Polygon | The Great Game: The Making of Spycraft | Full Polygon Documentary @polygon | Uploaded October 2024 | Updated October 2024, 5 days ago.
In 1995, former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin and ex-CIA Director William Colby collaborated in an unexpected way. They made a video game.
The Great Game traces how both men rose to the tops of their fields following World War II, before falling out of favor with their respectives agencies — on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. For Kalugin, a growing discontent with the KGB’s treatment of Russians radicalized him against the institution. Meanwhile William Colby, an OSS operative and the CIA’s man on the ground in Vietnam, was fired by President Ford after testifying before Congress about controversial CIA programs like MKULTRA and CoIntelPro.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, both living on American soil, Colby and Kalugin played themselves in Spycraft, a multi-million dollar game that was among the most advanced of its time — and is now almost entirely forgotten.
*IMPORTANT LINKS*
Polygon Newsletter: polygon.com/pages/newsletter
TikTok: tiktok.com/@polygon
Twitter: bit.ly/PolygonTwitter
Instagram: bit.ly/PolygonInsta
Facebook: bit.ly/PolygonFB
And for more gaming and entertainment coverage, visit polygon.com
In 1995, former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin and ex-CIA Director William Colby collaborated in an unexpected way. They made a video game.
The Great Game traces how both men rose to the tops of their fields following World War II, before falling out of favor with their respectives agencies — on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain. For Kalugin, a growing discontent with the KGB’s treatment of Russians radicalized him against the institution. Meanwhile William Colby, an OSS operative and the CIA’s man on the ground in Vietnam, was fired by President Ford after testifying before Congress about controversial CIA programs like MKULTRA and CoIntelPro.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, both living on American soil, Colby and Kalugin played themselves in Spycraft, a multi-million dollar game that was among the most advanced of its time — and is now almost entirely forgotten.
*IMPORTANT LINKS*
Polygon Newsletter: polygon.com/pages/newsletter
TikTok: tiktok.com/@polygon
Twitter: bit.ly/PolygonTwitter
Instagram: bit.ly/PolygonInsta
Facebook: bit.ly/PolygonFB
And for more gaming and entertainment coverage, visit polygon.com
