Flashback Thursday - The crazy games of my youth

We had the usual assortment of Parker Bros and MB mass market along with weird and bizarre things that my folks got second hand and we just played with the pieces.

Or Mousetrap. Don't recall EVER playing the actual game, we just built the trap itself.

Once i branched out on my own the wonderful world of wargames offered up a lot of stuff. Small box games like Outpost Gamma, or the wargame like elements in Star Frontiers and Knight Hawks, some DnD modules, etc. I had on old GI Joe game that came with standees (looking on BGG it must have been Commando Attack) that was as much toy as game.

I'm not sure if any of the games i played as a kid were any good. Probably the same cheap IP cash grab as lots of stuff these days.

Nor could they compete with modern video games, though i would love for a fortnite game with simple rules to come out so i could maybe pry the controller from my kids cramped clutching hands long enough for him to play it.

Wildest game of my childhood was Battlemasters. I remember begging for it when I saw it on the bottom shelf of stores. I don’t recall whether I got it for a birthday/Christmas or if my mom just relented one day. To this day, the smell of vinyl reminds me of that massive 4’ by 4’ hex map that you had to play on the floor.

I can't remember the name of the game now, but there was a Battleship/Chess sort of game that prevented the standard Battleship cheating. When you chose a coordinate where you suspected your opponent had a piece, you put this plastic thing over the matching coordinate on your side and slapped your hand down on it, shooting a jet of compressed air to the corresponding space on your opponent's side and blasting that piece off the board if it was there.

Jexik wrote: Wildest game of my childhood was Battlemasters. I remember begging for it when I saw it on the bottom shelf of stores. I don’t recall whether I got it for a birthday/Christmas or if my mom just relented one day. To this day, the smell of vinyl reminds me of that massive 4’ by 4’ hex map that you had to play on the floor.

I begged for it when I saw it on the bottom shelf too, but I was 30. And my wife did eventually relent.

I’m 35 now- Hoping for rain days to play Magic during indoor recess was another of my memorable early gaming experiences. I was surprised to learn that Charlie is just one year older than me. My guess is that Erik Twice is the youngest regular poster here... but I could be wrong.

Yes, I always feel too young to be posting here while simultaneously too old to be posting elsewhere.

Jexik wrote: My guess is that Erik Twice is the youngest regular poster here... but I could be wrong.

I'm not very young at 30 but I'm often the youngest person amongst boardgamers. I'm the third youngest person at my club, only beaten by another member and my own girlfriend. I'm often playing with people twice my age. I've raved about Dune only for people to tell me they played it back when it came out.

It's quite the cultural shock! Boardgaming is much older and much more conservative than the anime and gaming communities I come from. Makes me feel like a fish out of water.

Shellhead wrote: I can't remember the name of the game now, but there was a Battleship/Chess sort of game that prevented the standard Battleship cheating. When you chose a coordinate where you suspected your opponent had a piece, you put this plastic thing over the matching coordinate on your side and slapped your hand down on it, shooting a jet of compressed air to the corresponding space on your opponent's side and blasting that piece off the board if it was there.

Battleboard. My buddy had it.

That's awesome.

I had started a blog series a few years ago about this subject but I wasn't happy with the layout format of the blog feature so I stopped. I may have to revisit it.

therewillbe.games/blogs-by-members/5467-...g-well-had-that-game

I feel like there was a podcast where this was their schtick? Like, grab one of these types of games and then review it like it was on the hotness. Rules explanation, serious discussion of the mechanisms, the whole bit.

We had all of the usual suspects growing up, but we also had a copy of Feudal that my brother and I played exhaustively.

I forgot Feudal — we played the hell out of that. Introduced it to my buddy right before the pandemic