Wanneer wisten ze al van de oorlog met Iraq?
henk - 27.03.2003 12:32
Foto uit 1986
Foto uit 1986
Foto uit 1986
 http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/GameMaster.shtml
Fortress America's components give no clue as to who designed or developed the game. The concept of the game -- the invasion of the 48 contiguous states from the east, south, and west)
--snip--
I suppose no discussion of Fortress America is complete without mentioning the "Saddam Hussein cover" issue. What this refers to is that Milton Bradley apparently changed the appearance of one of the faces displayed on the box's cover - which looks strikingly similar to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. At some point, this was changed, and the face got a big pair of sunglasses, which hid this resemblance. There are eBay sellers who will tell you that the "Saddam" version is rare because Milton Bradley had to re-print it because it was controversial or some such thing. The former is almost certainly bogus, the reasoning also likely bogus. Here I will quote the Gamester, on his "Gamemaster Series" page:
Fortress America was already out of print before the Gulf War conflict started. The first ("Saddam") edition made its debut at Origins 1986, the subsequent ("Sunglasses") edition was released about a year latter (and *possibly* still distributed as late as 1988). Sales were poor by Milton Bradley's criteria, it seems the second edition may have been released only to supply those few areas that had run out of the original edition. And then MB called it quits on the title. The second edition was almost certainly of a smaller print run, personally I never saw the "Sunglasses" edition in any game or toy store, only in auctions and private sales after the game went OOP. I own 4 copies of the game, 3 are "Saddam" edition and 1 is the "Sunglasses" edition, and this is roughly the ratio of them I've seen in auctions and conventions ever since.
The Gamester then explains the U.S.-Iraq political situation from the time Fortress America was published, to the time it probably ended its distribution (1986-1988), and concludes:
Our national interest in Iraq was too lukewarm, the game art reference too obscure, the exposure level of the game too limited to explain who took offense and why the art was changed. IMO the appearance of the character and its clothing seemed to be of Latin American origin, not Middle Eastern, making the original connection possibly a coincidence. . . Its [sic] a complete mystery to me, all I can say for certain is the art change wasn't a result of the Gulf War, unless someone on Milton Bradley's staff was channeling Edgar Casey.
Of course, if you play a game of Fortress America nowadays, then that guy on the front is Saddam Hussein, leading the Republican guard into the U.S. on a mission of revenge.
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