// PC GAMER — GAMING
I played the adventure game so scandalous that it was physically destroyed by UK customs
What vile debauchery could lie within Sex Vixens from Space?
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Weird Weekend is our regular Saturday column where we celebrate PC gaming oddities: peculiar games, strange bits of trivia, forgotten history. Pop back every weekend to find out what Jeremy, Josh, Rick and Ted have become obsessed with this time, whether it's the canon height of Thief's Garrett or that time someone in the Vatican pirated Football Manager.
Videogames have been banned and censored for all manner of reasons, and at least one game was so notoriously terrible that it was buried in the desert. But I've never heard of a game being so repellent that it was physically destroyed before. I've played some rotten games in my time, but I've never felt a desire to eradicate any of them from existence.
Yet this is exactly what happened to Sex Vixens from Space, a lewd graphic adventure developed by Free Spirit Software and released in 1988. Initially launched in the US, Sex Vixens from Space was meant to arrive in the UK the following year. But it never did—at least, not officially, because the shipment was intercepted and destroyed by UK Customs.
Everything we know about Sex Vixens' destruction derives from a few brief news stories from a handful of computer magazines in the '80s. In January 1989, the US Commodore magazine .info reported that 75 copies of the game were seized and destroyed by UK customs. Apparently it was part of a larger shipment that included other games—meaning it was singled out for annihilation. Some publications from the time reported the game as being banned, but it's not clear whether it was formally prohibited by the UK government—even if the effect was one and the same.
That's about as much info we have on the actions of the British border force. But the game's director, Joe Hubbard, provided a colourful statement to The Australian Commodore and Amiga Review:
"While Sex Vixens from Space may be a bit racy, it is not pornographic. Apparently, the British authorities are either quite prudish or completely lacking a sense of humour. Regardless, freedom of artistic expression and the freedom to disseminate such are cornerstones of democracy. The act of seizing these game[s] is the act of a fascist government."
Strong words. But who's right? Is the British government a bunch of fascists? Or is Sex Vixens from Space sick filth worthy of obliteration? There's only one way for an intrepid journalist to find out. Time to ruin my search history!
It's easy to play Sex Vixens from Space as a Brit now—you can even play in your browser via certain websites that collate abandonware. You play as Brad Stallion, owner and operator of a spaceship named the Big Thruster. Naturally, the Big Thruster is shaped like a cock and balls, and if you die while playing, it cuts to a screen of the big thruster going limp—which is the game's one half-decent joke.