A retro thread - 1980s board games like Game of Life and Monopoly

[MrsFogi]

I used to love board games when I was a child and I've started to buy these on ebay (ie the 1980s versions rather than the updated ones) to play with my dcs every so often. If I liked monopoly, game of life, smuggle what else from that era might I have missed and enjoyed? And….in an effort to catch up with the times what might I enjoy now?

You can still get all those and more:
new ones we play and love:
pitchcar
Labyrinth
5 seconds
Tsuro
Set
Mastermind
Cluedo
Pictionary
Charades

Thanks momb, I'll look the up. I know you can get new versions of them but once I read the reviews it looked like they had changed a bit and I don't think I could handle the disappointment of games I knew well not being exactly the same as my happy memories or, God forbid, modernised .

We have a games night every week, or sometimes a long lazy afternoon after Sunday lunch - a lot of fun especially once the wine starts flowing.

Our current favourites are Cluedo and Monopoly, we have got those vintage type sets in wooden boxes - nice quality boots and stuff! I love the long dark evenings because we do nice things at home.

Would love to hear what other people play - not sure we have Pictionary, might add that to the list. We have recently acquired Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit for HP mad DD. I don't expect to enjoy that much, especially because I know I will lose.

We play Pictionary and charades with paper rather than a boxed version.
Cheap dates that we are!

Does anyone remember Chartbuster? It was fantastic, but not very well known. One of my friends had it and we played it for hours and hours, never got tired of it.

I tracked one down a few years ago on eBay, and my children loved it. It was quite expensive, about £40, but completely worth it.

We have Ghost Castle off eBay. DS (5) loves it.

I find modern board games a lot more fun than Monopoly, etc. My current favourites are Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne and Bananagrams.

It turns out that the Germans are quite serious about their board games, and the Spiel des Jahres [Game of the Year] award is a pretty good guide to a good game.

There was a game I loved playing when younger called Hotel, by MB Games. It's similar to Monopoly but has big cardboard hotel pieces that you place on the board when you buy them.

Sorry was a good game as well.

If you can get hold of any old Games Workshop games then those are worth buying; Warlock of Firetop Mountain is particularly good.