10 Controversial Video Games That Are Insanely Tame Today
6. Death Race (1976)
Video gaming formed essentially from nothing: though intricate and robust enough to be considered as a form of art these days, the earliest games were quite literally nothing more than a set of bleeping, blooping dots. Seriously, those who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s had it rough.
Yet, even with such underdeveloped tech, game designers still managed to cause outrage. One of the first games to ever bare the brunt of parental and political anguish came in the form of 1976's Death Race. An arcade cabinet containing nearly neolithic technical specs, the on-screen renderings only offered players the most vague approximation of what was supposed to be taking place in-game.
The goal was, shockingly enough, to run over as many human-looking gremlins as possible. A small, cross-shaped gravestone would mark the spot of each collision, and the game was so totally tame that tapping out numbers half-resembling rude words on an old calculator would seem more offensive by comparison. If only the people of 1976 could get a load of some of the games today.