Attack of the Mutants
Designed by Neil Zimmerer
Published by Yaquinto Publications, 1980 Original price $8.00
Introduction
Subtitled “A Game of Science Fiction and Fun”, this low-complexity game takes as its subject the Old Bad Science Fiction Movie. A few humans, secured in the Science Building of Central State Tech, work against time to create a trans-dimensional gate that will allow them to escape their nightmare world. Meanwhile the irradiated and hideously mutated members of the former student body are even now bashing in the doors to stop the “Normies”.
Players two
Period late night TV
Time scale a few minutes per turn
Map scale ten yards per inch
Unit scale individual human, mutant or janitorial robot
Components
1 album game box that folds out to make a 12”x24” game board, with really bad cover art and a component-holding insert1 4-page rules booklet
1 reduced gameboard card, with developer’s notes and alternate scenario
2 ziplock bags for storing counters
133 counters
1 price list of Yaquinto products, dated February 1981
Counter Manifest
There are 133 single-sided, double-thick, die-cut counters, with no blanks.Human Units (32 total) all 5/8" square, black on light blue
8 human characters (2 x “4”; 6 x “5”)
24 janitor robots (8 x “2”; 16 x “3”)
Mutant Units (54 total) all 5/8" square
4 mutant leaders 4 x H4, J3: black on yellow
24 radioactive mutants 24 x H3, J2: red on yellow
26 ordinary mutants 26 x H3, J2: green on yellow Game markers (47 total)
15 wall markers 1”x½”, black on yellow
30 door smashed markers ½”square, brown on yellow
1 combat location marker 5/8” square, black on yellow
1 game turn marker 5/8” square, black on yellow
Collector’s Value
Production numbers for Yaquinto products are not known, though the album games do pop up fairly frequently on the Net. Attack of the Mutants is less often seen than some other items, though. The review copy was bought from a used game dealer (unpunched and still in shrinkwrap though the box was quite dinged) for $15.A simplified version of Attack of the Mutants was also available from 1981. Yaquinto shipped this version free with any order. The mutants invade the college represented by 25 rooms. If the mutants reach the control room in 10 turns they win. An 11”x17” sheet of light cardboard includes map, rules and counters.
Boone lists low, high and average prices of 2/17/7.60 at auction and 4/30/12.22 for sale, presumably for the first, full-sized edition.
Player’s Value
This is a low-complexity game on a low-complexity though amusing subject. The night this game arrived in the mail, my eager seven-year-old son and I popped it out of the box and got right into playing it. He took the mutant side and gleefully began to smash in doors everywhere, while I tried to rally the janitor robots and defeat his groups in detail. He eventually created the Ultimate Killer Mutant Stack and shambled his way into the Tech Room, where a desperate defense by Professor Applewhite and his daughter Penny came to naught. The mutants ruled the campus! Humanity was lost! Aieee!!Playing time is less than an hour. I think the mutants are favored to win, though there are some suggested optional rules to change play balance one way or the other. Repeat play is enhanced by the wall counters the human player places in the building before the game starts, in order to channel or divert the mutant hordes.
Support Material
A capsule review by David Ladyman appeared in Space Gamer 41.A capsule review by Lew Pulsipher appeared in Space Gamer 43.
Other games on the subject
Dawn of the Dead (SPI, 1981) is a similar take on the “mutant siege” theme at the individual zombie level. 4th Reich: Puremen vs. the Mutants (Task Force Games, 1985) is a strategic game for dominance of Europe after a nookleer hollycost.Other games by this designer
Barbarians (Yaquinto, 1981)Cuban-Mexican War (variant for Avalon
Hill’s War at Sea, Chicago Wargamer’s Association, 1981)
Fall of South Vietnam (Yaquinto, 1981)
Fast Attack Boats (Yaquinto, 1980)
The Ides of March (Mayfair, 1981)
Naval War (Avalon Hill, 1983)
Russian Front (Avalon Hill, 1985)
Transylvania (Mayfair, 1981)
Oh by the way
In 1961, Robert “Bob” Yaquinto started Yaquinto Printing in a Dallas garage. Today, Yaquinto is a respected name in the printing business, and continues to print board and card games, as well as many more traditional things.
In 1979, Stephen Peek of Battleline
Games started Yaquinto Games, which
was closely associated with Yaquinto
Printing. So closely, in fact, that they
both used the same logo:
Rumor has it that in the free 1981 edition of Attack of the Mutants, Yaquinto used
J.R. “Bob” Dobbs as the model for their brave young
hero. Here is a recent mugshot of Bob Dobbs and his
paraphernalia, courtesy of the Church of the SubGenius:
Rumor has it that in the free 1981 edition of Attack of the Mutants, Yaquinto used
J.R. “Bob” Dobbs as the model for their brave young hero. Here is a recent mugshot of
Bob Dobbs and his paraphernalia, courtesy of the Church of the SubGenius:
And here is a photograph of a portion of the illustration used for the game:
Here is a blowup of the hero’s face, using
modern computerized techniques for
enhancing detail:
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