# What were your favorite obscure board games as a kid? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 19, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511 "2008-06-19T20:07:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/21 "2008-06-20T00:05:07Z")
Anti-Monopoly. Yes I know how much they are worth now. I think we sold it (sister actually) when he had a house closing sale (and it along with a lot of my childhood marched out the door). ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/22 "2008-06-20T00:24:01Z")
[Hero Quest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeroQuest_(board_game)) : My dad and I used to play this all the time. He didn’t really like it, but I loved it so he put on a smile and played it with me nonetheless. [The Grape Escape](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grape_Escape) : Now this game was cool. I loved grapes and I loved squishing Play-Doh. Wikipedia seems to think it should have made me into a psychopathic killer, but I never progressed past serially decapitating grapes. [Mouse Trap](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_Trap_%28board_game%29) : This game was so fun, but so very frustrating. Inevitably, someone would accidentally bump some part of the contraption or hit it with a die and the whole damn thing would come crashing down. Still, I remember being a little kid, constantly setting it up and triggering it over and over. Man that was fun. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/23 "2008-06-20T03:06:36Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool] Anti-Monopoly. [/quote] Ditto. > [@](#): > > Yes I know how much they are worth now. Huh? They’re worth something now? Well, crap. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/24 "2008-06-20T03:24:53Z")
[Enemy Agent](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/4963) Loved that game- so many pieces, such a long set up- excellent play. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/25 "2008-06-20T04:47:28Z")
[The Farming Game](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/5195) My grandparents lived in the Yakima Valley where the game is set and bought me a copy when it first came out. I little while back I found that it was still in print and bought a copy. My wife and her friends thought it was great fun. I also bought a copy of Careers and was very disappointed to find it had become much more “kid-focused” than the old '60s version my parents had. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/26 "2008-06-20T05:00:51Z")
Space Hop? Did anyone else have Space Hop? That was fun. You rolled a die (or two? Yeah, I think there were two) and if you landed on certain parts of the board you had to, for instance, “hop to Venus.” There were questions to answer–some of which turned out to be bad science. If you answered right you got to do things like send opponents to the other side of the universe from their mission completion spot. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/27 "2008-06-20T05:19:26Z")
I was entirely too fond of a Battletech game called _Interceptor_. Got a computer version years later, played the hell out of it. It wasn’t even challenging any more, but still I played it. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/28 "2008-06-20T18:13:16Z")
Some of these are pretty non-obscure ( **Mousetrap**? Hello?) I have played **The Farming Game** , **Scotland Yard** and **Dark Tower** , and my grandparents also have a copy of **The Uncle Wiggly Game** , although I’ve never seen anyone playing it. And I’ve certainly heard of **Advance to Boardwalk** and **Anti-Monopoly**. We used to play [Save the Whales](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/19781), which was a cooperative game where you worked together to save as many species of whales as possible. O, Bowhead Whale, why did you cost 7 survival points? ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/29 "2008-06-20T18:19:49Z")
[QUOTE=Just Some Guy] I had two games which have become two of the most collectable board games from the 1980’s: [Fireball Island](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1768) and [Dark Tower](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/30). Fireball Island was a pretty simple roll and move race game. The twist was that when you rolled a 1 you pushed a marble out of the mouth of a statue in the middle of the island which would then speed down different paths and potentially collide with racers sending them back. Dark Tower was a kind of fantasy war game where players moved around a map searching for magical keys. The dark tower of the title was a primitive computer that sat in the middle of the board and kept track of different aspects of the game. It handled combat, shopping, and what treasures you found and showed the player what was going on by a light up “stained glass window” display (really there was a back lit wheel with all the possible options that spun inside it). I don’t feel too bad about not having these games now since I played them to death; they wouldn’t be worth a small fortune if kids just kept them in their boxes to accumulate value. [/QUOTE] True, working versions of Dark Tower supposedly fetch a good price on e-Bay. If you just want to play… [http://www.hotflashgames.com/darktower.htm](http://www.hotflashgames.com/darktower.htm) It’s just as I remember it. Remember Bing Bang Boing? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/STOTekK7vhs/hqdefault.jpg "Bing Bang Boing") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STOTekK7vhs) ETA Here’s a cool link with many games etc. [http://www.feelingretro.com/toys/Games/bing-bang-boing.php](http://www.feelingretro.com/toys/Games/bing-bang-boing.php) ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/30 "2008-06-20T18:24:41Z")
[Wahoo](http://www.wahoogames.com/). It was kind of like Sorry!, but with a cheesy Native American theme. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/31 "2008-06-20T18:31:17Z")
There was a series of small portable games from TSR, similar to Steve Jackson games. I played them to death, but Wikipedia and the web is very sparse on details of any of them…they were little games with paper boards and cardboard counters, and many were very well designed and fun. Vampyre (my favorite, you play a hero from the Dracula novel and try and kill Dracula) Revolt on Antares Saga (viking heros trying to kill a dragon IIRC) They’ve Invaded Pleasantville (body-snatcher alien invasion in a small town) ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/32 "2008-06-20T18:35:27Z")
[QUOTE=tdn] There was a spy game (I forgot the name) where you would roll dice and move your spy that many spaces around a map of a building. Certain random spaces would trip an alarm (with a battery-powered bell) and you get “caught” and have to go back to the starting space. [/QUOTE] Was it [Super Spy?](http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-board-game---SUPER-SPY_W0QQitemZ140242615266QQcmdZViewItem?IMSfp=TL0806191753r32045) I recall my brothers playing that one. We had this version of [Park and Shop.](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/80066) We bent the rules a bit – we picked our favorite stores to patronize rather than drawing cards randomly. The game stopped being fun about the time my brother Mike realized that the way to go was just to select seven destinations that were right next to each other, as opposed to shops that matched our interests (magazines and toys, drugstore/lunch, department store, etc.) My dad’s mother and sister periodically cleaned out their basement and unearthed such treasures as [Cargoes.](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12236) I’ve always loved geography, so I enjoyed just looking at the map, as well as playing the game. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/33 "2008-06-20T18:38:22Z")
[QUOTE=An Arky] [Wahoo](http://www.wahoogames.com/). It was kind of like Sorry!, but with a cheesy Native American theme. [/QUOTE] And predates [Sorry!](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2407) by [four years](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/33701). > [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > Remember Bing Bang Boing? > [http://youtube.com/watch?v=STOTekK7vhs](http://youtube.com/watch?v=STOTekK7vhs) Yeah, but we soon had to cut up ballons for the humdrums. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/34 "2008-06-20T18:48:06Z")
[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher] Yeah, but we soon had to cut up ballons for the humdrums. [/QUOTE] Ever see this DIY? I wonder if you could adapt some PVC pipe… [http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Game-Like-Bing-Bang-Boing](http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Game-Like-Bing-Bang-Boing) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/35 "2008-06-20T18:55:27Z")
**Marvin the Moon Man** – so obscure I can’t find it on the internet. I had **Green Ghost**. that was a LOT later. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/36 "2008-06-20T18:56:16Z")
[QUOTE=lobotomyboy63] Ever see this DIY? I wonder if you could adapt some PVC pipe… [http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Game-Like-Bing-Bang-Boing](http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Game-Like-Bing-Bang-Boing) [/QUOTE] Ran across that while looking to see if the humdrum covers had a proper name. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/37 "2008-06-20T18:57:32Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] **Marvin the Moon Man** – so obscure I can’t find it on the internet. [/QUOTE] Perhaps you mean [Melvin](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/6427)? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/38 "2008-06-20T19:34:31Z")
[QUOTE=Sternvogel] Was it [Super Spy?](http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-board-game---SUPER-SPY_W0QQitemZ140242615266QQcmdZViewItem?IMSfp=TL0806191753r32045) I recall my brothers playing that one. [/QUOTE] That’s it! Wow, what a trip down memory lane. And here is [Camp Grenada](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12409). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/39 "2008-06-20T19:43:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Perhaps you mean Melvin? Yeah – it just hit me that I’d gotten the name wrong, looked it up, and found the same page. Still have it – rolled-up board, cage dice, and all. Here’s the Board: [http://boardgamegeek.com/image/24930](http://boardgamegeek.com/image/24930) ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511/40 "2008-06-20T20:20:40Z")
We also had some Charlie Brown game but don’t remember if it’s [this one](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/25541) or [this](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9602) unless I could find a shot of the board. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-your-favorite-obscure-board-games-as-a-kid/453511.md?page=3)