!! a real game from the 70's that never quite made it

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

From "Uncle Johns' Bathroom Reader", quoted from a book by M. Kirchner:

Ballbuster!

Product:

No joke- the Mego Toy Co. introduced it in 1976 as "a family game that's loads of fun." It consisted of wire stalks attached to a base. Each was topped with a hinged plastic ball. The object of the game, according to Mego, was to "use your balls to bust your opponent's, if you can. Break 'em all and you're a winner!"

Problem:

Somehow, Mego thought it could get away with the name. But the first preview of the Ballbuster TV commercial - shown to buyers from major toy and department stores - ended that illusion. The ad showed a family of four playing the game, after which the husband turned to his wife and said, "Honey, you're a real ball buster!"

"The stunned silence that followed", Kirchner writes, "triggered the first suspicions that Ballbuster was not destined to displace Parcheesi in the pantheon of classic games."

[Dave (imported)]

The Firesign Theater (radio comedy) created a game called "Beat The Reaper" where contestants are given diseases and have to guess what it is before it kills them.

Yes, it sounded ghastly on the radio, too...

[punkypink (imported)]

I LOLed.

[Phole (imported)]

I still have 3 or 4 Firesign Theater albums in the attic. Porgy Tirebiter lives!

[Dave (imported)]

I smack the butter walls with my palms and place flowers at the shrine of the giant rat of sumatra.

Each year, I hold a "deflower a victory garden" party!

[Richard_Less (imported)]

I found the ad on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW8LPgv4NK0

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

Holy crap... good catch, Richard!