American Multiple Industries, doing business as Mystique, was a company that produced a line of

pornographic Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...

video games for the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridg ...

called ''Mystique Presents Swedish Erotica'', which included the games '' Beat 'Em & Eat 'Em'', ''

Bachelor Party A bachelor party (in the United States), also known as a stag weekend, stag do or stag party (in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland), or a buck's night (in Australia and Canada), is a party held for or arranged by a man wh ...

'' and ''

Custer's Revenge ''Custer's Revenge'' (also known as ''Mystique Presents Swedish Erotica: Custer's Revenge'') is an adult action game published by American Multiple Industries for the Atari 2600, first released in November 1982. The game gained notoriety owing t ...

''. It was one of several

video game companies The following lists of video game companies are available: * List of video game developers * List of video game publishers * List of indie game developers * List of largest video game companies by revenue {{list of lists, video game , listcat=Vid ...

that tried to use

sex Sex is the biological trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing organism produces male or female gametes. During sexual reproduction, a male and a female gamete fuse to form a zygote, which develops into an offspring that inheri ...

to sell its games.

History

The brand name ''Swedish Erotica'' was licensed from a series of pornographic films by Caballero Control Corporation, although they were programmed in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, and manufactured in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. "I just don't believe adults want to shoot down rocket ships", AMI's president Stuart Kesten said. According to industry watchers and critics, AMI's game designs were generally simple, with crude

graphics Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...

and unexceptional gameplay, most resembling already-existing non-pornographic games that were successful in their initial form. All games in the ''Swedish Erotica'' series were developed by Joel H. Martin, whose only known credits are on AMI games.

Controversy

AMI's game ''

'' gained particular notoriety for its plot. In the game, the player controls the character of "Custer," a naked man sporting a

cowboy hat The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with ranch workers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, C ...

and a visible erection, obviously inspired by

George Armstrong Custer George Armstrong Custer (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Custer graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point ...

. Custer has to overcome various obstacles in order to rape a crudely depicted, large-

breast The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryology, embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is ...

ed Native American

woman A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or Adolescence, adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functi ...

who is tied to a cactus. The game prompted complaints from a number of groups—

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

, anti-pornography, Native American, and video game critics all made complaints. AMI exited the video game industry just before the

video game crash of 1983 The video game crash of 1983 (known in Japan as the Atari shock) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985 in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturatio ...

. AMI's share of the rights to the games were sold to the PlayAround spin-off company, which continued the pornographic game line.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mystique (Company) Defunct video game companies of the United States Atari 2600 Pornography Obscenity controversies in video games Video game controversies

History

Controversy

See also

References