1993 · Adventure

Hell Cab

Hell Cab is a first person point and click adventure game that starts by taking the wrong cab in NYC. Stan is the cab driver; he brings the protagonist back in time to solve puzzles.

Released: 1993
Platforms: Windows macOS
Genres: Adventure
Developers: —
Publishers: Time Warner Interactive
Themes: Action Fantasy Horror Historical
Age ratings: ESRB T

About

Hell Cab is a 1993 adventure video game developed by Digital Fusion and published by Time Warner in 1993 for Macintosh, Windows 3.x.

›Story

In Hell Cab the player controls a traveler who was about to board a plane in the JFK airport when an announcement came that the plane was delayed. The man decides to take a cab ride through New York. Unfortunately, his driver turns out to be the minion of Satan himself. Since the traveler has no money to pay the cab fare, the driver makes a deal with him: he has to travel to various time periods if he wants his soul back.

Keywords

time travel
full motion video
faceless protagonist
suicide
live-action cutscene

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Development

Developed by Pepe Moreno, the game was intended as a showpiece for both Time Warner and Moreno. At the time, the Time Warner Interactive Group (formerly Warner New Media), was developing, acquiring, and distributing CD-ROM titles for the consumer market. This was Jules Urbach's first game, made when he was just 18, and it became one of the first CD-ROM games ever created. Beginning his career in art and comics, Moreno saw potential in the interactive media as an expression of true creativity.

Reception

Computer Gaming World in November 1993 criticised Hell Cab's "very slow" CD and QuickTime streaming speed, stating that the delays interrupted the player's immersion. The magazine described the software as "more like an interactive tour book and variety show lumped into one" than a game, and concluded with a hope that as technology improved "Moreno will be able to create a world of sight and sounds that truly entertain and offer smoother immersion into his creative vision". In April 1994 the magazine said that Hell Cab was "a case of new technology meeting old game design ... we were enamored of the graphics but less than enchanted with some of the game play".

PC Mag wrote that it was a "tempting treat". In a full-page review, Score gave the game a rating of 61%. Variety determined it was the most talked about of all the new releases in January 1993. Wired felt that some of the game's animations and music were too repetitive.