Episode 14: Voice of the Mummy, The Milton Bradley Board Game

Ii-wey! In 1971, Milton Bradley released Voice of the Mummy, a new game in which the game board emulated an ancient Egyptian tomb and up to four players could go on a treasure hunt. A board game focused on ancient Egypt seemed like a novelty in 1971, but the game mechanics were actually unique too. 

Let’s start with the cool feature of the game: it talked to the players! As though evoking the deep, mesmerizing voice of Boris Karloff from the 1932 film The Mummy in which he played the title role, when a player would land on the appropriate game square, they would push a button that would cause an eerie disembodied to speak, instructing the player to complete an action. According to the Geek Vintage website, “there wasn’t another game on the market that had an actual voice help guide the game. Technologically it was quite an inventive and ingenious mechanical system that allowed for random play, and it was unheard of to have a record player included in a game” (see the website here). The miniature record player, approximately 4” in diameter, was situated beneath the tomb in the center of the 3D game board. The underside of the tomb lid housed the record needle mechanism and powered by either one or two D size battery, depending on the version of the game. There was even a nob feature that controlled the speed of the voice.   

Instead of the typical flat game board, Voice of the Mummy’s game board was presented as a 3D tomb. The four-tiered game would be placed on the inverted box bottom. This would match up the hieroglyph panels on each side of the box. The first three tiers have square spaces with reference images of scarabs, a golden death mask (that looks a lot like Tutankhamen’s Golden Mask), and many other hieroglyph symbols. The top tier is the tomb component: a burnished gold looking sarcophagus lid with cartouches and more hieroglyphs. There are groves for the Great Jewel and a cobra in a striking pose representing the tomb’s curse. Interesting that rather than a mummy chasing the players, like in many of the mummy films, reference to the curse trope is central to the game play. 

Up to four players can play Voice of the Mummy. There are two male and two female cardboard tokens, each character wearing adventuring clothing. The game comes with small oval gems worth one point that are placed on each scarab symbol on the board. Side A of the record is set up and each player starts at one of the four corners of the board represented by a lotus blossom. Each player rolls a dice and moves their character token the number of squares that matches their roll. Along the way to the tomb, they will pick up gems as they race each other to the tomb. Whoever reaches the tomb first takes the Great Jewel (at the feet of the sarcophagus) worth five points as well but they also have to take the curse token, worth negative five points. That player will seek to pass the curse token to someone else before they get back to the home base. The record is flipped to Side B and the race is on to get back to home base. Once a player gets back to home base, the game is over. Each player counts up their gem points. The person with the most points wins. 

Because of the multiple versions of the game, it appears that the game gems and cobra will either be green or red. The game originally retailed for $15.95, but today, a working game will easily cost around $250. Check out the original 1971 commercial (here), and if you would like see the game in action, please check out Board Game Museum Episode #145 (here). Voice of the Mummy appears to be fun game and every site that discussed the game, rated it highly. Do you have this game? Did you enjoy playing it and would you give it a high rating? 

Senebti!

Banner image from Creature Buzz website (see their post/photos here).