Milton Bradley’s “Dark Tower” Electronic Boardgame in 1981
Today I found myself digging into the old Dark Tower electronic boardgame from Milton Bradley (boardgamegeek.com page). I’ve posted a few other old newspaper articles about the game last month (first post, second post), but what makes today’s share so much fun is that it’s from before the game’s legal headaches.
From the New London, Connecticut, newspaper, The Day, comes this New York Times News Service article by Aljean Harmetz. The article is from 1981 and focuses on the game’s size and cost. Fantastic stuff, and for an alternate take on the article see this Daytona Beach Morning Journal abridged version of the work. A lot of words were cut to bring us this article!
And for even more check a slightly longer version of the same article from the Palm Beach Post in which we get one more sentence than was printed in The Day. And it’s a line about the development cost of the game, something I always find educational to uncover:
“Because of its intricate program, the game cost perhaps $200,000 more than usual — a total of $750,000 to $1 million.”
Woah! That’s a lot of money for developing a boardgame, even one that includes such a cool electronic feature as the Dark Tower electronic tower/computer component.
Related articles
- “Children’s Shows Have Turned Into Commercials” (battlegrip.com)
- 1983 Arcade Mania Boardgame Commercial (battlegrip.com)