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

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??

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: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: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.

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

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: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.