Death Race Computer Game

[Calfu Baransky]

Thegore hadn't yet been implemented into the version of DeathSprint I saw, but the opportunities for it were many. Traps will include spike rollers, pendulums, lasers, and "death pits," says Willans, and there'll be weapons players can deploy manually. Instead of red shells and blue shells, we'll be flinging buzzsaws.

The other obvious difference between DeathSprint 66 and Mario Kart (and most racing games) is that you're on foot. Sort of. As a clone jockey, you control a sprinting human clone via neural implant, and it really looks more like SSX snowboarding than running. You can grind on rails, leaning left or right to avoid traps, and the courses feature wall running sections, jump pads, speed boosts, and zip lines.

DeathSprint 66 is coming to PC sometime this year. A PvE mode is planned, but eight player PvP races were the focus of my chat. There'll be practice modes, too. What it sounds like there won't be is a battle pass or cosmetics shop. The plan, says Willans, is to sell a complete package a reasonable price.

"We've created something which is we think's a great value proposition, it's going to be sensibly priced, it's a self contained game," said Willans. "You know, all of the cosmetics and stuff are within that game."

In July 2011, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association that video games qualify for the same free speech protections that cover other forms of expression; in their ruling, the justices cite a rich history of prior free speech cases1. These cases include landmark decisions which helped deregulate film screenings and cable television broadcasting, and the court's 2010 decision in United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 130 S.Ct. 1577 (2010), which "held that new categories of unprotected speech may not be added to the list by a legislature that concludes certain speech is too harmful to be tolerated"2 (Brown v. EMA, 2011). In the majority opinion in Brown v. EMA, the justices note that, "this country has no tradition of specially restricting children's access to depictions of violence," and hold that "California's claim that ꞌinteractiveꞌ video games present special problems, in that the player participates in the violent action on screen and determines its outcome, is unpersuasive" (Brown v. EMA, 2011).

The fetishization of novel media technologies in industrial and public narratives of video gaming help obscure the medium's cultural history. Debates about video game violence seem perpetually new as the specific technologies used to depict violent acts are endlessly retooled with an eye toward interactivity, immersion, and realism. But, the history of moral panics about video game violence stretches almost as long as the history of the industry itself, beginning with Exidy's Death Race in 1976. The game, based on the 1975 film Death Race 2000, made waves far beyond the confines of the coin-op industry and helped establish the Exidy brand nationally. For moral guardians suspicious of or hostile to the budding culture of video gaming, Death Race became the signature example of video games' depravity and corrupting influence.

In the film Death Race 2000, set in the year 2000, the United States has collapsed due to a financial crisis and a military takeover. In the wake of the upheavals, the United States has been reconceived as the United Provinces. The Bipartisan Party has subsumed all political parties, creating a one-party system. The Bipartisan Party also serves as the nation's religious leadership, as church and state have unified. The nation's figurehead is the charismatic Mr. President (Sandy McCallum), who alternates between soothing assurances and fiery incitements like the most skilled cult leader. The citizens of the United Provinces remain placated through the spectacle of a slew of ultraviolent sports. The most popular of these bloody public contests is the Annual Transcontinental Road Race. The race, considered an important symbol of the nation's values (which include "the American tradition of no holds barred"), is a cross-country road race in which motorists run down pedestrians for points. Elderly victims are worth a whopping 70 points, while women are worth 10 more points than men in all age brackets, teenagers are worth 40 points, and so on. For efficiency's sake, the race coincides with the ever-popular Euthanasia Day, so motorists can contribute to the public good by mowing down pensioners whose wheelchairs and hospital beds have been rolled out for the occasion.

Critics were divided over whether the film was scathingly funny or simply a crass bloodbath delighting too easily in the same culture of violence it ostensibly critiques. Writing for The New York Times, Lawrence Van Gelder (1975) dismissed the film by suggesting it had failed as satire:

Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, awarded the film zero stars, and did not engage with the film much in his review, choosing instead to meditate on his experience seeing an audience full of children watch the movie with glee (Ebert, 1975). Negative critical response to the film was not universal. In The Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas (1975) said the film "demonstrates that imagination can overcome the tightest budget." In addition to praising several actorsꞌ performances, he dismissed criticisms of the film's violence saying, "there's much slaughter in ꞌDeath Race 2000,ꞌ but it's presented so swiftly that the film avoids an unduly hypocritical exploitation of that which it means to condemn."

In addition to fitting within the historical production category of the exploitation film, Death Race 2000 was released simultaneous to an emergent mainstream cinema more prone to displays of violence and overt sexuality. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Memoirs v. Massachusetts in 1966, holding that only materials which could be shown to be both "patently offensive" and "utterly without redeeming social value" did not qualify for First Amendment protections. Two years later, the Hayes Code which had restricted cinema production was replaced by the more permissive voluntary Motion Picture Association of America ratings system. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court further extended free speech protections in the decision inMiller v. California, permitting obscene materials as long as they were not distributed to minors or to third parties who had not specifically requested these materials. Looser definitions of obscenity led to a proliferation of violent and risqu films in the United States which would not have passed muster under the preceding regulatory standards. Many like Death Race 2000 or even pornographic films like The Devil in Miss Jones (1973) and Deep Throat (1972) gained cult status which sustained their popularity long enough to make them early video rental favorites later that decade.

The relaxing of governmental and industry regulation of film production meant that films like Death Race 2000 could make some claim to cultural legitimacy and were less likely to face outright banning or suppression. Death Race 2000 may have been a low-budget film, but it had a cast of legitimate actors and a production team with enough clout to garner reviews in major papers. The film was a recognizable name and became a cult hit; film listings for Dallas Morning News indicate that theaters in the area were still screening the film with some regularity in 1978, three years after the film's release, with screenings also occurring in 1979 and 1980, often alongside domestic and international horror/action films like Death Rage, Master of the Flying Guillotine, Schoolgirls in Chains, and Chain Gang Women4. Despite Ebert's concerns about the film reaching a young audience, Death Race 2000 fit in well at drive-ins and late-night screenings catering to devotees of oddball cinema, an outlet where it persisted long enough to become a recognizable brand. And where, at least in the case of the drive-in, viewing context may have added to the effect of watching cars mowing down hapless pedestrians.

The advertisement featured the marquee picture from the game cabinet complete with muscle-car racing ghouls, and the first line describing the game is punctuated with tiny skull-and-crossbones graphics. The statement that the player will have to "ꞌget involvedꞌ in whatever way he wants" suggests a male audience, but more importantly, it suggests the game will provide an immersive, engrossing environment.

The advertisements in RePlay do not target players directly, but in fact target the route operators who purchase and place coin-op machines in public places. The goal is not to convince individuals to play the game, but instead to convince operators that the game will hook a general audience and prove a moneymaking investment. Exidy considered the cabinet graphics to be a major selling point for Death Race, and so the flashy marquee graphic dominates the advertisement. Individual coin-op machines represented significant investments for route operators, and the move toward video games increased the investment required for each machine. Operators could be hard to sell on new games, especially when they could instead purchase and place more copies of games already successful on their routes. The reference to Destruction Derby links the game to Exidy's past success while the text as a whole suggests, none too subtly, that the game is different enough to hook a larger audience of players, whether they're interested in '50s dragsters, '30s mobsters, or '70s street racers, while ensuring that it will be as good an investment as Destruction Derby7.

The second advertisement for Death Race to appear in RePlay ran the next month in the April 1976 issue. Perhaps in acknowledgement of a feature covering the game's release in the issue, the ad features simple typography with a photographic image of the game cabinet (Death Race from Exidy, 1976). Exidy's marketing and sales manager Linda Robertson suggests the graphics were at least as important to the game as the gameplay: "the artwork alone on this game . . . showing the skeletons, gremlins and graveyard . . . is certain to invite immediate player interest. The play of the game is so much fun they'l come back again and again" (Death Race from Exidy, 1976). More obviously appealing directly to operators, the ad includes promises of high profits and excellent technical service:

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