keep in mind this is simply an english-speaking channel about racing games, even though things go off the course sometimes just a clarification since youtube has recently started recommending this video to iranians
Okay i dont know if anyone cares. But something 4th wall breaking shit just happen me im genuinely scared. So i was logging into my gmail account on my computer but then it suddenly asks me to verify my login using my phone since its new location, wait what??? it never happens and im still inside my house! yeah whatever but then why i checked my phone the new login location says TEHRAN, IRAN WTF??? WHATS GOING ON
I live in Iran and almost all government projects are like this. Big budget from Iranian taxes and a low quality result which will not work. It only benefits the producers who are related to government
Then it's like every single government around the world..... At least in Iran they don't put solar panels on the road surface to then drive over them? ;)
Hey, Big Rigs was made by worst developer in history, Sergey Titov, from russia. This game is Iranian. Add Pyongyang Racer (yes it exists), a North Korean game and you have the unholy trinity of worst governments in the world right now.
That's what happens when you make your people disconnected from the world and deem every other country as the big bad enemy; you win all the awards there is and achieve new inventions and human milestones each day, make new discoveries NO ONE has ever done, and you send 10 satellites and rockets into space everyday and you're the bestest country in the world which literally every citizen of other countries envy to live in.
Fahr-Simulator 2009 by Astragon also has several spots to fall through the floor (I made many glitchride videos of that). Even the Arcade game Hard Drivin did this when driving slow and tllting sideways of a section before the start position or on the road fork to the speed track.
A funny sidenote: The actor who played the role for owner of taxi company in this game escaped Iran around 2009 and in 2019 turned into a critic of Iran's regime and started a show called "restart" that encouraged people to protesting and in fact revolting against government.
I thought you were referring to the Godawful taxi missions, but then I got to the part where he was investigating the SRP offices to see if Doc Sami was there and practically had to talk his way out of an increasingly awkward and potentially dangerous situation.
It is 100% fraud or money launder scheme it is also so bizarre that after almost 20 Years There are 2 random doctors banning and threatening anyone from even getting a glimpse of the ex address of srp
I love that you went from FH tuning and reviews to covering corruption and cheating for price money in racing tournaments to covering video games funded by questionable means to now going for actual investigations into embezzlement...
Amount of games like THIS from Iran really amuses me. In Russia, we used to have A LOT of awful games made in 2000-2008, but most of them had redeeming features or were "So bad they're actually fun" thing going on. But those are just bad code with awful textures strapped on it.
Yea but what you don’t know is a lot of kids grew up with these characters on TV. There was a famous tv show about the main protagonist in this game, breaking traffic laws and getting punished because of it (not by the police, but by the accidents caused because of his actions) it was funny, quite entertaining and informative. I think thats why for iranians born in the 90s , it’s really nostalgic
What Russian games do you guys have now? I'm American and I played a lot of games (most from the U.S and Japan) but never played games developed by other countries. I'm curious tho
And the Iranian government, which is involved in pretty much every bloody conflict in the world in one way or another, telling their people to not play with people's lives is rather hilarious as well.
@@torstenscholz6243 You want more hilarious? The "Hoseini" guy in this game, was a showman at the time of the game. Later he immigrated to the US as a political refugee and became a political activist/ Conspiracy theorist.🤣🤣 It gets funnier every time I think about it lol
My small hometown of Rijeka managed to make a decent and very popular game at the time called Urban Jungle. The game was essentially a driving game around Rijeka, but you have to follow rules and regulations. We managed to do it for free as a group of volunteers.
It has to be. 3 million back then would worth 4 million today and in 2020 the indie horror game Visage was made with a 120k Kickstarter founding. Although that was made with UE4. I don't even understand why the dev thought a game like this needs a custom engine LOL.
1 million / on average 100,000 from each company seems like a bit of a low amount for all this effort. seen as 2 million of the 3 was from the government, which would be very brazen for that by doing it with the government. Why would a cola company need to do money laundering?
@@aldousfoxly - According to wikipedia they were supposed to have a contest with Desert Bus and whoever had the highest score would get to recreate the drive from Tucson to Vegas with Penn and Teller on a bus. I'm betting P&T are glad that never happened.
Well we don't have any choice let's just be silent and say nothing it's totally shameful that they've stolen the money from people's pockets to create this shit
Here in iran we have a saying, ripping hair off of a bear wouldn't hurt, means if you can rip money off of the government do it, thus money laundering.
"List of doctor sami Games" - Truck in Tehran (2003) - Driving in Tehran (2004) - Pyongyang in Tehran (2012) - Game Console in Tehran (2014) - Detective in Tehran (2015)
6:31 It’s cool how this game based on the sia cartoon got referenced in the actual cartoon. It reminds me of how the ducktales reboot referenced their NES game because they added lyrics to the moon level theme.
As an Iranian, I say that this game was not only a big pyramid scam, but the reputation of the programmers with such a large budget was questioned at that time. However, how did such a ridiculous game become so popular???
I'm gonna take a mild guess that that game development was a massive corruption scandal that managed to be kept under wraps due to governmental involvement. It may have rightfully left a lot of people jittery. The door to that doctor's building is gorgeous though.
14:28 about Seyed Mohammad Hosseini: He used to be a showman but now he is in US and founded an opposition group (basically iranian QAnon but even worse lmao) and many claim its just a controlled opposition group backed by government to discredit actual opposition groups.
It's possible to make a game where you respect traffic laws and make it actually fun, Tokyo Bus Guide did that, but that game actually had effort put into it as well as offering a strict but fair challenge.
Taxi Life by Nacon, despite being bad, is actually better than Driving in Tehran. Also ironically Thrill Drive by Konami, despite promoting illegal driving, also warns players about the dangers of an accident in a horrifying manner, which is even better than DOT's shitty attempt
Consider yourselves lucky guys cause there’s more of this and I mean they had posters and ads and all kinds of PR stunts back in the day😂 man even Valfajr got made into a video game
If $9,600 is three years' worth of income in Iran, then I feel extremely privileged in Malaysia since you can get a new car for that much from the two local automobile manufacturers, one of them with relationships to Toyota and Daihatsu, yet middle class Malaysians can afford to pay off a 3 year loan with a fraction of their monthly income. I never realized how small the purchasing power of Iranians are. As for the game, yeah it's a scam that would make The Day Before blush.
Dude you got balls of steel to go up to literally doing an investigation of an actual place, all because it ties back to this bad game. Thats insane journalist dedication and you deserve my respect, especially since you were doing that in Iran, a country with a corrupt shady status right now.
I did not expect this rabbit hole to go so deep. Somebody has to do some digging into it. Everything from the whearabouts of Doctor Sami, the $3,000,000 he most likely embezzled to "make" the game, and what connections the suspicious doctor's office has to SRP.
And this is just a video game. Imagine what comes up when you start asking questions about any sort of military contractor business (and I don't mean just in Teheran). And this is precisely where the whole world seems to be heading right now, with mostly a lot of applause from all citizens...
I wouldn't try to dig in government things, especially not in countries with dictatorships. It can get you in huge trouble for asking the wrong questions.
Well, for a country whose biggest automotive achievement had been the Paykan for a long time, the 405 may be considered high-end technology. And it fits the game perfectly: Cars with early 90s standards, gameplay and graphics with early 90s standards.
About taking pictures in Iran: I know a painter who was painting a picture of a bank (on the street) in Tehran until the police approached him and forced him to destroy his painting… :/
@@zanagidoom has 30k+ and gta 3,vc has 200k+. If you are creating with no game engine and opengl, then around 250k will result in a pretty decent game, if you are using a big game engine like unity, I think 30k will be more than enough. I will start creating my games with opengl and c++ after learning DSA. So I can't accurately tell you the loc.
Lol, when you mentioned the game "Driver" and described it as having entire cities to drive in, I couldnt help but remember being a kid and renting "Driver" from the video store, only to never even be able to finish the damn "driving test" tutorial at the beginning.. ive always wanted to get past that part, but its one of those "White Whales" in video games to get that far.
i remember myself at age of 4 or 6 trying to beat it, i can confidently say that through days and days of agonizing torture, i remember the bliss and happiness when i finnaly managed to finish it, and then there goes the canyon test... oh my god. But I remember those days vividly, driver is one of the best games of that time, and it definitely sharpenned my skill in playing video games in future, not just racing games. absolutely awesome times.
Even as an adult that game is so hard, it’s no wonder I also couldn’t make it through the initial driving test tutorial at the beginning 🤣 but once my brother beat that I loved driving around and exploring the open world. Driver 2 for ps1 was amazing and way before it’s time because you could get out of your car and run around
@@TheInternationalJew I was wondering how I was able to source brand new 405 tail light lenses from Egypt - apparently NASR made them until somewhat recently as well. Bloody popular car it seems.
405 and its various localized "improvements" are one of the most common cars in Iran, made by the same IKCO. The whole auto industry in Iran is a huge and sorrowfull sh*tshow; just to give a very vague, general idea, it could be noted that foreign cars are generally prohibited to import(unless in very small, specific numbers) and it has been like this for decades; all in the guise of "Supporting National Industry"; which of course(alongside a gazillion other corrupt reasons such as money laundering and nepotism)removes any incentive of improving products for Iranian car companies.
Dude as an Iranian this shit hits so close to home 😂, can’t wait for future videos, btw there’s a game called “Shetab dar Shahr” which translates to “Speed in the city” if you wanna check out something similar to this for a future video.
0:59 “70 people spent 500,000 hours on the game” that’s an average of 298 days per person working on the game. Insane. And “time” is one of the only things we can’t get back.
In Iran, loitering around a shop without intending to buy is practically a crime. You'll spot signs scolding you for just standing there, blocking the way to someone's paycheck. And dare you window shop too long, some shopkeeper might just lose it and tell you to scram. But that's just the start. Decide you wanna try on a piece of clothing and then not buy it? Brace yourself for some serious cold shoulder action. A simple 'thanks' or 'bye' gets you nothing but a glare. It's like you're pressured into buying stuff just because you dared to touch it. And don't get me started on the judgment. This place could give a masterclass in it. Forget 'don't judge'; that concept is alien there. Plus, the racism? It's next-level. Afghans bear the brunt so harshly, it's not even funny, mocked on national TV and all. But hey, if you're from the West, roll out the red carpet. Corruption? It's the national sport. Ever wonder why some trashy game is flush with cash? Easy. Money's being pocketed, not paid where it's due. The country's run by what feels like a mafia, with this group called 'Sepah' having their fingers in every pie. Trying to do your own thing? Forget about it. Everything's gotta go through them, directly or not. And it's not just games; it's apps, you name it. Oh, and cracking down on people for, well, cracking their game? Just another Tuesday there. As for the government and cultural vibes, it's dictatorship 101. Even getting birth control is a mission.
I appreciate your description of everyday life in Iran. Every Iranian I've met in the United States is open to conversation and generally understanding of our own culture, but we definitely have our problems, too.
Asking this as an iranian, are you actually iranian? Cause youre the only dude on this platform I've seen that has actually made videos about iranian games, and the ones ive seen are like actually kinda good games not these government made games that you only see in tv ads
When you say "the ones ive seen are like actually kinda good games" do you mean that there are good games made in Iran? Just curious since I know so little about them
Dude, the 405 made save this to my "watch later" playlist last month. I was looking for something to watch today and again, 405 caught my eyes, but then i saw Sia Saketi 😂 he was my childhood LEGEND. Great video. Keep up the good work ❤❤❤ and also, please don't get arrested 😂
As an Iranian, you are a hero, you are doing the police job here. But 3 million dollars robbery is nothing compared to all the robberies that this government has committed till now from the Iran revolution (47 years ago). The most recent one (2 months ago) was a Tea company that stole 3 BILLION (not a million) dollars and nobody got guilty! Another one (one month ago) a mobile selling company in Iran scammed people into buying cheap Apple iPhone 13 with 200 million dollars stolen with no phone delivered to the customers! The amount of advertising for that was so much that I can't believe that they have got away with it very easily. Nobody is guilty either! These were the tip of the iceberg. My country is so wealthy but the average salary is 125$ per month! The robberies are so much that I can't tell where to start.
I cannot believe seeing this !!!! i bought this game when it released. I played (more like suffered) for 5 hours to collect the money so mr "Hoseyni" can be released from the hospital which after i collected the money, the game crashed. Yeah it was an awful game... the worst part is, i was living around that area and because of that, i was so excited to see my home in the game which they didnt include that area.... Thank you to bring back the memories for me
“You shouldn’t play with people’s lives” followed by the game crashing feels like one of those creepy fan-made anti-piracy screens, if I saw that while playing GTA V I would shit bricks
Shout out to Sepi for finding such an awesome way to evolve his channel. These deep dives into borderline lost media from behind the Iran Curtain has been some of the best gaming content I've seen in a while.
I like your videos about Iranian video games and they've been my favorite thing from your channel lately. You are the only TH-camr I know who makes coverage on this very niche and obscure topic. Hope that more of these will come from the future and subscribed!
9:07 I actually bought this game when it came out. I was 10 at the time, and barely remember trying to activate the game, but the phone lines were down (an automated voice message kept telling me the number you have dialed is not registered on the network lol). Needless to say I was greatly disappointed that I spend 5$ on a game and couldn't even get to the main menu. But the crazy thing is, disk 2 was working fine and DIDN'T REQUIRE AN ACTIVATION CODE. I played it back then I remember telling myself "this looks like a shitty watered down version of that NFS game I played at my friend's house way back". I didn't have NFS on my system so I spent some time on the second disk. The only thing I vaguely remember is they included a 206 which was very popular model in Iran at the time (still is) and I guess that was the main appeal to the game for me for like the single week I kept playing this abomination untill I got bored with it and went back to playing Fifa. All these years I was wondering what the game looked like and thought no one even remembered it, and now you've finally showed it to me. Thanks brother.
I was wondering where you went a few days ago because you haven't posted in a while, and this video seems to show why. This video is incredibly interesting, you definitely spent a lot of time researching all of this stuff, at the end it even feels like a police documentary coming from a video where you originally seem to just talk about a horrible Iranian racing game from 19 years ago.. I didn't even know that Iran had games or even a car company. This video felt longer than 15 minutes, those cutscenes are also so ridiculous. Why is there a realistic guy and everyone else looks like a really weird cartoon character? Insane how all of this and your video of the other game console are just from Iran, imagine how many other countries have such weird, mysterious games like this
Actually this is one of car companies in Iran, you should see what others do😂! Regarding the characters, those fancy guys are from a series of famous animation/cartoon movie and I assume this guy bought the license to use them for sake of advertising.
Its probably as simple as this owner was related to some politician got given some money to keep with the lie being he was making a game followed with it and became 3 million dollars richer while scamming everyone
I wish Iran made better games and worse drones TBH, why couldn't they embezzle on weapon production like russia does? Fuck Shaheds. Can't sleep at night because of their goddamn lawnmower engine, we call them mopeds FFS.
Zamzam is actually a holy water in islam beliefs but apparently in 2:23 someone thought soda is also holy (did the founder really thought every drinks is holy except for the prohibited one?)
Incredibly well made video, the games' dialogues are hilarious if you understand Persian. Crazy that those guys wanted to square up with you when you visited the building.
I remember playing a game like this when I was 15 or something. My dad worked for Chrysler and one year they had developed a new driver video game for kids about to get their license and they gave it out to employees. He had me play it and it was basically a video game version of a Drivers' Education class (could only drive Chrysler vehicles of course lol). For the life of me I can't remember the name of it but it reminds me of this so much lmao
Your videos are fascinating, and truly something only you could make. Before seeing your video on the wheel camera, I always assumed the Middle Eastern video game scene was more or less identical to the American one (or the Japanese one, for that matter). Keep up the good work! And as a journalist myself, I encourage you to keep looking into things that don't seem right to you!
My guess is that the doctors at the doctor's office are somehow related to Sami. Perhaps they are cousins or friends of the family. That would explain why they're so jittery about having someone approach their clinic.
This really highlights how ahead of their time AAA games were back then. Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy were developed for around $2-5 million each, while Unreal Tournament cost about $5-10 million. Though the budgets weren’t exactly the same, the quality and innovation were on a whole different level.
keep in mind this is simply an english-speaking channel about racing games, even though things go off the course sometimes
just a clarification since youtube has recently started recommending this video to iranians
Wait so your not Iranian???
Than hod did you get pictures from a company that's in Iran only?!
@@Alisun1991the internet is worldwide buddy
@@Alisun1991 He didn't claim he's not Iranian, he clarified he owns an "English-speaking channel".
It's clearly money laundry / corruption
"Why did you take photros of the building?"
I would have replied: "I'm making a driving game of this city and need the textures."
That would've been such a power move
It could've been the best punch line....
LMAO
"why are you taking photos of area 51?"
"i'm making a video game".
Photros Photros Ghali
threatening people by saying if they try to crack their game they will have to deal with the police is hilarious
Bet, does any country even care about piracy anymore?
"Oi mate, 'av u got a loicence fo' that gaem?"
damn i completely forgot that Piracy is illegal
It's also a bit terrifying, because FARAJA is not known for playing nice.
"You wouldn't steal a car"
The game telling the player "You shouldn't mess with people's lives" before crashing itself goes hard
Sounds like the start of a creepypasta.
someone should remake this game as creepypasta game with decent gameplay
Undertale-ass thing to do
Okay i dont know if anyone cares. But something 4th wall breaking shit just happen me im genuinely scared.
So i was logging into my gmail account on my computer but then it suddenly asks me to verify my login using my phone since its new location, wait what??? it never happens and im still inside my house! yeah whatever
but then why i checked my phone the new login location says TEHRAN, IRAN
WTF??? WHATS GOING ON
@@Bos_Meong Sami is watching
I live in Iran and almost all government projects are like this. Big budget from Iranian taxes and a low quality result which will not work. It only benefits the producers who are related to government
it is not Iranian taxes! You don’t finance the state, you don’t print money to pay them
If only they weren't sanctioned
@@TheSMR1969Yeah, then they could spend even more money on the military!
Then it's like every single government around the world..... At least in Iran they don't put solar panels on the road surface to then drive over them? ;)
Big big budget low low quality. 😂
You did it. You found the final boss of bad racing games. I had no idea it could get worse than Big Rigs.
Hey, Big Rigs was made by worst developer in history, Sergey Titov, from russia. This game is Iranian. Add Pyongyang Racer (yes it exists), a North Korean game and you have the unholy trinity of worst governments in the world right now.
@@KasumiRINA Big Rigs was an American-Ukrainian co-production IIRC? Or perhaps Sergey Titov was a Russian person who moved to Ukraine.
FlatOut 3:
and was published by one of the worst publishers in history: GameMill@@KasumiRINA
This at least is a game with challenge (it is possible to lose) and you can hit things with your car in it.
The fake reports of the game winning awards and shit had me laughing hard. That level of propaganda would make Kim proud lmaoo
That's what happens when you make your people disconnected from the world and deem every other country as the big bad enemy; you win all the awards there is and achieve new inventions and human milestones each day, make new discoveries NO ONE has ever done, and you send 10 satellites and rockets into space everyday and you're the bestest country in the world which literally every citizen of other countries envy to live in.
Or the CIA, for that matter
@@chompythebeast na, the CIA would hire actually competent people and make a decent game. Not award winning, but serviceable.
@@sarowie Oh yeah totally, like the Bay of Pigs or Operation Mongoose, never egg on their faces
@@chompythebeastcope, tankie 😂
Rule 1 of abiding by traffic laws.
If your car spontaneously clips through the road, don't panic, that happens sometimes.
Fahr-Simulator 2009 by Astragon also has several spots to fall through the floor (I made many glitchride videos of that). Even the Arcade game Hard Drivin did this when driving slow and tllting sideways of a section before the start position or on the road fork to the speed track.
Happened in Cleveland, Ohio last week
Life has not been the same since they buffed the Backrooms in the latest patch.
Just put on your hazards and get a non-Euclidean tow. Ffs not that hard
@@b-chroniumproductions3177Mandatory "Only In Ohio" reference
A funny sidenote:
The actor who played the role for owner of taxi company in this game escaped Iran around 2009 and in 2019 turned into a critic of Iran's regime and started a show called "restart" that encouraged people to protesting and in fact revolting against government.
He's still a puppet of the regime now. all he does is to attack Pahlavi.
@@Roxana_Officialdoesn’t he also attack certain religious groups too?
I looked into the group and they appear to be conspiracy theorists.
@@redcobra6016 he's just a clown at best. no one cares nor taking him or his group seriously.
He didn't escape. He was "exported".
@@ajdarmar glad to see our people are smart :)
Man Iranian gaming TH-cam does NOT mess around
Iranian Gaming Memes have the potential to become the next big meme if they keep being this spicy
@@crispyandspicy6813but sepi’s stopping the series :(
@@RandomPerson-z8fhow do you know that?
Is he from Iran? I was astonished that he nonchalantly traced and visited the exact building
@@dongy7297no, he's from Italy, atleast according to his TH-cam Profile.
“You shouldn’t play with people’s lives”
The Iranian government
"The Iranian government" can't eat $hit
“Oh, the irony! It’s too much!” - Jacksepticeye
Also Iranian government: killed lot of people in his contery
that is also the USA government. Same shit, different assholes
says the government that slaughters people for not wearing hijab/ not being a Muslim.
source : I'm living in Iran
200,000 tomans is actually worth $3.17
😭
Edit 1 (2024-05-31): 200,000 tomans is worth $3.38
Edit 2 (2024-10-19): 200,000 tomans is worth $3.17
Edit 3 (2024-10-25): 200,000 tomans is worth $2.91
Edit 4 (2024-11-6): 200,000 tomans is worth $2.80
this inflation is wack.
Haha L 3rd world countries
i can confirm 😢
@@narrativeless404 Most empathetic westerner.
@@narrativeless404>t. being lead on by circus and bread
"you shouldn't play with people's lives" has to be the most peak game over dialogue i've seen in any game
Weird to see you in here, question did you quit clone armies? I seen you only play stick war legacy nowaday
Real shit? Is this some long-standing grudge? Have you been searching for this guy for years?
@@t.l.7854 Wait, what is this?
@@toainsullySHIT'S NOT MAKING ANY SENSE 🗣️🗣️ 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Tf are these first 2 replies??
Bro went from playing a game to a 5 star difficulty watchdogs mission
@@mr.blueitachi5258 Yes
I thought you were referring to the Godawful taxi missions, but then I got to the part where he was investigating the SRP offices to see if Doc Sami was there and practically had to talk his way out of an increasingly awkward and potentially dangerous situation.
I love how this fun video about an obscure game turned into some journalist/detective documentary about a potential fraudster lmao
potential?
Hbomberguy at home
It is 100% fraud or money launder scheme
it is also so bizarre that after almost 20 Years There are 2 random doctors banning and threatening anyone from even getting a glimpse of the ex address of srp
@@paulustrucenus hbomberguy but if he was combined with electroboom
@@paulustrucenus Hbomberguy if he was Iranian
1.5 million photos taken, because the shutter button stuck.
1.5 million photos taken... by a Google satellite.
I love that you went from FH tuning and reviews to covering corruption and cheating for price money in racing tournaments to covering video games funded by questionable means to now going for actual investigations into embezzlement...
If true, this guy is brave - the Iranian government goes after journalists and whistleblowers who expose corruption.
@@souvikrc4499Usual order in countries where the governments have to exercise aggressive mass-surveillance to keep the locals in check.
@@souvikrc4499 nah, he just got banned from forza for cheating in a tournament lmao.
@@DChrisSLO Sepi was cheating? in what tournament exactly?
@@Spineblorg i do believe that is false
but he was banned though, but for using a tool to import images into the forza horizon livery creator
Amount of games like THIS from Iran really amuses me. In Russia, we used to have A LOT of awful games made in 2000-2008, but most of them had redeeming features or were "So bad they're actually fun" thing going on. But those are just bad code with awful textures strapped on it.
ah, classic slavjank
Maybe games like this is our future:D
Yea but what you don’t know is a lot of kids grew up with these characters on TV. There was a famous tv show about the main protagonist in this game, breaking traffic laws and getting punished because of it (not by the police, but by the accidents caused because of his actions) it was funny, quite entertaining and informative. I think thats why for iranians born in the 90s , it’s really nostalgic
It makes sense when you look at the Neighbours from Hell bootleg games (aka the Pranksterz series)
What Russian games do you guys have now? I'm American and I played a lot of games (most from the U.S and Japan) but never played games developed by other countries. I'm curious tho
Telling Iranians that piracy is a serious crime that they cannot get away with is the funniest thing to come out of this.
And the Iranian government, which is involved in pretty much every bloody conflict in the world in one way or another, telling their people to not play with people's lives is rather hilarious as well.
@@torstenscholz6243 You want more hilarious? The "Hoseini" guy in this game, was a showman at the time of the game. Later he immigrated to the US as a political refugee and became a political activist/ Conspiracy theorist.🤣🤣
It gets funnier every time I think about it lol
All while using content from other places themselves, all unlicensed lmao
@@torstenscholz6243lol iran is not the usa
The internet copyright laws in here are essentially non existence lmfao
My small hometown of Rijeka managed to make a decent and very popular game at the time called Urban Jungle. The game was essentially a driving game around Rijeka, but you have to follow rules and regulations. We managed to do it for free as a group of volunteers.
i love how the game has a Wikipedia article
I've seen Rijeka and I wouldn't exactly call it a "Urban Jungle"
@@leoskiniits definitely not
2 words :
1. MONEY
2. LAUNDERING
It has to be. 3 million back then would worth 4 million today and in 2020 the indie horror game Visage was made with a 120k Kickstarter founding. Although that was made with UE4. I don't even understand why the dev thought a game like this needs a custom engine LOL.
1 word :
1. MONEYLAUNDERING
1 million / on average 100,000 from each company seems like a bit of a low amount for all this effort. seen as 2 million of the 3 was from the government, which would be very brazen for that by doing it with the government. Why would a cola company need to do money laundering?
and rampant corruption.
just corruption. they dont need to launder the money :D
you know its gonna be good when the video opens with "its 2005 in iran"
Indeed
8:44 Desert Bus was never canceled, in fact, it was finished and you can buy and play it right now.
Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors, from which Desert Bus comes from, was canceled. It'd probably be more accurate to say Desert Bus is unreleased.
@@aldousfoxly although desert bus VR is alive and well, even if it is psychological torture
And Desert Bus was used in a virus, and can only be cleared after 10 hours
HOLD MY REINS IM GOING IN!
@@aldousfoxly - According to wikipedia they were supposed to have a contest with Desert Bus and whoever had the highest score would get to recreate the drive from Tucson to Vegas with Penn and Teller on a bus. I'm betting P&T are glad that never happened.
As an Iranian, I don't know that I should laugh at this or be disappointed 😂😂
Well we don't have any choice let's just be silent and say nothing it's totally shameful that they've stolen the money from people's pockets to create this shit
beginning: a review about bad racing game
end: exposing corrupt iranian
Here in iran we have a saying, ripping hair off of a bear wouldn't hurt, means if you can rip money off of the government do it, thus money laundering.
@@thenerdbird5596That’s a nice saying
Yeah bro says right
So far I know Tehran for two things; a Spongebob fan film and this game.
And Battlefield 3.
@@rosaria8384💀
5* Spongebob fan films
I'm not even sure if the fifth one is even a movie.
And shitty air
Smh we really need a new gov
"List of doctor sami Games"
- Truck in Tehran (2003)
- Driving in Tehran (2004)
- Pyongyang in Tehran (2012)
- Game Console in Tehran (2014)
- Detective in Tehran (2015)
"Pyongyang in Tehran" made me question my sanity.
“Pyongyang in Tehran 2012” 😂😅😂
Where's superman in tehran from 1999
What is Pyongyang in Tehran???
@@epicm999 Driving in Pyongyang
Blud just casually picked up sia 5:09
6:31 It’s cool how this game based on the sia cartoon got referenced in the actual cartoon. It reminds me of how the ducktales reboot referenced their NES game because they added lyrics to the moon level theme.
As an Iranian, I say that this game was not only a big pyramid scam, but the reputation of the programmers with such a large budget was questioned at that time. However, how did such a ridiculous game become so popular???
It was never popular. I was working in a software/game store back then. We sold exactly one copy.
it was me and my friends loved it lol
@@kayvannouri😂
Lol 🤣🤣🤣
I'm Iranian, but I never heard about this gane
"you shouldnt play with people's lives"
*game crashes*
Thats very advanced horror
I disagree with one of the points in your video: this is exactly how driving in Tehran goes. they simulated it phenomenally
Damn I didn't expect for it to get so sketchy at the end, I'm happy you are ok.
I'm gonna take a mild guess that that game development was a massive corruption scandal that managed to be kept under wraps due to governmental involvement. It may have rightfully left a lot of people jittery.
The door to that doctor's building is gorgeous though.
I can't believe that this video actually has more effort than a whole iranian goverment game 💀
And yet, just as much stolen content.
that's 10 minutes of adobe premiere
@@fabuxverchaturaEven you know that's false.
@@DanielJacobs-rz1zl that wasn't important to me anyway
And yet, they don't support a lot of indie game development studios in iran. I wanna die
14:28 about Seyed Mohammad Hosseini:
He used to be a showman but now he is in US and founded an opposition group (basically iranian QAnon but even worse lmao) and many claim its just a controlled opposition group backed by government to discredit actual opposition groups.
I love when videos about something seemingly benign end up turning into investigative journalism
It's possible to make a game where you respect traffic laws and make it actually fun, Tokyo Bus Guide did that, but that game actually had effort put into it as well as offering a strict but fair challenge.
An anti video game done right?
It's a simulator.
Euro truck simulator 2.
That game is actually comfy to play.
@@rosaria8384 damn, just checked it out and it looks amazing
Taxi Life by Nacon, despite being bad, is actually better than Driving in Tehran.
Also ironically Thrill Drive by Konami, despite promoting illegal driving, also warns players about the dangers of an accident in a horrifying manner, which is even better than DOT's shitty attempt
I am iranian, i never knew about this, but this video pretty much sums up how islamic republic governs everything😂
As a follow campariot I agree
So true lol
as Iranian i agree
@MMm-zr5yahx i can also confirm
Consider yourselves lucky guys cause there’s more of this and I mean they had posters and ads and all kinds of PR stunts back in the day😂 man even Valfajr got made into a video game
Cool. 💯
10:43 - Just so you know, I'm still waiting for that "The Worst Car Company" video.
The X-Files theme being in the game is especially hilarious considering how memed it is nowadays.
Edit: I am old
nowadays?
I think that was popular in 2017 and the 2000s with the whole illuminati thing, No one does that anymore.
I haven't heard it in a while.
@@justhere4637It wasn't even that long ago.
I get it 😭😭😭I’m old 😭😭😭😭😭😭
3:04 the road texture looks suspiciously similar to the one in highway 17 from half life 2
Definitely *built from the ground up*
omg it is
Fuck me, it is
*Own engine built up from the ground btw*
Nope, this engine was totally built from scratch.
If $9,600 is three years' worth of income in Iran, then I feel extremely privileged in Malaysia since you can get a new car for that much from the two local automobile manufacturers, one of them with relationships to Toyota and Daihatsu, yet middle class Malaysians can afford to pay off a 3 year loan with a fraction of their monthly income. I never realized how small the purchasing power of Iranians are.
As for the game, yeah it's a scam that would make The Day Before blush.
my friend bought a proton wira for 4k myr. same car goes for 3-4k usd in iran
Yea everything sucks here
Iran is shit. Imagine not being friends with AMERICA
@@seP44k for a wira is really fuckin cheap. i mean, considering its a really old car
Myvi is literally the king of the road for a reason
Dude you got balls of steel to go up to literally doing an investigation of an actual place, all because it ties back to this bad game. Thats insane journalist dedication and you deserve my respect, especially since you were doing that in Iran, a country with a corrupt shady status right now.
I did not expect this rabbit hole to go so deep. Somebody has to do some digging into it. Everything from the whearabouts of Doctor Sami, the $3,000,000 he most likely embezzled to "make" the game, and what connections the suspicious doctor's office has to SRP.
And this is just a video game. Imagine what comes up when you start asking questions about any sort of military contractor business (and I don't mean just in Teheran). And this is precisely where the whole world seems to be heading right now, with mostly a lot of applause from all citizens...
I wouldn't try to dig in government things, especially not in countries with dictatorships. It can get you in huge trouble for asking the wrong questions.
Sometimes you look at the variables and think "oh this is gonna be no offensive PSA about driving"
Then u see the gameplay. And question humanity
fr lmao
And then you find out about the political connections, and the rabbit hole goes deeper.
Psa is now stellantis
@@someonecalledeulogio2280 In case you're not joking, they meant Public Service Announcement.
Especially when many other games like Thrill Drive bringing PSAs in a better way
You know what funny? 3 out of 5 cars are technically Peugeot 405!
And the 2 others are Peugeot 206
@@asmoth360 it's all Peugeots!
ریدم
Lmao
Well, for a country whose biggest automotive achievement had been the Paykan for a long time, the 405 may be considered high-end technology. And it fits the game perfectly: Cars with early 90s standards, gameplay and graphics with early 90s standards.
7:30 the audio is not messed up.its that every party in Iran has groups of 3 or 4 people speaking with each other
7:30 someone getting clapped here💀
💀
Average family gathering 💀
average iranian meetings 💀
💀💀💀
Iran 💀
"you can buy back the sia family for 4 dollars" is the best part of the game tbh
About taking pictures in Iran: I know a painter who was painting a picture of a bank (on the street) in Tehran until the police approached him and forced him to destroy his painting… :/
is there an asset dump of this game anywhere? I want that laugh at 3:47 I want to make it the text message tone for my boss.
10 thousand lines of code? That sounds like half of my monthly game school project lmao
That would explain the behaviour :rofl:
10KLOC is pretty small, imo
@@fishyc43sar how much is decent do you think? Asking honest opinion.
@@zanagidoom has 30k+ and gta 3,vc has 200k+. If you are creating with no game engine and opengl, then around 250k will result in a pretty decent game, if you are using a big game engine like unity, I think 30k will be more than enough.
I will start creating my games with opengl and c++ after learning DSA. So I can't accurately tell you the loc.
@@zanagihundreds of thousands
That part where if you kill a person the game crashes is one thing but the fact that like half the game is scrapped is even funnier
They took crashing the game a bit too literally, I guess.🤣
Lol, when you mentioned the game "Driver" and described it as having entire cities to drive in, I couldnt help but remember being a kid and renting "Driver" from the video store, only to never even be able to finish the damn "driving test" tutorial at the beginning.. ive always wanted to get past that part, but its one of those "White Whales" in video games to get that far.
i remember myself at age of 4 or 6 trying to beat it, i can confidently say that through days and days of agonizing torture, i remember the bliss and happiness when i finnaly managed to finish it, and then there goes the canyon test... oh my god. But I remember those days vividly, driver is one of the best games of that time, and it definitely sharpenned my skill in playing video games in future, not just racing games. absolutely awesome times.
As a kid it only took me 3-5 tries if I remember correctly.
Even as an adult that game is so hard, it’s no wonder I also couldn’t make it through the initial driving test tutorial at the beginning 🤣 but once my brother beat that I loved driving around and exploring the open world. Driver 2 for ps1 was amazing and way before it’s time because you could get out of your car and run around
Driver 1, parking garage mission? I still can do all the tasks in about 45secs…it took me 20 years to reach this point😂
You could emulate it ;)
0:26 “and promote safe driving”
“Shows a Iran police car damage”
Is that a Peugeot 405? Amazing, that thing's like almost 40 years old.
@@TheInternationalJew I was wondering how I was able to source brand new 405 tail light lenses from Egypt - apparently NASR made them until somewhat recently as well. Bloody popular car it seems.
405 and its various localized "improvements" are one of the most common cars in Iran, made by the same IKCO. The whole auto industry in Iran is a huge and sorrowfull sh*tshow; just to give a very vague, general idea, it could be noted that foreign cars are generally prohibited to import(unless in very small, specific numbers) and it has been like this for decades; all in the guise of "Supporting National Industry"; which of course(alongside a gazillion other corrupt reasons such as money laundering and nepotism)removes any incentive of improving products for Iranian car companies.
@@thenoobprincev2529 Iran's auto industry is basically a legalized cartel designed to enrich a few crony capitalists.
I learned to drive in a peugeot 405. That thing was amazing!
@@dguillemi I have Egypt (Nasr-Spec) tail lights on my Hyundai Pony to this day :D
Dude as an Iranian this shit hits so close to home 😂, can’t wait for future videos, btw there’s a game called “Shetab dar Shahr” which translates to “Speed in the city” if you wanna check out something similar to this for a future video.
Why do you hate America?
@@TheKing60210 lol i don’t i live in canada idk how you interpreted my 2 month old comment as “hating america”
Iranians hate America lol. Look how they burn our flags
@@TheKing60210 America is not good.
@@TheKing60210the least dumb American.
0:59 “70 people spent 500,000 hours on the game” that’s an average of 298 days per person working on the game. Insane. And “time” is one of the only things we can’t get back.
And if you believe that, I guess you can also buy some lucrative Iranian property on the moon.
@@clray123 😂
And all they managed to get was 10,000 LOC. FFS I've written small programs of 1000 LOC in a matter of days...
3:04
oh...so we're in 'Big Rigs Over The Road Racing' territory, then
YOU’RE
WINNER!
In Iran, loitering around a shop without intending to buy is practically a crime. You'll spot signs scolding you for just standing there, blocking the way to someone's paycheck. And dare you window shop too long, some shopkeeper might just lose it and tell you to scram. But that's just the start. Decide you wanna try on a piece of clothing and then not buy it? Brace yourself for some serious cold shoulder action. A simple 'thanks' or 'bye' gets you nothing but a glare. It's like you're pressured into buying stuff just because you dared to touch it.
And don't get me started on the judgment. This place could give a masterclass in it. Forget 'don't judge'; that concept is alien there. Plus, the racism? It's next-level. Afghans bear the brunt so harshly, it's not even funny, mocked on national TV and all. But hey, if you're from the West, roll out the red carpet.
Corruption? It's the national sport. Ever wonder why some trashy game is flush with cash? Easy. Money's being pocketed, not paid where it's due. The country's run by what feels like a mafia, with this group called 'Sepah' having their fingers in every pie. Trying to do your own thing? Forget about it. Everything's gotta go through them, directly or not. And it's not just games; it's apps, you name it.
Oh, and cracking down on people for, well, cracking their game? Just another Tuesday there. As for the government and cultural vibes, it's dictatorship 101. Even getting birth control is a mission.
@@murrayshekelberg9754 🪤
@@murrayshekelberg9754 Uhh no. Racism makes no sense, especially when you describe it like that.
@@murrayshekelberg9754found the n@zi
Do they also really demand you work minimum wage to make fat stacks of cash for your boss and only your boss like in this 'game?'
I appreciate your description of everyday life in Iran. Every Iranian I've met in the United States is open to conversation and generally understanding of our own culture, but we definitely have our problems, too.
Asking this as an iranian, are you actually iranian? Cause youre the only dude on this platform I've seen that has actually made videos about iranian games, and the ones ive seen are like actually kinda good games not these government made games that you only see in tv ads
you'll find out 6 minutes in
@@seP4i found more irl sepi 12 minutes in
@theverses8644that seems like a downgrade
You two use a vpn or something?
For the both of you your location is outside of iran
Is youtube banned in iran or something?
When you say "the ones ive seen are like actually kinda good games" do you mean that there are good games made in Iran? Just curious since I know so little about them
At 4:51 it says “Every family is waiting for their loved ones, you shouldn’t play with people’s lives”, but love the dedication of this channel 😂
The question is
Why did they put civilians in the car driving game?
@@عبدالوهابالقويري-د6ه I don't think they thought through the game this much, they just did it
ok this message feels like this game is creepypasta now
Dude, the 405 made save this to my "watch later" playlist last month. I was looking for something to watch today and again, 405 caught my eyes, but then i saw Sia Saketi 😂 he was my childhood LEGEND.
Great video. Keep up the good work ❤❤❤ and also, please don't get arrested 😂
sorry but what do you mean by 405
As an Iranian, you are a hero, you are doing the police job here. But 3 million dollars robbery is nothing compared to all the robberies that this government has committed till now from the Iran revolution (47 years ago). The most recent one (2 months ago) was a Tea company that stole 3 BILLION (not a million) dollars and nobody got guilty! Another one (one month ago) a mobile selling company in Iran scammed people into buying cheap Apple iPhone 13 with 200 million dollars stolen with no phone delivered to the customers! The amount of advertising for that was so much that I can't believe that they have got away with it very easily. Nobody is guilty either! These were the tip of the iceberg. My country is so wealthy but the average salary is 125$ per month! The robberies are so much that I can't tell where to start.
who cares
@@zlutydolarEveryone but you
@@toyotacorollaaltis8613 nope
Literally every authoritarian regime is just a facade for a state level organized crime schemes.
@@zlutydolar if you live in a city/country known to launder dirty money (i.e. London), you should
As soon as I heard, "Built from the ground up", I knew where you were going, eventually.
This game came out when NFS Most Wanted was around in 2005, and even that game still looks and plays great today compared to this game 😭
And NFS MW was directed by an Iranian
I cannot believe seeing this !!!! i bought this game when it released. I played (more like suffered) for 5 hours to collect the money so mr "Hoseyni" can be released from the hospital which after i collected the money, the game crashed. Yeah it was an awful game... the worst part is, i was living around that area and because of that, i was so excited to see my home in the game which they didnt include that area.... Thank you to bring back the memories for me
"Warning, buget does not Exceed 23¥"
I got that reference 😂😂
bo’um geah
Hammond you tiny man, where's my Lambo Chevy?
*Gonna crash into James' car*
Hammond you sodding tic-tac, it was my lamborghini
@@baoquoc3710 Call 999! The fuckin car is being on fire mate!
Welcum oo bo'om geah
“You shouldn’t play with people’s lives” followed by the game crashing feels like one of those creepy fan-made anti-piracy screens, if I saw that while playing GTA V I would shit bricks
4:00 to be fair, if the game is already open, a button with that icon always closes the game, it's exactly what I expected to happen
i remember paying for and trying to play this in 2005... what a time it was to be alive :)))))
great video! take my sub
Shout out to Sepi for finding such an awesome way to evolve his channel. These deep dives into borderline lost media from behind the Iran Curtain has been some of the best gaming content I've seen in a while.
I like your videos about Iranian video games and they've been my favorite thing from your channel lately. You are the only TH-camr I know who makes coverage on this very niche and obscure topic. Hope that more of these will come from the future and subscribed!
"There is a high chance you won't be able to run it on modern systems."
"GOOD"
lol
9:07 I actually bought this game when it came out. I was 10 at the time, and barely remember trying to activate the game, but the phone lines were down (an automated voice message kept telling me the number you have dialed is not registered on the network lol). Needless to say I was greatly disappointed that I spend 5$ on a game and couldn't even get to the main menu.
But the crazy thing is, disk 2 was working fine and DIDN'T REQUIRE AN ACTIVATION CODE. I played it back then I remember telling myself "this looks like a shitty watered down version of that NFS game I played at my friend's house way back". I didn't have NFS on my system so I spent some time on the second disk. The only thing I vaguely remember is they included a 206 which was very popular model in Iran at the time (still is) and I guess that was the main appeal to the game for me for like the single week I kept playing this abomination untill I got bored with it and went back to playing Fifa.
All these years I was wondering what the game looked like and thought no one even remembered it, and now you've finally showed it to me. Thanks brother.
Great video, but i didn't expect that you risk yourself in searching of Mr.semi. Stay safe!
2:27 "I'd rather eat crap x2" Idk why, but I'm gonna use that more often.
I was wondering where you went a few days ago because you haven't posted in a while, and this video seems to show why.
This video is incredibly interesting, you definitely spent a lot of time researching all of this stuff, at the end it even feels like a police documentary coming from a video where you originally seem to just talk about a horrible Iranian racing game from 19 years ago.. I didn't even know that Iran had games or even a car company. This video felt longer than 15 minutes, those cutscenes are also so ridiculous. Why is there a realistic guy and everyone else looks like a really weird cartoon character? Insane how all of this and your video of the other game console are just from Iran, imagine how many other countries have such weird, mysterious games like this
please don't
Actually this is one of car companies in Iran, you should see what others do😂! Regarding the characters, those fancy guys are from a series of famous animation/cartoon movie and I assume this guy bought the license to use them for sake of advertising.
When I was at 5th grade in elementary school(8 years ago), we used to watch the animation in the school 😮
That rabbit hole involving those alleged doctors seems really interesting :o Though dangerous too
Its probably as simple as this owner was related to some politician got given some money to keep with the lie being he was making a game followed with it and became 3 million dollars richer while scamming everyone
this is like the second game that had some help with the government that was posted on this channel, this is gonna be interesting
I wish Iran made better games and worse drones TBH, why couldn't they embezzle on weapon production like russia does? Fuck Shaheds. Can't sleep at night because of their goddamn lawnmower engine, we call them mopeds FFS.
And it really is 😂
Third actually
Zamzam is actually a holy water in islam beliefs but apparently in 2:23 someone thought soda is also holy (did the founder really thought every drinks is holy except for the prohibited one?)
Incredibly well made video, the games' dialogues are hilarious if you understand Persian. Crazy that those guys wanted to square up with you when you visited the building.
Killer content with boots on the ground investigating! Nice upload Sepi, so glad I subbed.
Iran then: Persia, a glorious land
Iran now: excellent money laundering
Sad but true
In Syria we had a great software industry since the early 90s. Games were made by small teams and with a fraction of this budget.
sadly, the developers and smart people left the country. War sets you back centuries @@MuscleMMan
I remember playing a game like this when I was 15 or something. My dad worked for Chrysler and one year they had developed a new driver video game for kids about to get their license and they gave it out to employees. He had me play it and it was basically a video game version of a Drivers' Education class (could only drive Chrysler vehicles of course lol). For the life of me I can't remember the name of it but it reminds me of this so much lmao
Your videos are fascinating, and truly something only you could make. Before seeing your video on the wheel camera, I always assumed the Middle Eastern video game scene was more or less identical to the American one (or the Japanese one, for that matter). Keep up the good work! And as a journalist myself, I encourage you to keep looking into things that don't seem right to you!
the amount of dedication this guy put into his research is insane, even to the point of almost getting in trouble with sketchy people....
That Deus Ex music was a nice touch, considering how DEEP that potential rabbit hole went.
" keep an eye out for the traffic and *invisible objects* "
got me rolling :D
Perfect example of "We have Need for Speed at home"
true
how are you allowed to mock the Iranian government while living in Iran
The government taking the L on this one.
VPN
yeah this kind of seems like a dangerous video to put out, so close to home.
You know, Iranians are out of the matrix.
6:53
My guess is that the doctors at the doctor's office are somehow related to Sami. Perhaps they are cousins or friends of the family. That would explain why they're so jittery about having someone approach their clinic.
This really highlights how ahead of their time AAA games were back then. Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy were developed for around $2-5 million each, while Unreal Tournament cost about $5-10 million. Though the budgets weren’t exactly the same, the quality and innovation were on a whole different level.
11:56 Mad, MAD respect for using the Deus Ex VersaLife ambient soundtrack (plus more), SOLID reference of being an absolute badass conspiracy sleuth!
8:04
1,000,000 Tomans is $18... Which is really amusing to me
edit: now is $16.xx
Definitely one of the best Iranian TH-camrs by far, I love your production rate and editing style
You did an excellent work here! If "Ridan" with prove to the whole system was a video it would probably look like this .