Ideal’s Electronic Detective is a battery-powered whodunnit: a computer holds every alibi, and one to four detectives race to question the suspects and name the killer.
Each case starts with 20 characters in a big city. One is murdered; the other 19 flee to six places around town. The box promises “over 130,000 totally different murder mysteries”, complete with gunshots, police sirens and a funeral dirge.
Interesting facts
Would you believe…? In America, Ideal signed up Don Adams – TV’s bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in Get Smart – to sell the game on its box and in television commercials. This British-made edition swaps him for moody painted noir artwork.
A case on record. American sets came with a “Sample Game” flexi-disc. After a staged murder – “You hear two gunshots!” – a narrator doing his best Brooklyn detective talks players through the keys and the Case Fact Sheet.
Gumshoes in Berkshire. US instructions call the three skill levels Gumshoe, Sleuth and Master Detective. This box, printed for Ideal’s British company in Wokingham, says amateur, professional and master detective. The Strong National Museum of Play keeps a 1979 set.