Category:
Games

Our Guys in Salisbury - The Game

Recently created by the Russian company Igroland and on sale in Moscow. Players retrace the route of Russian assassins to the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Seems worthy of inclusion in the odd board games category. More details.

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 27, 2019 - Comments (0)
Category: Games

The Guts Game

The first game ever that requires the player to swallow a sensor. The game is then played by doing things to change your gut temperature over the next 24 hours, until the sensor is excreted. The game isn't yet available for sale. From Forbes.com:

“Guts Game” requires two players to each swallow a 20mm-long, FDA-cleared, single-use HQInc CorTemp sensor (originally developed to monitor people in extreme environments, like firefighters and soldiers). Participants can then rack up points by changing their body’s core temperature via hot or cold showers, ingesting liquids of varying temperatures, eating spicy food, and exercising. The sensor ideally transmits information every 10 seconds to a CorTemp receiver as it travels through the players’ digestive tracks, though there can be time lags in the reporting. The game ends when the sensor is excreted from one player’s body - after about 24-36 hours - and the points they earned while the sensor was inside them are tallied up.

More info: Exertion Games Lab [pdf]

Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 28, 2018 - Comments (3)
Category: Games

The Stay-Alert Game

Briefly experimented with in 1969 as a way to motivate U.S. troops in Vietnam to stay alert, fight better, and avoid casualties. The idea was that combat would be turned into a game. Each platoon was awarded points for enemy troops killed, weapons captured, and rice caches discovered. But they lost points if they suffered any battle casualties. The winning platoon would receive two or three days off at a rest center.

Troops hated the stay-alert game, so it was quickly mothballed.

Appleton Post-Crescent - May 5, 1969

Posted By: Alex - Mon Sep 17, 2018 - Comments (0)
Category: Games, Military, War, Armed Forces, 1960s

New Frontier Board Game

"New Frontier" board game, "THE GAME NOBODY CAN WIN", designed by Colorful Products, Inc. The game is an anti-John F. Kennedy, anti-socialist "twist" on the MONOPOLY board game published by Parker Brothers. The front of the package reads "The Funniest Political / Game of the Century!" over the silhouette of rocking chair labeled "J.F.K.". The game board contains references to Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, Edward Murrow, et al. The game was packaged by the Occupational and Training Center of Help for Retarded Children, Inc.


More pix at this link.

A few others here.



Posted By: Paul - Tue Aug 07, 2018 - Comments (1)
Category: Games, Government, 1960s, Satire

Ball Buster

"The name of the game is ball buster. It's a family game, fun for children... and for adults it's exciting. You make strategic offensive and defensive moves. Then try to bust your opponent's balls."

Maybe the name of the game was a little too edgy for its own good. The game debuted in 1975, and as far as I can tell was discontinued after a year.

But the TV ad for the game is a classic, especially the final scene where the husband tells his wife, "You're a ball buster."



New York Daily News - Oct 25, 1975



image source: Mego Museum

Posted By: Alex - Thu May 10, 2018 - Comments (4)
Category: Games, 1970s

De-Bunk-Her

This seems to have been a game at the famous 1939 World's Fair. I find this partial description: "Termed 'De-Bunk-Her,' it consists of two beds, on each of which a lovely lady lies, with a target between. For a quarter the participant gets ten throws at the target..."







Posted By: Paul - Tue May 08, 2018 - Comments (4)
Category: Fairs, Amusement Parks, and Resorts, Games, 1930s

Atomic Bomber Arcade Game



Original ad here.

Learn the history here, including a beautiful color pic of the actual machine.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 28, 2018 - Comments (1)
Category: Death, Destruction, Games, War, 1940s

Puzzle devotees throng reading room

Crossword puzzles first became a fad in the 1920s, and immediately created a problem for libraries as puzzle devotees thronged reading rooms, putting a strain on library services, wearing out the various reference books, and generally being a nuisance to regular patrons of the library.

The Wilmington Evening Journal - Apr 13, 1925

Posted By: Alex - Sat Apr 21, 2018 - Comments (4)
Category: Games, Libraries, 1920s

Maniac Electronic Game





The German presentation makes the game even better!

Posted By: Paul - Wed Apr 18, 2018 - Comments (0)
Category: Games, Technology, 1970s

Follies of the Madmen #335



Of course! Playing Monopoly drunk! It's the only way!

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 20, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Business, Advertising, Games, 1970s, Alcohol

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Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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