Sunday Drivers question

[Blue Ghost]

So, I tried going through the archive with a search to find an answer, but haven't come across one.


My question is this; why was the expansion title changed from Sunday Drivers to Crash City? I've always been curious about this, and it did seem to cause some consternation among the local fellow autoduellests.

[ColBosch]

The story I heard is that SJ Games got a bit of flak from the sort of folks who assumed that it was an insult against elderly drivers.

[Blue Ghost]

Really? Wow. Now why does that make me laugh? I know it shouldn't, but it does.

[Racer]

There was also a Radio Program called Sunday Drivers ( in the UK at least ) and that also caused confusion or something ?

[ColBosch]

Originally Posted by Racer

There was also a Radio Program called Sunday Drivers ( in the UK at least ) and that also caused confusion or something ?

I really doubt that. Sunday Drivers/Crash City was a very early SJ Games release, and even if they had a UK distributor at the time, I would imagine that buyers would understand that the title is a generic term.

[Racer]

I played Sunday Drivers/Crash City in late 1982/early 1983 in the UK .

Britain has ( and had ) some extremely strange Laws on intellectual property rights . The 'Top Cat' Cartoon had to be called 'Boss Cat' in the UK , as there was a catfood called Top Cat already .

W.H.Smith Newsagent/Retailer had to put stickers over various gaming products to change their names from those already used for novels/magazines/records . Sunday Drivers was also Golf Magazine I seem to recall ? It's a long time ago & we had some equally bizarre reasons for changing names of American products that now seem ridiculous .

On a side note , I only recently found out the Moon Pies were the North American name for 'Wagon Wheels' in the UK ! Only released that after looking them up after they were mentioned on The Big Bang Theory ...

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

So, I tried going through the archive with a search to find an answer, but haven't come across one.

Here is your previous thread on this subject:

Question about Crash City.

[Blue Ghost]

Originally Posted by Parody

Here is your previous thread on this subject:

Question about Crash City.

Yeah, and I guess I wasn't satisfied with that answer or had forgotten it. But thanks.

[ColBosch]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

Yeah, and I guess I wasn't satisfied with that answer or had forgotten it. But thanks.

If it really did involve a legal threat, then you are unlikely to get an answer from SJ Games. While it would probably be okay to talk about it, lo these many years later, when it comes to legal matters it's often best for companies to adopt a zero-discussion policy.

[Tom H.]

Originally Posted by Blue Ghost

My question is this; why was the expansion title changed from Sunday Drivers to Crash City? I've always been curious about this, and it did seem to cause some consternation among the local fellow autoduellests.

I had assumed it was due to the "moral panic" of the early 1980s.

At the time some religious affiliations were associating entertainment such as Dungeons and Dragons and rock music with evil influences.

I thought the name change may have been due to the juxtaposition of the "Lord's Day" (Sunday) with the violent cover image of the fighting MONDOs. I thought SJ Games was trying to distance themselves from any of the aforementioned negative publicity.

That was my knee-jerk assumption at the time.

All that said, my friends and I played from both versions of the game if I remember correctly. Having a full city play map was very inspirational not to mention the additional rules for destroying buildings.