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.
>
>
>
>
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