New Game Lets You Throw Books at O.J.

Dec. 13, 2006 — -- Criminal prosecutors tried to throw the book at O.J. Simpson and failed miserably. Now, it's your turn.

The Game Show Network is making sport of Simpson's abandoned book, "If I Did It," a hypothetical account of how Simpson would have committed the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Simpson, of course, was acquitted in the infamous 1995 double murder trial, though a civil jury later found him liable in a wrongful death case, slapping the former football star with a $33.5 million judgment.

After receiving a firestorm of criticism, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch scuttled the book and a related Fox TV interview with Simpson, calling it an "ill-considered project."

Now, Internet users can log onto the Game Show Network's Web site and hurl books at the former football legend in a free game launched this morning.

"When we heard about the book, we just knew what people really wanted to do with it," said John Roberts, the network's senior vice president of digital media. "That a book like that could even be written just blows my mind."

The game features a smiling, animated O.J. at a fictional book store where his book signing was cancelled. As the Simpson character darts across the store hiding behind bookracks, players fire away.

When Simpson is hit by the books, the user receives points as Simpson suffers bumps and bruises. Simpson also goes after the player by spiraling footballs back at them.

If Simpson is successful at striking the user with three footballs, the game is over. Players can earn extra points if they intercept valuable cartoon items that fall out of Simpson's jacket pockets: bundles of money, a trophy and a glove.

Simpson has largely been a media pariah since his murder trial, and the public has lashed out at times against companies that have capitalized on his notoriety. But Roberts describes the new game as pure satire.

"This is no different than a magazine running a political cartoon," Roberts said. "We're doing it in the form of a game."

The GSN Web site has created other topical Internet games, such as "So You Think You Can Drive Mel?" and "Foley's Follies," an animated game featuring the former congressman trying to outrun pages.