Release date(s) JP: October 28, 1988 Initial release date 28 October 1988 Publisher Hect | Mode(s) Single-player Developer Hect Director Shintaro Ito | |
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Genre Government simulation game Platform Nintendo Entertainment System Similar Akuma‑kun: Makai no Wana, 1999: Hore - Mita koto ka! S, Bakushō! Star Monoma, Astro Fang: Super Machine, American Dream | ||
America Daitōryō Senkyo (アメリカ大統領選挙, "United States Presidential Election") is a Family Computer government simulation video game about the 1988 election for the President of the United States of America. The game was conceived and directed by Shintaro Ito, who was a newscaster at the time.
Contents
Gameplay
At the start of the game, the player has four different issues to take either a liberal, conservative, or centrist position on. The player must make wise use of his funds as he is trying to become the President of the United States of America. Being liberal offends the religious folks, being conservative offends the university students and working class voters, and being centrist (as in pleasing everybody) actually pleases nobody. The player starts in February 1988 at a convention for his political party somewhere in the Midwestern United States. and must work his way up to the final election results on November 1988 without becoming bankrupt.
In the presently unknown primary election, candidates in five states (including players) make the final selection along with the decision-making. Opinion polls and election campaigns (speeches) do benefit the player in his presidential campaign. However, the primary elections in are not implemented in all states in the same way. Some states may be processed automatically by computer (a fixed number of delegate count) while others in a more manual way. The Super Tuesday primaries are to be held on the same day in many states, ballot counting is done after the player has made simultaneous attempts in each campaign state into three regions. After that, the primary election is made (not counting district units held, subject to the provisions of the delegate count.)
The priorities of the policies that the player can make were introduced to the game as the situation was in 1988 because of the Soviet Union and the CoCom. In 1991, the dissolution of the Soviet Union would eventually lead to CoCom being disbanded in 1994. South Africa had an apartheid at the time and abolished in it 1991. The Panama Canal Zone was returned in 1999 to the people of Panama. However, it differs from the political situation encountered in the game. The "AIDS patient isolation" issue was showing an event of discriminatory policy of an era that had not shown wide public awareness about how the AIDS virus manages to spread from person to person.
If the player manages to win the game and become President of the United States, the official Presidential Oath is displayed in English.
Environmental issues
Defense issues
Education and social issues
Diplomatic issues
Issues concerning Japan
Playable candidates
The player can choose to be one of six candidates: three Republicans and three Democrats. Four of the candidates are based on actual politicians who ran for the 1988 U.S. presidential elections, but with slightly altered names, while two of them are fictional characters modeled after foreign (non-U.S.) politicians.
Rival candidates
These candidates cannot be selected, but instead appear as political rivals for the player's chosen character.
Staff
After choosing a candidate, the player must then choose one of the following characters to be the candidate's assistant and provide his or her expertise into the campaign.