were inspired by a black-and-white photobook titled Fellini's Faces. The Avengers episode "Look — (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) — But There Were These Two Fellers...", which features a pair of murderous clowns, was also an influence. The fatalities in Midway's Mortal Kombat pushed the development team to increase the game's graphic violence, with Pikulski responsible for many of the game's goriest effects. However, in response to objections from potential distributors, the development team installed a DIP switch that would allow operators to replace the giant infant boss character Junior with a giant teddy bear character named Deaddy. The opening and closing cutscenes were created by Blur Studio under the direction of Tim Miller. The music was composed by Kevin Quinn. Haeger voiced the game's opening narration as well as the characters Umlaut, Tökkentäkker, Hambone and Krampus. The enemy character Muertito the Bat Boy was created and voiced by artist Martin Martinez. In September 1998, CarnEvil was showcased at the Amusement & Music Operators Association Expo in Nashville, Tennessee. It was released on Halloween 1998, and it was considered a competitor to Atari Games's Area 51: Site 4 and Namco's Time Crisis II. In 1999, Midway confirmed that the game would not be ported to consoles. Reception and legacy Mark Hain of Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game's visuals and comfortable pump action gun, but was disappointed by the lack of extra gameplay features and hidden background secrets compared to Atari Games' Area 51 and Maximum Force. Jason Wilson and Tyrone Rodriguez of Tips & Tricks also praised the graphics, writing that "the stunning 3D environments are portrayed in such gruesome detail, you will think you're trapped in a horror film". French magazine Player One gave the game a score of 69%, regarding it as a House of the Dead clone, but commending the gun's design and precision as well as the gory graphics. Adam Bregman of LA Weekly considered CarnEvil to be "undoubtedly the best of the genre" and "perhaps the most twisted video game ever created". According to Haeger, the game's sales exceeded those of Mortal Kombat 4, which encouraged Midway's arcade team to conceptualize a 4D ride adaptation that ultimately never materialized. CarnEvil was never ported to home consoles despite the success of The House of the Dead, Time Crisis and Point Blank on those platforms. Pikulski claimed that a developer had intended to create