Watergate Caper, an arcade cabinet of the early 70s with obvious political references, was a game based on breaking and entering. Well, according to Boing Boing at least. You see, even though the flyer above (click on it for a high-res pic) is proudly showcased @ The Arcade Flyer Archive, neither photos of the cabinet itself, nor flyers showing it in its completed form seem to exist. Also (source: KLOV), "according to a survey conducted by the Video Arcade Preservation Society of approximately 910 collectors and their 20,000+ games, there are no known instances of this game owned by a known collector".Searching through Wikipedia, KLOV, a variety of video-gaming museums (mostly of the Museum Monday sort), retro & emulation forums, e-bay, allgame.com, gaming sites, a few books and dozens of google-discovered pages failed to produce any results either. Watergate Caper isn't even -in most cases- mentioned in articles cataloguing the games produced by Nutting Associates. It's as if the game never truly existed. Despite the flyer and despite the few sporadic mentions.
What's a poor curious gnome to believe then? That the code-breaking game featuring spine chilling sound effects and eerie black lights the flyer promised, never really made it into production? That players will never feverishly twist dials and punch codes? That no one has actually touched said cabinet? Please, oh wise readers, do share any bits of info you might have already discovered during your dangerous voyages...
What's a poor curious gnome to believe then? That the code-breaking game featuring spine chilling sound effects and eerie black lights the flyer promised, never really made it into production? That players will never feverishly twist dials and punch codes? That no one has actually touched said cabinet? Please, oh wise readers, do share any bits of info you might have already discovered during your dangerous voyages...
Related @ Gnome's Lair: A beautiful Space Invaders manual, Alter Ego, Sega Mega Anser, more retro features
Related Tags: Watergate caper, Watergate, Arcade games, Retro gaming, Arcades, Arcade, Nutting, Nutting Associates, Games, Game, Retro, 70s
Okay, Gnome, admit it: we know you're hiding a cabinet of this game in your lair.
ReplyDeleteNope, everything in the lair is brand new. No old stuff here. Not at all, no... Well, except vintage porn, but it was my poor grandpa's...
ReplyDelete(flicking threw retro porn......) watergate huh, that's where Napoleon lost his arm isn't it?
ReplyDeleteExactly. It was right after defeating Alexander and the Myrmidons!
ReplyDeleteWatergate was a song by Abba...
ReplyDeleteIt had nothing to do with Napoleon losing an arm...
He lost that when he was modelling for Napoleon's Column in London...
Nasty incident with a chisel I believe...
..that wouldn't have been a wooden chisel by any chance?
ReplyDelete... no....wouldn't have been a wooden chisel would it, one would wonder whether a wooden chisel would do the work.... would have been weally painful, wouldn't it, what with the wood and all....
Woodly painfull really...
ReplyDeletewight
ReplyDelete:)
:)
ReplyDelete