By late 1976, the industry, that had been nonexistent only four years previously, was booming. There were more than twenty different companies all releasing games in competition with each other. Games became even more popular as time went on. In 1982, video games sold more than either movies or music (Singh, 1). In 2000, the video game industry sold more than one hundred and ninety one million games in America which averages out to roughly two games per household (Hansen). The large number of games helped the industry profit over 7.7 billion dollars that year (Hansen, 3).
The first game that ever contained any real violence was titled Death Race and was released in 1976 (McNamara, 41). In Death Race, players would take control of a racecar in a roller derby and try not only to destroy their competitor's cars but at the same time try to run over small people who roamed around the screen (McNamara, 41). The US Government eventually intervened and tried to make changes to the game. Gamers claimed that the small people were skeletons and not people; as a result, they couldn't be .
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killed by the cars (McNamara, 43). Government officials were still not convinced, and the game's creators were ordered to tone down the violence. All copies of Death Race were recalled and the skeletons were replaced with tombstones (McNamara, 43). This was the first time the United States government and the gaming industry locked horns, but it would not be the last.
In 1992, Midway released a game that would change the industry forever. Mortal Kombat, a 3D fighting game, was offered to the public (McNamara, 41). It had previously only been available in arcades, but now gamers could enjoy it at home. In Mortal Kombat, players would take control of various fighters and hold death matches against other fighters. Mortal Kombat was such a revolutionary game not only because of the leaps and bounds it made in it's graphical strength, but also because it was the most violent and bloody game at the time.
