Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games
There was a game that caused quite a stir back in 1985-87. It involved the holocaust, but for the life of me, I cannot recall the name. I never played the game, but saw a story about it on the TV news. Given the typical sensationalism of those stories I can only guess about the truthfulness or reality level of the claims. One title I do recall (from an ebay ad I put together) is Floor 13, which is a somewhat disturbing RPG of sorts. Your character is the head of England's secret police and your job is to extract information to preserve crown and country. It's not graphic at all, but very cold and remorseless, as you order the torture and possible deaths of a variety of prisoners in your quest. C.E. Forman wrote: Hey gang, I'm in the process of a new YOIS column and this time around am taking a look at early controversial games: Titles that, for one reason or another, got a large group of people or a particular special-interests group pissed off. Here's a quick list off the top of my head (I haven't gone through my archives yet), but I wanted to get some of your favorites as well. Don't worry, you'll get credit for your contribs. I'd define early as pre-1984, so nothing like Postal, and I do computers only, so no Custer's Revenge for the 2600. Here's my list so far: Softporn by On-Line Systems The first computer adventure to generate hate-mail due to its (rather bland) all-text depictions of sex. A lot of religious types bombarded Ken Williams for this one. On-Line / Sierra was pretty wild, back in the day -- lots of hot tub parties at Ken's, the most famous of which involved a photoshoot that splashed naked Roberta Williams on the cover of this very game. The Bilestoad (I forget the company) Criticized for its violence, some magazines even banned it from reviews. Gameplay consists of two opponents hacking each others' limbs off with axes. Quite realistic graphics for its time, especially for the Apple II. (This was 10 years before Mortal Kombat and Time Killers.) Firebug by Muse The game's tagline in ads (Make an ash of yourself!) made some people upset, because ash sounds like ass, and saying words that sound like ass is apparently as bad as saying ass itself. Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass. Lucifer's Realm by Med Systems You start out in a hospital bed, but soon die and go to hell, where you interact with the likes of Stalin and Hitler. Many sources credit it as the first game to be banned in the U.S., though I've never been able to positively confirm this. One of the late Jyym Pearson's close friends assures me that Jymm himself was delighted upon hearing the news. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games
Thanks Karl. Dracula, IIRC, was the first computer game to get an adult rating in England. CRL did a version of Frankenstein with similar content. KZ Manager sounds a little like a game called Auchwitz, same concept. Can anyone tell me if that one was sold commercially, or if it even exists? I've heard it identified as an urban legend. - Original Message - From: Karl Kuras [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 6:22 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games I remember Dracula. it was a text adventure for the C64 (and probably Amstrad and Speccy). It was text only, but still got banned in England for being too graphic. Very atmospheric and enjoyable adventure... And who could forget Barbarian by Palace. Maria Whittaker on the cover was a stroke of brilliance for a great game. And here are two far less well known games, which weren't commercial, but caused a lot of rancor in Germany: Commando Libia and KZ Manager. The first was a stupid little shooter where you had to execute prisoners who were tied to posts and the second was a resource management game that put you in charge of a Nazi concentration camp. Both were available for the the Amiga. I know there are surely a few more controversial games (like Leisure Suit Larry 1, which Radio Shack refused to carry and led to very poor sales initially, until word of mouth made it a hit). But I'm missing the really big ones right now. Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: C.E. Forman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 6:46 PM Subject: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games Hey gang, I'm in the process of a new YOIS column and this time around am taking a look at early controversial games: Titles that, for one reason or another, got a large group of people or a particular special-interests group pissed off. Here's a quick list off the top of my head (I haven't gone through my archives yet), but I wanted to get some of your favorites as well. Don't worry, you'll get credit for your contribs. I'd define early as pre-1984, so nothing like Postal, and I do computers only, so no Custer's Revenge for the 2600. Here's my list so far: Softporn by On-Line Systems The first computer adventure to generate hate-mail due to its (rather bland) all-text depictions of sex. A lot of religious types bombarded Ken Williams for this one. On-Line / Sierra was pretty wild, back in the day -- lots of hot tub parties at Ken's, the most famous of which involved a photoshoot that splashed naked Roberta Williams on the cover of this very game. The Bilestoad (I forget the company) Criticized for its violence, some magazines even banned it from reviews. Gameplay consists of two opponents hacking each others' limbs off with axes. Quite realistic graphics for its time, especially for the Apple II. (This was 10 years before Mortal Kombat and Time Killers.) Firebug by Muse The game's tagline in ads (Make an ash of yourself!) made some people upset, because ash sounds like ass, and saying words that sound like ass is apparently as bad as saying ass itself. Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass. Lucifer's Realm by Med Systems You start out in a hospital bed, but soon die and go to hell, where you interact with the likes of Stalin and Hitler. Many sources credit it as the first game to be banned in the U.S., though I've never been able to positively confirm this. One of the late Jyym Pearson's close friends assures me that Jymm himself was delighted upon hearing the news. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/
Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games
Well I've actually played KZ Manager... heard of Auschwitz, but since there were several public domain games with that theme (including a hacked version of Kaiser, an excellent resource management game from the C64 days) it's possible the game existed. - Original Message - From: C.E. Forman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 7:32 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games Thanks Karl. Dracula, IIRC, was the first computer game to get an adult rating in England. CRL did a version of Frankenstein with similar content. KZ Manager sounds a little like a game called Auchwitz, same concept. Can anyone tell me if that one was sold commercially, or if it even exists? I've heard it identified as an urban legend. - Original Message - From: Karl Kuras [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 6:22 PM Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games I remember Dracula. it was a text adventure for the C64 (and probably Amstrad and Speccy). It was text only, but still got banned in England for being too graphic. Very atmospheric and enjoyable adventure... And who could forget Barbarian by Palace. Maria Whittaker on the cover was a stroke of brilliance for a great game. And here are two far less well known games, which weren't commercial, but caused a lot of rancor in Germany: Commando Libia and KZ Manager. The first was a stupid little shooter where you had to execute prisoners who were tied to posts and the second was a resource management game that put you in charge of a Nazi concentration camp. Both were available for the the Amiga. I know there are surely a few more controversial games (like Leisure Suit Larry 1, which Radio Shack refused to carry and led to very poor sales initially, until word of mouth made it a hit). But I'm missing the really big ones right now. Karl Kuras - Original Message - From: C.E. Forman [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 6:46 PM Subject: [SWCollect] Early Controversial Games Hey gang, I'm in the process of a new YOIS column and this time around am taking a look at early controversial games: Titles that, for one reason or another, got a large group of people or a particular special-interests group pissed off. Here's a quick list off the top of my head (I haven't gone through my archives yet), but I wanted to get some of your favorites as well. Don't worry, you'll get credit for your contribs. I'd define early as pre-1984, so nothing like Postal, and I do computers only, so no Custer's Revenge for the 2600. Here's my list so far: Softporn by On-Line Systems The first computer adventure to generate hate-mail due to its (rather bland) all-text depictions of sex. A lot of religious types bombarded Ken Williams for this one. On-Line / Sierra was pretty wild, back in the day -- lots of hot tub parties at Ken's, the most famous of which involved a photoshoot that splashed naked Roberta Williams on the cover of this very game. The Bilestoad (I forget the company) Criticized for its violence, some magazines even banned it from reviews. Gameplay consists of two opponents hacking each others' limbs off with axes. Quite realistic graphics for its time, especially for the Apple II. (This was 10 years before Mortal Kombat and Time Killers.) Firebug by Muse The game's tagline in ads (Make an ash of yourself!) made some people upset, because ash sounds like ass, and saying words that sound like ass is apparently as bad as saying ass itself. Ass, ass, ass, ass, ass. Lucifer's Realm by Med Systems You start out in a hospital bed, but soon die and go to hell, where you interact with the likes of Stalin and Hitler. Many sources credit it as the first game to be banned in the U.S., though I've never been able to positively confirm this. One of the late Jyym Pearson's close friends assures me that Jymm himself was delighted upon hearing the news. -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/swcollect@oldskool.org/ -- This message was sent
