There was nothing quite like playing a board game and jumping as your friend slammed their hand down on a giant pink button that squealed out “EEHHHH!” to get your heart pumping in the ‘90s. Yes, the ‘90s board game Outta Control loved that pink button. Do you remember this game? It was all about DO and DON’T cards and remembering what was on them, and then making sure you did or did not do those things throughout the game. Pretty simple at first, but there was always room to try to be sneaky and trick your friends. Trick them how? Keep reading, friends…
The goal of Outta Control was to get rid of all of your bright pink chips. The first to do that would be the big winner. But how did you do that, you wonder? Ah ha, that’s where the game play comes in. So, at the start of the game, you’d get 10 of those bright pink chips to try to get rid of. A DO card would be drawn from the pile, read aloud, and put face down on the DO side of the board. Then, a DON’T card would also be drawn, read aloud, and put face down on the DON’T side of the board. A DO card was something you had to do at the start of each turn — in the correct order, mind you — and a DON’T card was something you couldn’t do at any time.
What were some of these DO and DON’T cards? Let’s take a look:
- DO stand up and sit down
- DO pull on your ear
- DO give yourself a hug
- DO close your eyes and touch your nose
- DON’T stand up
- DON’T say the word “yes”
- DON’T pick up the die using your thumb
- DON’T touch your hands together
There would be a max of four of each type of card on the board at a time. If you ran into a space that let you add a DO or DON’T card, and all the slots were full, then you would swap it out for one of the existing ones. But what does all of this have to do with your pink chips?
Each space on the board usually had some sort of instruction that had to do with putting your chips into the chip bank on the board, thereby reducing your number of chips and getting you one step closer to victory. Simple enough, but that wasn’t the only way to get rid of or acquire more chips — and this is where the true fun of the game came in. If you noticed another player either not performing one of the DO card actions at the beginning of their turn, performing a DO card action in the wrong order, or performing a DON’T card action at any time, you could swiftly bang on that pink buzzer and call them out. If you were correct in calling them out, you would give them one of your pink chips. But if you were wrong, the accused would give you one of their pink chips.
Sounds straightforward, but then why did we mention the game testing your friendships by encouraging trickster ways? Because on the board there are more than just spaces telling you to add DO and DON’T cards — there are also Safe spaces where you don’t have to follow any of the DO and DON’T instructions. Which meant that you could try to trick your friends into buzzing you by performing one of the DON’T actions when you were Safe, and thus give them one of your chips. Very sneaky. Some of the spaces also told you to give a chip to any player, so if you wanted to piss off a friend in particular, you could keep giving them your chips when landing there.
If you didn’t like memory games, then this game was probably especially annoying to play when your friend (um, me, because yes I did own this game) dragged it out of their closet. The good thing was the game was over pretty quickly, so any tension between friends usually would dissipate pretty fast. That tension might not have gone away so quickly if the pink buzzer button was separate from the card tray — it was one big plastic card/buzzer contraption you’d set in the middle of the game board. Just imagine if your friend was able to secretly carry around that pink buzzer button in a pocket and scare the crap out of you with a random buzz at any moment! Thank goodness that wasn’t a thing.
But what about you? Did you play Outta Control? What are some of your favorite memories? Let us know in the comments, but first check out this commercial from 1992 for some flashback flavor:
- Outta Control could be played with 2-6 players, came with 24 different DO and DON’T cards, and required a 9 volt battery (not included) for the buzzer to operate.
- The game was distributed by Parker Brothers, which is famous for Monopoly, Clue, Sorry!, and Trivial Pursuit, among others. Check out our article on their game Don’t Wake Daddy — Don’t Wake Daddy: ‘90s Artistic Muse or Obesity Simulator?
- In Germany, the game was called “Total Normal?!” and in the UK it was called “Out of Control.” Their game boards didn’t have electronic buzzers — the “buzzers” were simply big plastic buttons that made a kind of squeaking sound.
- Outta Control is no longer produced these days, though you can find vintage ‘90s copies of it on eBay, and Hasbro, who now owns Parker Brothers, does have a copy of the rules available to download on their website.
- It’s tough to find much information on the game, so our Five Fast Facts are a little lacking. For example, we’d love to know who drew the art for the game box and the board itself, but can’t find that anywhere. It’s a pretty cool animation style — it’s sad we can’t give that artist credit!
- Outta Control could be played with 2-6 players, came with 24 different DO and DON’T cards, and required a 9 volt battery (not included) for the buzzer to operate.
- The game was distributed by Parker Brothers, which is famous for Monopoly, Clue, Sorry!, and Trivial Pursuit, among others. Check out our article on their game Don’t Wake Daddy — Don’t Wake Daddy: ‘90s Artistic Muse or Obesity Simulator?
- In Germany, the game was called “Total Normal?!” and in the UK it was called “Out of Control.” Their game boards didn’t have electronic buzzers — the “buzzers” were simply big plastic buttons that made a kind of squeaking sound.
- Outta Control is no longer produced these days, though you can find vintage ‘90s copies of it on eBay, and Hasbro, who now owns Parker Brothers, does have a copy of the rules available to download on their website.
- It’s tough to find much information on the game, so our Five Fast Facts are a little lacking. For example, we’d love to know who drew the art for the game box and the board itself, but can’t find that anywhere. It’s a pretty cool animation style — it’s sad we can’t give that artist credit!
