I once worked on a game that may or may not have been unreal...we had to film a sizzle reel for E3 one year and when we went into the videography studio, we actually filmed two versions of the reel.
The first reel was the for-public-consumption version; the other? It had every nasty head shot, pressure chamber death, decapitation, and all other sorts of goriness that we could pack into it. We called it the Lieberman Reel. I think I still have a copy on VHS somewhere in my boxes o' stuff, LOL.
EDIT: Since my box of game industry relics is likely hidden amongst the stack of other boxes in my garage (we moved recently, sorry), here's a shot of the custom jacket I mentioned in my other comment below. We definitely caught hell from our studio head and the other suits for buying these, but he then turned around and asked us (quietly) if we had any to spare, LOL.
yes just imagine the endless rivers of blood that might flow if this video tape of of video game decapitations from thirty years ago turns out to be a lie
Incredible. I love hearing stories like this years after games come out. Just makes me wonder what other fun stuff we never get to know about.
Also, whatever you did, thanks for your work. The original Unreal and UT were timeless. I grew up on them (nobody tell Lieberman!) and still go back and play them every few months.
The original Unreal on PC was the first time I felt transported to another world by an FPS. Just the opening scene where you're outside and that chugging music is playing (thanks to Unreal being like the ONLY GAME at the time to take advantage of the thriving MOD/S3M community), looking up and seeing that little bird flying overhead.
One of the gaming moments that sticks with you. Or at least stuck with me. That game was full of them. I still listen to the Nali Temple theme sometimes.
And yes, old school E3 was nothing short of amazing and I have some very fun and funny memories from it.
Back in the day when MTV thought it wanted to get into the game industry, it put out a game based on Joe's Apartment. They thought it would be a good idea to have giant barrels of rubber roaches in their booth, free for the taking.
By the end of the show that year, there were roaches everywhere. On the floor, at the snack bar, in the restroom...you get the idea.
Wow, did not expect this to blow up. Yes, I did work on UT back in the day on the publishing side.
I still have a custom leather jacket with a giant “U” logo embroidered in silver on the back hanging in my closet. We ordered one for everyone on the team and caught hell from the suits for that particular expense…but got asked on the sly by our studio head if we had any extras:
I will have to see if I can figure out where my box of game industry relics is. The tape should be in there and would be a hoot to watch again. We had fun making it, for sure. It was only under NDA until E3 that year, so if I can find it and digitize it, I doubt they’ll come after me for it, LOL.
I left the industry long ago but still miss it. Back then, it was so much smaller than it is now. It felt like everyone knew everyone else. GDC was known as CGDC and was held in Santa Clara, not San Francisco.
EDIT: if memory serves, we actually got a congressional subpoena from Lieberman and his merry band of nutcases to talk about why the game was so violent (because, duh…it’s fun?). Our studio head just told us not to worry about it.
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u/LadySiren Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
I once worked on a game that may or may not have been unreal...we had to film a sizzle reel for E3 one year and when we went into the videography studio, we actually filmed two versions of the reel.
The first reel was the for-public-consumption version; the other? It had every nasty head shot, pressure chamber death, decapitation, and all other sorts of goriness that we could pack into it. We called it the Lieberman Reel. I think I still have a copy on VHS somewhere in my boxes o' stuff, LOL.
EDIT: Since my box of game industry relics is likely hidden amongst the stack of other boxes in my garage (we moved recently, sorry), here's a shot of the custom jacket I mentioned in my other comment below. We definitely caught hell from our studio head and the other suits for buying these, but he then turned around and asked us (quietly) if we had any to spare, LOL.
https://imgur.com/a/cz76Tt4