Mrs. Consigliori likes mancala. We both love cribbage. For video game systems, Road Rash in all of its various forms is under-rated, IMHO. You want addictive? This game makes crack look like Sanka in comparison.
I too still have Master of Magic. Now if I can figure out the settings for my current sound card so I can get the music & sounds again.
I found NetHack and the Slash’Em variant a couple of years ago. The current versions with the VGA tiles is great! Can’t seem to get the other graphics option to work though. Fans of these two should also look into Dungeon Crawl. The usual character races and classes are here, plus a bunch of others. Playing as a troll is fun, no need to carry food around, just chomp on your victims. My current character is a level 13 Demonspawn Knight of Chaos, I am partially covered in thick black scales and supple grey scales. I can summon and control demons. Too bad it’s all in ASCII, just like NetHack was originally.
I’m not saying it was the greatest game I ever played, but back in grade school I liked Karnov…
Anyway, I’d say one of the most underrated games out there is Dope Wars. I spend a surprising amount of time at work playing that game.
Worms and all later incarnations. Cartoon worms with high explosives - it doesn’t get better than that. 
I recently dusted off my Genesis and have found myself going through something of a Toejam and Earl renaissance.
Reversi. People just assume that it takes no more skill than tic-tac-toe, but it takes years to master. I’ve played folks who have played more than ten thousand matches, and still don’t quite get it. The game is an enigma because to win you must end up with more of your color discs on the board, but advanced players will almost always try to minimize their discs for most of the game.
I play at Yahoo Games.
Played in the Netherlands, too. GREAT game.
Computer games: anyone remember the late 80’s PC racing game Stunts by Broderbund? You could build your own tracks and race them with a variety of cars. Supercool! I’ve got an emulated version on my PC right now, from some abandonware site. It’s amazing how much fun a 12 year old 1 MB game still can provide!
Anyone besides me ever play a card game called Mille Bornes? I understand it’s more popular in Europe than it is in the US. It’s like a car racing games, except no board, just cards. And it’s not played with regular cards either, you need a Mille Bornes deck. You can play on teams (usually 4 people, two teams) or against each other.
Here’s a couple links:
http://www.cabinfever.org/cf_mille.html
http://www.centralconnector.com/GAMES/Milleborne.html
I’m a big fan of Cribbage.
Cruchy Frog - I used to play Mille Bornes all the time when I was younger! I totally forget how to play though…but I could probably pick it up again pretty quickly.
Coldfire: I was ADDICTED to Stunts! I don’t know HOW much time I spent on that. I still have the original copy on my HD, but I don’t have the manual, so I can’t play it any more, because of the password checks…but if I try enough, I’ll get a phrase that I actually remember. I think I made around 85 tracks for that game. It was awesome. - If your emulated version is password check free, could you drop me a line at cygon@softhome.net and give me more info?
Wartime Consigliori: I too was infatuated with Road Rash (for Genesis) for a while.
Jman
(I think I’ve got one post till 500.)
I could ask for more people to play it more often… live!
You’re obviously not alone. Right off the top of my head I know Verrain, Saint Zero and Julianna all play and I believe there are a few more around on the boards. There are email campaigns running if you’re as desperate as I am.
mrvisible, I learned that game under the name of Farkle.
Now, anybody out here know the rules for Shanghai Rummy? It’s been ages since I played.
OMG, you have to check this out if you haven’t yet…
That was a pretty funny site until I started getting strange looks from people in my office when they saw a half-naked fat Russian disco-dancing on my monitor.
Colonization. Sort of a twist on Civilization, this game required you to set up a little New World civilization and then eventually win independence. You had to contend with the other exploration powers like Spain or France or whomever and with Indian tribes. It was fantastic.
I don’t know if I remember them all.
use 2 decks of cards at least.
7 cards delt to each player.
Each round has a differnt requirment for laying the hands down.
We ususally start with 2 sets of 3 = 6.
Next round is a set of 3 and a run of 4 = 7
So on and so on…try to pick harder things, like runs of 5 and a set of 3 = 8 instead of easier things like 2 runs of 4. Makes the game more challenging.
You cannot lay your cards down untill you have the minimum requirments for that round.
Once you’ve laid down your cards, you can build on other people’s hand. i.e. if someone set’s down 3 kings, and you have one in your hand, you can set it in front of you and gain the points. But only if you’ve already laid down.
Once you’ve laid down a set or a run, if someone discards a card that could have been played, you can call “Shanghai”. When that happens, every player give that person a card.
Just like regular rummy, if the player before you discards something that you want, you can pick it up.
However, if someone discards something, and you’re not the next player, you can call “buy” which lets you take the discarded card, and one card from the top of the deck. You can do this 3 times in one round.
2’s are wild
You can replace a wild card in a run, but not in a set.
i.e. if someone lays down 7 , 8 , 2 (for a 9) , 10 and you have the 9 that will fit in that run, you can take the wild card, and replace it with your 9. Again, only if you’ve already laid down.
If you see a card in the discard pile that you can use, and it’s buried in the stack, you can pick the entire stack up till you reach that card, however, you must be able to lay down at that time, and you must use the the card that was at the bottome of the stack.
Last hand played (should be at count 15) an extra buy is allowed.
That’s all I can remember now…let me know if you need more help. It’s been a while since I played.
Now, to the OP. Back in the mid 80’s, I absolutly loved a game called Starflight. You don’t find it much anymore (although there are some site’s that you can download it at) Great game, with a huge scope (for the time) I think they spent like 4 years developing it. sigh…loved that game. It won’t play in my system now…to fast, I have an old 486 that I may get running someday, just so I can play it again.
Anacreon was a nice little DOS game where you conquored and maintained planets. You could play a combination of PC and human players. Minimum graphics and battles were decided on the biggest armies or fleets, but it was pretty neat. It might be cool to play by email.
Bridge. I don’t know anybody in my generation who plays, except myself and my brother, and yet it’s much too good a game to be relegated to the retirement homes.
There are a number of cribbage players in the DC-area contingent. But that’s not why I’m posting.
I’m posting here to bring up Four-Square. Yes, the schoolyard game. At Trinity College (CT) in the early 1970s, it was elevated to a high art by a bunch of devotees, myself included (though I was only a middlin’ player).
Ideal surface: flat and smooth.
Equipment: one of those ultralight, approximately 1’ diameter plastic inflated balls that they sell in those big bins at the various marts for about 97 cents each. Plus chalk or tape to mark off your playing court, a 16’ square divided into four 8’ squares, with serving line and serving box in the 4 and 2 squares, respectively.
Object: to advance to the #4 square, and stay there as long as possible.
Play: basic idea - if the ball bounces in your square, you’ve got to deflect it into someone else’s square before it hits the ground again. (No carries, of course. And the lightness of the ball would let you slam only up to a point.) If you fail to do so, you step down, everyone below you moves up a square, and someone from the waiting line (if there is one) takes the 1-square.
Play begins by the person in the 4-square serving (from behind a line in the back of his square) to a box within the 2-square, diagonally across. The person in the 2-square could hit it to 1 or 3; after that, open play. Outside lines are in; inside lines are out. Judgment of the crowd was final on any close calls.
It was a game of dexterity and agility. I wouldn’t be nearly as good at it now, because I’m a lot less agile than I was 25 years ago. But it would still be great fun to play.
Fretful Porpentine, I’m another bridge player. I’d also like to find people my own age who could get a good game of bridge going.
I know how you feel–most people who know the game seem to be living in retirement homes. I’d like to brush up my bridge skills, but there doesn’t seem to be many opportunities for those of us who are working during the day and cannot make the bridge clinics and games that all seem to occur then.
RTFirefly, we played Squares (our name for it) in Toronto in the early 1970s too. That was a great game!
Ditto to Jman’s response on Mille Bornes. Our family played this one quite often back in the 70’s. In fact I just retrieved the deck of cards needed from my parents house when doing some cleaning for them. First to a thousand miles wins!
I was a closet devotee of arcade games back in the early 80’s and developed a soft spot for a game called Frenzy–your basic shoot-move-shoot-move kind of game. One button to push and one joystick to move–nice and easy for those of us who are digit-challenged.
I too enjoyed Masters of Magic, but I felt it needed an update. (The higher levels of difficulty were very unbalanced, and some tribes were clearly better than others).
After waiting for ages I took up Heroes of Might and Magic instead. (This is not an underrated game!)
I also thought Colonisation was an excellent idea. But it too cried out for another version. (quicker movement over the map, more negotiation and a multiplayer option).
My underrated game is 1830. This is a straight board game transfer where the computer acts as banker, and can play too. 1830 reenacts the early railway network pioneers, and is about making money. (Railroad Tycoon was the computer version.)