Quarantine

The game was followed by a sequel, Quarantine II: Road Warrior. The sequel largely kept the original gameplay, but introduced a more mission and story-driven gameplay.

• Title — Quarantine • Developer — Imagexcel • Publisher — GameTek • Platforms — MS-DOS, 3DO, PlayStation, Saturn • Released — MS-DOS'3DO'PlayStation16 February 1996Saturn12 July 1996 • Genre — Racing, first-person shooter • Modes — Single-player

KEMO city was known for the manufacture of hovercars, meeting the country's demands for transportation until 2022. Over time, however, the crime rate had risen so far that the economy collapsed and the city descended into disorder. Criminals roamed the streets in armored hovercars, terrorizing the citizens without fear of retribution. In 2029, OmniCorp promised city officials that it could clean up KEMO and return it to normal. The offer was accepted, and the corporation began the construction of a massive wall around the city under the guise of a "defensive measure". The wall was completed three years later, and the only exit sealed shut, turning KEMO into a massive prison city for all inside, criminal or otherwise. The outraged population reacted violently, and the city degenerated. Ten years later OmniCorp decided to test the behavior altering chemical Hydergine 344 on the population of KEMO. This chemical was supposed to pacify the citizens and distributed through the city's water supply. Unfortunately, OmniCorp failed to predict the chemical's reaction to stagnant water, resulting in massive brain damage and insanity in the many citizens. More than half the population became crazed killers overnight. Drake Edgewater, a 21st-century cab driver and one of the lucky few unaffected by the spreading virus, is desperate to escape the city alive. Driving his '52 Checker hovercab armed with an assortment of vehicle-mounted weaponry, he delivers passengers and packages for what money he can make to upgrade his vehicle and escape.

The primary gameplay loop of Quarantine consists of using a weapon-equipped taxi to pick up passengers, deliver packages, and defeat enemies. In between missions, the player replenishes the taxi's ammunition and armor by visiting service stations, marked on the player's map. Missions send the player through Kemo City's various districts. Progression from one zone to the next is blocked by password-protected gates until the player has completed enough story missions to advance. Quarantine required a rather powerful system when it was released. One of the original ads in magazines for the game used the slogan "If you've got the ram, we've got the pedestrians." Quarantine, long before Grand Theft Auto III and other similar games, employed the drive-by shooting tactic of using the Uzi to shoot out from the side windows.

The PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions were released in Japan exclusively, under the names Hard Rock Cab and Death Throttle, respectively. They are mostly the same as the original PC version, but while they had enhanced floor and building texturing, they suffer from slowdown and pixelation. The essential textscreen information is translated to Japanese, though most text remains in English and the live action video is neither dubbed nor subtitled. Additionally, the PlayStation version features green blood censorship.