@hchavers Risk was my first thought as well. As a game maybe not so great but I liked it at the time. It was a chance to get used to a world map and know about continent shapes and “country” names – though that would have changed dramatically if it was made now (not sure if it is). Well, the continents didn’t change, but the names and boundaries certainly did. It was clearly focused on a “Cold War” ground invasion concept – not sure that’s realistic either. I could imagine trying to show it to kids today and they’d be like “wait, what is even in that country, why do I want it?”
@hchavers@pmarin I got a group at school to play risk at lunch in the math teachers class room. I don’t recall how it happened cause it was just the oddest group. Some jocks lol. Had one of those risk 40th anniversary ones dad found at goodwill so it would fit in your backpack. We had to write down who had what and how many soldiers 5 minutes before lunch was over. Then set it all back up the next day
Don’t recall any cold war shit. There is lord of the rings version. Def still made.
Used to play it at Christmas with my cousins but it’s been a while
Could never get anyone on axis and allies. The computer game used to have a following when it wasn’t crashing.
Ok. Monopoly is the worst game I have ever played. It takes forever. It is really all luck of where you and other players land. The winner is obvious early on but there are still have hours where the winner grinds everyone else out. People end at different times so cannot just start another game. Every turn is basically the same - roll land on place - buy or pay. Why anyone would play it in the modern age is beyond me? Why anyone would play it 40 years ago is beyond me. There are better games from your childhood go back and play those.
@AngusMatheson Actually, I see it as a rebuke of the economic system at the time, and indeed not much different today, where though luck and fortune, those with wealth at the right times dominate the scene and increase their fortune by exploiting others.
@AngusMatheson i loved monopoly but no one, including my parents, would ever play it with me likely for all the very good reasons you outlined. i remember once when i was home sick (must’ve been pretty bad) my dad played it with me, and then the other time was during hurricane bob when we had no power and couldn’t leave the basement. i think my mom joined us then too. i loved it, but i think after four or five hours they said we had to call it quits. uno was much more favorably received.
@AngusMatheson I listened to a podcast a long time ago that went on at some length that Monopoly was unfairly maligned because players never played it correctly. My own childhood memory is somewhere between “I’m the dog” and “cool, colorful European banknotes”. That and probably “Riches! I am wealthy!”
With these alleged never-read rules with additional player interactions and extra transactions though, I can imagine there being an actual game in there.
@AngusMatheson you played it wrong and it’s the only game on the list requiring not just blind rolling dice. You had to manage your money. Swap/sell property. Know when to mortgage. To buy that hotels talk other players into buying your shit cause it would benefit you both but you more.
Are there better games that should be on the list? Absolutely. But it is the only one with strategy.
@AngusMatheson@InnocuousFarmer I thought everyone read and followed the rules. It’s def not a simple kids game so if you try and make it one it either has to be dumbed down to the level of sorry!
Or put up with kids getting frustrated and flipping the board and hours wasted
@katbyter I really don’t play board games but I bought this on Ebay just because I thought it was so cool-looking. Seems like it might be a version of Parcheesi? And I just realized how perfectly it matches the bedspread, which I didn’t have when I bought the game.
I wish I still the monopoly game we had growing up. We got it second hand from my mom’s employer. It was published during WW II. The tokens were wooden instead of metal.
Lots of great classics not on the list… I know I saw Scrabble and Mousetrap already mentioned, so I’d add in The Game Of Life* as a great classic. Also, I think Catan is now old enough (and being the first widely played “Euro Boardgame”) to be considered a classic as well.
*As far as The Game of Life goes… it’s the old 70’s “classic” version that is great. None of the new-fangled easy-mode modern versions. I mean, c’mon, this is the game of LIFE. There is no easy mode in Life. And like it or not, Life is very rarely fair, so buckle up, do your best, and learn real fast that you won’t always get the high-paying job that you feel that you deserve, it’s always a good idea to get the insurance, and to pay off those promissory notes ASAP!
@Turken I think Catan…or Settlers of Catan as it was originally called…is old enough to be considered a classic. And it’s vastly superior to Monopoly.
Also Carcassonne (my favorite), Ticket to Ride, Pandemic. There are so many amazing games beyond the old, boring “Classics” from my childhood.
my favorite as a kid was trouble (with the pop-o-matic bubble!), stratego, and chinese checkers. i also loved the rare occasions i could get everyone at my gramma’s house to play scategories, which isn’t a board game but still holds fond memories. as a preteen i remember playing the babysitter’s club board game a lot. and later in life i really enjoyed playing my dad’s edition of life from the 60s.
A friend made up his own board game.The play is similar to Sorry, but with a pirate theme and a table-sized board that he created that accommodates 10-12 players. Fun to pass the time during informal group get-togethers. It helped that he is a prolific home brewer and keeps a well stocked kegerator with 6 taps.
Unfortunately, we have not gotten together since Covid hit. I just saw him and some of the others for the first time yesterday at a wake for one of the group who passed recently (cancer).
Clue: Master Detective was one of my favorites as a kid. The original was fine, but Master Detective creates a much bigger set of combinations, and has longer game play, which 10-year-old me loved. Clue: The Great Museum Caper was also fun, but feels more gimmicky and less classic.
Also, Labyrinth.
Monopoly, folks? Really? I know there’s one in every family, but you STILL like it?
Not really a board game, but I liked Yahtzee as a kid, and don’t forget scrabble or it’s weird cousin upwards. Oh, and checkers/chess.
My favorite ‘board’ game is Acquire, originally published in the 60s as part of 3M’s bookshelf series. It is now owned by Hasbro/WotC/Avalon Hill.
I first played it in the mid-70s; as I recall, there was a pretty good version available for Palm-OS devices (remember those?) in the 90s & early 2000s.
@compunaut
I bought a palm pilot back in like 2003 with money from my first real job. I went back to BestBuy and traded it for a Game Cube. No regrets.
Still have the cube btw.
They were neat, solid devices, I just had no real reason to own one. Never played acquire…seems interesting though.
Scrabble
The three games to play while going to the bathroom: Concentration, Aggravation, and Kerplunk
Nude twister.
Clue
Scrabble for me, also. It has been a while since I played it, or any board game.
Clue and its multiple outcomes.
@JT954 I came here to say exactly this.
Chess
@mike808
Sequence
Anyone else played Acquire?
Mousetrap
@cinoclav oooh i forgot about this one! good one. i think i actually just set it up by myself more times than i really played the game.
@jerk_nugget I think it’s the reason I love Rube Goldberg machines so much.
@cinoclav yes!!
One more for Scrabble.
Risk, though Axis and Allies is better.
@hchavers Risk was my first thought as well. As a game maybe not so great but I liked it at the time. It was a chance to get used to a world map and know about continent shapes and “country” names – though that would have changed dramatically if it was made now (not sure if it is). Well, the continents didn’t change, but the names and boundaries certainly did. It was clearly focused on a “Cold War” ground invasion concept – not sure that’s realistic either. I could imagine trying to show it to kids today and they’d be like “wait, what is even in that country, why do I want it?”
@hchavers @pmarin I got a group at school to play risk at lunch in the math teachers class room. I don’t recall how it happened cause it was just the oddest group. Some jocks lol. Had one of those risk 40th anniversary ones dad found at goodwill so it would fit in your backpack. We had to write down who had what and how many soldiers 5 minutes before lunch was over. Then set it all back up the next day
Don’t recall any cold war shit. There is lord of the rings version. Def still made.
Used to play it at Christmas with my cousins but it’s been a while
Could never get anyone on axis and allies. The computer game used to have a following when it wasn’t crashing.
I believe the people at Alphabet (Google parent) do that quite often.
How is Chinese Checkers not approved for this list?
@hchavers What about plain old Checkers?
@heartny well, since Chinese Checkers was not approved, they could not take the chance Checkers
Ok. Monopoly is the worst game I have ever played. It takes forever. It is really all luck of where you and other players land. The winner is obvious early on but there are still have hours where the winner grinds everyone else out. People end at different times so cannot just start another game. Every turn is basically the same - roll land on place - buy or pay. Why anyone would play it in the modern age is beyond me? Why anyone would play it 40 years ago is beyond me. There are better games from your childhood go back and play those.
@AngusMatheson Actually, I see it as a rebuke of the economic system at the time, and indeed not much different today, where though luck and fortune, those with wealth at the right times dominate the scene and increase their fortune by exploiting others.
@AngusMatheson I agree with all your reasons for hating it.
@AngusMatheson i loved monopoly but no one, including my parents, would ever play it with me likely for all the very good reasons you outlined. i remember once when i was home sick (must’ve been pretty bad) my dad played it with me, and then the other time was during hurricane bob when we had no power and couldn’t leave the basement. i think my mom joined us then too. i loved it, but i think after four or five hours they said we had to call it quits. uno was much more favorably received.
@AngusMatheson I listened to a podcast a long time ago that went on at some length that Monopoly was unfairly maligned because players never played it correctly. My own childhood memory is somewhere between “I’m the dog” and “cool, colorful European banknotes”. That and probably “Riches! I am wealthy!”
With these alleged never-read rules with additional player interactions and extra transactions though, I can imagine there being an actual game in there.
@AngusMatheson you played it wrong and it’s the only game on the list requiring not just blind rolling dice. You had to manage your money. Swap/sell property. Know when to mortgage. To buy that hotels talk other players into buying your shit cause it would benefit you both but you more.
Are there better games that should be on the list? Absolutely. But it is the only one with strategy.
@AngusMatheson @InnocuousFarmer I thought everyone read and followed the rules. It’s def not a simple kids game so if you try and make it one it either has to be dumbed down to the level of sorry!
Or put up with kids getting frustrated and flipping the board and hours wasted
It’s strategy.
How about Stratego or Life?
/image Parcheesi
@katbyter which is really what Sorry! Is based on.
@katbyter I really don’t play board games but I bought this on Ebay just because I thought it was so cool-looking. Seems like it might be a version of Parcheesi? And I just realized how perfectly it matches the bedspread, which I didn’t have when I bought the game.
@katbyter @Kyeh
That comforter looks familiar… Blue on the other side?
@katbyter @thebigtverberg No, just the same yellow-green. That would be nice to have a different color on the back!
Anyone remember Pay Day?
/image Pay Day game
Rummikub… the older sets are better than the new ones.
I wish I still the monopoly game we had growing up. We got it second hand from my mom’s employer. It was published during WW II. The tokens were wooden instead of metal.
Backgammon
@heartny I was gonna say that!
I loved Clue and Whodunnit!
Trouble!
Lots of great classics not on the list… I know I saw Scrabble and Mousetrap already mentioned, so I’d add in The Game Of Life* as a great classic. Also, I think Catan is now old enough (and being the first widely played “Euro Boardgame”) to be considered a classic as well.
*As far as The Game of Life goes… it’s the old 70’s “classic” version that is great. None of the new-fangled easy-mode modern versions. I mean, c’mon, this is the game of LIFE. There is no easy mode in Life. And like it or not, Life is very rarely fair, so buckle up, do your best, and learn real fast that you won’t always get the high-paying job that you feel that you deserve, it’s always a good idea to get the insurance, and to pay off those promissory notes ASAP!
@Turken I think Catan…or Settlers of Catan as it was originally called…is old enough to be considered a classic. And it’s vastly superior to Monopoly.
Also Carcassonne (my favorite), Ticket to Ride, Pandemic. There are so many amazing games beyond the old, boring “Classics” from my childhood.
Boggle or Balderdash. I like words.
@ahacksaw I love Balderdash! But the original, not the modern version or “Bayond Balderdash,” which are not nearly as fun.
@jitc Oh definitely, original only.
@ahacksaw me too
Cribbage of course.
my favorite as a kid was trouble (with the pop-o-matic bubble!), stratego, and chinese checkers. i also loved the rare occasions i could get everyone at my gramma’s house to play scategories, which isn’t a board game but still holds fond memories. as a preteen i remember playing the babysitter’s club board game a lot. and later in life i really enjoyed playing my dad’s edition of life from the 60s.
Diplomacy
Played correctly, you can win while also making other players so angry that they will never speak to you again. This has its uses.
A friend made up his own board game.The play is similar to Sorry, but with a pirate theme and a table-sized board that he created that accommodates 10-12 players. Fun to pass the time during informal group get-togethers. It helped that he is a prolific home brewer and keeps a well stocked kegerator with 6 taps.
Unfortunately, we have not gotten together since Covid hit. I just saw him and some of the others for the first time yesterday at a wake for one of the group who passed recently (cancer).
@macromeh I’m sorry for your loss.
@macromeh Sorry to hear about your friend. Cancer sucks. I hope your next get together is under happier circumstances.
Guess Who
There can be only one correct answer: Mouse Trap.
Clue: Master Detective was one of my favorites as a kid. The original was fine, but Master Detective creates a much bigger set of combinations, and has longer game play, which 10-year-old me loved. Clue: The Great Museum Caper was also fun, but feels more gimmicky and less classic.
Also, Labyrinth.
Monopoly, folks? Really? I know there’s one in every family, but you STILL like it?
Not really a board game, but I liked Yahtzee as a kid, and don’t forget scrabble or it’s weird cousin upwards. Oh, and checkers/chess.
Snakes and ladders?
lots of newer board games, i guess the bit was ‘classic’. i’d rather play catan – should have had risk on the list
@Cerridwyn In 1943, the game ‘Snakes and ladders’ was introduced in the US under the name ‘Chutes and Ladders’.
My favorite ‘board’ game is Acquire, originally published in the 60s as part of 3M’s bookshelf series. It is now owned by Hasbro/WotC/Avalon Hill.
I first played it in the mid-70s; as I recall, there was a pretty good version available for Palm-OS devices (remember those?) in the 90s & early 2000s.
@compunaut
I bought a palm pilot back in like 2003 with money from my first real job. I went back to BestBuy and traded it for a Game Cube. No regrets.
Still have the cube btw.
They were neat, solid devices, I just had no real reason to own one. Never played acquire…seems interesting though.
CAH
#AllCardsMatter
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