GLASGOW, Scotland — A British company said Sunday it is releasing a video game recreating the 1963 assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy.

A spokesman for the president's brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, called the game "despicable.''

The Glasgow-based firm Traffic said JFK Reloaded is an educational "docu-game'' that will help disprove conspiracy theories about Kennedy's death. The game is due to be released Monday, the 41st anniversary of the shooting in Dallas.

Traffic said the game challenges players to recreate the three shots fired at the president's car by assassin Lee Harvey Oswald from the Texas School Book Depository.

Traffic's managing director, Kirk Ewing, said the game -- available as an Internet download for $9.99 US -- would "stimulate a younger generation of players to take an interest in this fascinating episode of American history.''

"We've created the game with the belief that Oswald was the only person that fired the shots on that day, although this recreation proves how immensely difficult his task was,'' Ewing said.

In a statement, Traffic said it was "determined to promote the title respectfully,'' given the sensitivity of the subject.

Edward Kennedy's spokesman, David Smith, would not comment on whether the family was taking any action to stop the game's release.

"It's despicable. There's really no further comment,'' Smith said, adding that the Washington office started getting calls about the game Friday.

Video games get sicker all the time. One of the baseball video games advertised on TV gives baserunners the option of punching the defensive players. What does that have to do with baseball? And why would you want kids playing a game like that? It all seems to fit in with the notion that we are living through kind of a dark time in our society.

I office a few blocks away from the actual assasination site here in downtown dallas. I hear and see enough of this already. Now a video game. This crap never goes away. For example I was at a party in napa valley, california just a few weeks ago and a likable but drunk woman came up to me and we started talking. When she asked where I was from I told her dallas. She scowled and immediately claimed that I killed JFK!!?? What the F#% I thought to myself. So I smiled real big and told her that it was not me, it was in fact my uncle Lee Harvey Oswald. She spun around so fast to get away from me that she spilled her drink. I don't think she got my joke. Poor thing. But still, enough stereotyping already.

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You know thats just an uncool subject.................space aliens OK, foreign despots OK, assasinated or in general any American president living or dead is uncool.

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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I think this is in extremely poor taste as well, but offer anyother perspective.

I must first say I ain't no conspiracy freak. However, I’m wondering if there might be a public service component to this.

A great number of the conspiracy fanatics don’t subscribe the “magic bullet” theory pulled from thin air by Arlen Specter and the other geniuses on the Warren Commission.

If this game gets sufficient circulation and a number of users get past proficient and into the realm of expert and can do what Oswald was “credited” with doing, perhaps that will support the findings of the Commission.

If, on the other hand, no one can do what LHO did, does that tell us anything? After all, “it’s only a game”.

Ciao

There is a $10,000 reward for the person who can closely match the Oswald shots. This is pretty sick I'm sorry

About 20 years ago a Baltimore Sun reporter made the case that the shot that killed JFK was an accidental discharge from the AR-15 of one of the Secret Service men in the open Cadillac behind the President's car. A lot of very convincing evidence was assembled to support this sad but very likely accident. It is supposed that either Lyndon Johnson or Robert Kennedy took charge shortly after the event, and decided to protect the bodyguard out of either compassion for an obvious accident, or to make sure that "Camelot" wasn't remembered for a mistake. There's also a lot of evidence that Huey Long was killed by a shot from one of his bodyguards during the attempt on his life by Dr. Weiss.

As for whether or not the three shots of Oswald were replicable, experiments done at the HP White Labs in Maryland for a television network in the late '60s a gunsmith named Howard Donahue was able to duplicate Oswald's alleged shots several times on an elaborate range simulating the Dallas site, and using a rifle identical to Oswald's.

The video game is in very poor taste, but so are most of this ilk, and there is a multimillion dollar industry involving books, speakers, TV shows and movies already extant. This just pushes the envelope.

On the "Today" show on NBC, the game spokesperson tried to pitch the software as being a forensic aid and to get the average person involved in the investigation. However, the thin veneer of this explanation was ripped open when he had no clear answer why there are two versions of the game . . . with or without blood splatter.

They should at least have the cajones to stand up and say "Yeah, you get to shoot at JFK like a sniper, blow his brains out, it's totally cool."