The Omega Virus and human scum

One of the best things about eBay is the ability to go to rumage, garage, and yard sales without ever having to leave home. In this outing I was looking for a game that I had often seen in department stores but never had enough interest to buy at the time,as I was knee deep in rpgs and working with the MAME team to get that little project off the ground.

I had formulated a list previously of some games that looked like they might be quite a bit of fun and unlike Fireball Island and Full Metal Planete, the Omega Virus was not only affordable for the patient eBay buyer, but actually I dare say cheap.

I was able to get a 100% complete and working copy of the game for barely over a Hamilton (plus shipping). The total price was likely much less than the game cost to purchase off the shelf in 1992. It arrived in a huge box and opening that box up I found that the game itself was a huge box. Inside this box was a massive game board, four folding sector boards, four rubbery plastic space dudes that look like a cross between boba fett and master chief, four robby the robots, three sets of components, including a satellite tv dish that can clip onto the space dudes, some high tech access cards with circuit boards printed on them (so I knew they were real), and a quad core Battle Sat 1 computer that sat in the middle of the main game board and stored all the access cards and components.

We put everything together, grabbed a record sheet to record what we found in the various 'rooms', cracked open the comic/rule book, secretly entered our two digit access codes after selecting our level of difficulty, and attempted to save earth from the near certain destruction at the hands of the Omega Virus in this competatively cooperative game.

Omega Virus allows soldiers to move up to three spaces throughout the four sectors of the Battle Sat 1 station. Rooms are designated with one of four access card colors, and everyone starts out with only one access card. Players can explore rooms, telelport to other sector docking bays, or fight other players soldiers or bots. As soldiers move throughout the sectors they may find new access cards, one of three AVDs (anti-venereal disease) weapons that are needed to destroy the virus, find their bot (very important as this in effect gives the player the ability to explore twice as many rooms on their turns), find nothing, be teleported to another room, or be attacked by the Omega Virus.

Players record what they find on their status sheets. If they hear the code they secretly entered in the beginning, that means they have found the Omega Virus. If their soldiers have the three items needed to fight the Omega Virus, the virus speaks up and they can attempt to destroy it.

What really makes this fun is that the quad core behemoth computer keeps track of what is found by each player, what areas they have access to (you can't cheat and enter a room without having a matching access card), insults soldiers, destroys bots, attacks soldiers, keeps track of the time remaining, and starts shutting down access to certain sectors of the beleagured BSat1 station. That's right, its timed. Depending on the level of difficulty and number of players, everyone has a set amount of time to go for personal glory or to save the earth. The Omega Virus is found in the same room for all players (no matter what their secret code was) and we found that if time was running out we would help the player able to save the station/earth. Before time was critical however, all matter of screwage was had.

The computer takes on the role of both the BSat1 station and the Virus and it changes it's tone and behavior accordingly. There are four buttons used to enter codes, enable shields to protect soldiers and bots, and to attack other players.

That night we went 1-1 and had a good time playing this game. I'd highly recommend it especially at the low prices it can be had for on the bay or likely at thrift stores nationwide.

The only negatives I can think of are the huge size of the board when assembled - though the board is darned impressive with all the chrome attached, the semi lame way that attackers have to hide their attack locations so that the defender doesnt just enter the same areas to shield against, and the player record sheet. I think the sheet could have been a little better than it was but this last beef is a very minor one.

Oh man, I remember when I was like 13-14 playing this game. Man was it AWESOME. One of my friends had it, and I made him and another friend play it constantly until they refused to play it with me anymore.

Totally awesome AT find!

HA! I haven't played that one in years. I remember almost nothing about it, except that the computer sounded exactly like my 3rd grade teacher. Not the evil computer, but the little wussy one.

Some additional notes.

This fits nicely into my 'AT in less than an hour' earlier inquiry. Including setup time

It's not a deep game with huge replayability for adults, kids maybe alot. For an occasional filler game with an absolute known timeframe (the game cannot last any longer than 35 minutes with four players and can be programmed for a much shorter timeframe).

The game reminded me of a cross between Dark Tower and Clue, but much better than Clue because the bookwork is largely taken care of by the computer and the timeframe and suspense level are finite.

For $10, it can easily pay for itself with a few plays and kids will enjoy it (I'll see just how much soon).

I own this and love it! This has to be the only boardgame I am aware of that trash talks you!

I remember this game calling the players "Fools"

HA!

I got a copy off eBay last year after reading about it here and it turned up still in shrink. I was going to give it to my lad but he ended up getting spoilt with an xbox and half a dozen games so it stayed in my wardrobe. And as numbers in our small club have dropped off badly there has been no point taking it along - so, unopened and unplayed still !

"Hee Hee Hee, Help Me,Help Me!"

Southernman wrote:

I got a copy off eBay last year after reading about it here and it turned up still in shrink. I was going to give it to my lad but he ended up getting spoilt with an xbox and half a dozen games so it stayed in my wardrobe. And as numbers in our small club have dropped off badly there has been no point taking it along - so, unopened and unplayed still !

It does play solo, but it's more fun with more players.

the*mad*gamer wrote:

I own this and love it! This has to be the only boardgame I am aware of that trash talks you!

I remember this game calling the players "Fools"

HA!

Many Italian pinball games insult you if you perform sucktastically. They are pretty choice.

The damnedest turn of events in the last 36 hours. I read your opening post and thought to myself, "I got three boys -- this game would be PERFECT for us." So yesterday I'm sitting down to lunch with my buddy Jeff that hits the thrift stores all the time and as I am halfway through my sentence, "there's only two games that you might bump into that I'd be interested in, the first is . . ." when he interrupts me and asks, "how about Omega Virus? Have you ever played that?"

I . . . like . . . stuttered and struggled for words because he had just stolen the next two words out of my throat as they were forming. Apparently it had been sitting on the shelf at one of his haunts for weeks, in a beat up box but otherwise in good condition.

I told him to grab it and he said, "it's gone. You should have told me!"

"Told you? I just found out about it this morning!"

So I'm pissed that I missed it. Then I get a phone call tonight and it's Jeff and his first words are, "guess what I just found?" Apparently it's a damn-near spankin' NEW copy of Omega Virus, for the hefty price for $4.25.

He's the question though -- what should I throw in with the cash that would be appropriate given the game and incredibly short turnaround time to say thank you? A case of Tamiflu maybe? There's gotta be something I can add . . .

Sag.

4.25? Doh! Nice price.

You'll need 4AA batteries if there are none in there or the one's inside are dead.

I'll be interested to know how it plays with the youngins. Though I suspect they will have a blast.

I'd also recommend downloading the most recent fan generated optional character record sheets from BGG. They are better than the one's that come in the box - not essential at all though as you can make due with the one's that come with.

Mr MOTO wrote:

4.25? Doh! Nice price.

You'll need 4AA batteries if there are none in there or the one's inside are dead.

I'll be interested to know how it plays with the youngins. Though I suspect they will have a blast.

I'd also recommend downloading the most recent fan generated optional character record sheets from BGG. They are better than the one's that come in the box - not essential at all though as you can make due with the one's that come with.

Thanks bud!

Sag.

Dude! THAT was KICKIN' GOOD!

It kept calling me scum! It was like being in a TJ Hooker episode! I owe you a beer.

Sag.