Criminals Wanted

Crime and video games have had a long standing love affair. From allegory to bloodbath, crime and gaming go together like a horse and carriage. Check out this history lesson to see how far we’ve come in the world of electronic crime. Things have never been darker!

The Prisoner (1980)

The Prisoner is the first example of a crime related video game I could find. In the seventies the only titles seemed to be Asteroids and Pong. It would be a little while before themes and story telling became a part of computer gaming I guess. This one, however, is a true example of storytelling and problem solving. In The Prisoner you are a secret agent trying to escape an island prison by searching through various structures on the island in order to find clues. The clues eventually lead to your escape. Apparently the CIA used it to train intelligence officers, which is rather impressive for an early generation Apple computer game.

Lock n’ Chase (1982)

I started the research for this post by asking a gaming forum what the earliest crime related video game was and someone quickly came up with lock n’ chase (thanks by the way). It looks like a pretty boring game but so was Zaxxon and I played that for countless hours back in the day. Lock n’ Chase is simple enough and seems a lot like Pac Man to me. The main character is a thief in a maze collecting coins and running away from policemen who are, obviously, trying to catch him. In 1982 it must have been revolutionary time wasting technology.

ET for Atari (1982)

The gaming forum that gave me Lock N’ Chase quickly degenerated into an argument over what was the worst video game ever when BobbyFatt claimed that “ET for Atari robbed everyone who bought it.”  So not exactly a crime related game but the spectacular crappiness of the game alone gets it included because somewhere between production and release a crime was committed for sure. Game play is not even worth mentioning.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? 1985

It’s a strange concept that an educational video game should have a crime theme but it worked for Carmen Sandiego. There have been several different versions of the game since 1985 making for a fairly impressive run. Game play seems pretty cool. Players chase villains around the world, hunting for clues that will lead to his/her capture before time runs out. I like the idea of chasing international criminals.

N.A.R.C (1988)

Any sensible, clear-thinking person knows that drugs are not a crime. Drug-policy is a crime and drugs are a health issue. If only we could face that fact. So of course there had to be a violent, crime related video game about the good ol’ boys trying to stop people from doing drugs. Of course, some drugs are really bad and shouldn’t be allowed in video games. But in this one either Max Force or Hit Man hunt down junkies (the crime here = simple possession) drug dealers and gang leaders. Max and Hit (amazing names on so many levels) are well equipped and their victims typically explode rather than just fall over and die. The ultimate purpose of the game, I believe, is to kill as many people as possible.

Thief: The Dark Project (1998)

I have to be honest. I have never played this game but just looking at what it’s about makes me think its pretty boring. I could be wrong of course. Like I’ve posted elsewhere, in the world of crime stealing is pretty dull and unintersting. Unless you’re stealing something almost impossible to steal you can’t even make a bad movie out of it. As for gameplay the purpose is to avoid fighting and instead sneak around the enemies, hiding in dark corners.

Road Rash (1991)

The thing I like about the crime in this videogame is that street racers are idiots but at least when people are racing motorcycles they are pretty much only putting themselves in danger. When you race cars you endanger a lot of people around you. But when you race motorcycles go ahead and hit whatever other vehicle you want. Of course that all applies to real life and this is the world of videogames. Gameplay is pretty straight forward: go fast on a motorcycle and don’t fall over. I don’t know why they decided to base the game on illegal street racing instead of circuit racing but it makes for a cool crime entry.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream 1995

This one makes the list because anyone who has ever watched Battlestar Galactica knows that computers can (or will certainly be able to) commit crimes. In this game an Evil computer named AM has happily killed off all of humanity, minus a few survivors he keeps as pets. Am likes to torture his pets in the form of a moral dillemma game. Players have to prove to the evil computer that they have the ability to be good. Irony in videogames is nice and apparently the future is no utopia.

Grand Theft Auto (1997/98)

The history lesson ends here for obvious reasons because everyone knows the GTA series is the pinnacle of not only crime-related videogames, but all videogames. Grand Theft Auto is the most violent, ridiculous, pointless and amazing way to spend 6 months of your life I have ever come across, at least in the gaming world. I get the feeling when playing GTA that I am witnessing the beginning of full-immersion virtual reality gaming where one day I will actually be walking virtual streets, smelling virtual air, stealing virtual cars and shooting virtual policeman. Of course the original title lacks dimension and I don’t know if it will be that much fun when killing people actually feels real. But in the meantime Grand Theft Auto proves beyond a doubt that there is something about crime we all love to love, love to hate and love to see in our multi-media.

And if anyone is interested you can DL an updated version of the original title for free without breaking a single law in the process. Pity!

http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/gta.html

Obviously there are a lot of crime related videogames I missed. A history lesson can never be more than a brief overview and since this one stopped ten years short of today a lot of good titles just couldn’t be included. So I apologize for that. GTA aside, what is the best crime related game? What is the most violent game? What videogame is most deserving of an organized protest?

The country of Australia has a strong record of banning games that are deemed too offensive for the general public. There is no Canadian Federal Pardon or ban on these in Canada and besides parental/pro-family values groups in America, violent/controversial games are still selling like hot cakes in North America.

Happy Gaming Fellow Criminals!