Carmageddon

aka: Carmageddon 3D, Carmageddon: Fahr zur Hölle!, Hole Hege
Moby ID: 367
Windows Specs
Add-on (official) Add-on (unofficial) Included in Special Edition See Also

Description official descriptions

Carmageddon is a violent car racing game where the racing element can be equally important as wrecking opponents' cars or gathering kills by ramming into pedestrians. At the beginning the player has only one car and is ranked at #99. The overall objective is to race all the way to the top, collecting the opponents' cars on the way as trophies (and possibly replacements to one's vehicle). In the race itself the player tries to damage opponents by driving into them, and can also kill pedestrians.

Damage, kills and spectacular moves earn credits for upgrades and even making repairs to the car at anytime during the race. If a specific opponent's car is wrecked multiple times in successive races, it is added to the choice of available vehicles. There are many power-ups strewn around the courses that range from useful (more speed, instant brake) to fun and downright absurd. Though the player can win a race by finishing first, wrecking everything in sight is encouraged. The game offers open environments where exploration away from the racing course is encouraged.

Spellings

  • חולה ×”×’×” - Hebrew spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

106 People (101 developers, 5 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 81% (based on 33 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 153 ratings with 11 reviews)

A great game for total unadulterated fun..

The Good
Carmageddon is a fun game. Think about the movie DeathRace 2000 or the old Steve Jackson game Autoduel, Put it in a 3-Dimensional environment and you get the idea of this game.

The Graphics, in low-res are good, but not superb. Running the came on my P233 with low-res is fast. And I mean FAST. The sensation of speed in remarkable. Running the game in High-Res is very nice looking, but on my 233 is a but lagged on the frame rate.

The Gameplay is great. 17 different tracks (each unlocked as you increase in your ranking), Over 30 power-ups (such as turbo, mega-turbo, instant handbrake, and "Pinball Mode"), plenty of cars to unlock make this a game your need to work at to unlock all the secrets. You can upgrade your cars with better Armor, Engine and Tires, so as you progress through the game, your car get better and faster. The "feel" of each of the cars are different. For instance the Cop car handles a lot differently than the Electric Blue car. Another great feature of the game is "Instant Repair". Basically, it allows you to make repairs while driving at full throttle. No hassles of pitstops or repair screens in between races.

The Physics model is good. Just when you think you can make a jump and land it right, the physics engine shines! You see the car tipping just like in real life. It's pretty cool.

The Sound is good for game. It's great when you hit a jump at the right speed and the guy lets out a cool sounding yell. Unfortunately, my sound card isn't able to play the MIDI files during the game, although I can play them outside the game. But considering I can't listen to the music while playing the game, I can't give an objective opinion on it.

The AI, depending on the level of difficulty you select, is either really easy or downright impossible. On the easy settings, scoring points and credits is easy, wrecking other cars is really simple and the game is ok. On the Most difficult setting, You're lucky if you get within 100 feet of the starting line before getting the snot kicked out of you. Progressing is much harder, and wrecking cars is a long procedure.

The Bad
The Control of the cars is real touchy. I've played with a joystick, but I prefer the keyboard for control purposes. The joystick controls are very loose - it's very difficult to make turns. The keyboard is also a bit difficult to manage, but much easier to control.

The Bottom Line
It's a great game. Mindless fun - and I think each one of us who has driven down the road and played the "points" game (you know... 5 points for cones, 15 points for runners, etc.) will appreciate the game.

DOS · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2000

One of the best network racers around

The Good
Forget the single player game, coz it gets dull pretty quick.

As a network game, this is brilliant. Don't bother with the destruction games - they take forever to play. Stick to Checkpoint Stampede, Fox and Hounds and Terminal Tag.You'll need at least 3 players to make it work, preferably more (there's a limit of 6). What you have then is more fun than should be legal - it's fun, fast, manic, laugh-out-loud funny, gut-wrenchingly-tense, and highly addictive.

The Bad
The single player game really is quite poor - the SVGA graphics mode needs at least 600MHz to play (on a game released when the P166 was king of the hill) - the sounds are poor (but you can import your own) - the game physics are really bad - the cars handling is awful - there's little sensation of speed...

I could go on, but none of these actually matter when you're running for you life in a game of Fox and Hounds.

Additionally, the network game crashes often in Windows, so you need to play it in DOS. And even then it sometimes crashes.

The Bottom Line
Got a network? Get this game. It is outstanding, and probably the most fun you'll have with your mates. Haven't got a network? Don't bother.

DOS · by Steve Hall (329) · 2000

One hell of a stress-reliever. Forbidden, sinful fun.

The Good
Carmageddon walks the line of political correctness--you are given bonus points and money for hitting pedestrians. And, I'm ashamed to say, it's incredibly satisfying and fun. Come on--what other game in the world (other than the sequel) lets you pound into those moronic rollerbladers and slow, fat pedestrians with a satisfying thud?

If you enjoy sick humor (and hey, who doesn't?), you'll have much to laugh about, as the game can get pretty sick sometimes. The amount of pure carnage is just amazing. In addition to merely smacking peds silly, you can get special bonuses for things like artistic expression and piledrivers. And don't forget the electro-bastard death ray!

I could not believe how over the top this game was until I played it. I laughed so hard the first ten minutes of gameplay that I had tears streaming down my face. It's that rediculously outrageous and silly.

Of course, you can win races by actually racing them normally and completing all the checkpoints, but that's no fun at all. It's much more fun to unleash metal-crunching power against your other race opponents--preferably by ramming them head-on. The physics engine in Carmageddon is great in this respect; you can ram another car so hard that they'll get pushed backwards, hit an explosive barrel, go flying sideways, smash into a nearby building, and keep going. This is made much more damaging if you have the pinball powerup, which makes every concrete surface act like rubber (except you still hit it very hard, like concrete).

The powerups are worth mentioning, since they provide a lot of laughs as well: Hotrod, for funnycar-like acceleration; lunar gravity, for high jumps; Jupiter gravity, for no jumps and scraping your frame against the ground all the time; solid granite car for maximum destruction; stuck peds, which makes pedestrians stick to your car after you ram them; frozen peds, which freezes them to the spot; the list goes on and on.

The Bad
There is one valid gripe with Carmageddon: The speed of the game engine. Carmageddon follows a physics model that has to account for bouncing and ricocheting off of walls, other cars, etc. This takes a lot of calculations, but I can't help thinking that they might have been able to optimize it just a little bit more. On the recommended hardware, most options have to be turned down and the game played at 320x200 to keep the framerate over 15fps. A high-res option is included, but at 2-3 fps, it's a joke.

Another gripe is actually directed at european countries--they don't get to see the full game! The European version of the game uses "robots" instead of real people with blood, and the German version uses "zombies" with green blood. That just isn't fun at all.

Finally, the gameplay starts to get repetitive after awhile.

The Bottom Line
If you need to relieve some stress, thought that the movie Dead Alive was hilarious, or generally want to smash into everything and everyone: Carmageddon is your game.

DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 1999

[ View all 11 player reviews ]

Trivia

Death Race 2000

The whole game is reminiscent of the 1975 movie Death Race 2000. The movie's premise is identical to that of Carmageddon. It featured David Carradine and a naive pre-Rocky Sly Stallone. And if you look at the main character's car, it is exactly like the main car in Carmageddon with a different paint job. Exidy's late 70's arcade game Death Race was another descendant of this movie.

German index

On October 31, 1997, the English version of Carmageddon was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. More information about this topic can be found in the game group.

German version

The German version had robots, not people. This was due to Germany's strict legislation regarding violence in computer games. Those robots are also hidden in the standard releases. Calling CARMA.EXE with the "-ROBOTS" parameter will replace pedestrians with robots.

Indian version

The cows in Carmageddon were removed from the Indian release.

O. J. Simpson reference

One of the opponents, "OK Stimpson", is a clear reference to American football celebrity and actor O. J. Simpson in name and likeness. The game also alludes to the murder trial Simpson was involved in, by showing stains of a red liquid on his shirt in Stimpson's portrait picture, as well as having him drive a "Fraud Broko" SUV, similar to the Ford Bronco involved in a police chase in relation to the real-world case. Most likely due to the legally sensitive nature of the topic, some of the references were removed for the US release. The driver was renamed "Juicy Jones" (still a reference to Simpson's nickname, The Juice) and the stains on his shirt recolored to orange.

Sound

The engine noises came from a variety of places. One was my '67 Buick. Another was a guy who happened to come and check my hard drive. He had a rally car replica, so we strapped a minidisc to the back and he drove it around the Isle of Wight at highly illegal speeds! The pedestrian squelching noises were made by my partner Bill, the design director. He refuses to admit how. We think they're some dubious bodily function."

--Patrick Buckland, interviewed in PC Review May 97

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to Carmageddon consisted partially of music by the band Fear Factory, with the songs Body Hammer, Demanufacture, and Zero Signal. These tracks were off their album Demanufacture, but had the vocals removed for the game.

Starship Titanic

Carmageddon is listed in the "thanks" section of the Starship Titanic end credits.

UFO

In the level "Roswell that ends well" it is possible to find a UFO. Go to the top of the big pyramid, and jump into it. After your fall, you will be able to see it.

UK version

The game was only given a release in the UK after a palette change, converting the humans into 'zombies' with green blood (There were also 'zombie' cows, etc). Later, a patch was released, restoring the original palette.

Information also contributed by Emepol, emerging lurker, Floodspectre, hydra9, JayBee, Late, Ola Sverre Bauge, Ummagumma, Xoleras and Yeah No

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Carmageddon: Reincarnation
Released 2014 on Windows
Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now
Released 1998 on Windows, 1999 on Nintendo 64, Macintosh
Carmageddon: Max•Pack
Released 1998 on DOS, 2012 on Windows
Carmageddon 3: TDR 2000
Released 2000 on Windows
Rabbit Hole 3D
Released 2013 on iPhone, 2014 on Linux, Windows...
Hole.io
Released 2018 on Browser, iPhone, Android...
3D Golf
Released 1986 on Commodore 64
Space Hole
Released 2016 on Windows
Titanic: Challenge of Discovery
Released 1998 on Windows

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 367
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by robotriot.

Android added by GTramp. iPad, iPhone added by Sciere. Symbian added by Kabushi. Windows added by The cranky hermit. Macintosh added by agaiz.

Additional contributors: Heikki Sairanen, Daniel Saner, tarmo888, Kabushi, formercontrib, Crawly, 1gnition, Patrick Bregger, GTramp.

Game added November 2, 1999. Last modified March 18, 2024.