Introduction

Inspired by Tom Wham's success with "The Awful Green Things From Outerspace", and similar cartoony boardgames published back in the good old days (as magazine inserts in Dragon Magazine in the early 80's or thereabouts), I began work on Minotaur Madness, having come up with the idea while working on my second arcade game conversion: Pac Man. I just couldn't resist adding my own rules and additional passageways. Quickly realizing that my boardgame no longer even remotely resembled Pac Man, I dumped the idea and designed my own game, spawning Minotaur Madness. (My first boardgame was a conversion of the arcade classic "Space Invaders", which was fun, but took forever to play (the gameboard version that is). Space Invaders (the boardgame) included several horizontal bars across the "sky" with monsters attached and tracked both the movement of all shots fired and damage to the bases.) After Minotaur Madness, I never looked back.

Minotaur Madness was a blast, pitting 2-4 teams of monsters with diverse skills and powers against each other on a rugged mountaintop. Dodging quicksand and other hazards, the game offered a few scenario variations or "missions". The game took hours to play, was expensive to make, and never made it to the market. The game was very ambitious - there were literally 5 games in one, using the same game board and creatures, and when I get around to revisiting the rules, I'll tighten them up, and make it a smaller game. I'll say one thing - it's one of the most beautiful boards I've ever painted - it looks like a blast to play, and It'll always bring a smile to my face.

The game included a pretty wild, but simplified version called GORPS (Generic Organisms of Random Parts), and an advanced version that included a host of cartoony monsters (some traditional like, well ... Minotaurs, of course, and also some unusual ones like the Power Lords and Floating Terrors), crazy combat (inspired by the movie Bugsy Malone), wacky magic items and a magical tower. At the end of the rule book was "mood material" - short stories about life on Mount madness and spotlighted the most dangerous creature in the universe ... the too cute to allow to live ... SnugglebunnyTM (no, really!). Silly? Definately. Mad? Maybe. I've got a feeling you'll be seeing snippits of madness in the days ahead ..

Did anybody "important" ever see Minotaur Madness?

I showcased Minotaur Madness at Origins back in the mid-eighties, nervously approaching companies. A rep at Parker Bros. glanced down and saw the game demo under my arm and covered his eyes, turning away like some B movie actor, and said, "Please tell me that's not a game! I can't see games without a non-disclosure ...."

Two companies did show interest, however. TSR, (now owned by Wizards of the Coast), and Games Workshop out of the UK asked me to mail them a prototype. The Games Workshop guru said it looked like "a ton of fun", but that they'd have to replace all my monsters with zombies and death knights or something, cause, "kids want to see gore." Since I couldn't bear to change the game's softer edge, I simply smiled (trying not to gasp for air) and told him I'd send in the prototype - I never did (I don't regret it either).

That left me with TSR. I sent in the prototype and after a few months was told they'd like me to make some changes and "resubmit for possible publication" as a stand-alone game. They asked me to make a flat version of the gameboard, which I did - surprising myself that I liked it even more than the 3D version (made of foamcore and sporting a bridge, tower, ladder, pits and spinner). I also took the liberty of refining the rules slightly - mostly making them look prettier. It wasn't easy - I didn't own a computer, just a drafting table back then. It was all glue and rub off letters, markers and airbrushing in those days. The final result was really a beautiful laminated gameboard I still drool over.

Well, Minotaur Madness made it into the second review process at TSR, and that's as far as it got. After several months, TSR sent me another letter, this one stating that while they liked the game, it "didn't fit into their new marketing direction." Like everywhere else, TSR was leery about the upfront investment and also preferred to pay employees rather than go outside the company and shell out royalties. They'd been toying with the idea of stand-alone boardgames for some time, even publishing a few at some point, but were never able to make much money - at least not compared to their flagship product, Dungeons and Dragons, so ... that was that. I approached other companies, but I wasn't a salesman, and I got excited about other projects. I will revisit the game one day - and I look forward to it, but If I came up with the design today, I would do it quite differently - I like to think I've learned a thing or two since the early eighties ...