November 13, 2019

Nostalgia: My 10 Favorite Board Games from the 80's and 90's

Yesterday, Jerry and I were both feeling sick--headache, sore throat--and we were talking about playing a board game, something that we very rarely do. Somehow, we got to talking about the games that we miss from when we were kids, and we went for a stroll down memory lane.

Of course, I had to look up online my favorite games to see if they still exist--I would love to get them again! Once I started searching, I realized that most of the games were very girly and silly, but I'd still like to play them again for old times' sake.

As you know if you've been reading my blog for a while, I like to get together with my childhood friends at Christmastime to hang out and reminisce about the good ol' days. (It is going to be so odd--and sad--without Spencer this year. He didn't come to our party every year, but out of our group of friends, he is the first to pass away--and the youngest, which just makes me so angry at cancer.)

However, I'd still like to have a get-together, even if there are only a few of us this year. Sarah's not going to be coming home from Arizona, and I am sure Chris won't be coming due to some family issues. So, we'll see what happens.

I did get the idea, though, to have a 90's themed game night. Complete with our old school games and hopefully old school clothes, whatever 90's-themed food I can come up with, etc. We grew up together from the early 80's until mid-1995, but the early 90's is where I think our friendship was most prominent.

So, after some searching on the internet, I came up with a list of my Top 10 Favorite Board Games (as an adolescent). The adolescent part is crucial when you see some of the games I picked! Hahaha. Very embarrassing, in retrospect.

I was going to try to order these by favorites, but I just can't make up my mind. So, here they are in no particular order:

1) Guess Who



I heard a comedian do a short bit that I find absolutely hysterical about this game because it is SO TRUE. Everyone who ever played this game as a kid remembers this! Here is the bit (it's only three minutes or so):



2) Mall Madness

This was an electronic game that took forever to set up, but was totally worth it. My friend Shannon and I played board games together ALL THE TIME, and this was probably our very favorite. I can still remember the voice: "Attention mall shoppers! There is a sale in the department store!"



3) Girl Talk - Date Line

I actually don't remember a lot about this one, but I believe it had a cassette tape that you would play and it was supposed to be like talking to a boy on the phone. I think he would ask you out (or not) and there were options for "dating" them. 



4) Girl Talk (original)

This game was a truth or dare game, and since I've always been a chicken when it comes to truth or dare games, I always chose truth. As you can imagine, the dares were not very "daring" or risqué for this game, though, despite that it advertises "really cool stunts and fortunes" on the box ;)



5) Dream Phone

This was DEFINITELY one of Shannon's and my favorites! You had to figure out who had a crush on you based on clues. You'd call up the boy on the electronic phone to find out if you're right. Of course, there were only 2-3 boys that we both wanted (just like all these dating games).



6) Heartthrob

Yet another dating game! I remember playing this all the time, but I honestly don't remember how it worked at all. I love that on the box it says, "AGES: For all girls who like boys". Bahaha!



7) Pay Day

Finally, a break from all the dating games. This was similar to a combination of Monopoly and Life, in a way. You would earn money and then have to spend it just like in real life (groceries, bills, etc). You would get mail in the mailbox (could be bills or something good). The board looked like a calendar, and you would move your piece from day to day, hoping to skip over the "bad" ones.




8) Perfect Wedding

This was another one that we absolutely loved! You basically get to plan your dream wedding, but you have a budget based on the fate of the game. I remember that I ALWAYS had to have certain pieces (my favorite of the dresses, flowers, cake, etc). I was a very bossy kid, and if I didn't get my "perfect wedding", I was not happy ;)



9) Sweet Valley High

As a HUGE fan of Sweet Valley Twins, I had to get the Sweet Valley High game. I did read the Sweet Valley High books (and watched the TV show), but the Twins would always be my favorite. Anyway, the box of this says it all: Can you find your boyfriend in time for the big date?" The board was set up like a high school, and there were various paths to lead you to collect what you needed.



10) Wheel of Fortune

Just looking at this game, I can still remember the feel of the game pieces and how hard it was to get the cardboard piece into the board. And then moving the green pieces to reveal the letters underneath. This was a fun game, however! I'd like to play this one again.



And here is a BONUS (because it's a super duper favorite):

Crack the Case


This game was totally up my alley (which you'd never guess by all the girly games above). There were oversized cards that described a crime scene (a short blurb that one person would read aloud, and then that person would read the whole card silently to themselves). The other players would take turns asking yes/no questions to try to figure out the murder (I can't remember if it was just murders, but they were unusual crime scenes). You had to use just a few clues (and the responses to the yes/no questions) to figure out exactly what happened and why. It was awesome! I'm super into true crime today, and this is probably the game that started my interest.


Ahh, memories! I started looking for some of these games on e-Bay, so that I could buy them for game night, but holy smokes they are expensive. Some of them are over $100 each! So, we may have to stick with the old basics (Monopoly, Life, Clue, etc.). But it was fun to think about these games and tell Jerry about them! 


22 comments:

  1. What a fun group of games! Thanks for sharing

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    1. Do you have any favorites you want to share? I'd love to add some to my stash :)

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  2. Speaking of SVH-have you read the books she wrote about them as adults? They're...kind of crazy! Also, she updated them to be "perfect size fours" instead of size sixes. Vanity sizing comes to Sweet Valley!

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    1. I had no idea she wrote books about them as adults!! I will have to see if I can get ahold of one. That'd be a fun read. And I'm rolling my eyes at the "perfect size 4"--good grief! I remember wanting to be a size 6 so badly because of those damned books, lol.

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  3. I have a 6 year old boy that loves to play Guess Who. They must have updated it since the 90's because there are more races. But to a 6 year old...tan (Asian), black (African American) is hard to differentiate! And I won't even talk about the gender neutral ones. There is one I swear is a boy with long hair and my son swears it's a girl, lol! It's too complicated now! You would probably enjoy it just to see how it's changed ;-)

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    1. Ohmygosh, the new version would probably be so much fun to play now, just to see the difference! I still have the old version (bought it at a garage sale) and when playing with my kids, I still felt that anxiety in my stomach about drawing the minority card, hahaha!

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  4. We've always loved board games in my family too. I wish we would have kept some of them from when I was a kid. Password was probably my favorite. We just got back from a trip last night and must have picked up a similar thing to what you had. A lot of people were coughing and sneezing on the plane.

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    1. I would be rich if I'd kept my board games!! I am stunned at how expensive they are to buy new. If you ever see them for sale at a thrift store or something, snatch them up and sell them on eBay (or just send them to me, haha). Perfect Wedding is hardly anywhere on the internet--I really wish I'd kept that one.

      Hope you feel better soon! Mine passed right away, but Jerry is still coughing and sneezing.

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  5. The Christmas Game! It's a lot like Monopoly but Christmas themed. It was my favorite growing up.

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    1. Oh wow, I just had to reply because you pulled this game from deep in my memory archives! Lol. I totally forgot about this game but we played it in my family too! Makes me wonder if my parents still have it!

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  6. My sis and I played monopoly ad neaseum. LOL One game I played a lot as a kid and rediscovered a few years back with my daughter was "Racko". A pretty simple numbers/strategy game where you try to get the cards in order. In about 1996, I was first married living in a great neighborhood with other young couples and we would have game nights with mexican train 12 dot dominoes, guesstures, taboo and a few others...great memories!

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    1. I LOVED Racko! I actually bought it at a garage sale several years ago after playing it in third grade (I just now remembered that--my third grade teacher introduced me to it). I don't know where I put it. I hope I still have it! It's such a simple game, but so fun.

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  7. We are roughly the same age so I expected to know a bunch of these! I really only knew Guess Who! Most I recognized, but have never played (most of the dating ones) and others I have never even heard of, like Crack the Case!

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    1. When I started this idea of listing the games, I didn't realize how embarrassing most of them would be! Hahaha, so many dating ones. I was very boy-crazy at that age (even though I didn't actually have a boyfriend until I started dating Jerry in high school!).

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  8. How fun! I'm 4 years older than you, and your list cracks me up - a few of the girly games are familiar, but over half I'd never seen! Pay Day and Guess Who were definitely my favorites. I'm glad you have a Guess Who - I remember newer versions being cheaper than our originals and falling apart!

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    1. I think there is a new version of Pay Day now, too. I have the old version, and it makes me laugh at how outdated everything is. And how CHEAP it was to live back then ;)

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  9. Oh wow blast from the past! I still have Guess Who too! I also loved playing the Barbie dating game but we had the old, old one that my mom played from the 60's! My mom wasn't crazy about the more "intricate" or electronic games lol. It was mostly Sorry, Monopoly, and Chutes & Ladders at our house. I remember once she bought us the game Mouse Trap and it was so complicated and took so damn long to set up that she returned it and bought us Trouble instead I think hahaha :)

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    1. It's funny--I loved the electronic games when I was a kid, but now I am more old-fashioned and I tell my kids that it's lame that Monopoly uses debit cards ;) I used to play Sorry all the time because my mom loved it, but I was never crazy about that one. I wanted Mouse Trap so badly, but my mom saw how complicated the set-up was and refused to buy it! Hahaha!

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  10. What a funny coincidence, my husband and that comedian Jeff dye grew up in the same neighborhood and played together at the same time as your gang!

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    1. Oh, how fun! I had no idea where I'd heard that bit about Guess Who, but when I was writing the post, I Googled "comedian Guess Who" and he came up right away. He's hilarious! I'd like to listen to some more of his comedy. Is your husband still friends with him?

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  11. What a fun post! Some of your games reminded me of a game we had played at my grandparents' house, called "Mystery Date". It was pretty dated, and cheesy, but made us laugh! I just looked it up, and it was originally from the 60's.

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  12. Great list!! I LOVE the illustrations of the Pay Day characters!!!! I've been wracking my brain for the longest time trying to think of this game I had in the early to mid 80s~ it had little monsters of different colors and the catch phrase was "you lose!" Anybody recall it??

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