Unfortunately, the weighted companion cube cannot accompany you for the rest of the tests, and will have to be scratched off to see if you have won.

Instead of a ZAP, when you lose you uncover an incinerator.

I didn't realize this was old, and thought Atari was just now resorting to desperate measures to pull itself out of the pit.

Everything can be simplified.

@Ilia Chentsov: True thats one of the basic principles of design. The simplication of an object or concept so that it still functions without losing easy recognition.

A weighted companion cube scratch off game... might have to pitch that to the state lotto. ^.^

Scratch away the swimsuits on the DOA girls.

I saw a commercial earlier on YouTube of a Dick Tracy sweepstakes they had at Mickey D's where you had to scratch a card. Man, was it crusty. What this has to do with the article, nothing. Just thought I'd share.

@ Ian: You could always scratch off guitar picks for Guitar Hero. Bullets for Kane & Lynch? Helmets for Halo 3? It's doable. Just not the way it used to be with low-res graphics.

I remember as a little kid, my parents knew someone that worked at McDonalds and managed to get a huge amount of these cards. My dad and a friend of his kept trying to find various ways to find the "Zap" spots so they could avoid them, such as holding them up against a slide projector. If I remember right, nothing worked. But we got quite a few free items based on just sheer number of cards.

Oddly, I never saw any of the Star Raiders ones. It was only the other three.

what, what? Universally recognized? It's a *scratch* pad. You don't have to recognize anything about it. You scratch some stuff and if you get an explosion, you're bjorked. You could do the exact same thing with Crysis... Attack the soldiers, trying to find ones with spare change for the dollar menu, if you find an alien, you lose!
It's neat, or whatever, but come on. Let's not act like Atari had to encompass the world just for people to understand how to gamble.

Great post. I don't remember seeing these cards growing up. I probably would have gone insane trying to convince my parents to go to McDonald's. Hard to believe that Star Raiders was one of the game choices, that game made me crazy.

Credit where credit is due! You got this from my favorite website,X-Entertainment.com!

heh... scratchable asteroids...

I remember these from my youth (we went to McDonalds somewhat regularly).

I don't really think that playing the game required knowledge of the source material, however. The 'Zaps' were placed randomly on the cards, so you had no greater chance to win if you were familiar with the games. I seem to recall that I thought I stood a better chance since I had played centipede. I did not.

I think you could do a current-gen game in card form, you'd just have to pick something iconic about the game. As an example (because it's easy), a Mario card could have him on the left, the princess on the right, and eight scratch-places printed like goombas and koopas. Pick the right ones, or it's game over for Mario. Use the artwork from New Super Mario Bros., and everybody knows what game that is.

Am I the only one old enough to remember the Pac-Man wax packs that came with stickers and one "scratchy" maze card? Those were the days!

I'm actually sure you could do something similar by todays standards, perhaps even more so? (Disclosure: I wasn't alive in the 80's)

I don't know about you guys, but I honestly can't say that I know someone who doesn't know what Halo, GTA, or Mario is.

@deathbunny:

And I was orginally going to say something to that extent, but you completely encompassed my thoughts, and for that I thank you.

@valoisian: I remember those. I freaking loved them so much.

@WhyCause: I think you could do a current-gen game in card form, you'd just have to pick something iconic about the game. As an example (because it's easy), a Mario card could have him on the left, the princess on the right, and eight scratch-places printed like goombas and koopas. Pick the right ones, or it's game over for Mario.

Already done for old Super Mario Brothers.

holy fucking shit. gimme an ounce of buddha, a fifth of beefeater, four limes, two blunts, and Ian Bogost's basement fulla game-junk and I'll die a happy nerd.

I like how it says "every card can win!"
XD