Bloody Human Freeway

From WE Computers Museum
Bloody Human Freeway screenshot.jpg
Bloody Human Freeway
Developer Activision
Publisher Activision
Platforms Game Boy Advance, macOS, Windows
Released macOS, Windows (Activision Anthology)
North America: October 6, 2003
Game Boy Advance (Activision Anthology)
North America: December 8, 2003
Added to
Museum
macOS, Windows: March 1, 2024

Bloody Human Freeway is an Atari 2600 video game by Activision. It is the original, uncensored version of Freeway.

Plot

People try to cross a busy freeway without getting hit by passing cars.

Development

There were several instances related to heavy traffic in Chicago, Illinois that inspired David Crane to create the game. The first inspiration involved Crane and his friends crossing the busiest road in the city from the wrong side of a building when one of his friends joked that it would make a great video game. The second involved the video game designer Larry Kaplan riding a bus when he witnessed a man crossing Lake Shore Drive. The third involved Crane himself witnessing a man trying to cross during rush-hour traffic while attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.

In 1981, Crane prototyped a game for the Atari 2600 about humans crossing a road full of traffic, however three days before the next CES show, the Activision CEO at the time, Jim Levy, suggested it should be a chicken to be a variation on the "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke and so it can be promoted at the show by a person wearing a chicken suit.