Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a game, usu. as a term of disgust or disappointment meaning ‘what’s your game?’ etc.

1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 11: Emag - Game. ‘I know your little “emag”’.
1890		Sporting Times 5 Apr. 2/1: [They] are inveterate lovers of a little emag with a deck of broads.
1909		Truth (Perth) 2 Jan. 4/8: Wot’s his emag? Plane and easey. He had got his mate at work.
1909		Truth (Brisbane) 3 Jan. 10/5: There’s sum pluck in that there emag— / Its a riskey sorter game, / Where a bloke might stop a bullet, / Aud get lumbered awl the same.
1909		press cutting in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 36/1: There [sic] nothing like cheek, yobs, whatever your blooming emag may be.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 3 Jan. 10/6: The Emag are conducted / By them as do know what’s what.
1977		D. Powis Signs of Crime 182: Emag Game (London backslang) but usually in the sense of disgust: ‘What a bleeding emag this is!’.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 54: I scoured my servo-banks for some last-ditch natty emag to overcome the vicious spiv.