Thanks for the link. Grabbed the file yesterday, prolly ran a thousand simulations since then.
I’ll admit that playing this simulation has changed my thinking on the assassination just a bit. Oswald’s alleged shots are not nearly as difficult as I thought they’d be. The ranges are much shorter than i expected. I can consistently take out JFK after the left turn on Elm Street. Haven’t had much luck duplicating the findings of the Warren Commission. My best score in that regard is 479. I usually score the kill on the second shot, sometimes with the first…and oddly enough, when I get the second shot kill, it’s often a ricochet off the trunk of the limo that does the deed.
What I really don’t understand here is why Oswald/whoever would have waited so long to open fire. Plenty of opportunity after the initial right turn, while the motorcade is coming straight at the shooter, or passing direectly underneath the window, and frankly, an easier shot in my opinion.
I still don’t believe the fatal shot came from the window. From watching the Zapruder film, I’m convinced the fatal shot had to come from the right/front, unless Dallas has a zoning variance to the known laws of physics. Whoever fired the fatal shot does not necessarily have to be working as part of any conspiracy with Oswald or anyone else. It could have been another “lone gunman”. Could have been an elaborate conspiracy. Doubt we’ll ever know.
And yes, I have repeatedly indulged in just general mayhem with this simulation. With a little luck here and there, I can get the total body count over 30–counting expected fatalities from car wrecks and people getting run over. I have fired as many as 22 shots in the short time alloted, and recorded as many as 11 kills just from the reported results of those shots. If I can manage to take out the drivers of the limo, the car immediately behind it, and then the VP’s car, and get all three to crash with passenger ejections, massive carnage ensues as the following vehicles start chain reaction collisions, run over agents and/or motorcycle cops, etc. I tried taking out the cop that sprints towards the Depository building in hopes of increasing maximum trigger time, but that doesn’t seem to have much effect.
I’m not a hunter, but that street slopes downward, and I think the shot with the target moving away from you is supposed to be easier. And I also think Oswald realized that if he shot while the motorcade was coming, he’d get the attention of law enforcement with his first shot.
As far as physics goes- if the bullet came from the front and knocked Kennedy’s head backward, it definitely broke some laws of physics.
While everyone was looking in the direction of the Depository building? Not a good idea.
There are numerous good reasons to believe that the fatal shot came from behind and above.
No one else in Dealey Plaza at the time claimed to have seen a gunman anywhere else.
The bullet hole in the back of President Kennedy’s head was clearly an entry wound, i.e., the edges of the wound beveled as the bullet entered the skull.
Of 104 Dealey Plaza witnesses who gave an opinion on the direction from which the shots came, only 5 believed they came from two directions. The passengers of the presidential limousine all testified that the shots came from behind them.
Again, I wish the game allowed you to shoot from different vantage points, because while it does allow you to view things from there, that’s still not the same as being able to fire a gun and hit something. In watching runs from the Grassy Knoll area, I don’t see how anyone could have had a clear enough shot to come anywhere close to hitting JFK. There’s just too much crap in the way from what I can tell. I might able to buy that a shot came from the railroad tracks above the highway, but I can’t imagine how a shooter could remain concealed there. Even with camo, it seems to me that they’d just stick out like a sore thumb.
Someone sniping from one of the rooftops in the area seems more plausible to me than Either the Grassy Knoll or rail line.
Meh. Looks like another guy saying coulda-woulda-shoulda to me. He claims it’s possible, then later asserts it must have been. Also seems to have issues with a couple of conventions that rejected his work. Doesn’t jibe with what I see in the film. I don’t understand his equations enough to tell much from his calculations, but even if I assume the physics is correct, from the parts I’ve read, he rejects widely held opposing views without compelling rationale, and agrees with himself too easily. His manifest reads as anything but an objective review of the evidence…he set out to prove a specific conclusion, rather than conducting a neutral analysis and reporting whatever the outcome might be.
It makes me queasy, but I’d sure like to play this on a real computer. My laptop is so lacking in the whatchamacalits that make video work properly that the game doesn’t even give me a limo driver! All I get is ONE car containing our four main characters: no crowd, no motorcade, no secret service, nothin.’
After more attempts than I care to admit, I did manage to kill/injure the correct people once. Before that, a favorite moment was when I inadvertently shot Mrs. Connally in the ass! Most of my shots buried themselves harmlessly in the limo and surrounding scenery, while the political avatars continued smiling and waving in blissful ignorance. I suck at shooting games anyway.
While making the high-speed left turn, the second bus hit the traffic signal, and was somehow launched into the air, reaching above the roof of the seven story Book Depository, before it fell back to the intersection, where it landed on its tires. All the passengers appeared to be unharmed. The fade out occurred before I could see if it drove away.
But while I was examining the airborne bus from several angles, I spotted a speck in the sky. Using the custom camera position, I discovered the speck could be locked onto as the camera target. When I backed the film up, the speck turned out to be one of the silver convertibles that had been impacted by the bus at the same time the bus was launched into the air. The car was flung several hundred feet into the air, beyond the maximum zoom of the camera; it appeared to go into orbit, as I never saw it return to Earth before the fade out.
Clearly, there is something unique about Texas physics.
Ok I tried this… I have to say it was a mixed thing… Killing a Digital JFK is one thing but trying to imitate the actual shots… it gets creepy especially when you get a “Aw damn” moment when you miss.
I’m not sure how I feel… best score was 890 … uhh if anyone wanted to know and all…
I wish I had… I didn’t even think to do it. A very lucky set of shots. I haven’t come close to replicating them. The last times I tried it I fired too soon and the angle sends it off to the driver.
Though if you use the last set of leaves as a guidepost you can come close to replicating the first shot. Damn this is morbid.
I don’t think the simulation proves much except it would have been easier for an assasin to shoot from behind rather than in front.
If I ever replicate or come close I’ll make sure to save and post the stats.
I have been able to replicate the timing very closely (20/25 on the first shot, and 45/50 on the second and third shots), and the initial target seems to be correct, but getting the “magic bullet” effect with the second shot seems largely a coincidental occurrence due to somewhat random deflection after the initial impact in JFK’s neck, though it does seem to be possible.
There is an article in the September issue of Ode that argues video games are educational and should be used in the classroom.
One salient point made is that “They teach you to formulate hypotheses”. Furthermore, games “can even teach you the fundamental principles of scientific research.”
Imagine if the Warren Commission had this ability. JFK Reloaded is one such game that would give school students the ability to to imput constants and variables, and test their own hypotheses.
In a sense, the Warren Commission did that. Besides building a scale model of Dealey Plaza, they went to the plaza itself with a limousine, and stand-ins for the passengers, and recreated the event using still cameras in the positions of the three home movie photographers who caught the event, plus another photographer shooting through a telescopic sight from Oswald’s position. The limousine was stopped at key points of the motorcade as it proceeded down Houston and then Elm streets, compared to frame enlargements from the movies to assure its position, and precise measurements were taken of the distance from Oswald’s position to the “President”.
:eek: