January 21, 2009...12:01 am

#847 Old, classic board games

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Musty fun

Wedged tightly into dark corners in dusty attics are piles of old, worn out board games from years ago.

The corners of these old boxes are cracked and split open, the flashy prints on top long worn away, leaving only the dusty, corrugated bones behind. Pencils with broken leads, yellowed instructions, faded homemade scorecards, and assorted sub-ins for lost game pieces litter the box and make it look like that clattery kitchen drawer of assorted knick-knacks. Take a deep breath and you may sniff up a familiar musty scent that takes you way, way back.

For old time’s sake, let’s look fondly on thirteen of the greatest board games of all time:

hungry-hungry-hippo13. Hungry Hungry Hippos. This game was invented for all the kids who were shooed into the basement to calm down and go play a board game. That’s when us sugar-rushing rugrats caused havoc by pulling out Hungry Hungry Hippos and started smacking plastic hippo mouths at a hundred marbles flying in all directions. Just what mom had in mind.

mouse_trap12. Mouse Trap. This game taught us the meaning of the slow, tantric crescendo. That’s because the first 99% of the game was a boring, play-by-numbers hopscotch. But then it got to mousetrap time, and it was allllllll worth it.

connect-four11. Connect Four. Despite the quick set up time, easy rules, and fun gameplay, Connect Four always seemed suspiciously educational. And now, be honest — did you ever realize your kid sister was just about to deliver a four-in-a-row knockout punch and then release the trap on the bottom, spilling all the pieces on the table and denying them their big crowning moment? Hey, I’m not proud of it, either.

battleship10. Battleship. The best part of Battleship was those hard, plastic cases the game came in. It was like its own luggage set and it was hard not to feel important when you flipped one open and began fiddling with all the pieces inside. Kids, those are what we used to call laptops. Sure, no RAM, no hard drive, but check out the 3D graphics.

uno9. Uno. Now, Uno wasn’t really a board game, but whenever it was Board Game Time there was always that one whiny kid who begged everyone to play Uno instead. But no one would. That’s why it’s called Uno.

mastermind8. Mastermind. Was it just me or did that box cover look like an ad for exotic high-stakes infidelity? Either that or the people you final-round interview with to become a political assassin.

risk7. Risk. Turns out you can’t dominate the world in an hour. As a result, committing to a game of Risk was commiting to giving up your entire evening. Games could go until three, four, five in the morning, with the first person out at 9:00 pm sitting bored on the couch flipping channels for six hours. Too bad, man. Shouldn’t have challenged Siam.

candyland-board6. Candyland. This game required no reading, no writing, no strategy, and no decision-making at all. You just flipped over a card, looked at the color, and moved your piece to that color. That’s it, really. Candyland ranks high because it’s a gateway board game and gets people interested in the harder stuff.

trivial-pursuit-original5. Trivial Pursuit. The hardest stuff of all. I’m talking about the original, heavy box Genus Edition here. You know you’re playing that one when the questions are impossible and everybody feels like an idiot without any pie pieces. Props to the first person who proposes ditching the board and just asking questions.

game-of-life4. The Game of Life. If you can believe it, Milton Bradley himself created The Game of Life way back in 1861. Now, the game is more than a little preachy — I mean, if you don’t go to college, have lots of kids, and drive around in your station wagon buying insurance and suing for damages, then you probably won’t be able to end up a millionaire and buy that beautiful, white plastic mansion at the end. But there was something pretty cool about Life, too. There was the fact that you got to spin the big wheel on your turn, that every space had a little story to go with it, and that kids got to act grown up for an hour.

scrabble3. Scrabble. So apparently they’ve sold over 100 million copies of Scrabble in 29 languages. They sell dictionaries, they have tournaments, the factories are still pumping them out. Not bad for a handful of cheap wood tiles.

clue2. Clue. This dark and bloody board game about mansion murder was always a winner with happy-go-lucky kids on Saturday afternoon. Yes, Clue was a tense and quiet hour of private note-taking, raised eyebrows, and suspicious glances. A nice break from running around the backyard with untied shoelaces and runny noses, anyway.

monopoly1. Monopoly. There were some classic moments in most Monopoly games. First off, who’s going to be the banker? Either you have an excited kid around who wants to do it or somebody caves in and reluctantly does the job. Reluctant Bankers are no good, though. You’ll be reminding them to pay you $200 for passing GO the whole time. Next, what’s the rule with Free Parking? We going with the official rules where it means nothing, popping a big $500 in there, or doing something completely different? Also, every game has the late-inning game-changing trade at some point. It’s the three-way deal that gives the richest player all the railroads to seal everybody’s fate or the tired person who gives up at midnight and just trades away Boardwalk for $100 to meet the rent on Park Place. Whatever your Monopoly quirks, there’s no denying that it’s a classic.

Huddled around the kitchen table waiting on a long pause in Scrabble, sitting in a friend’s basement late at night waging merciless war in Risk, or gathering the family together for a classic Saturday night game of Monopoly, whatever your style — there’s just something about those old, classic board games. They bring us together for some laughs, some ups, some downs, and some plain old good times.

AWESOME!

old-family-playing-board-game

Photos from: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here

110 Comments

  • Awesome Thing #847B: Skipping past the game part of Mouse Trap and just setting up the crazy contraption.

    And the family rule for Free Parking was every money that was lost via Chance or Taxes went into a pot which you got if you landed on Free Parking. Can really turn around the game near the end. Or the guy that already has all the blues and the railroads lands on it.

  • I can’t tell you how often I pulled the Connect-Four thing on my dad. I couldn’t stand to let him win. but then again, hey, he did it to me just as many times.

  • I actually played Monopoly for the first time in, oh, many a year the other day. Through ‘lucky’ rolls, several trips to jail and the greed of my fellow players, I somehow managed to not land on a single purchasable property, which left me with plenty of money, until the wheeling and dealing started and hotels started appearing. At this point I blew all my money on buying the Yellows, put some houses on them and then realised I had no money left and quit.

    I never was very good at the game…

  • ahh I still play Monopoly every Christmas, still love it lol.

  • cell phone skins

    not a board game either, but… kerplunk?

  • I thought I was the only one with Mastermind! Yeah that box was a little weird.

  • Awesomely good times.
    =]

  • I had almost all of those games in your list…even Mastermind with it’s unusual box cover! :)

    I liked Battleship alot when I was a kid.

    Anyways, your writing style is very humorous…”But no one would. That’s why it’s called Uno.
    That was funny.

  • Love this list. I just bought my 3 yo daughter Hungry Hungry Hippos and Candyland for Christmas and she loves them both. It also makes up for never having either of them as a kid myself.

    A couple you left out, but are still classics are Pictionary and Boggle. More recently, I’ve become a big fan of Scattergories and Cranium too.

    I love board games :)

  • Great list! This New Year’s Eve my entire group of friends came down with the flu…since we obviously weren’t going anywhere we pulled out Risk and began a 6 hour epic quest for world domination.

    Sounds lame but it was actually a great NYE, you know – except for the flu symptoms and the odd “our cease-fire treaty wasn’t up yet a**hole” argument.

  • I have that big pile of games stashed on the shelf of a bedroom closet!!
    You are AWeSoMe!!! Love the blog!!

  • Ha ha ha, Candyland is a “gateway board game”. That is so true.

    If you think “Life” is preachy, check out “What Shall I Be: The Exciting Career Game for Boys”. My family actually had this game. Basically, you collect cards for personality and education, which then determines your career path. Quit school after college, and your only choice is “Athlete”. Creepy 1950’s gender role stereotyping at it’s best/worst.

  • As a personal testament to the greatness of Monopoly, even though my older sister would make up new rules and cheat whenever I was winning (unfortunately a frequent occurrence), I still loved playing anyway. There’s something about all that wheeling and dealing, that gets those endorphins going.

  • Agreed about Mastermind. When I was a kid I thought it was an illicit boardgame for grown-ups only, and was disappointed to discover it is kind of straightforward and boring.

    Hungry, Hungry Hippos always devolved (evolved?) into a marble-artillery battle.

  • The Mastermind commentary was PERFECT. I never understood that box either.

    I recently read an interview with the Monopoly World Champion. He (modestly) stated that an amateur Monopoly player would have as good a chance of beating him as that would in taking a tennis match off of Roger Federer.

    Really great list.

  • I want to register my grave disappointment that “Operation” was not listed. In my opinion, it is an absolutely classic game.

  • Hey, Freddo, are you sure you didn’t read that here in the comments section?

    I posted that about Jay Walker, the founder of Priceline.

  • Canyland turned out to be very surprising to me. My, at the time, 3 years old and I were playing. He kept on moving to wrong place, so I figured that either he was stupid or colorblind. It turned out he is colorblind. Might not have figured it out without Candyland.

  • No Fireball Island = Fail

  • There’s a whole new generation of board games. Shorter playing times, less luck, and deep strategy.

    Take a look.

    http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browser.php?itemtype=game&sortby=rank

  • Allow me to bring up a couple more greats that come to mind.

    Fireball island
    Crossfire
    Operation

    Love them

  • My favorite was Stratego.

  • Stratego. ’nuff said

  • Let us not forget the rather rare dark tower

  • Dark Tower was a great game, wish I still had mine. :(

  • Candyland is not a game. By your own description, there are no decisions involved.

    Half of these games are exercises in pain. Awful stuff. Monopoly #1? Popularity != Quality.

    You need to go visit BoardGameGeek.com, stat!

  • awful. the only good games on here are scrabble, monopoly, risk, and maybe mastermind.

  • Hungry Hippos is not a “game.” Fail.

  • [...] #847 Old, classic board games « 1000 Awesome Things (tags: lists) [...]

  • Uno is a card game. No board or playing area whatsover. Fail.

    I would subsitute Sorry!, Trouble, and possible Operation for some of those on the list (still debating if Operation is a board game or ‘table’ game, lol)

  • Here are 10 board games we all hate, many are on this list as well.

    http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-board-games-we-secretly-hate.php

  • I also wanted to reiterate that Candy Land is not a game. There are no players, just observers that follow a pre-determined result that is generated by pseudorandom shuffling.

    Decision making is actually a necessary prerequisite for something to be a game. Without that, its a toy or activity, but involves no game play.

  • I totally agree with this although I would have switched the position of Clue and Scrabble.

  • Well I learn something new every day…Cluedo is simplified to Clue for North American audiences…

  • Nothing seems to be easier than seeing someone whom you can help but not helping.
    I suggest we start giving it a try. Give love to the ones that need it.
    God will appreciate it.

  • Ohhh, sorry. The correct entry for today was “Lost.” You need to start involving current events. Halloween day’s entry should be Halloween, Christmas’ Christmas, and Lost Premier Day should have been Lost.

    However, I have to agree with Monopoly being #1. My favorite is personally Cranium, but if we’re talking old-timers, you don’t beat Monopoly.

    And I always loved to be the banker.

  • Mike Dover – You’re totally right! How incredibly embarrassing. I need to keep my internet reading straight… I can’t believe I tried to pass off something I stole from another comment on this site as “independent research”… Too funny.

    Who knew that 1000 awesome things comments could be so recursive and self-referential.

  • What about Sorry, Trouble (with the pop-o-matic bubble), Grape Escape, and Cooties?

  • I hate Monopoly. I remember gazing wistfully at Ren & Stimpy on mute, while my mom screamed “SAMMY IT’S YOUR TURN.” Being the youngest I also never got to be the Banker. It’s something I still battle every day.

  • Hey, no worries…

    but (cough) it was Lendl…

    this is the guy in question http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Walker

  • These games are awful.

  • Yeah. There is something definitely about board games, that are just plain fun. I had many great memories playing board games, it’s been forever though really. People around me have kinda lost it. That’s all im gunna say… :)

  • Stratego was a glaring omission…but all of those games bring back happy (or irritating) memories.

    I’d have put Dungeon! on the list though…

  • This list is crap without Passout, greatest board game ever.

  • If you want to try something new in board games, I highly recommend “Settlers of Catan.” It’s from Germany and it’s fantastic. I’ve spent a lot of really great hours playing this game with my friends and it beats the pants off of any of the games above. Gamble $25 and give it a try.

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  • I agree with all of these but what about Hotels? That was a combination of Life and Monopoly and didn’t last four hours either.

  • what about kerplunk? does anyone remember that one?

  • Any game involving marbles was definitely awesome. Kerplunk, HHHippos, Chinese checkers, Aggravation – remember that one??

    A couple more old-school games we used to play are Parcheesi and Steeplechase. But my favourite was PayDay. Getting that stack of cash every payday was awesome!

  • one of my favorite games was one based off Mad Magazine. was similar to the Game of Life, with an element of musical chairs – the winner was the first one to loose all their money. very silly and fun.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mad_Magazine_Game

  • Looking at these in terms of challenge and strategy, Monopoly has to be #1 for me as well, but I’d put Risk up there at #2 for popularity and fun, because it rocked. Either game could be drawn out for days, but Monopoly at least had a short game, and fast-paced shortcuts to quicker games. Scrabble is hugely popular still, with clubs and tournaments, so I’d put that at #3. I’m glad to see someone else liked Mastermind – I found that it wasn’t too hard to set up unlikely codes, and the challenge of breaking the other person’s code was fantastic. It was mostly a game of elimination of possible codes, but the mental exercise was always rewarding. I could break anyone’s code in less than ten moves. Likewise, Battleship was both challenging and aggravating, because no matter how good you were at eliminating where your opponents ships were or weren’t, you could still have all your ships sunk before you could finish your attacks, just through your opponent’s random choices.
    I also liked Connect Four, for the exercise it provided in being observant of more than one direction at once. With a little work, this one could be expanded to three dimensions, and make a challenging adult game.

    • That is the most fabulous and oddest bragging point I’ve heard in a long time, “I could break anyone’s code in less than 10 moves.” Love it. That’s real talent. My Mastermind success was very hit or miss.

  • All of those games are awesome in their own right.

    If we’re counting Kerplunk, then we can surely allow the placement of Apples To Apples!

    The unbeatable cards: Anne Frank, AIDS, Hitler. The best part is when all of them are played at the same time. Shouting match ensues, fists fly, cops are called, court dates are ignored, repeat cycle.

  • All of those games are awesome in their own right.

    If we’re counting Kerplunk, then we can surely allow the placement of Apples To Apples!

    The unbeatable cards: Helen Keller, AIDS, Hitler. The best part is when all of them are played at the same time. Shouting match ensues, fists fly, cops are called, court dates are ignored, repeat cycle.

  • Candy Land, Clue & Guess Who? were my favourite games.
    Actually, Clue is still one of my favourite.

  • [...] #847 Old, classic board games 1000 Awesome Things __________________ New section = High Tech Trappinhttp://www.realraptalk.com/f204/ [...]

  • What about Chutes and Ladders??

    I still play Battleship, Scrabble, and Mastermind.

  • [...] January 22, 2009 at 5:49 pm · Filed under Gaming [From #847 Old, classic board games « 1000 Awesome Things] [...]

  • Hero Quest, Battle Masters and Risk consumed a good portion of my childhood. Nothing helps development like melting a goblin with “ball of flame”. :)

  • I used to have most of those games…gee time flies by so fast!

  • I have and love all of these except for Trivial Pursuit. I’ve never ever played that in my life.

  • [...] now on a more personal note, today I ran into a post on 1000 Awesome Things (which, btw, is a blog title and idea which makes me jealous I didn’t think of it first) [...]

  • Popping in for a not-so-fun-fact about Battleship. Take a look at the box art you have posted. The boys are playing, but what are the girls doing?
    Ah, stereotypes.

  • you forgot the best game of all – OPERATION!

  • Checkers, chess, Backgammon and Chutes and ladders have been around longer than some of the ones mentioned. Interesting topic though.

  • This has mostly been ruined by hipster douchebags…. but I will play scrabble secretly

  • I play Parcheesi all the time. It is a great game. Hungry Hungry Hippos, Scrabble, and Monopoly are great. I use to get too excited playin Hungry Hungry Hippos as a kid. Monopoly is just a classic timeless game.

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  • I can remember passing many a rainy day with my best friend, playing Monopoly for hours! He had his grandparents’ set, with the houses made out of wood. Wonderful times….

    I love Scrabble as well….gotta love a game that makes you think…

    And how about Mystery Date? :D

  • Thanks for these 25 cool games. I love it.

  • Вот что-то похожее у меня уже несколько дней из головы не выходит!

  • you forgot Settlers of Catan!

  • Does anyone remember a boardgame from the mid 80’s called “Mystery Mansion”?
    It was pretty cool. I actually just googled it and there it was staring back at me. Man how time flys huh?
    I loved Clue, Monoploly, Connect Four, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders…..so much fun.
    I say we all just forget the so called life of today and be kids again! Anyone…game? ;)

  • Спасибо за ответы на все вопросы :) Действительно узнал много нового. Правда до конца так и не разобрался что и откуда.

  • While taking a gander in my basement the other night, I spotted a box covered in dust and dirt.

    I wiped that baby off and there laid…

    The “MR. T” Board game. Uhuh.

  • Some of the games could be better picks. Stratego, can easily replace Trivia Pursuit, even operations was more of a classic in most sense of the word. But not counting Pit is definitely wrong!

  • Mousetrap and Candy Land! good times! no… AWESOME times! i dont think ive ever actually played Mousetrap. but ive set it up and tripped more times than i can count.

    and i hate to pull one of these, but wheres Chutes And Ladders?!

    and i dont expect it to be on the list as it was fairly unknown, but there was a game a friend had that i was so jealous of. the premise was almost exactly like Dont Wake Daddy, only it was penguins instead of kids, and a dragon instead of daddy.

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  • This is most definitely awesome. Even better when you find old board games in some dusty corner of your grandparents’ house. =)

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  • I do love Monopoly, but I also have the one annoying friend who thinks he knows everything there is to know about finance and tries to bring that into the game every time. He will start by proposing interest rates and concessions and etc. and the rest of us will just ignore him. He is usually the first one out because he tries to overcomplicate the game and no one will ever make any deals with him. Silly, crazy “I take Monopoly way too seriously” people.

  • I have a suggestion

    listening to your children talk about a video game or a tv show, and you add something that is actually relavent to the conversation, and your kids are impressed.

  • This weekend I just bought Connect 4 and almost bought Hungry Hungry Hippos. I’ll go back for that one. As well as Mr. Mouth. Love old school board games and their smell.

  • LitaratiTempo

    I was an RA at a college. I brought a family guy Monopoly for the house, and the guys spent weeks on end playing until like 4am. They were super wheeler, txting deals to each other on the side, writing contracts, using collateral, it was a riot to watch. They were 100% serious too.

  • Classic board gamesare awesome thing!
    I was addicted to Risk and Monopoly.
    I really enjoyed reading this.
    Bye…

  • Classic board games really are an awesome thing!
    I was addicted to Risk and Monopoly.
    I really enjoyed reading this.
    Bye…

  • Word games are the best. I am glad to have seen Scrabble on this list, but would have moved it up higher. How about Boggle??? Love that one. I guess I love most word games. I also have been enjoying a new word game (though it certainly isn’t a classic at this point) called 5 To Close. http://www.5toclose.com/word-unscrambler-game.html It’s a good variation because it is a word game played in teams. I also haven’t played Jumble yet, but I have heard great things about it and it has been recommended to me by others.

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  • I still have a lot of these and play with my grandsons the one loves mastermind I think because he is good at it

  • Thawtasoneofthetimes,

  • Too bad you never finish a game of monopoly

    When I was a kid I used to use the little risk men, Calvary, and cannons as army men and have wars. Good times.

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