Epic Win: Spy vs. Spy
Submitted by eg bob
Spy vs. Spy was a staple of MAD Magazine back in the ’60s when it was funny and continues on today. The cartoon was created by Cuban cartoonist Antonio Prohias, who fled to the U.S. days before Castro took over the country’s free press. Naturally, Spy vs. Spy is about the Cold War — but I suppose Black and White never really got the lesson on tit-for-tat.
They also made a few cartoon shorts that are pretty good. Here’s one:
Somewhat related: this classic LOLcat.
I’ve never heard of this, but it looks hilarious!
They also had a game too!! I forgot what system tho!
It was on the NES. You had to go through different rooms looking for spy stuff and setting traps for the other guy.
I always liked the black spy. The white spy wasn’t as good.
They also had one for Gameboy Colour. In fact, I still have it somewhere…
yea i had one, i traded a crappy pac-man game for it. it pwnd :3
HAHA!!! My brother and I were banned from ever playing this game because whenever we did it ended in violence! No other game or anything ever made us hate each other so much as when we set traps and got killed in this game!
I remember playing this on a Commodore 64.
Yes, I had them on the C64, too. I remember that there were at least three that I know of, and the second one was on an island, but I don’t remember what the third one was… Maybe there were only two and I am imagining number three?
Look to my comment down below to find where I remembered the arctic third one after someone else mentioned it.
It was on just about anything then.
I had it on my ZX Spectrum, seen it on Commodore 64, Atari whatever and Amiga 500.
Wikipedia has the entire list.
Oh yeah… and while I didn’t know about the cartoon until today, the game was also an Epic Win. Especially when playing against a friend.
They need to release that to download for Wii.
I had it, then my sister lent our NES to a friend. Evil child, people don’t return your NES or your treasured games!!
Loved da Spies since I was a little kid.
SPY VS SPY was AWESOME!! A riot!!!
yes! underground icons those two! i loved them! they were my favourite thing about mad.
You never knew who was going to survive at the end, I always liked that.
The only time you knew who was going to win was if the female Gray Spy showed up. She always got the best of both of them.
I effing loved Spy vs Spy cartoon shorts!
Ah man I had the Spy Vs. Spy game for the C64, goin back a while now.
I vaguely remember it was set in the arctic and that the last screen you got to there was a manhole type thing, if you went in there with all 3 pieces of spy equipment you ended up in a rocket which blasted off leaving the other spy doomed to a hypothermic fate.
If you went in there without all 3 pieces a polar bear popped out and sent you running back into the battle.
Classic memories, thanks for that Nostalgic Win!
Oh yeah! That was the third one! I knew that there was a third one!
They usually had two pages of Spy vs. Spy in an issue of MAD – the white spy would “win” once, and the “black” spy won the other. I always thought that was great – it kept them as equals rather than a superior/inferior relationship (a la the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote).
Spy vs. Spy and Marginal Notes are what kept me buying MAD issue after issue. They were great.
I got a kayak (Dagger Agent) and didn’t really like the logo, so I made my own:
Did anyone else look at the title of the Youtube cartoon and see “Defecation?” Stupid lysdexia…
They were a video game? Bonus points: Remember the line of Morse Code in each strip in Mad? What did it say?
The Morse code read “by Prohias.”
Another bit of trivia for you: Sometimes he featured a third spy, a femme fatale Grey Spy, who *always* won.
I always liked Spy vs. Spy, as well as the marginal comics by Sergio Aragones, along with his “A Mad Look At…” section, as well as Dave Berg’s “The Lighter Side of…” and a couple of other mainstays. When I bought some of the collections, which featured selections from issues back in the 1960s and 1970s, I was introduced to another cartoonist who unfortunately didn’t do anymore work for MAD, and passed away some time in the late 90s/early 2000s: Don Martin.
I also liked the song parodies. All done by Frank Jacobs.
I actually know alot of people that really enjoy this game so don’t go saying its that bad and “Avoid like the glegue” haha, yeah theres one or two bad things, but most of this game is awesome. Whats up with people critisizing this game, i don’t think you could make anything better!!!
Don Martin was the master of sound effects on the printed page! If I knew how to do it, maybe Don should be submitted!
OMG!!! I love spy vs spy they are sooooooo awesome!!!!