Cuphead was released in 2017 and made headlines due to its 1930’s cartoon style and electric swing music. The game has since gone down in history for being one of the hardest bullet-hell games on the market. The game is back in the headlines as Tesla, yes the car company, has integrated the Unity engine into their car’s dashboard.
This addition means that Cuphead, which was created using Unity, is now available in Teslas near you. Elon Musk is known for his odd behavior, so this decision is not entirely out of nowhere. In an interview, he commented that “Cuphead we’ve got working. It’s a cool game. It’s insanely difficult. It’s sadistically difficult.”
Cuphead was created by a studio named StudioMHDR and has caused a revival of old-style games in many indie development circles. The developers told journalists they were humbled that Elon Musk was a fan of their game and they aided in the installation of the game into the Tesla models.
Tesla has already installed many games to their cars including classics from Atari. The company has run into the issue of storage space with many of the game ports as the car, being a car, was not originally intended to support games. Users can play the available options using a USB controller that plugs into the touch screen display. Due to the precise movements required, the touch screen capabilities are disabled for the games.
There have already been two accidents involving Tesla assisted-driving autopilot has been enabled and no doubt someone is going to connect this with the game development happening in the Tesla design. The implementation of these games seems to be a park and “have something to do” situation rather than an addition to the driving experience. There is no intention from Tesla to make games available while the car is in motion.
All games in Tesla are only playable when parked making safety an essential factor in the design. Although the games currently operate on Unity Musk has said that they are attempting a port of the Unreal Engine into his cars. The day that Tesla competes in the gaming market could be coming in the next few years as rumors of Elon Musk’s updates continue to roll out.
The game is planned to be available in Tesla Model 3, Model S, and Model X cars. Tesla seems to intend to continue the game option in their vehicles into later models as development continues.
