'A Trip Down Memory Lane'

[KSI]

Man, I've got so many memories of Carmageddon... It has actually taken part in defining who I am and who I want to be after all these years growing up with it by my side. Here is my story...

My dad got me the first game when I was 5 years old after we read about it in a local magazine and tried out the demo. From the very start, despite I didn't know a word of English, I loved it. I have always been a car freak, even when I was that young I could already tell every car I saw in the streets by its manufacturer, and when I saw the cars in Carmageddon I went nuts. Their desings were so unique and their drivers were so funny. During races I drove around hunting the other drivers and squashing zombies (I had the UK-Zversion) thinking I was helping the world somehow by killing them. However, when Carmageddon 2 arrived (I believe I was 8 at the time), my dad got the UK-BL version (we both ignored the existence of the different versions), and so I ended up killing innocent pedestrians. At first it felt wrong, but after some time you could say it became a guilty pleasure... And so began my reign of terror.

In the following years, with the arrival of Internet here at home and the passing of time, I would get to know many things about Carmageddon, including its different versions (peds/zombies/robots), the reason behing the reckless (but oh, so fun) murder of pedestrians, on what it was based (the movie "The Death Race 2000" and the short story "The Racer" by Ib Melchior) and who made the first game's emblematic soundtrack I loved so much (Fear Factory, which became one of my favorite bands after I found out about it and I got to listen to some of their songs). To this day I have replayed C1 and C2 countless times despite its growing incompatibility with modern Windows versions. TDR also got replayed a number of times, but this is Carmageddon we're talking about, which does not quite include TDR.

Last year, after starting public university studying Industrial Design, despite I was not quite convinced of it being the career it suited me best, I began to wonder what I could do after I got my degree. I though maybe I could design objects for games, and so I drew a new version of the Eagle based on the MK1. At the time I did not know what this simple drawing would lead to, but for some reason it inspired me to search for the current state of my all time favorite game series. I started digging and I found out there was a Carmageddon remake being developed by a fan and I found an article on Stainless' website regarding the making-of of the first game. Then it struck me: I could be the one to make Carmageddon 4 happen. I started writing some ideas about what should be done and even e-mailed you guys at Stainless to ask you if the franchise would ever return and who held the rights to it. Although you did not answer, the answer to my questions would arrive shortly, as the Carmageddon remake was threatened by a large company who claimed held its rights: SQUARE ENIX.

Due to a lack of interest in what I was doing, I immediatly dropped my studies, as after this experience I had finally found what I was looking for. My new goal was to become a game developer and to somehow buy the rights to Carmageddon and make the game myself while retaining its original level of quality. And here I am, studying what I love the most thanks to my favorite game. One of my objectives, witnessing the return of Max, is complete, and you even saved me the trouble of getting him out of jail myself. Who knows? Maybe in a couple of years I'll be working on the next installment of the series with you guys.

Here are some random facts I couldn't fit anywhere else:

• My dad and I once painted some blood and a bloody looking number using a marker in a Hot Wheels car that looked just like Su Borg's Mach 13.

• My brother and I made several Carmageddon-style cars in Garry's Mod and we used them to run over zombies. I even took a screenshot of one of my creations, a car that resembled The Plow, and edited the picture's colors so it would resemble the way the Twister was depicted in the first game's intro.

• Some of my earliest attempts at drawing good looking cars were inspired in the Carmageddon series.

• I could never get Splat Pack running properly in my PC and I always hated it for it.

• My Steam profile description reads "I also like to smoke people on the road, and by the way, I want Carmageddon back so I can squash them as well" in one part. I wrote this a couple of years ago.

• When a friend of mine who also happens to be a long time fan of the series told me of the website that had the timer on it, I went nuts and posted "ATTENTION, ALL COMPETITORS... THIS IS YOUR ONE MINUTE WARNING! I REPEAT: ONE MINUTE TO RACE COMMENCEMENT! MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC, YOU NOW HAVE ONE MINUTE TO REACH MINIMUM SAFE DISTANCE!" on Facebook. A couple of days later, with the release of the website, I laughed as I found the same quote in the Introduction section.

Well, folks, thanks for taking the time to read this... I could have written much more text, but I tried to make it as short as possible without skipping what I considered important. Thanks for finally bringing Carmageddon back and taking me on this trip; it sure is full of pedestrians here at Memory Lane!

[CzechDeath]

I tell you what I remember:

Carmageddon is like finger to all other race games, while it out runs them, trought sidewalk full of people, in heavily modified Eagle !!! thats what i remember and thats why I love it!

The first carmageddon thing I played was demo of carma1 splat pack where 3dfx was introduced, until that day I knew only NFS and some other race games, but when I splashed few sheeps and than another 20 helpless peds I knew that carmageddon is game for me, I immidietly bought carma1. And I just dont know how or why but this twisted fun was so much fun for me. later on after i got carmageddon2 and than day when TDR2000 was relsed in CzechRepublic I ran to shop to get it. I loved those games I love how it just pertend to be a race game, while the point is set to entairly different positions. I played it vanilla I played it wit cheats, i played it with custom cars and maps, with custom peds I grew up on it. =D But I must say That TDR2000 was somehow .... different I .. I think that carmageddon1+splatpack and carmageddon2 were best!

carma1 cool atmosphere design of levels and sounds

carma2 amazing destrustion model of cars

carma3 ...I dont know It was different...but OK

Since those times I tryed to play lot of newer games,which oviously wanted piece of carmageddon glory, but non of them not single one of them satisficed me. Not Burnout, not Twisted metal, or Fuel, Crashday, Clutch, Motostorm,Deadrace,Blur nothing NO! All those games have ONE EPIC FAIL, these are JUST racegames, where you need to keep in loop in correct direction and thats no fun for me, and arena modes to these are just ridicules.

I dont want new shiny spoiler for my car I want huge rustty sipeks!

[Dustud]

I can remember playing Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now like i played it yesterday.

Racing around, trying to find that one box that makes you electrocute every single pedestrial you encounter, once you have it, race at max speed, finding as much as pedestrians as possible, untill you hit a corner of a building and your car would split in two..

Anyway, can't wait to see Carmageddon: Reincarnation hitting the stores!

[Simista]

This competition is now closed. A big massive Spank You for all the entries! The Winner and runners up will be announced on Friday 1st July and the names of the winners will be posted in this thread! Best of luck! X

[Simista]

Message in forum:

Hello particiPANTs! After countless hours of reading and chuckling through the competition entries, we eventually managed to come to a decision. It was VERY hard to pick from so many quality entries, so please don’t feel too choked up if you didn’t win – as for us any carma memory is a good memory!

Our Winner is Otis_P_Jivefunk who captured the Carma humour and had us in tears (of laughter) from the very first sentence! The story oozed the warped-out spirit of Carmageddon throughout. Thanks for leaving us with some unforgettable images too, Otis!

Our runners up are: QuiteQuacky , tender , BelgianBonsai
Kcin thank you one and all. Your stories touched us in places they shouldn’t…

Special virtual high fives to GOTCHA for telling such a strange story (men in white coats are on route to you) and roadsweeperr1989 for making us giggle..so here ya go.... *high five*

The winner and runners up will be contacted via private message for their details! And once again thanks to all of you for taking the trouble to share your fondest, wildest, darkest memories with us. We really appreciate the time you spent slaving over a hot (and probably a bit wet) keyboard for our entertainment. Well done everyone! We had a good laugh reading them all there will be a new competition on 15th July, so keep your eyes open for more chances to win cool carma shit!

Sim and the Carma Dev team xxx