New Video Game Recreates Kennedy Assassination

theodp writes "Lee Harvey Oswald-wannabes will be able to simulate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy when Traffic Games releases the $9.99 JFK Reloaded on Monday to coincide with the 41st anniversary of Kennedy's murder in Dallas. 'It is despicable,' said a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late president's brother."

Comments

Doesn't Sound Fun to Me

[mfh]

This doesn't sound like a fun game to me. I'll have to try it out anyway, but it seems kinda off. I can gun down a million monsters in most enjoyable FPS games. How is putting four bullets in JFK going to bring me *any* satisfaction? Magic bullet, indeed.

Re:Doesn't Sound Fun to Me

[bpd1069]

The DC sniper shottings were not that impressive interms of distance, most were less than 100 yards. The only thing that is interesting is the modified backseat that allowed the shooter to fire from a prone position under complete cover out of a hole in the trunk. Never heard of anything like that before.

Re:Doesn't Sound Fun to Me

[Amiga Trombone]

I don't think it's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be educational. BTW, I wrote a JE a while back with this very idea: Prior Art.

That's nothing. Back in the 80's a buddy and me wrote a game based on the Kennedy assassination for the Commodore 64.

It was kinda cool. It played a cheesy version of "Hail to the Chief" while you shot at the president. If you remember the kind of sounds that came out of a Commodore, you know what I mean.

Naturaly, not everybody thought it was as funny as we did. My girlfriend came home from work, took a look at our game and the collection of beer bottles around the apartment, and made a face like she'd bit into a lemon. She asked us, "Don't you two shingle-heads have anything better to do?"

I gave a copy of it to friend to take to work with him at the water department. He showed it to some old man who worked there. I understand the old geezer flipped out, and threatened to call the FBI on us.

We uploaded it up to some bulletin board, and promptly got banned after some of the other customers complained.

I guess we should have stuck with it, since it looks like there's a buck to made.

But we didn't exactly get a lot of encouragement at the time. Didn't look very promising. I wonder if there's still a copy of our version floating around on the net some where?

Whats wrong?

[ericdano]

What is wrong with it? I see re-creations all the time on the History Channel, Discovery, etc, etc, etc. Why not create a game that lets you do it? It is something that happened. Where is the upcry when you have WWII games happening??

Re:Whats wrong?

[commodoresloat]

I don't play enough video games to know what it is called but I recall a WWII video game where at least part of the time you were an assassin, and you had to kill specific people. You still got shot at by guards and so forth so it wasn't just a massacre, but there were rooms where everyone was unarmed and you could just pick them off.

I agree that a game portraying Jews thrown in graves would be more offensive but it's also not that far removed from a visit to the Holocaust Museum or the Museum of Tolerance, where the conditions of Jews are recreated in rather direct ways. The difference there of course is that in the museum you play the role of the victim.

It's an interesting question and I'm not sure where I fall on it but I can't say I'm too offended by this, especially given the explanation someone else posted that the videogamemakers want to prove that the Warren Commission hypothesis is not possible. If that's the case, then there is little question that this is a form of political speech and even historical research, poor taste or no.

Oh my god! They killed JFK!

[geminidomino]

Those bastards! AGAIN!

Seriously, tho, WTF?! Is this a way to commemorate what is reportedly (I wasn't born at the time, so I can't speak for it) a very sad day in US history?

Or is this just a thinly vieled cover for the "Shrubya" skin that will be showing up on 0-day sites shortly after release?

Re:Oh my god! They killed JFK!

[DAldredge]

Read about the 10,000 - 100,000 USD contest they are running, it appears that they think that no one will be able to make the shots match the Warren Commission Report.

That may be why they are doing it.

Re:Oh my god! They killed JFK!

[Elkboy]

Whoo! I'm one aimbot away from ten grand!

how about a simulation of

[taxman_10m]

Chappaquiddick on July 18, 1969.

seems boring.

[gl4ss]

*When the simulation starts, you are viewing Dealey Plaza through Lee Harvey Oswald's eyes: from the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository. A cross-hair marks the position of your rifle sight. Controls available to you are left-click to shoot, and right-click to zoom in/out, and mouse-movements to adjust your aim.*

so, you only get to aim and shoot. sounds quite boring, and doesn't really offer anything for the conspiracy heads either, as the conspiracy and plot is already played out with oswald as the shooter. now if you would be able to reconstruct the happenings in different ways, like placing the shooter at different locations or using multiple shooters.

Re:Warren Commision.

[ericdano]

There was a new show, either on Discovery Channel or the History Channel, where they recreated the shot. The bullet pretty much did what the "magic bullet" did. Check it out.

Maybe they don't get the cultural signifigance

[kwn]

I'm sure they would balk at a simulation of the death of William Wallace. Which by the way would be more fun than just three bullets:

"At that time (and for the next 550 years), the punishment for the crime of treason was that the convicted traitor was dragged to the place of execution, hanged by the neck (but not until he was dead), and disembowelled (or drawn) while still alive. His entrails were burned before his eyes, he was decapitated and his body was divided into four parts (or quartered).

Accordingly, this was Wallace's fate. His head was impaled on a spike and displayed at London Bridge, his right arm on the bridge at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, his left arm at Berwick, his right leg at Perth, and the left leg at Aberdeen."

from

Point for historically acurate body part placement.

How would that be at all valid?

[Sycraft-fu]

I'm quite an excellent sniper in video games. It would be fair to say that any SWAT team and most special forces units would be interested in e if I could shoot like that in real life. Alas one is not the other and my skill with a real gun does not equal my skill with a virual one, it doens't even come close.

However all in all it's not relivant since a desktop computer can't accurately simulate reality. However they designed this game, they are making shortcut assumptions, simplified physics, and so on. It will not be an accurate simulation of what happened.

I can't see any realistic point to this.

You Americans are amazing

[Anonymous Coward]

You play Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but this simple simulation of the Kennedy assassination makes you all cold inside?

(1) I live in Canada, (2) Kennedy was shot before I was born, and (3) I agree that the developer of this game seems a bit opportunistic.

But ferchristsakes... this is an innovative game idea. The gameplay is simple, the simulation is complex. Explore a pivotal moment in history in interactive fashion. Try various actions and see how they affect the outcome. Decide for yourself whether the "generally accepted" interpretation of that day's events is probable or not.

Its a tiny download, 13 MB. Give it a try in demo mode for free (you can't shoot unless you buy). If you're too cheap to pay $10, don't worry, there will probably be a crack out soon.

Shoot a famous President, feel better. What better carrot is there than that?

Re:Couple thoughts.

[phillymjs]

Or is that damn Magic bullet bullshit true?

The History Channel (IIRC) just ran a special about that last week. A team set out to prove or disprove the single bullet theory. They constructed two very realistic torsos, placed them the way Kennedy and Connally were seated and oriented in the car, and fired a bullet exactly like Oswald used from a rifle just like Oswald's from Oswald's relative position to the limo.

The result? They almost got a single bullet to produce all the wounds. The only difference was they broke an extra rib in "Connally's" torso-- that deformed the bullet more than apparently happened in the real assassination, and took away the energy it needed to penetrate a block of gel meant to represent Connally's thigh-- it just bounced off, instead. I thought the single bullet theory was a bunch of shit, but after seeing their recreation it certainly seems plausible.

The show was fascinating, and I'm sure it will see another airing or two this week for anybody who's interested. I think it was "Investigating History," and if so then it's on tonight (Monday night 11/22) at 10PM ET.

~Philly

I agree.. sorta

[poptones]

I don't know that I'd call it "a cheap ploy", or even "mediocre". Personally, I wish there were more "games" that let people recreate historical events for themselves, and scored them on how accurately they recreated the event. Imagine that...learning history while playing a game. Personally I like the idea of using games for something more than just passing the time.

I agree completely. And this game could be more than just exploitation if only they allow some depth...

Allow the player to be one of the bodyguards. See if you can prevent jfk from being shot dead and still live yourself.

Allow the player to be the driver. See what the driver might have seen, see if you can do anything differently.

Allow the player to be on the grassy knoll, in the crowd, or looking over Lee harvey's shoulder

Allow the player to be the gunman from ANY position overlooking the scene. Basically, if it's just about being the trigger man in the same position as the official version and seeing how many holes you can dump into JFK, I don't see any redeeming value in it at all - not even from a gameplay perspective. Letting the player be the gunman from only the perspective of official history does nothing at all to rebuke conspiracy theories - it's just cheap (and a ripoff even at ten dollars) exploitation.

This is a shocking game.

[ttroutma]

The replays and ballistics through bodies stuff is creepy. First time it showed the replay of JFK losing a chunk of brain I was actually horrified. This is different than blasting monsters a bazillion times with unrealistic weapons. It actually friggin makes you see, hear, BE the killer. On the other hand it answers a lot of questions I'd always had about the distance and angle of the shots. The sim idicates that JFK was in an exposed position, much more so than I'd ever noticed before. Randomly blasting into the car seems to take out JFK more often than the other characters.

Cartoon Physics sure helps get it accurate

[billstewart]

I'm quite skeptical of the games "re-enactment shows it's possible" contention. Sure, you can make a computer simulation where it's easy for the FPS player to shoot the President, but it's unlikely that they're doing the physics well enough to let anybody prove or disprove the Magic Bullet theory, and the news article and web site don't sound like they're giving you the choice of shooting from the Grassy Knoll either - just that you get to watch the bullet flying in Neo-like slow motion. It ain't science. (Also, of course, even if Oswald was the only gunman, that doesn't prove he was a lone assassin vs. getting support and funding from the Mafia or the Cubans or the Pentagon or whomever your favorite conspiracy theory likes to pin it on.)

Re:Cartoon Physics sure helps get it accurate

[DavidTC]

I'm with you. I think people concentrating on a second shooter are being silly. What on earth would it accomplish to prove someone else shot from some other direction? You still don't know who they are.

The real important questions arise when you stop caring about that and look to why people would have shot him, and the behavior of the government after the shooting.

I think the best theory is that Angleton thought JFK was the top Soviet mole he'd been looking for.

what's next, 9/11 game?

[reyluv]

This game is no research. It's only goal is to make money off of one of the most tragic event in our history. Everyone alive back then can tell you where they were when JFK was shot in Dallas, Texas. Just like people today know where they were when the 9/11 tragedy happened. What's next, a "research" where you fly a plane through a simulation of WTC and the Pentagon building? This game developer's product is protected by free speech, but they should be ashamed of themselves.

The most despicable thing

[Magickcat]

It seems to me that the most despicable thing is the fact that the American people have never had the people who killed former Pres. Kennedy brought to justice, not had the whole facts of the assasination revealed publically and officially. Of course, such a revelation would probably reveal things still relevant today, so it stays secret.

If I was Sen. Edward Kennedy, I'd find this game less tasteless compared to a lack of answers and justice.

Of course, if I saw the game sold in a store, I'd reconsider ever purchasing from them again. Thourougly tasteless and disrepectful, regardless of whatever you might happen to think of JFK.

Re:that's not really responsive

[commodoresloat]

I've got mixed feelings about all this but let me play devil's advocate for a sec:

1) Tens of millions of people were killed in WWII. The sheer number of deaths depersonalizes the victims. (Unfair as that may be)

Arguably, a game that desensitizes participants to the slaughter of thousands of faceless combatants is worse from a moral perspective than one that targets a particular individual. In any case, I have seen games that focus on individuals -- Hitler, for example. And again, the Kennedy assassination is an important piece of history -- I think it would be different with say a game that focused on the murder of Joe Blow from Indiana or whatever.

Time, WWII was two generations ago, the Kennedy murder was one.

I see the point, but who decides when enough time has passed? There are WWII vets alive today who are probably offended by WWII games. Besides, what about games that depict (and even celebrate) the slaughter of vaguely defined swarthy terrorist-types from the middle east? We have wars going on right now that some games portray (with varying degrees of specificity). I think the real difference is that American culture recognizes one as an "enemy" and it's ok to slaughter enemies.

3) Morality. All but the strongest pacificts would agree that killing another armed man in war is one thing and murdering an unarmed civilian is another.

Political assassination, however, is a third case. I think you're right that we shouldn't see games reenacting the gas chambers or Columbine or whatever, but I'm not so sure about an event that involves heads of state (especially when the past 40 years of popular culture have been obsessed with the details of this particular head of state's assassination).

I don't see that being a 'historical event' is much of a mitigating factor.

The problem is actually that you do see being a "video game" as a mitigating factor in the other direction. The fact that this is a historical event is important for the same reason that it is OK to write a biography exposing the sexual escapades of a President while it is not OK to write one exposing those of your next door neighbor. As a public official, his death is a matter of public interest and insofar as there has been intense public speculation about the circumstances of it, well, this is just another form of expression for that speculation. I agree with many that this is in poor taste, but I don't think it's beyond the pale, at least no more so than a documentary about the Kennedy assassination.

So was 9/11, and I think most people would be quite offended if someone were to make a 'hit the twin towers flight simulator'-type game out of it.

They already did -- some company called Microsoft made it - in 2000. As far as a post-911 game like that being offensive -- I think the bigger problem for many people would be the game's use as a training tool. There is no way this game could be used to train for assassination unless you're planning something in Dealy Plaza. But I don't think there would be as much objection to a post-911 game that simulated the collapse of the WTC or the Pentagon in order to cast doubt on the official story -- some sort of physics simulation of the buildings coming down or the Pentagon collapsing that implies that there is no plane or whatever. That's a more apt analogy.

Such a simulation would be too "serious" though; I think the real problem people have with this is that it is billed as "entertainment" rather than "education" or "advocacy," but we've got to recognize that many things are both.

Re:that's not really responsive

[commodoresloat]

People often watch things to be informed or to experience a wide range of motions. It's absurd to pretend that a game where you play the sniper killing Kennedy is about anything more than entertainment

What about a game like I described above about 911? Or the kinds of games used by the armed forces for training? What about a movie like "Team America," which is obviously meant to be "just entertainment," yet portrays in what some would say is a very offensive way the current US war on terrorism as an ignorant and murderous enterprise?

I think almost the opposite of what you say above -- it's absurd to think a video game, or a movie, is ever only about entertainment. There is always something else going on -- information is conveyed, ideas are presented, arguments are implicitly and explicitly made. In fact, I don't think you would be offended at all if you didn't agree with me at some level - the reason this bothers people is they object to what the video game implicitly is arguing for -- some kind of implicit support (perhaps) for the Kennedy assassination. I think it's a little different - it's support for a particular conspiracy theory about the assassination -- but either way, the point is, it is more than just "entertainment."

Re:But that's all irrelivant/invalid

[bryanp]

Oswald was such a notoriously bad shot that his coworkers (when he worked at a factory in Russia) would shoot something for him on hunts, so he wouldn't look bad to his girlfriend.

This is a commonly repeated falsehood. Oswald was rated "Sharpshooter" in the Marines. He was able to place repeated shots in a small target at 200 yards, rather more than the 60 yards beteween him and Kennedy.

Re:that's not really responsive

[Jane_the_Great]

"which is obviously meant to be "just entertainment," yet portrays in what some would say is a very offensive way the current US war on terrorism as an ignorant and murderous enterprise?"

So it is just entertainment?

"Needless to say, whatever the point of the film, it supports my contention that the film cannot be seen as "merely" entertainment."

Aren't you contradicting yourself? First you said that Team America was just entertainment and then had some thought that sort of trailed off. Did you instead mean to say that while to a casual observer, Team America would be viewed as casual entertainment - the truth of the matter is that it is not just entertainment? If that is what you meant in the original post, your ability to share your thoughts with others needs quite a bit of work.

Now - if you don't think Team America offers support from the middle, think about this: In the movie, you see the destruction of the Eiffel Tower, etc. This obviously portrays certain ultra-militaristic views in a negative light. On the other hand, the Film Actors Guild parody obviously portrays the extreme left in a negative light. Now, where can it be found that there is support for a balance in between? As I said, the pussies, dicks, assholes monologue.

"We're dicks! We're reckless, arrogant, stupid dicks. And the Film Actors Guild are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don't like dicks because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes - assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way but the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate. And it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves. Because pussies are an inch and a half away from assholes. I don't know much about this crazy world, but I do know this; If you don't let us fuck this asshole we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit."

Now, you see that the underlying point of that monologue is that certain behaviors supported by the right must be taken while the temperance offered by some on the left can be a good thing. I'll appreciate it if you can be a bit more clear and concise with any future posts you make. Thank you.

Re:Warren Commision.

[ericdano]

JFK got hit with, I believe, two bullets. The last one blew off like the back of his head. Some people say it was fired from the front, others say from the back.

The shot that baffles people is the one before, where it enters JFK's back, then travels into the Governor, and ends up in the Governor's leg. A path a lot of experts say is impossible. Yet, on this new Discovery Channel re-enactment, they pretty much recreated the shot, and got pretty much the same results.......