Arcade Castle Episode 10 - Odyssey II - Conquest of the World

Arcade Castle: A Gaming Podcast

Amid rising tensions, Arcade Castle chills with a Cold War Simulator on the Odyssey II from 1981. Utilizing a mathematical formula from the C.I.A. and real world scenarios torn fresh from the headlines (well, fresh in 1981 anyway), Magnavox created Conquest of the World. The third (and final) entry in the Master Strategy Series by Magnavox, Conquest of the World takes advantage of the expanded memory on the video game cartridge to create a 1v1 games that implies additional strategy on the screen and, when coupled with the board game portion of Conquest of the World, provides a in-depth gaming session for players picking up the joystick and board game. Or so Magnavox claims...

In this episode of the Arcade Castle Podcast, John and Patrick play another weird blending of video game and board game courteously of Magnavox. Pulled from the annals of time, Arcade Castle finds an interesting time capsule. A video game board game that blends elements of RISK and AXIS & ALLIES yet requires players to engage in battle through the Odyssey II to determine the outcome of global conflicts between nations, all of which is filtered through Cold War tensions. Can this game with overtones from the Cold War prove to be a hot ticket to fun? Or is it consigned to the No-Man's-Land between Board Games and Video Games?

Conquest of the World Gameplay!!!

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Episode Outline:

00:00 - 25:00: Arcade Castle discusses an overview of the Master Strategy Series from Magnavox as well as the Conquest of the World. The discussion then turns to the Cold War nature of the Conquest of the World and Arcade Castle discusses their own recollections, memories from that time as well as games they have played that also focus on the Cold War.

25:00 - 50:00: Arcade Castle turns their discussion to the specifics of the Conquest of the World, including its contents and how the Conquest of the World is played, both as a board game and as a video game.

50:00 - 70:00 - After their examination of the game and how it plays, Arcade Castle turns their attention to some of the issues Conquest of the World has in terms of gameplay and balancing power between players as well as taking the game to task for its claims that it is based on the 'real-world' calculations of power between counties. They offer solutions to these problems.