This is a three article series covering the majority of Single Issue Board Games from 1952 to 1979 (Article 1 of 3), the 1980s (Article 2 of 3), and the 1990s (Article 3 of 3).
Family game night, filling the vacation days, vacation trips, or just because, board games are one of the popular entertainment options for nearly any person. The variety of adventures, topics, characters, rulesets, and courses captivate and pit players against others all for sheer fun. The epic episodes could aggravate one player, invigorate the “trash talker,” and giggle another yielding new acquaintances and bonding other kindred friendships.
While this article could also be titled single production, one-off, or the like board games, these are the board games that were only produced within a single year. Several of us in the Generation X genre can remember these board games, primarily from our favorite cartoons, while there are a few others that stood out as popular games. This article will highlight and recall many of these games that we consider as single issue board games. We have done our best to include much of the “Single Issue Board Games,” however we are aware that there are many more that simply were not accounted for.
One final disclaimer that should be addressed, much if not all of the research has been obtained via wikipedia.org and boardgamegeek.com, to include the photographs of each game. Additionally, there are board games towards the end of the 1980s and 1990s, in particular, that had several publishers. We noted one or two of the predominant publishers, yet we recommend the reader to visit the resources for more information.
Starting in 1952, the board games Park and Shop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_and_Shop_(game)) was originally developed in Allentown, Pennsylvania by Donald Miller in an attempt, post World War II, to attract citizens and crowds back to the downtown settings. Traffic Games Inc. produced the original game where the objective of this game where the each player needed to accomplish actions by way of car or pedestrian and the first player to complete all of the tasks became the winner. While other similar board games surfaced as far back as the 1930s, it was later purchased and adapted by Milton Bradley with some of the ideas incorporated into the popular board game Monopoly.
Jumping to 1962, we visit the next game Square Mile (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Mile_(board_game)) published by Milton Bradley wherein the players are compared to real estate developers. Each developer strives to build up their portion of the board, a square mile, into a functioning economical community.
In 1965, Camp Granada (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Granada) was produced by Milton Bradley and was founded on the novelty song “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (A Letter from Camp)” written by Allan Sherman in 1963. Combined with a variety of cards, players utilize the feeble camp bus to traverse the course with “icky animals.” Multiple challenges for each player awaits as incidents with the bus can occur as well as certain cards may detour or prolong the journey all the while attempting to acquire three icky animals and exiting the camp to claim victory.
We approach 1966 with Hey Pa! There’s a Goat on the Roof which was produced by Parker Brothers. This delightful children’s game featured plastic pieces and a barn with the object of the game to acquire tin cans along the play spaces to ultimately win by getting your goat atop of the barn. The game was dynamic as the movement could be in either direction, not one way like many board games.
Source: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11371/hey-pa-theres-a-goat-on-the-roof
We hop to 1970 for the next single issue board game called Matchwitz which is a modern version based off of an oriental game called Nim. Where Nim is based on mathematical to remove objects from a distinct pile, Matchwitz produced by Milton Bradley varies it with plastic pegs are displayed in 3 rows of varied numbers. The object of the game is not to be the last person to push the peg down. While a simple and near continuous play game, it simply did not get reproduced.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matchwitz
Even in board games, we have politics. Published by Parker Brothers in 1971, Landslide utilized the 1970 census along with the electoral college as the gameplay for the players to obtain the necessary votes while navigating the course to ultimately win the most votes.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landslide_(board_game)
Conspiracy arrived in 1973 via Milton Bradley with an alternate name called The Sigma File. The game takes a bit of skill to maneuver a top secret briefcase to the player’s headquarters. Spies can be bribed to move rather than the player’s character. Going toe to toe with challenges with two players able to work together against an opponent all to snatch up the briefcase from the potential winning player.
Source: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/697/conspiracy
1977 brought us three single issue Black Box board games. Waddington Games produced their version based a grid where the game play is focused on the location of atoms with the opponent shooting rays. The position of the atom signals how the rays arrive such as a hit, deflection, miss, and other reactions. The goal of the game is to resolve the puzzle with the fewest rays.
Parker Brothers published the same game in German but named it Ordo but the game play is the same.
Finally, Milton Bradley produced their Black Box, also known as Baffle Box, board game is a puzzle game but completely different as the game is on a smaller grid. Though there is little information pertaining to the game play, the idea is that this multiplayer game uses marbles and placing them within the grid ports. The game play continues until a player has no more players in their que.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Box_(game) ; Ordo - https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4515452/black-box ; MB BlackBox - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/22895/baffle-box
1979 gave us the Balance of Power produced by Hasbro. With a series of 9 teeter-taters, each player rolls a die moving colored discs along each of the balance beams’ three slots tipping five of the nine scales in the player’s favor to win.
Source: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1661/balance-of-power
Another single issue game in 1979 was produced by Parker Brothers being The Mad Magazine Game. Based off the characters and artistry from Mad Magazine, with peculiar rules and accouterments such as Card cards filled with unique instructions, odd board space instructions, and one unique $1,329,063 bill. As the name implies, the game is mad in that there are two tracks to move your piece along but it is in a counter-clockwise move and the object of the game is to lose all of your money.
Source: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1604/the-mad-magazine-game
A final look at 1979 Single issue games includes Stop Thief produced by Parker Brothers. The object of the game is that the player act as detectives attempting to track the thief. Utilizing two, six-sided dice and the Crime Scanner, each player uses the device to locate and receive tips about where the thief’s action. With the information provided, the player attempts to locate and apprehend the thief. However, the thief can escape or a false arrest can be made, adding to the comical frustration. Yet, the arrest is not the winning move, rather it’s the first player to accumulate $2,500 from the reward money that decides the winner.
){kind=link}
0 Comments