JFK Reloaded

JFK: Reloaded
JFK: Reloaded
Developer(s)	Traffic Software
Designer(s)	Kirk Ewing (Marketing Director)
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	2004-11-22
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player

JFK: Reloaded is an edutainment first-person shooter video game recreating the John F. Kennedy assassination. The game was released November 22, 2004 (the 41st anniversary of the event) by Scotland-based Traffic Software (aka Traffic Games), JFK: Reloaded puts the player in the role of Kennedy's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. The player is then scored on how closely one's version of the assassination matches the report of the Warren Commission. According to the company, the primary aim of the game was "to establish the most likely facts of what happened on 1963-11-22 by running the world’s first mass-participation forensic construction", the theory being that a player could help prove that Lee Harvey Oswald had the "means and the opportunity to commit the crime", and thus help support or disprove the Warren Commission's findings.

How It Works

The Main Menu

The Main Menu gives you the choice of a Play button to run the simulation in a general manner, an Enter Competition button to run a version of the simulation where the score you achieve through your shots is entered into JFK Reloaded's website competition that win up to $100,000, a button to visit this web site, and an Options button to set the program’s parameters. It's recommended that you check the Options, as JFK Reloaded will make a rough guess of your PC’s speed to set the initial Options, and you may find it useful to change these settings for more detailed views at lower frame-rates.

Program Options

Amongst the program options, you can set the level of detail (with higher levels giving you more cars in the motorcade and more detail in Dealey Plaza, at the expense of slower frame rates), and also set Motorcade Behavior – which governs how much panic is created in the motorcade by the sound of gunfire. (For competition entries, this is fixed at “Realistic”.)

The View into Dealey Plaza

When the simulation starts, you are viewing Dealey Plaza through Lee Harvey Oswald’s eyes: from the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Depository. A cross-hair marks the position of your rifle sight. Controls available to you are left-click to shoot, and right-click to zoom in/out, and mouse-movements to adjust your aim.

Zooming and Firing

After right-clicking to zoom to rifle-scope view, you can more easily track your target. Note that due to the realistic bullet physics in JFK Reloaded, you must aim like a real sniper: this means you should aim a little high to compensate for the bullet-drop as it travels over long distances, and also aim in front of your target if it is moving. Left-click will shoot.

Action Replay: Playback

On completion of the simulation run (which ends after around 60 seconds, or after JFK’s limo has left the scene), JFK Reloaded begins its Action Replay. By default, this is shown from the standpoint of Abraham Zapruder, whose film of the assassination is the most reliable source of information on events of the day.

To control the Action Replay, you have tape-deck controls (bottom-left) to run the simulation backwards and forwards at the speed of your choice. The buttons on this panel have keyboard counterparts using keypad numbers 1–9. Note that there is also a timeline slider which you can drag to quickly position the playback at a specific point.

Action Replay: Change Viewpoint

The Viewpoint panel allows you to zoom in/out of the animation (you can also use the up/down arrow keys or the mouse wheel to do this), as well as select one of the key viewpoints to view the effect of the rifle-shots that you made.

Customized Action Replay

This feature is selected by clicking on the small camera icon in the Viewpoints panel. It allows you to place a camera anywhere in Dealey Plaza (even on a moving object), and then point the camera at any moving or static object. In the example shown above, the camera is set to point to the policeman riding to the right-rear of the limo (this is achieved by left-clicking on the policeman); the camera is attached to the Presidential limousine (by right-clicking on it).

Pitch/pan Camera View

All Action-Replay views allow you to zoom in/out using the on-screen buttons, the up/down arrow keys, or the mousewheel. Additionally, the Customized Camera action replay has controls to rotate around the object at which the camera is pointing. The W and S keys pitch the camera up/down, and use A and D to pan left/right. With this combination of controls, you can frame the action perfectly to analyse every event.

Ballistics

On exiting the Action Replay, JFK Reloaded shows you a detailed view of every rifle-shot that you made, clarifying exactly where it hit the Presidential limo and its occupants, and noting specific entry and exit points. Thanks to a full model of the limousine and skeletal models of the occupants, the bullet will travel and ricochet in an entirely realistic manner. The viewpoint is controlled by the mouse – simply drag to swing the camera around the car, and use the mouse wheel or the up/down arrow keys to zoom in/out.

Reaction

A spokesperson for Senator Edward Kennedy, the late President Kennedy's brother, called the game "...despicable. Why would someone make this game? This should have never been allowed on the market, but I still love it."

Competition winner

On February 22, 2005, Stephane Krupa a user living in France named "Major_Koenig" (named after Erwin König, a famous sniper) won the competition prize of at least $10,000 ($10,712 exactly) with a score of 782 out of 1000. Second and third place went to the users "Flux" (779) and "ArrogantB" (777) respectively.

After the competition had officially closed, the cost of the simulation was reduced to $4.99, and the "competition run" option was disabled within the game.

Sometime in early August 2005, the official website closed, but not before offering version 1.1 to the public for free. Version 3.0 was in the making when they closed the website. In version 3.0, the player can play the "controversial side" (that of a shooter on the Grassy Knoll).

Community

There is a small community for this game who are creating mods for this game. One of the mods places a crowd observing the motorcade into the game, while another has several option, such as disabling reloading, disabling the bullet-drop effect, and allowing you to shoot from either the Grassy Knoll or the Dal-Tex building. [1][2]

External links