BY Lux Alptraum
July 27, 2007
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Last week, Boinkology had the, um, exciting opportunity to play Dreamphone, the landmark 1991 dating game (aka GirlTalk’s poorer cousin, or a really dumbed down version of Clue for 13 year old girls).

For those unfamiliar with the game (and too lazy to click the link and watch the ad), here’s the gist: twenty-four boys are pictured on the game board. One of them has a crush on you (and, um, everyone else playing the game)! Collect clues and be the first to figure out which boy likes you (and all your friends)!

Um, yeah. We had a grand old time (and we weren’t even drunk!), but we found ourselves left with more than a few questions:

• Whose idea was it to have one boy crushing out on all the players? What kind of message does that send to teenage girls? Would it really have been that hard to set up the game so that each player was searching for his or her own secret admirer? (Answer: Apparently, yes.)
• Why are the boys so heinous looking? Did the 1991 version of “hot boy” really include “date rapist” and “pocket protector salesman”?
• Was that Stephen Hawking-like voice emanating from the phone the height of technology at the time? We can’t quite remember, but we have a feeling that we would have been pretty damn impressed by Dreamphone back in the day (robotic phone! High tech!)

Due to a technological glitch (aka the phone resetting itself halfway through the game), Boinkology wasn’t actually able to find out which boy had a crush on us. It was either Bob or Scott… but sadly, we’ll never know which one.

p.s. Check out Sexerati for more retro dating game fun!