Getting back in to the good old days of video games, I went to search for my favourite game in the 90s. And I found it, ladies and gentlemen, je vous présent Quarantine.
As Abandonia puts it « Take the thrill, excitement and plot of Crazy Taxi and place Duke Nukem in the driverseat. This is how I would describe Quarantine. It’s fast, action-packed and extremely exhilarating. » and they are not wrong.
Getting my hands on this game in the 1990s was a resolution of gaming power, real life photos in a DOS game, INCROYABLE ! MEGA HYPER COOL ! You may not understand the wow factor if you are of the millenial era, but it was there back in terrible fashioned 90s me.
The story of Quarantine is based on a small history of Kemo city in the not so future time of 2022 – five years from today in fact:
2022 Kemo City is the jewel of the West and the hovercar capital of the world. A prosperous city on the East Coast of the United States.
Like any metropolis, Kemo City has a growing crime problem. In Kemo, however, crime has become so widespread, that law enforcement would be both futile and extremely expensive. Talks begin about possible solutions.
2026 Kemo City’s crime problem reaches epidemic proportions. The economy slows to a near halt, while crime and black market trading become the only sources of income for Kemo’s impoverished inhabitants.
2029 Enter Omnicorp. This Mega Corporation has big plans for Kemo, claiming they can clean up the city and it’s crime problem. The project is code named Q.
2030 Construction of a 5 meter thick, 10-meter high wall composed of plasticized concrete and steel begins. Inhabitants are told that the wall is merely a « defensive measure, » and that passage in and out of Kemo will be freely granted.
2031 The wall around Kemo nears completion. A few of the lucky inhabitants manage to escape as panic begins to engulf Kemo City.
2032 June 3, the wall is completed and the only exit has sealed shut. Project « Quarantine » is now fully functional and Kemo has become a prison city. Along with isolating the current violent population, Kemo will also serve as a prison for any other violent criminals.
2043 Omnicorp decides to test « Hydergine 344 », on the current population, a neurodrug reported to eliminate « criminal thoughts » in patients. Hydergine 344 is introduced into Quarantine’s water supply.
2045 Unknown to the designers of Hydergine 344, Kemo’s water supply has an abnormal high bacterial and viral content which reacts with Hydergine 344 forming a psychoreactive virus. The virus causes synaptic breakdown, the main symptoms being violent psychopathic tendencies. About half of the prisoners have become crazed violent killer lunatics intent on killing anyone who is not a crazed violent killer lunatic.
2047 The virus is spreading.
The premise is pretty simple, blow shit up and drive people around. To advance to the next level, you need to successfuly complete basic « fares » to get a mission, by completing the mission you then receive the password to escape one area of Kemo City.
To finish off with another quote from Abandonia « Quarantine has it all! Great mindless fun combined with a mindless hack-and-slash plot! You drive around in the big city, picking up passengers and trying to eliminate the competition. Usually at the same time. For the money you get from your passenger you can buy upgrades for your vehicle, be it weapons or armour. »
Quarantine can be downloaded for free from MMN in the Games and Entertainment section or via FTP (credentials required). Running the game requires DOSBox and a little patience.
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