Postal (video game)

Postal is a 1997 isometric top-down shooter game developed by Running with Scissors and published by Ripcord Games for Mac OS and Windows. Players assume the role of the "Postal Dude", a man who commits mass murder throughout the fictional town of Paradise, Arizona, to cure what he believes to be a "hate plague" released by the United States Air Force. The gameplay sees players killing a given percentage of armed hostiles in each level and being allowed to exit only after fulfilling the quota, as well as optionally killing unarmed civilians caught in the crossfire.

Running with Scissors (RWS), having previously developed licensed child-friendly games as Riedel Software Productions (RSP), sought to make Postal as outrageous as possible. Inspired by Robotron: 2084 (1982) and the act of "going postal", the game took on a top-down perspective to distinguish it from the growing first-person shooter market.

Upon its release in September 1997, Postal received a mixed reception from critics for its short length, unconventional controls, and repetitive gameplay. The game sparked controversy for its realistic violence and gore, and was subsequently banned in several countries. The United States Postal Service filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against RWS shortly after the game's announcement, lasting until its dismissal in 2003. An add-on, Special Delivery, released in 1998. Postal would gain a cult following and become a franchise, with the sequel Postal 2 releasing in 2003. The game would receive ports to Linux, Mac OS X, Android, and Dreamcast. Postal's source code was released under the GNU GPL-2.0-only licence in 2016, and the game became freeware in 2019.

A remake of the game, Postal Redux, was released for Windows in May 2016, followed by Nintendo Switch in 2020 and PlayStation 4 in 2021.