It looks like a gag, but Ruthless was a real board game that was sold via late night TV ads just before Christmas 1987, just a crazy idea for a board game sold on TV! It apparently involves flashing guns and losing one's clothes. "The one who plays the toughest takes it all, Ruthless can only go so far, the rest is up to you." The BetaGems channel also has "Whatzit adult board game 1987 TV commercial," "Scruples board game 1987 TV ad," "Beirut Bomb Game 1980s board game TV ad," and "1988 Dynamite game Parker Bros TV commercial."

BetaGems are culled from an archive of over 1000 beta video tapes recorded from 1983 into the 1990s. Most feature live music performances broadcast on television in San Diego CA, though there are also rarely seen commercials, comedy clips, old TV news segments, made-for-TV movies and documentaries, religious programming, variety shows, talk show interviews, and other material that doesn't seem to be anywhere else on Youtube or online. Most of the tapes were recorded on a Sony SL-HFT7 Super Beta Theater Hi-Fi Stereo - the same model was refurbished and is being used for these digital transfers and uploads.

In rare occasions where a BetaGems clip does appear elsewhere, we're only uploading if our own beta master is better quality or contains material not seen previously. Much footage comes from public television and public access broadcasts that the taper, who worked for a local cable TV production company in the 1980s, monitored nightly for several years. Some of the programming is strictly regional, mostly from the San Diego area.

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