QUARANTINE WinAmp Skin

My tribute to Quarantine and GameTek

The object of Quarantine is to escape Kemo, a prison city. Kemo contains five separate areas surrounded by impenetrable walls.

Kemo's areas include:

Downtown Core- A shopping mall, highway, glass, steel and concrete. *

The Park - An open air park with canals, zoo of horrors, and scenic canyon just to name a few highlights.

Old Kemo - Old markets, Classy residential areas, commercial districts and hospitals surround these tight and twisty roads.

Projects - Burning housing projects, a football stadium, and a power plant are a few attractions in this shell-shocked warzone.

The Wharf - Perpetually raining, the wharf contains a harbor, rail yard and possible escape...

Only the Downtown Core is available in this demo.

Quarantine is by far one of my all time favorite games. You play a taxi driver in the future prison city of "Kemo" where an experimental virus has been released into the water supply. This virus has turned the inhabitants of Kemo into deranged psycho killers. Your goal is to get out of Kemo by getting in good with the underground. This game is hilarious and challenging. While I have died maybe twice in the game, the challenge isn't in staying alive, it is in picking up a fair, and getting the job done on time. There are hundreds of characters in the game and, while each encounter is brief, each character has his or her own personality.

Every level, you must pick up fairs and deliver them to their destination. Every so often, you will receive a mission fair where you must make a hit, blow up a building or deliver a package (like a box of mellow oldies to the baby boomers at the mall.)  Complete these missions and your connections will give you access to the next level.

On top of this great game is a great sound track. Quarantine has a dozen cd-audio tracks, from lounge music to hard core punk. These songs (from Australian punk bands I understand) really set the mood for the game. I have these songs on mp3 and they are in all of my play-lists.

For those interested in quickly beating the game, there is a secret.

Highlight the area between the ":"'s for the spoiler.

: Instead of being picky with fairs, as soon as you see one, pick him up. Do not refuse him. Do not be late. If you follow these guidelines, every other fair will be a mission fair. This is not lucrative or fun, but it is how the game works :

Audio Tracks on this CD

The story of the game:


2022

Kemo City is the jewel of the West and the hovercar capital of the world. A prosperous city on the east coast of the United States. Like any metropolis, Kemo City has a growing crime problem. The inner ghetto area of Kemo is perceived to be a money pit where any law enforcement would be both futile and frivolous. The solution is to make the old "inner Kemo" a demilitarized zone.

2026

Kemo City's crime problem reaches epidemic proportions. The economy in the "inner Kemo" slows to a near halt. Crime and black market trading are the only sources of income for inner Kemo's impoverished inhabitants. The new markets and commercial districts form a ring around "inner Kemo", but citizens are still stalked by the cesspool of criminal activity in the deadly ghetto.

2029

Ray Larabie is elected as mayor of New Kemo. One of Ray's campaign promises is to build a wall around inner Kemo and eliminate the crime problem; the project is simply codenamed "Q". The wall will contain a park, market, housing project, office core, and industrial coastal area.

2030

A ring of properties are purchased by the government around inner Kemo at very reasonable prices. An armed citizen's task force assembles in opposition to project "Q". Unmanned and well armored construction vehicles begin construction of a 5 meter thick, 10 meter high wall composed of plasticized concrete and steel. Inhabitants of inner Kemo are told that the wall is merely a sound baffle and gates will allow passage to New Kemo. Within Kemo, the city is being sectioned off into five sections: Downtown Core, Old Kemo, Kemo Park, the Projects and the Wharf.

2031

The wall around inner Kemo nears completion. A few of inner Kemo's inhabitants leave, but most return after finding no work opportunities in New Kemo. Only one route leads in and out of the city, and a military presence is established at the lone exit.

2032

After an armed standoff, Kemo is completely sealed off. The only possible exit is the coastline, which is sealed off by an armada of battleships and gunboats. Any material entering of leaving Kemo must go through Kemo Security. Wanderers and criminals outside project "Q" are hunted down and returned by airship to their rightful place. Outside walls are strewn with mines and turrets. The prison city of Quarantine is officially opened.

2035

After three years of tribal gang wars, a citizen's committee is established to restore support systems such as electric power, proper food distribution, water filtration and activation of the old street power grids which support the thousands of unused hover vehicles which lay useless in the streets. The gang kingpins take notice and openly support and protect the committee to have some of the comforts they are otherwise unable to acquire (including driving cool cars!).

2046

The quarantined Kemo city is doing fairly well, but unfortunately due to the influx of new inmates, overcrowding is becoming a problem. New Kemo's OmniCorp raises public interest in the neurodrug "Hydergine 344" reported to eliminate "criminal thoughts" in patients.

2047

Hydergine 344 is introduced to Quarantine's water supply. The water supply has an abnormally high bacterial and viral content which reacts with Hydergine 344 forming a pychoreactive virus. The virus causes synaptic breakdown, the main symptoms being violent psychopathic tendencies. About half of the prisoners have become crazed violent killer lunatics intent on killing anyone who is not a crazed violent killer lunatic.

2048

The virus is spreading...