The Offshore Oil Drilling Board Game BP Probably Hoped You Wouldn’t See

While video games and gamer comics have sought to belittle BP over the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it turns out BP had them beat by about 40 years. Behold, BP Offshore Oil Strike, an exciting 1970s board game about drilling for crude in the untamed oceans. Up to four people can play together, attempting to strike oil and deliver it to their countries by pipeline while avoiding dangers that, as we’ve learned, are all too real. “Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1million,” reads one of the game’s Hazard cards. Ah, those heady days when environmental destruction existed solely for our amusement.

According to Metro, BP Offshore Oil Strike was made by Printabox, a Scottish company, some time in the 1970s. It wasn’t very popular at the time, so now it’s a rare find. A private collector donated a mint-condition version to The House on the Hill Toy Museum in Stansted, Essex, and you might occasionally spot one on eBay. But something tells me when all this is over and we look back on it with a laugh, BP will start printing a new edition of these prescient board games. Got to make up that $3 billion-plus in clean up costs somehow. [Metro via Gizmodo]