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Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Who shot JFK? It could be you!

A new video game puts you on the sixth floor of the Texas Schoolbook Repository and lets you take shots at JFK, Jackie, or anyone in the limo. From Slate:
On the surface, the game certainly seems like a loathsome piece of opportunism. The designers, though, claim the game's intent is to educate. The stated goal of JFK Reloaded is to debunk assassination conspiracy theories by buttressing the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and fired only three bullets. So, the game places you in the precise place where Oswald stood—the sixth-floor window of the Texas Schoolbook Depository—and challenges you to re-create his three shots. One shot missed the car entirely; another hit JFK in the neck; and a third hit the president's head, causing what the commission called "a massive and fatal wound." The closer you get to matching those three trajectories, the closer you get to a perfect score of 1,000. (The game designers are also offering a cash prize to the player who gets the highest score.) You can replay the scene as many times as you'd like.
Apparently, however, you can't move around and take a few shots from the grassy knoll. Nor will it give you, as Oswald, a chance to tell your story before you get wasted by Jack Ruby. I wonder if the makers of the game are working on a flight simulator which shows how you can crash a 757 into the Pentagon and make it completely disappear?