Thursday 21 January 2016

1970s Games (Various)

These old games were found in a cupboard in the council office basement (click to enlarge).


The goal of 'Pollute' (1975) was to earn as much money as possible for your multinational corporation while contaminating the world's oceans. Extra points could be scored by inadvertently bringing about a genetically corrupted, mutant starfish which threatens to destroy mankind, then offering the monopolised solution at a vastly inflated price. Subsequent versions of the game included 'Super Pollute: Poison the Skies' and 'Pollute Deluxe: The Countryside is a Twat'.


Winner of the Queen's Award for Arrogance, 'Mister Smug' (1978) was an edutainment game which taught politicians and big business leaders how to emotionally and legally distance themselves from the catastrophic outcomes of uninformed decisions which affect millions of innocent people and ruin lives. Bankers and other sociopaths were banned from playing the game in competition because they always won, even when they had officially lost.


'Land Mine' (1970). Very little is known about this game because few players survived, though it appears that the military funded the game's production so that it could test the latest in concealed weapons technology and observe its explosive effects on a civilian population.


For more games see 'Discovering Scarfolk' by Ebury Press: Top Tramps (p.85); Junior Taxidermy Kit (p.86); and Singlemulty (p.105), and others.

9 comments:

  1. Landmine is a blast from the past. We used to be in pieces playing this.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember buying this while stationed in Berlin. My German friends thought I was a totally blasiertes Arshlok. I was given to understand that meant a clever American defender of democracy and freedom.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had that exact edition of "Mister Smug." It had a different title in the states, though. I think it was called "Cluedo."

    ReplyDelete
  4. I always won at Smug. Just saying.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Pollute was my favorite game as a child!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I don't know why no one has made a show about surviving on that fancy plastic island out in the ocean!No property borders,human rights,laws,You could get away with murder,or anything else that gets the ratings!

    ReplyDelete