Pork Barrel

Pork Barrel is a late-1990s shareware political simulation for the classic Macintosh from Gypsy King Software, in which the player takes the Oval Office and tries to survive a four-year term. Sex scandals, terrorist attacks, hostage crises, the federal budget, and even the Y2K bug all land on your desk; every choice has consequences.

Be the president

The core loop is decision-making. The game throws crisis after crisis at you and lets the populace's mood swing accordingly. Keep approval high enough and you stay in power; let it slip too far and the readme warns you 'might find a bullet whizzing past your ear.'

Campaign promises and the budget

Pork Barrel scores you against concrete goals: keep your campaign promises, balance the budget, pay off the national debt, and decide what to do with welfare and social security. The simulation borrows the satirical tone of late-nineties American politics, with appearances by figures like Saddam Hussein and a clerk named Ditzmeyer.

Mini-games for downtime

The presidency is not all paperwork. Between crises you can play poker with the Big Boys, throw darts at Saddam Hussein, take a Pork Barrel trivia quiz, and even come face to face with extraterrestrials. The author explicitly notes that 'all work and no play makes for a grumpy president.'

Shareware and updates

The Info-Mac release is version 1.5, a 15 USD shareware build that squashes bugs, eases some goal requirements, and adds a few new Easter eggs over the original. Gypsy King Software, which kept selling Mac and Windows shareware until April 2022, also notes some compatibility wrinkles under Mac OS 9.