As some of you may remember, there was a bit of hubbub about this game a few years ago because it put you in the position of being Lee Harvey Oswald on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository shooting at the car. I was randomly browsing Wikipedia, as I am wont to do and the topic came up. Naturally, I was interested in playing the “historical simulation”, and downloaded it.
I have a few observations about the thing.
Oswald was one hell of a shot if he did in fact shoot the President. I can’t even get close to matching what he did, and I have the luxury of repeated runs.
It seems to be pretty accurate as far as the layout and the way the car moved during the event. The physics model is pretty good, too, so if it is possible I’d imagine that it could be done.
I wasn’t alive in 1963 (I was born in 1976), but it still seems strange to be looking down the scope of a rifle at the President. It’s just creepy.
I can see why the Kennedy family was wound up by this. It’s like a game where you fly the planes into the World Trade Center. It’s TOO real.
I’m not sure how I feel about this being exploited for commercial gain. When it was new it went for $10. Now it is abandonware, but apparently the company thought it could make some bank on this.
You’re free to try your hand, of course, the link is there, but if you do be prepared to be creeped out by it. I know I am.
I remember that they were offering a several million-dollar prize to anyone who could recreate the shots exactly as Oswald did, according to the Warren Commission.
I downloaded this and tried it. I nailed the Pres. in the head with one shot consistently after a few practice runs (more to get the feel of “aiming” with a mouse than anything).
I never came all that close to duplicating Oswald’s purported sequence IAW the Warren Comm. findings (which was actually the object of the game for those who don’t know).
And I didn’t have your hang-up about shooting “the Pres.;” I knew I was only shooting pixels.
Then again, I took a 747 on Microsoft Flight Simulator to try to duplicate the 9/11 attacks; not to vicariously kill anyone, but to see how hard it was (according to MFS).
Gee, this is interesting. I think people could learn something from this. How hard is was for Oswald to do what he could do. Sometimes, it takes more than three bullets to do some damage if you’re a lousy aim (like I am) And I agree with ExTank that fooling around with this isn’t going to make me go out and try to kill Bush- it’s just a computer simulation of a very sad, historic event.
The interesting thing is the instant replay where you can look at what you just did. Especially the BulletCam, where you can see the path your bullet takes- it’s almost like CSI: Dallas.
The other strange thing are some of the physics involved. I don’t know if I stopped the car by shooting it or what, but the car stopped close to the book depository, and by shooting more than the alloted three bullets, I was just able to pump JFK and Jackie full of bullets until they both died. Again, not a savory thought, but one wonders if Oswald would have done it had the chance come up.
In the short time that I played around with the simulator, I found that if you shoot the driver of Kennedy’s limousine, one of two things happen: either the limo comes to a stop (at which point you can pick off pretty much everyone in sight), or it speeds up/veers off the road as the driver leans on the gas and/or turns the wheel.
If you time it right, you can plug the driver and then watch the limo veer off the road and drive into a wall, sending everyone in the car flying like rag dolls. It’s simultaneously morbid and hilarious.
One more horrible- and hysterical- alternate JFK killing occured to me. I shot the limo driver, causing the car to careen out of control and hit the side of a building, killing all six people inside.
I find this embarrassingly addictive. I keep trying to see if I can kill everybody in the car. I know it’s not the actual people, but it’s still kinda creepy. But I keep playing it.
I just a kick out of watching Jackie’s hat go flying.
My ‘best’ is to kill everyone in the first car, the VP, his wife and a senator and several agents.
If you kill the driver, sometimes he just stops the car and it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Everyone just stops and looks around.
My very first attempt I came pretty close to Oswald. I hit JKF twice. Once in the back and once in the head.
The alternated film angles are interesting. It was weird seeing it from the Zapruder angle and seeing the sign pop up and conceal my first hit. Kind of erie.
It’s funny how they must follow the script, and stand around like dummies if the motorcade stops. Once, I hit the driver, the car took off straight, flying down the street off scree, and the escort still took the curve!
The game really makes the Secret Service look like dunces.
Hitting JFK on the first shot isn’t hard at all. Never been able to get the second two to line up at all, but given that he’s dead already, that doesn’t really matter.
I was born after the assassination occured, so I was curious: according to the Warren Commission, when did Oswald fire his three shots? I can see from the game that the car made a right turn, then made another right passing the book depository. Did Oswald shoot when JFK was close to the depository?
After the second turn as the motorcade was heading away from Oswald. Basically right as he emerges from the trees. One shot hits him in the back and exits his throat and the next hits him the back of the head.
Best I can do is 516/1000. I can’t replicate Oswald’s timing or wild ricochets, but I get the job done.
Sometimes I take out the driver of the lead blue car. If it stops, the limo tends to plow right into it, killing everybody. It’s comical, for a while. Then I take out LBJ, just for the heck of it.
Can ya simulate the “grassy knoll” lunatic theory? How about if LHO killed Connoly and NOT JFK? Or what happens of you do his the driver and cause massive mayhem?
Map of Dealey Plaza. The presidential limousine made a right turn from Main St. onto Houston, then drove directly toward the Texas School Book Depository (which was on the corner of Houston and Elm streets). It then made a left turn onto Elm St., and drove past the front of the Depository.
Computer-aided forensic examination of the evidence since then has given us much better estimates of when the two shots that hit President Kennedy occurred.
The Zapruder film (warning: graphic violence).
The first shot that hit President Kennedy, piercing his throat and then hitting Governor Connally in front of him, is now believed by many to have occurred between Zapruder frames 223 and 224. The second shot that hit President Kennedy is at Zapruder frame 313, a span of 90 frames or 4.9 seconds. It took only 2.3 seconds to reload Oswald’s rifle.
As to distances, President Kennedy was 153.8 feet from the rifle in the sixth-floor window at frame 225 (when he reappears from behind the Stemmons Freeway sign, 1 or 2 frames after he was first shot). The president was 265.3 feet away from the rifle at frame 313, the moment of the fatal head shot. In both cases, the sniper was using a telescopic sight, firing from above, at a target moving slowly (avg. 11.2 mph) and almost directly away from him.
