It is no secret that, nowadays, the names of video games are chosen by a committee that spends years thinking about which one will attract the target audience and the base public (or which one will remind more of another popular one without breaking copyright). But in the 80s, imagination was the key in the industry: everything was unexplored and, like William Castle’s movies in the 50s, there were quite a few who came up with a trick more similar to a fair stand than a detail that really mattered in the gameplay. But none like the one we are going to tell you about today.
The game is all about cereals
It may be hard to understand, but in 1982 the bloodiest battle of video games was fought… in the offices of two cereal companies. On one side, General Mills (owner of Cheerios or Lucky Charms, among others), who acquired Parker Brothers. On the other side, Quaker Oats (owner of Cap’n Crunch or Mr. T cereals), who acquired U.S. Games to try their luck. One day you sell the crunchiest cereals and the next pixels on a screen. That’s life.
The battle was quickly decided: in 1982, Parker released ‘Frogger’ or ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, so you can get an idea of which one was the winner. But telling success stories is very boring, so let’s see what the hell happened to U.S. Games, the breakfast cereal-funded video game company that wanted to make successful titles for the Atari 2600 on a shoestring budget.
The first one was ‘Space Jockey’. You have never heard of it, and there is a good reason for that: it sold a million units, but most of them at a discount that didn’t generate profits. That title was followed by another 13, such as ‘Eggomania’, ‘Word zapper’ and ‘Towering inferno’, which were tremendous failures. But before Quaker cut off their funding, someone in the studio had a wonderful idea: to release a game without a name and spend a fortune on an impossible contest. No one imagined what would happen next.
What name should we give it?
In 1982, ‘Name this game and win $10,000’ was released for sale. On the cover, a diver aimed his harpoon at an octopus while a shark and a treasure lurked on the sides. The original idea of the studio that made the game and offered it to U.S. Games was not to call it by this bizarre name, but to make a licensed adaptation of ‘Jaws’, which had appeared seven years earlier but was still popular. However, Parker Brothers (pay attention to the twist!), who had the rights, rejected it. And from one cereal to another.
The team of five people who just finished polishing it for U.S. Games originally called it ‘Tesoros de la profundidad’ first and ‘Los guardianes del tesoro’ later, with a later prototype called ‘Octopussy’. But, when they were about to launch it, the disastrous sales reports started to arrive: they needed something to counteract them, and they needed it now. Thus began a crazy contest in which they promised to reward the user who gave the game the most original name before April 30, 1983 with $10,000.
In fact, on the back cover, secondary prizes of $3500 and $1500 were promised, in addition to one hundred sets of US Games and a thousand that could choose one from the catalog of their choice. You can guess what happened by seeing that U.S. Games is not currently competing with Nintendo and Capcom, precisely. Indeed: the video game crash of 1983 ate up U.S. Games before the contest reached its end and remained unresolved forever. Well, more or less.
Octopuses and galleons
Later on, the game did have a proper title, but not in the United States. In Europe, it was called ‘Octopus’ and it even had another alternative title: ‘El oro del galeón’ (The Gold of the Galleon). That’s how Amiga intended to name it when they wanted to include it in their Power Play Arcade #2 cartridge, but it ultimately didn’t happen. However, there are many who believe that was the name that actually won the contest. I guess we will never know.
There is one more twist: Digital Press, the well-known video game website (and formerly a magazine), held another contest in 1994, which was won by the name ‘Going Under’. Russ Perry Jr, the winner, intended it to be both a reference to the game and to what it meant for U.S. Games.
What happened next, you already know: the video game crisis led to a new stage of prosperity that we are still in… And in which no one would dare to release a ‘Call of Duty’ with a suicidal contest. Have we come out on top? Frankly, I doubt it.
