DATA\CUTSCENE - about 80 MB
for the original game and 50 MB for the Splat Pack).
The manual suggests a full install will do this. But the full install copies everything except the cut-scenes.
You need to copy them manually. You can also do this with the small or medium install.
The CD-ROM drive is not used during a race. So if you have a slower one, you can still play the game. You just need to
get around the cut-scene problem above, and wait a bit longer to load game options.
I found that the game ran fairly well in a DOS session under Win95. It did occasionally crash. In addition to the cut-scenes
mentioned above, this seemed most likely to happen when loading/starting a race. Only once did the program crash during a
race (the cars crashed frequently). It seemed more stable and the controls more responsive
running in MS-DOS mode or DOS 6.22.
Even with the full install, you still need the CD-ROM in the drive (it's checked when starting a race). With network play,
one PC (the host) requires the CD-ROM in the drive. The network play requires an IPX network and supports up to 6 players.
Ratings and Recommendations
The original Carmageddon has a list price of $44.95. The Splat Pack lists for $19.95.
The Max Pack, which includes both CDs, lists for $49.95.
The game is rated: Mature (Ages 17+), "Animated Blood and Gore; Animated Violence; Strong Language".
That pretty much sums it up. This is a game without any redeeming social value. I liked it a lot.
Start your engines!
Revised - December 1997
Since the original review, I've added a 16x CD-ROM and a steering wheel controller with foot pedals to my system.
The appropriate parts of the review have been revised to reflect testing with these new items. The version of
this review at the KEGS web site has not be updated.
Revised - February 1998
Reviewed the Splat Pack for the KEGS March 1998 Newsletter.
Information from that review has been incorporated into this one. Several other minor updates are also included here.
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