70s/80s board games

[EdenGlen]

Hi,

Any recommendations for vintage board games?

My dad introduced the kids to Careers which he used to play as a child and they love it. We also have an original Game of Life and that gets played every weekend.

We have tried newer games like Ticket to Ride but they aren’t that keen.

Does anyone know of any old games similar to Careers/Game of Life where you move around a board? It would be nice to find something on eBay I could get for Christmas.

Thanks!

Not sure if it's similar to the two you've listed as I don't know them, but Labyrinth is an 80s one. My kid loves it.

I presume you’ve tried Cluedo? I still have my original 80s game and my kids still play it now they’re young adults.

We had one called Rat Race which I loved but I can’t remember much about - it was a bit like monopoly (but better) where you tried to become “posh”. You moved around the board and got “promoted” somehow onto the next tier of the board. I think you bought businesses and stock and gambled and could win or go bankrupt.

Oh yes, we have got Cluedo sorry I forgot about that one.

Labyrinth sounds good. I’ll have a look at that and I’ve never heard of Rat Race, sounds like something my kids would enjoy, thanks!

Labyrinth is great. I also remember one from 80s childhood called Sorry. Bit like ludo.
Also what about frustration or is that more recent.

Oh yes I had Sorry! And Frustration, also Run Rabbit Run? (I think). Definitely all 80s games.

Sccop might be worth looking into; the idea was you have a newspaper front page and you have to fill it with different types of story.

Yeah we have frustration thanks and I’d actually forgotten about it. We used to play that a lot but now the kids are older they like games with a bit more to them e.g. in careers you have different jobs etc and earn money.

They hate the competitiveness of monopoly and the amount of time it takes

Ooh scoop looks amazing!

I’m having great fun looking at all these different games!

Have a read of the Monopoly rules, if you play it properly without made up extras like putting fines in Free Parking, it doesn't last much longer than other games.

What about Risk?

I never played this as a child but I remember people playing it in university halls and almost falling out over it!

Scotland Yard was my favourite game as a child. One person is the criminal “Mr X” ans the other players are trying to track them down. You move around the board using public transport. Mr X remains hidden and only appears every few moves so you have to work strategically

I liked 221B Baker Street and Go For Broke in my childhood.

I also really loved Mousetrap but it kept falling apart!

Monopoly deal (cards) is a good compromise on Monopoly.

Risk is great (and there are ways to make it shorter)

Sequence is easy to learn

Totopoly was a fun game.

I also remember playing the London Game which was a map of the tube and you had to go to different locations.

We had Go for Broke, which was fun IIRC it's a sort of anti-Monopoly.

We also had an ancient set of Totopoly, of which we never understood the rules properly but DSis and I enjoyed the metal horses (probably made of lead or something D: ) and would treat the square near the end with some kind of horrific sounding injury with much relish if the other landed on it!

Monopoly goes much quicker if you play by the original rules - hardly anyone reads these, but you only go around the board once, and then you auction off all the rest of the properties, rather than circling forever trying to get a full set by chance. No money received on Free Parking either, the taxes/chance card fees just go to the bank. However, it is very dull because someone amasses all the properties very quickly and then nobody else can do anything. But at least it's quicker than the rules most people play where it goes on forever.

I like Cluedo - I was embarrassingly old when I realised it's not only a game of deduction ie waiting until you've actually seen what cards everyone else has, it's also about working out from people's body language and behaviour and questions which cards they probably have, while trying to confuse others about what you have yourself.

Oh, I had forgotten on looking up Totopoly that it has a sort of two-sided board which represent the two phases of the game, I liked that too.

Oh, what about "The Merry Game of Flounders" ? That is very simple, being aimed at young children, but it doesn't take too long to play and if you can get hold of an actual vintage version, it's quite charming.

So many to choose from! I’m down a rabbit hole of board game reviews and trying to stop myself from ordering them all!

Journey through Europe, Scotland yard and one just called farming was very popular in our house when I was younger - you run a farm for the year and get money for milk, crops etc but then animals die off so you lose money.

Very harsh but excellent.

Go For Broke is the best - you have to lose all your money 😅

We still play
Sorry!
Cluedo
The London Game
all of which were mine in the 70s.

Also Labyrinth.

Original Risk that we played as a family in the 80s was awesome. May be hard to get hold of. I also remember one called Escape From Colditz. I loved that one.

what about a co-op? There are some really good ones out there. Pandemic is good.