As BP executives face continued criticism over their handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, could they have learned any lessons from the board game that their predecessors lent the company name to?
Released in the 1970s by Scottish board game manufacturer Printabox, BP Offshore Oil Strike pits would-be oil barons against each other for domination of the North Sea oil field.
The aim of the game is to amass a cool $120m, which in the 1970's would have been a fantastic profit level, though now oil companies work in billions.
But the game is not without risk. Your efforts to discover oil could prove fruitless, and political interference or bad press could scupper your plans, depending on the turn of the wheel.
And a lesson to all "wannabe" executives. Select the wrong hazard card and you could be stuck with "rig damage - oil clean up costs $1m".
"It's quite spooky really... actually predicting what happens now," says Alan Goldsmith, owner of the House on the Hill Toy Museum where the game is kept.
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