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I must say it surprised me to learn that Jenga! was actually a product of the 1980’s, as I thought it was a much more recently invented game. In actual fact its origins actually go back to the 1970’s, but it was during the eighties that the game hit the big time.
Jenga! is an extremely easy game to play. A number of wooden blocks are stacked in layers of three, with alternate layers running at right angles to each other. Players then take it in turns to remove a single block from somewhere in the tower, just not the top two rows, without upsetting the tower. They then place it on top of the stack, again making sure they don’t topple the entire structure over. Whoever causes the tower to fall is the loser.
Seeing as only one person can lose a round of Jenga, it is most easily played with just two people, but more can join in by giving each player a number of lives, losing one each time they lose a game, with the player dropping out once they’ve used up all their lives.
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Connect Four is a game whose roots lie within the old pen and paper game of Naughts and Crosses (better known as Tic Tac Toe in the US). It is a game for two people played on a 7×6 grid and as the name suggests the idea is to try to connect four of your playing pieces in a straight line.
Guess Who? is a wonderfully simple yet incredibly enjoyable boardgame that was first launched by Milton Bradley in the UK in 1979. It went on to become one of the decades most popular games, and was eventually launched in the US in 1982.
OK, this game predates the 1980’s a little, but I remember having it as a child and enjoyed it immensely, so I’m going to tell you about it anyway. The game was a licensed game to accompany the classic movie Jaws, but instead of the aim of being to catch a killer shark, it was actually more like a playful approach to shark dentistry.
The word guessing game of Hangman has been around for many, many years, and whilst it demands two players it can be played almost anywhere, so long as you have something to write with and something to write on.
One of the problems with boardgames is dice. They are one of the most important parts of any boardgame, as without them the game can’t really be played at all. At least if a counter is missing you could use a penny to replace it, but lose a die and it requires a trip to another boardgame to pinch one. The answer to boardgame enthusiasts everywhere was the invention of the Pop-O-Matic device.
My uncle had one of these when I was a child and I remember that I used to always love playing with it whenever we went to visit. As the name of the game suggests it is a single player game, and is one that is incredibly simple to learn but incredibly hard to complete. You start with a cross shaped arrangement of marbles, with the middle marble missing. You can then remove marbles from the board by jumping other marbles over them horizontally or vertically. To complete the game you should end up with a single marble left on the board, occupying the central space.
