Pedestrian Killer

December 23, 2001 1:02 PM

Pedestrian Killer Pointless bloody fun. Zoom around a patch of roadway, squishing people as they try to make it across.
posted by Su (14 comments total)

Also fun: burning people with a giant magnifying glass, as if they were little ants.
posted by skwm at 1:06 PM on December 23, 2001

Many years ago, in the dawn of video games (mid - late 1970s), there was a game called "Death Race" that was very similar. To my knowledge, it was the first game to be banned from the arcades.
posted by bondcliff at 1:13 PM on December 23, 2001

I recall an Apple ][ game called PeoplePong that was delightfully perverse. Basically Pong, only with spikes below the paddle and people instead of balls. Drop the people and they were impaled, secreting an oddly orange stain...
posted by shagoth at 2:06 PM on December 23, 2001

My personal favorites are Torturegotchi and Five Finger Fillet. What is it about some of these sadistic games that is so appealing?
posted by Spinderella56 at 2:25 PM on December 23, 2001

Last Wednesday I got a phone call from my mom: she had been driving home from Christmas shopping late at night and accidentally hit a woman, decapitating her in the process. (The police determined it wasn't my mom's fault, btw.)

So here I am thinking, should games like these exist when we know that families are losing loved ones in this fashion? I've always enjoyed these types of games and still do, to be honest, but the subject has at least made me stop and think.

Going to play the game now...
posted by tsumo at 5:00 PM on December 23, 2001

bondcliff: the name of the game was Death Race 2000. I had one at the arcade that I managed back in the mid-80s. No one ever tried to get me to remove it.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:06 PM on December 23, 2001

Should these games exist because people have died being hit by cars? People have died eating food but we don't stop getting pleasure from eating food! People have died doing lots of things, just the way it goes.
posted by Keen at 6:09 PM on December 23, 2001

I loved Death Race 2000! I found an old copy of it and tried to play it on a Pentium system. The game finished before I even moved! I guess the PC version that I played on my 286 with CGA emulation on a Hercules video card and amber monitor didn't anticipate Moore's Law.

As a cyclist (still biking btw ..Dec 21st and I can still bike in Toronto) I would like it if the game featured some sort of sheepish apologetic gesture...you know the one I am talking about .."Oops! I almost killed you"
posted by srboisvert at 7:26 PM on December 23, 2001

"...she had been driving home from Christmas shopping late at night and accidentally hit a woman, decapitating her in the process."

Jeez, tsumo. You kind of tossed that out as an off-the-cuff sort of remark. Holy cow. I feel for your mom and the woman's family, that's terrible.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:38 PM on December 23, 2001

Of course I have to mention the Grand Theft Auto series & the Carmageddon series awarding points when you run over a pedestrian.
posted by riffola at 7:41 PM on December 23, 2001

Nobody has mentioned that Death Race 2000 was also a movie with David Carradine, pretty funny too.
posted by bingo at 11:54 PM on December 23, 2001

Some of Sylvester Stallone's best work too.
posted by spinifex at 12:16 AM on December 24, 2001

Yeah Tsumo, that was a bit cold. Oh well. Off to play the game now...

And yes, Carmageddon and GTA are both disgustingly entertaining games to play.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 2:52 AM on December 24, 2001

A friend of mine was showering and getting dressed the other night to go out and while I was waiting for him I saw a playstation 2 on pause.....
I end up playing Grand theft auto 3 for a solid 40 minutes completely memorized in a pitch black room
I'm a generation x-er and thought I had seen it all, but nothing I have ever seen has been this realistic and violent.
But the reason for the post is that I got up and walked straight from the 50" TV screen into the drivers seat of my car and felt completely as if I was still playing the game...
someone cut me off and I had to fight off the urge to get out of the car and rip him in half.
I laughed when the spell wore off and said to my friend that that was the strangest 15 minute drive I had ever had, he swore to me the same thing happened to him the first time he had played.
Between the commercial music playing in the background, the people's realistic behavior, the realistic visuals and the urban scenery that looks like it could be right around the corner this game takes role playing a step too far!!!
I loved it to pieces but think i has no place in stores.
posted by Eric Lloyd NYC at 3:03 PM on December 24, 2001