Custer's Revenge

Custer's Revenge

Cover art
Developer(s) Mystique
Publisher(s) Mystique
Platform(s) Atari 2600
Release date(s)
  • NA September 23, 1982
Genre(s) Adult, Western
Mode(s) Single-player

Custer's Revenge (also known as Westward Ho and The White Man Came) is an adult video game made for the Atari 2600 by Mystique, a company that produced a number of adult video game titles for the system. The player character is based on General George Armstrong Custer, well known for his crushing defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn.[1] The game was first released on September 23, 1982, and has received significant criticism because of its crude simulation of a rape of a Native American woman.[2]

Like many other video game manufacturers of the early 1980s, Mystique soon went out of business. It sold the rights to its games to Playaround, which continued to market Custer's Revenge as Westward Ho for a time. Playaround made minor modifications to the game, which included making the skin of the woman darker and having her extend her arm and gesture to Custer to come over to her. It also made a version of the game called General Retreat.

Gameplay

Custer's Revenge gameplay screenshot

In the game, the player controls the character of Custer, depicted as a man wearing nothing but a cavalry hat, boots and a bandana, sporting a visible erection. Custer has to overcome arrow attacks to reach the other side of the screen. His goal is to rape a naked Native American woman tied to a pole.

In General Retreat, it is the woman who has to overcome various obstacles to rape Custer. Instead of arrows, cannonballs are fired at the woman.

Controversy

Custer's Revenge quickly gained notoriety upon its release. Sold in a sealed package labeled "NOT FOR SALE TO MINORS"[3] and selling for $49.95 (the most expensive Atari 2600 game in the market), [4] it acknowledged that children might nonetheless see the game. The game's literature stated "if the kids catch you and should ask, tell them Custer and the maiden are just dancing."[5] The makers elected to preview the game for women's and Native American groups, an act which some thought was a publicity stunt.[6] Women's rights groups criticized the game,[7] stating that it was a simulation of rape; the back of the packaging states "she's not about to take it lying down, by George! Help is on the way. By God! He's coming." Other groups such as Women Against Pornography, Native American spokespersons, and critics of the video game industry in general protested about the game. Andrea Dworkin claimed the game "generated many gang rapes of Native American women."[8] Activists tried pressuring legislators to outlaw the game, which Oklahoma City, Oklahoma did.[9] Multiple Industries pursued an $11 million lawsuit against Suffolk County, New York and legislator Philip Nolan "because of a resolution authorizing the county executive to take action to halt sales and distribution" of the game.[10]

Nevertheless, the focused media attention caused the game to sell approximately 80,000 copies, twice as many copies as Mystique's other adult-only games, Bachelor Party and Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em. However, Atari, only the platform for the game and not the maker, received numerous complaints about the game, and responded by trying to sue the game's makers.[11] Stuart Kesten, President of American Multiple Industries (Mystique), stated "our object is not to arouse, our object is to entertain [...] When people play our games, we want them smiling, we want them laughing." The game's designer, Joel Miller, said Custer was "seducing" the maiden and that she was a "willing participant."[4] Ultimately, the game was withdrawn from circulation.[12]

In 2008, the University of Calgary professor Tom Keenan cited "the hideous Custer's Revenge game", 26 years after its release, in an op-ed piece about current video game violence issues for the Calgary Herald.[13] That same year, the game was credited by Australian PC Magazine as being one of the worst games ever made,[14] while Games.net ranked Custer's victim as fifth on the list of top ten disturbingly sexual game characters.[15] In 2010, Custer placed eighth on machinima.com's list of the top perverts in gaming.[16] UGO.com ranked it as tenth on the list of the most racist video games in history in 2010,[17] also ranking the game's General Custer as the second most unsexy video game character of all time in 2012.[18]

Legacy

In the South Park episode "You're Getting Old" (season 15), an arcade machine for Custer's Revenge appears in the background during Randy's musical performance at the bowling alley.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Custer's Revenge - Classic Gaming". Classicgaming.gamespy.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  2. ↑ "Gamespy's Top Ten Shameful Games". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2011-04-26. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  3. ↑ Lane, Frederick S. Obscene profits: the entrepreneurs of pornography in the cyber age. pp. 55–56.
  4. 1 2 "Atari Trying To Halt X-Rated Video Games". Ocala Star-Banner. p. 8B. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
  5. ↑ Jenkins, Sacha. Ego Trip's Big Book of Racism. p. 825.
  6. ↑ Wise, Deborah (1982). "Video-pornography games cause protest". InfoWorld (November 8): 1,7.
  7. ↑ "Stream of video games is endless". Milwaukee Journal. 1982-12-26. pp. Business 1. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  8. ↑ "Dworkin, Andrea "Letters from a War Zone."". Nostatusquo.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  9. ↑ Ledray, Linda E. Recovering From Rape. p. 254.
  10. ↑ "'Custer' Game Is Subject of Two Lawsuits". Billboard. December 11, 1982. p. 8. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
  11. ↑ Herman, Leonard (1997). Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames. p. 88.
  12. ↑ Talbot, David (1983). "Pac-Man Kills Kids, Self: Video Horrors". Mother Jones (April). 7.
  13. ↑ "Teaching kids to kill". Canada.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  14. ↑ "Violent video games - the worst of the worst - News - PC & Tech Authority". Pcauthority.com.au. 2008-04-10. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  15. ↑ GamePro Media: (2011-07-16). "Top Ten Disturbingly Sexual Game Characters | Games.net". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved 2013-11-17.
  16. ↑ Top 10 Perverts in Gaming, machinima, May 29, 2010
  17. ↑ The 11 Most Racist Video Games | These eleven games are so seriously un-PC that it's amazing they ever made it to shelves., UGO.com, November 30, 2010
  18. ↑ Meli, Marissa (2010-03-27). "General Custer (Custer's Revenge) - 20 Unsexiest Sexy Video Game Characters". UGO.com. Retrieved 2013-11-17.

External links

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