Mall Madness

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mall madness game


Mall Madness is a shopping themed board game released by Milton Bradley (later versions are titled as Electronic Mall Madness). The original game was released in 1988, and an electronic talking version was sold starting in 1989. Milton Bradley updated the game in 1996 with a new design, and another updated version was released in 2004. A redesigned version was released in 2020.

Marketing[]

The game was designed for players aged 9 and above, mainly targeted towards young teenage girls. Milton Bradley made several commercials for the game. In one from 1990, the camera showed alternating shots of four girls shopping in a real shopping mall and playing the game at home. After one girl moves her pawn to the game board's parking lot (see Gameplay) she exclaims: "I win!" The other three demonstrate dismay at having lost. The commercial's last line is "Mall Madness, it's the mall with it all!" Another version has recently been released; a Hannah Montana special edition and a "Littlest Pet Shop Edition". The Hannah Montana version was the first version to picture a male on the front of the box.

Game contents[]

Mall Madness was sold with the following pieces; Box, game board, electronic computer, instruction manual, four rubber pads to prevent wall pieces from slipping, six plastic wall pieces, four cardboard shopping lists, two sale signs, one clearance sign, eight plastic pawns (two for each colour; red, blue, yellow and green, one was female the other male), forty plastic pegs (used to mark shopping lists), paper money (that resembles U.S. currency, except each bill denomination is color-coded for the game), four cardboard credit cards, and 29 pieces of cardboard which held the game board together.

The board[]

The board is a three-dimensional field representing a mall with two stories. The bank and the speaker are located in the center. Some of the stores and locations are on the second floor and can only be reached by stairs or elevator.

Electronic computer[]

The game featured an electronic computer that dictated gameplay. Its colour varied from game to game but was almost always peach or grey. The computer uses four AA alkaline batteries. All computers in the early version of the game were manufactured in the United States, and Milton Bradley copyrighted the computer in 1989. The computers complied with Part 15 of the FCC's rules. The top of the computer featured three buttons; one to start or reset gameplay, one to begin and end turns, and one to repeat the last announcement. The computer has two voices, one is female, the other male. There are two slots on the computer's top. Both of these slots were designed for the credit cards that accompanied the game. One slot was to buy items, the other was to use the banking feature. The 2004 version uses only a female voice.

Money[]

The game had two components of currency; paper cash and credit cards. These were used together to accomplish the game's objective. Four credit cards were included, one for each player. The names of the credit cards are: Fast Cash (from Good Cents Bank), Quick Draw (from Dollar Daze Bank), MEGAmoney (from Big Bucks Bank), and Easy Money (from Cash n' Carry Bank). In the 2004 edition, they were simply known as "cash cards".

Stores[]

Mall Madness featured eighteen stores:

  • I.M. Coughin Drug Store
  • Suits Me Fine Men's Shop
  • 2 Left Feet Shoes
  • Short Circuit Electronics
  • Yuppy Puppies Pets
  • Scratchy's Records
  • Novel Idea Books
  • Frump's Fashion Boutique
  • The Write Stuff Card Shop
  • Fork It Over Kitchen Store
  • Hokus Focus Cameras
  • Sweaty's Sports
  • Made in the Shade Sunglasses
  • Chip's Computers
  • Ruby's Jewelry
  • DingaLing Phones
  • M.T Wallet's Department Store
  • Tinker's Toys

Players could also visit four other areas:

  • Conehead's Ice Cream
  • Restrooms
  • Vidiots Arcade
  • Aunt Chovie's Pizza

A limited variety of items could be purchased, the most inexpensive being pizza, which is five dollars, and the most expensive is a regular priced exotic parrot, which is two hundred dollars.

Object of the game[]

The object of the game is to be the first player to purchase six items on the player's shopping list and get back to the parking lot or go to their final destination, depending on the version of the game. For more challenging gameplay, the goal could be increased up to ten items in the 1989 and 1996 editions.

Gameplay[]

The game takes place on a board representing a two-story shopping mall. The game is designed for two to four players. Each player receives $150 ($200 in previous versions) from one player who is designated to be the banker. The banker dispenses cash in the following manner: one $50 bill (two in previous versions), three $20 bills, three $10 bills, and two $5 bills. The first player presses the computer's gameplay button, which directs the player to move a random number of spaces. Players can move horizontally (across) or vertically (up and down), but not diagonally. Players do not have to move the full count to enter a store and can only move into a store through its doors and not its walls. When arriving at a store, each player can make purchases with a cardboard credit card by inserting it into the computer's "buy" slot, and the computer tracks the gameplay. After the player purchases items with the credit card (signified by a cash register sound), he/she will pay the banker with the appropriate amount of cash, and then use a peg to mark that item off on their shopping list. Once a player buys an item from a particular store, they cannot shop that store again. At the start of each turn, an electronic voice announces a clearance at one store and sales at two others. Players can use these sales to their advantage since it takes up a turn to get to the ATM.

At random intervals, a player may be given a clearance or a sale at a store that does not currently have one. Other times, a player may have to pay an additional $5 fee for the item.

Sometimes, the game will refuse a sale, or will refuse to dispense more cash. Occasionally, the game will randomly instruct players to move to the ATM, the arcade, restrooms, or to various stores.

Once a player gets six of the items on their list, they must be the first to reach their respective parking lot (1989, 1996, and 2020 editions) or final destination (which may change at any time; 2004 and "Littlest Pet Shop" editions). The first person to accomplish this wins the game.

Legacy[]

Milton Bradley released a line of digital electronic voice board games following Mall Madness. In 1990, Milton Bradley under its Parker Brothers' brand, released an updated version of the 1984 Mystery Mansion board game, adding an electronic voice device. Then in 1992, they released Omega Virus, taking place on a space station infected by an extraterrestrial computer virus. Unlike previous electronic voice games by Milton Bradley games, Omega Virus was unique in that it was the only one that had a countdown timer that would end the game if not completed before time ran out. Michael Gray, who created Mall Madness, also designed Omega Virus as well as another electronic game called "Dream Phone."

External links[]

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