Taxi Driver Video Game

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The thoughtless vulgarian in me would get a kick out of playing this Taxi Driver video game...I'm half-serious. It was designed by Papaya Studios, and was supposed to be distributed by Majescoe Entertainment.

The idea is, of course, grotesque, and yet there's something about the perversity of a video game allowing the player to become Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle, everyone's favorite nutbag taxi driver, and get that Mohawk haircut and put on that Army surplus jacket and that sliding-gun arm device and go hunt down Harvey Keitel 's Lower East Side pimp and who knows how many others? Maybe Peter Boyle's burly cab driver or Charles-Pallantine-for-President staffers Albert Brooks and Cybil Shepherd or maybe Pallantine himself...it's totally diseased beyond measure.

The Taxi Driver game was announced last year, but I became interested again when I read this 7.6 Guardian interview with Paul Schrader, screenwriter of the original 1976 Taxi Driver , which Martin Scorsese directed. It said that Schrader and Scorsese, appalled at the idea of the game, tried to have it stopped only to learn that they'd signed away the power to do anything about it in their original contracts.

Majescoe was supposed to issue the Taxi Driver game earlier this year, and (I'm obviously not plugged into the video-game world) yet I couldn't find any reviews or even a release date. I called Majescoe this morning and was told they had severed their deal with Papaya. The numbers I called after this -- Papaya's Irvine office #, plus several for reporters and reviewers who write for video mags -- didn't lead anywhere because everyone's at the VSDA Convention in Las Vegas. If anyone knows why Majescoe backed out, please inform.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 7, 2006 at 8:12 AM

comment #1

Mathew says ...

So what would you do for the rest of the game? Earn faires? Drive around New York picking up 'good girl' hookers and dropping them off at their parent's home? Do pull-ups... I suspect what you're looking for can be found in Grand Theft Auto, supposedly an open ended game where you could conceivably play a Travis Bickle archetype.

Posted by Mathew at July 7, 2006 4:36 PM

comment #2

Alan Green says ...

there's no stopping the evolution of acceptable violence in media

Posted by Alan Green at July 7, 2006 5:06 PM

comment #3

Anonymous says ...

"there's no stopping the evolution of acceptable violence in media"

You could say it all started with the orginal movie...

Posted by Anonymous at July 7, 2006 5:21 PM

comment #4

gh says ...

Why didn't they participate.

Eastwood is overseeing the development of the next gen Dirty Harry game and he even got notorious hardcase Gene Hackman involved.

Posted by gh at July 8, 2006 1:41 AM

comment #5

gh says ...

here's a link with more info on the taxi driver game.

Posted by gh at July 8, 2006 1:45 AM

comment #6

gh says ...

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/taxidriver/news.html?sid=6142618&mode=recent

Posted by gh at July 8, 2006 1:46 AM

comment #7

asd says ...

yearly video game expo held in LA every May). I spent a good 10 mins just staring at the display in abject horror as the film snob in me screamed bloody murder. I finally worked up the nerve to talk to one of the game coordinators who was standing nearby preening over his work to find out what the premise of the game was.

He told me "Travis' girlfriend Betsy has been killed by the mob and Travis goes on a rampage to avenge her." Girlfriend Betsy??? I actually sneered at the guy and said "have you even seen Taxi Driver?"

The game play was a pretty standard GTA-style rip-off. You drive a yellow cap mowing down pedestrians, you run around with a Magnum blowing away pimps and thugs and minorities. As an added bonus, to restore your life when you're injured, you pop pills (didn't get to the part where you get to pour Thunderbird onto your cereal apparently). I'm surprised that they still haven't gotten around to finishing the game as it looked close to "done" when I played it but maybe good taste finally intervened.

Posted by asd at July 8, 2006 9:57 AM

comment #8

asd says ...

Sorry to double post, the top of my last comments were cut-off:

I actually played a demo of the game at E3 2005 (for those who don't know, this is a yearly video game expo held in LA every May). I spent a good 10 mins just staring at the display in abject horror as the film snob in me screamed bloody murder. I finally worked up the nerve to talk to one of the game coordinators who was standing nearby preening over his work to find out what the premise of the game was.

Posted by asd at July 8, 2006 9:58 AM

comment #9