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Handhelds Businesses Apple Entertainment Games Hardware

Sugar-Coated Drug-Dealing Game Approved For iPhone 73

Posted by timothy from the just-try-calling-your-suitcase-a-bomb-at-the-airport dept.
Pocket Gamer writes "Of course, Apple wouldn't allow such a salacious games as Dope Wars on the hallowed corridors of the App Store. What Catamount's done is sugarcoat its game (quite literally) and turned it into Prohibition 3: Candy Wars — a reskinned version of the exact same game."
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Sugar-Coated Drug-Dealing Game Approved For iPhone More

Sugar-Coated Drug-Dealing Game Approved For iPhone

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  • I used to love playing this game on my Handspring/Palm clone. Why didn't I think about this? The stupid hype it's going to get will guarantee it'll be on the top ten for at least a few days....

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by snowraver1 ( 1052510 )
      I remember playing this on my TI-83 during high school.

      • Dope Wars (Score:3, Funny)

        by Smidge207 ( 1278042 )

        I remember playing this in real life during high school... (Disclaimer: I attended HS in the mid-80s in So. Cali.)

        =Smidge=

      • Yes I did the same. Of course, without the drug references nobody would have found it the least bit interesting.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Mozk ( 844858 )

        On Windows, I always liked Drug Lord [geekhideout.com] more. It's essentially the same game as Dope Wars, but with a better interface. I had a lot of fun/frustration trying to get on the high score board, but then I realized that it was sort of easy to cheat and assumed everybody else was since there was no way to get near even the bottom of the board without doing so. Still, it's a great game that I still occassionally play.

    • I knew that this sounded familiar! I used to play this on my old Visor! Good times.

  • out getting more 'shrooms.

  • Somehow... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by samriel ( 1456543 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @04:20PM (#26551207)
    I think that inhaling any of the ingredients in the screenshot from TFA would be bad for you. Especially whole candy.

    Kidding aside, I don't think Apple had much choice. All it takes is five or ten idiots who can't see through their guise, and all of a sudden people are e-mailing them about keeping kid-safe apps off of the App Store.

    In conclusion, blame the shallow, gullible masses.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Why does a KID have an iPhone? The only phone my kid has is a preprogrammed one with 7 set phone numbers they can call.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by powerlord ( 28156 )

        Why does a KID have an iPhone? The only phone my kid has is a preprogrammed one with 7 set phone numbers they can call.

        Possibility 1. They don't have an iPhone, they have an iPod Touch. (queue the "why does a KID have an iPod Touch?" question)

        Possibility 2. Maybe they saved their money and bought it themselves (as a "major purchase") Either with them paying for it through their job, or with the understanding that the parents pick up X amount of the monthly fee, and they have to pay the difference out of c

        • If a kid is responsible enough to hold a job that pays well enough to afford an iPhone, then I'll just assume that they are responsible enough to handle omgdrugz!

          And if it's a spoiled kid who was handed a pacifier^H^H^H^H^H^H^H iPhone, then their parents have already screwed them up far more than a game ever will.

          • I agree. I was exposed to this game in high school. It was a pretty fun game. Can't say it really inspired me to do drugs, or not do drugs for that matter. Having no other expenses, I could have afforded an iPhone at the time, had they existed.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by ubrgeek ( 679399 )
            Unless the kid is Pablo Escobar [wikipedia.org].

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by hobbit ( 5915 )

        Yeah, well, some kids have to deal drugs for a living, you insensitive clod!

    • I dont think thats fair. Apple coule make a stand or put in an adults-only section of the store. There are lots of solutions here except for censorship. Blocking and censoring is the dumb way out.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by samriel ( 1456543 )

        Apple coule make a stand or put in an adults-only section of the store.

        There's the catch.
        If Apple were to make a stand, those same gullible people would cry foul, and before long, the iPhone is 'full of devil-music and Christ-defying smut', and there goes a good portion of conservative buyers.
        On the other hand, if Apple put in an adults-only part of the store, we could skip people crying foul and jump straight to the devil-smut.

        DISCLAIMER: I have no idea what I'm talking about.

        • "before long, the iPhone is 'full of devil-music and Christ-defying smut'"

          I think that would just help them sell more iPhones...

          • "before long, the iPhone is 'full of devil-music and Christ-defying smut'" the iphone IS full of devil music and Christ-defying smut and that's why they do sell more iphones

        • the is why googles model (android) is so good. the conservatives can buy only from the store while anybody else can get their apps from anywhere. no whining from either side

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            the is why googles model (android) is so good. the conservatives can buy only from the store while anybody else can get their apps from anywhere. no whining from either side

            Considering they already whine when something is available, period, I think they'd still whine in this case. Unless you expect the masses to not know about installing apps from outside the store, in which case the iPhone will be just the same. They can, after all, be jailbroken fairly easily (on Windows it takes a few clicks of the mouse

            • it is differnt because apple actively attacks jailbreakers while google will suppor the os even if unoffcial apps are installed. In the car world apple's type of tactics were deemed illegal.

              and yes some fundamentalists will find out, but IMHO it makes them not care nearly as much if these things have to be sought out.

      • I dont think thats fair. Apple coule make a stand or put in an adults-only section of the store.

        Why would it even need to be in an "adults-only" section of the Apple store? It's a *game*. It's not real. Anyone who fails to realise this isn't real should be put away for the good of the community.

    • ... and all of a sudden people are e-mailing them about keeping kid-safe apps off of the App Store...

      Wait, what?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by brkello ( 642429 )
      Why not blame Apple for the stupid things they do? If they did this on the XBOX 360 the Slashdot crowd would be all over that. If they did this on a PC, people would be crying about the "think of the children" mentality in this country. But because it is Apple, it gets a free pass. I don't understand the worship of companies. Yeah, there are ones that are less evil than others, but they all want as much of your money as possible and they all are capable of making bad decisions. If you are going to hav
  • I played the hell out of that game on my TI-86 back in the day.

  • I get hit with ads for it from time to time and I think it just jumped to the top of the App store.

    So if we're going to worry about a drug dealer simulator game making it onto the iPhone can we worry more about the one that allows you to put hits out on your friends and uses real social networks (cheapening them in the process as well)...

  • "Lemonade [codenautics.com]" was an economic simulation of selling drugged (sugar) water to people.

    It came on cassette tape.
  • Are you sure that is what the white powder is?
  • Yeah, they didn't literally sugarcoat it. The submitter felt it necessary to hint that they are using wordplay, for those who might not otherwise catch it.

    • Re: !literally tag (Score:4, Funny)

      by Duradin ( 1261418 ) on Wednesday January 21, 2009 @05:17PM (#26552057)

      So is figuratively the new old literally?

      "His head literally exploded."
      "I bet, he must have been really mad."
      "No, his head exploded. You can pack a surprising amount of C4 in someone's mouth."
      "Why'd you say literally then? You meant his head figuratively exploded."
      "There's never enough C4..."

  • Anyone else think of Chocolate Underground [animenewsnetwork.com] when they read this review?

  • Lots of controversy over what they let on ... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    There is a lot of discussion lately about what they do and don't let on the platform... http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090120-apple-and-app-store-censorship-where-to-draw-the-line.html [arstechnica.com]
  • They're not exactly trying to hide id. I just checked on my ipod touch and in the Info it says "based on Drugwars/DopeWars".

  • "What Catamount's done is sugarcoat its game (quite literally) and turned it into Prohibition 3: Candy Wars â" a badly-reskinned version of the exact same game."

    Fixed that for you. Seriously, the screenshot in the article is hideous.

  • How DARE Apple quash the creative freedom these developers were exhibiting by ripping off and repackaging an old freeware game!

  • "No you just winged him, now he's a Unitarian."

  • just slang words (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    the article [pocketgamer.co.uk] says

    The premise now revolves around the abolition of candy in 2040 to combat the obesity epidemic sweeping across the world.

    but from the screenshot [pocketgamer.co.uk] (same link) it seems these are just slang for drugs.

    • Sour Tarts = acid?
    • Sugar Sticks = Ecstacy
    • Chocolate = ?
    • Raw Sugar = cocain?
    • Lollipops = ?
    • Brownies = Amphetamine [noslang.com] - though I'd have gone with the obvious magic brownies
    • Jelly Beans = Crack Cocaine [noslang.com]
    • Rock Candy = Crack

    what would be sweet of course is if all these weren't common slang terms, but only becom

  • let me be the first to say: "mmm... sugar-coated drugs".

  • Do the article author and the slashdot editor not actually get it? The problem wasn't the game play, it was the theme involved. "Sugar coating" it exactly solves the problem. So why does anyone think they've reached some massive cleverness by sneaking their drug game through the censors?

    It's like that idiot lady that snuck "gun powder" (components) through airport security showing how terrible they are. (I'm not claiming any magic profiling ability in the TSA here.) But if you don't blow up an airplane they

    • Now trying to explain that reasoning to the TSA agent with said stick of dynamite in one's posterior would be quite a feat. Quite a feat, indeed.
  • I remember playing this game on my apple ][e when it was called Taipan.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by fullmetal55 ( 698310 )
      i was going to say, Wasn't Taipan first? and wasn't Drug wars and Dopewars based on Taipan? only good thing about my old Palm IIIe was playing Taipan :)
  • Hey guys, if you want to play a real version of this game, I've created a web-app here: http://iphonedopewars.com/ [iphonedopewars.com] It's a web app because I knew that APPL would never approve a native app, but hopefully it should be fun just the same.
  • Reminds me of the reskinned arcade video game "Tapper." They took out the Budweiser logos, renamed it "Root Beer Tapper," and made it into a fun game I wouldn't have any problem letting my elementary school-age children play. In fact, I might dig up my copy of MAME and let 'em play it!
  • bcause i'm waiting for a iphone version, I'm sure they won't mind that on the app store! -------- see apps b4 you buy - http://www.iphoneappdemo.com/ [iphoneappdemo.com]

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