CarnEvil
CarnEvil is a rail shooter arcade game using a light gun. It was released by Midway Games, on October 31, 1998. CarnEvil is noted for its blood and gore, creepy imagery and dark humor. CarnEvil is a portmanteau of both "carnival" and "evil" and was inspired by the 1962 movie Carnival of Souls. It is the most successful light gun style game produced by Midway Games.
| CarnEvil | |
|---|---|
 North American arcade flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Midway Games |
| Publisher(s) | Midway Games |
| Producer(s) | Neil Nicastro, Kenneth J. Fedesna |
| Designer(s) | Jack Haeger |
| Programmer(s) | Samuel Christian Zehr, Jason Blochowiak |
| Artist(s) | Scott Pikulski, Samuel Lewis Crider, Martin Murphy |
| Composer(s) | Kevin Quinn, Jason Blochowiak |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Light gun rail shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Arcade system | Midway Seattle hardware |
Plot
The game is set in the fictional town of Greely Valley, Iowa. An urban legend claims that if a golden token is inserted into the jester skull's mouth on top of the gravestone of a ringmaster named Professor Ludwig von Tökkentäkker, his carnival will rise from the earth.
The game begins with a group of teenagers taking a hayride tour through the Greely Valley cemetery, courtesy of the local "ghost expert" Spooky Sam. The unnamed protagonist leaves the tour and approaches Tökkentäkker's tombstone to find a golden coin sitting in its slot. The protagonist inserts the coin into the jester's mouth, resulting in the haunted amusement park rising from the ground. Trapped within, he takes a shotgun from the shooting gallery and uses it to fight off hordes of zombies and other undead monsters in order to escape. After fighting through the Haunted House, Rickety Town, and the Freak Show, he enters the Big Top and fights his way in order to face Tökkentäkker directly aboard his airship.
Soon after killing Tökkentäkker, the protagonist falls from the airship as it explodes. In the morning, he and the only other survivor, Betty, wake up in front of the tombstone, where the token falls back into its slot. The protagonist re-inserts it into the mouth of the jester, causing it to laugh wickedly as Betty screams in horror.
Gameplay
CarnEvil consists of four levels, each ending with a boss fight. The first three levels (Haunted House, Rickety Town, Freak Show) can be played in any order, but the fourth (Big Top) cannot be accessed until all three are cleared. The players shoot enemies on the screen while progressing through amusement-park-themed horror environments. The gameplay is considerably violent and features bloody scenes throughout. The controller is a pump-action shotgun attached to the cabinet by a cable; to reload, players must either pump the fore-end or fire off-screen.
Occasionally, a girl named Betty will appear as an innocent civilian. Shooting her earns a life penalty, but does not garner any long-term consequences or changes to the game.
Health and weapon power-ups can be found throughout the game. Weapon power-ups available include a machine gun, shotgun, flamethrower, acid bath gun, and an increase in the standard gun's magazine capacity. They can be obtained by shooting floating icons, such as a shotgun shell or a barrel of acid; the weapons cannot be reloaded, but the magazine increase remains in effect until the player's life meter is empty. Grabbing these power-ups also provides bonus points to the player.
Software settings allow operators to control the amount of blood and gore generated when enemies are killed, and to replace Junior, a giant deformed zombie baby, with a demonic teddy bear named Deaddy as the boss of the Freak Show level.