Expo.02 - L'odyssée suisse - Trouvez le secret d'Egalpetra 6

Description

A browser game (shockwave) created for the Swiss national exhibition Expo.02 from 15 May 2002 until 20 October 2002. This game is dedicated to a boat, l'«Arteplage Mobile du Jura», which circulated between the three lakes – Neuchâtel, Biel/Bienne and Morat/Murten – where the exhibition took place. The player has to move the boat. They will have "to drink damassine [a strong traditional alcoholic drink], kill a bear, or shoot policemen"

The Jura Police Minister, Claude Hêche, complained about one of the levels being named "Fuck the police" and asked the game to be removed. This led the exhibition's organisers to obey and remove the game from the exhibition website. 

"Le ministre jurassien de la Police, Claude Hêche, a écrit au début du mois de juin au responsable de l'AMJ pour lui demander de retirer le jeu. Le ministre le considère comme «injurieux» envers la police et «incite à la violence». Dans un premier temps, les responsables de l'AMJ ont refusé. Ils ont modifié une des phases du jeu qui s'intitulait Fuck the police. Elle s'est transformée en Annoy the guards. Juri Steiner dit être «très étonné» que le changement ne soit pas jugé suffisant. «Nous n'avions pas l'intention de provoquer qui que ce soit : c'est un jeu inoffensif qu'il faut prendre au deuxième degré», souligne-t-il." (24 heures, 2026-07-02, p. 28)

Excerpts from Stan Fedorov's web page at the time [links were broken and were not reproduced]: 

"As a freelance programmer, i have been working since February 2001, together with a team of 4. We were developing a multimedia game that should be released in April 2002, before the opening of the Swiss Exhibition Expo.02.

The game is about an underwater arteplage, that is build secretly by the expo officials as a surprise for the swiss people. It is the idea of a man called Erich von Daeniken, who also delivered the story board (but I never met him).

When you finish the game, the exact location of the underwater exhibition is shown to you.

I have finished my work since last august, and i still hav not received my salary; the swiss expo.02 owes us altogether more than 15'000$. We have called them many times, and we even travelled to Zurich. We were told, that they have not the money at the moment. I can hardly believe this to be true, given the fact that Switzerland is a rich and beautiful country as i have seen with my own eyes.

We have decided to publish the game. You can download it from this website. Here. It is to protest against the unfair treatment by the swiss expo people for who we worked and gave our best.

If you play it and find your way to the underwater world, you will see what the 6th arteplage looks like - not only in 6 months, but within 6 minutes (if you are good!). Check the help sectin in teh beginning of the game so you know how to navigate. You need the have the shockwave plugin installed in order to run the game online, or you can download the game by clicking on the image. good luck.

As a form of protest and in order to help us with our struggle, we would appreciate if you send a protest mail to the swiss expo.02 officials.

If you want to write to me, you find my address here. I am travelling a lot, but I check my mail every day."

"Is it permissible to aim at pixelated police officers?" Statement by the Arteplage Mobile du Jura (AMJ) on the debate surrounding the internet game “Find the Secret of Egalpetra 6”

In a letter dated June 12, 2002, to the Arteplage Mobile du Jura, the Jura Minister for Health, Social Affairs, and Police, Claude Hêche, demanded that the internet game “Find the Secret of Egalpetra 6” be removed from the Arteplage Mobile du Jura website because, among other things, the game depicts shooting at police officers and ridicules them.

In this context, the Arteplage Mobile du Jura states:

“Find the secret of Egalpetra 6” is an internet game in which the objective is to search for the secret 6th Arteplage. During the game, the player, as an AMJ pilot, must complete various tasks:
 

• - Pick mushrooms from the Jura pastures
• - Stop the horse butcher from his work
• - Rescue the Jura ponies from the Bernese bear
• - Scare away police officers and other guards with a beam of light
• - Avoid icebergs and sea monsters

At no point was it the AMJ's intention to disparage the Jura police force. Therefore, the phrase "Fuck the Police," which appears at one point in the game, was replaced on June 11, 2002, with "Annoy the guards" when we learned that the Jura cantonal police felt offended and attacked. The AMJ apologizes for the expression "Fuck the police," which has been part of the repertoire of rock and punk culture for over 20 years, with full respect for the important role of the police and the commitment of every police officer to the common good.

However, we believe that within the bounds of artistic freedom, it should be possible to use characters such as soldiers or police officers in a game. We would also like to emphasize that the depiction of violence in the game is most comparable to that of a puppet show. The police and guard figures are chased away, not shot.

The Arteplage Mobile du Jura has demonstrated its commitment to addressing the issue of violence and the fascination young people have with shooting through its production "Shooting Bourbaki" over the past three weeks: Five young people from Lucerne presented a powerful performance on the ship, showing what shooting and aiming mean to them.

Furthermore, every player of "Find the Secret of Egalpetra 6" has the opportunity to run the Arteplage Mobile du Jura aground on an iceberg, thus helping justice triumph...

Arteplage Mobile du Jura

Internet Editorial Team

Johannes Gees