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Collectible Games to Play
This article tries to bridge the gap between the collectors and the players by covering over 50 games from A to Z that are collectible and fun to play.
(For the best playing 100 proprietary games still in print, consult the "Games 100," an annual December feature of Games magazine.)
Most game collectors buy games primarily for their aesthetic appeal. Some collectors buy games for their play value. The many games valued as collectibles and fun to play are games sought after for their historical or cultural significance, or for the box graphics or components, but they also offer stimulating, strategic, or amusing play. Here are 50+ of these playable collectible games (or collectible playable games); our apologies if we've left out your favorite, but we'd love to hear about it. A few of these games are still made, but only the original or early versions have collectible value.
Included with the proprietary (company-owned) games are seven international classic strategy games, CHINESE CHECKERS, FOX AND GEESE, GO, HALMA, MANCALA, MILL (NINE MEN'S MORRIS), and OTHELLO (REVERSI), which over the years have been produced commercially by various U.S. companies. The omnipresent and generic games of chess, checkers, backgammon, and dominoes are not included in this list.
The games contained in this alphabetical listing are: ACQUIRE, BALI, BANTU, BATTLESHIP, BLOCKHEAD, BOOBY TRAP, CAMELOT, CAREERS, CARROM, CASE OF THE ELUSIVE ASSASSIN, CHINESE CHECKERS, CLUE, CONCENTRATION, CONSPIRACY, CONTACK (TRI-OMINOES), DIPLOMACY, DYNASTY, FOX & GEESE, GAME OF THE STATES, GO, GO TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS, HALMA (ECKHA), JURY BOX, KIMBO, LABYRINTH, LIE DETECTOR, MANCALA, MILL (NINE MEN'S MORRIS), MR. REE, MONOPOLY, MOUSETRAP, NILE, OPERATION, OTHELLO (REVERSI), PARCHEESI (HOME, INDIA, LUDO, POLLYANNA, SORRY and other variations), PASSWORD, PIT, POLITICS, RACKO, RED BARBER'S BASEBALL, RISK, ROOK, SCRABBLE, STADIUM CHECKERS, STRATEGO, TOURING (MILLE BOURNE), TWISTER, TWIXT, YACHT (YAHTZEE), YACHT RACE, and the ZULU BLOW GUN GAME.
ACQUIRE, a great game of property acquisition and financial management that can be played by two (too few) to six (best number), was brought out by 3M in 1962. The "bookshelf" style game uses ownership tiles on a gameboard, and cards representing stocks in hotel chains, to provide a game in which trying to monopolize the hotel industry is much more fun than MONOPOLY. This Sid Sackson game was re-released in 1999 by Hasbro with a new property named in his honor.
BALI began in 1954. This word game using two decks of letter cards was introduced by I-S Ultd. and then sold to Selchow & Righter; it is now sold by Avalon Hill. A good three and four player game, at one time it was to card games what SCRABBLE is to boardgames.
BANTU was produced by Parker Bros. in 1955.
BATTLESHIP dates back probably to World War I when it was played as a pencil and paper game. One boxed version manufactured in 1933 (COMBAT, THE BATTLESHIP GAME, by The Strathmore Co.) pictured a battleship, battle cruiser, and two torpedo boats; a 1940s version by another company used a dreadnought, cruiser, destroyer, and sub-chaser. These early games still used pencil and pad or a stylus and a "magic slate." Milton Bradley introduced its 3-D plastic version in 1967 (though the company first published a pad-and-pencil variation in 1943 called BROADSIDES, THE GAME OF NAVAL STRATEGY). One of the more common of the many collectible plastic BATTLESHIP variations is Ideal's SALVO (1961), the same name given to one of the first boxed versions published by the Starex Novelty Co. of New York in 1931.
BLOCKHEAD was first manufactured by Saalfield Publishing in 1954, and, like SCRABBLE, is one of the few games to remain unchanged since its inception. The Pressman game is still made entirely of wood (but only the early versions are collectible). It plays well because it stacks well--until it topples. There are at least three box sizes and styles to look for, none of which offer exciting graphics.
BOOBY TRAP is one of the few dexterity games to endure. Wood pieces are taken one at a time from a spring-loaded wood tray until the removal of one of the pieces causes the spring to "pop," tossing other pieces out of the tray. Players alternate turns. The strategy is in which piece to remove to avoid the "pop."
CAMELOT, George Parker's favorite game which he invented as CHIVALRY in 1888, is an excellent checkerboard style strategy game. CHIVALRY was last produced in 1922; it was brought back with revised rules as CAMELOT in 1930 and stayed in Parker's line until 1968; CAM, having the same rules as CAMELOT but played on a smaller field, had a short run from 1949-1954. Various editions feature gloss-finished pawns and oversized playing pieces.
CAREERS is one of many games that looked much more interesting before it was revised and modernized. "Uranium Prospecting in Peru" and "Expedition to the Moon" from the original 1957 Parker Brothers edition were replaced by business and computer professions. Parker stopped production in 1984, then reissued the game in 1992 (a much less popular CAREER FOR GIRLS was employed in 1988 and out of the market in '89). One of the reasons CAREERS plays so well is that players can choose their own goals--and then must meet them. Original editions of CAREERS are still easy to find, so their collectible value is not very high.
CARROM games would be pricey items if their value were based on size. These large, wood boards (usually with corner pockets) were to children at the turn-of-the-century what NOK-HOCKEY (<=1947) was to the teenagers of the '50s. The table-top boards, produced since 1889 by the Carrom Co. and Carrom-Archarena and others, offered multiple games, some played with cue sticks and wooden rings instead of balls; the Owl Game board, by Edw. Mikkelsen (<=1902) offered 100 games on a 28 1/2" square board for $3.95; the Carrom-Archarena 100-game board, at $4.75 (prepaid east of Omaha) had 140 pieces of equipment, a revolving stand (free during a special 1903 promotion), and a "four-surface" gameboard (a smaller board fit inside the larger) on which you could play BACKGAMMON, CHECKERS, CROKINOLE, POCKET BAGATELLE CHESS, and TWELVE MEN MORRIS. Carrom boards are still made today by the original company now operating under the name Merdell.
THE CASE OF THE ELUSIVE ASSASSIN, designed by prolific game inventor and collector Sid Sackson, is an Ellery Queen mystery game, which he made for Ideal Toy Corp. in 1967. In 1971, the game board was eliminated and what emerged was the exceptional deductive-reasoning card game published by 3M as SLEUTH. (SLEUTH is still made by Avalon Hill, but only the 3M version is collectible.)
CHINESE CHECKERS was commercially introduced to the mass market by Pressman Toy in (some sources say) 1928. The game was picked up by a Pressman salesman, named by the two Pressman brothers, and subject to some litigation. The game was given a Chinese theme in keeping with the interest in the orient, probably because of the success of Mah Jongg following the discovery of King Tut's tomb. By the 1940s, many major U.S. companies had a CHINESE CHECKERS game; it received a patent in 1941. The game came from HALMA, invented in the U.S. in 1885 and published by E.I. Horsman; it was derived from the British game of HOPPITY. What is unique about HALMA, CHINESE CHECKERS, and variations such as TELKA, is that the game play consists of jumping pieces--your opponents and your own--without removing the jumped pieces from the board; moves to adjacent spaces without a jump are also allowed.
CLUE began in England in 1948 as CLUEDO (the name still used throughout Europe), and was originally licensed to Parker Brothers as CLUE, THE SHERLOCK HOLMES GAME. "Colonel Mustard in the library with a wrench" is one of many combination phrases the game brought to our vocabulary, and CLUE has the distinction of being the first board game to be made into a movie (albeit a poor one). The most valuable editions of this uncomplicated deductive-reasoning game are the earlier ones with the "Sherlock Holmes" name, a separate implements box, and real (not plastic) rope.
CONCENTRATION, an excellent memory game sold by Milton Bradley in 1959 and later by Pressman until 1992, outlasted the TV show, which was off the air for a while.
CONSPIRACY, a Milton Bradley game from 1982, originated in Europe as SIGMA FILE (<=1973). This superb strategy game of movement, bluff, and negotiation contains molded plastic pieces of its eight international spies.
CONTACK is Volume Sprayer Manufacturing Company's 1939 forerunner to Pressman's 1968 game TRI-OMINOES. But the game dates back at least to 1886 when it was published by Frank H. Richards of Troy, New York, for 25¢ or "10 cents silver (for) a cheaper set to learn the game." CONTACK/TRI-OMINOES is simple and enjoyable to play, and fun to find with pressed wood pieces and in its original (Volume Sprayer) hexagonal tin-lined box.
DIPLOMACY, an involved, lengthy, game of alliances and negotiations, is one of only two territorial war strategy games to become popular with the general public. (Parker Brothers' RISK is the other). It was copyrighted in 1959 by Games Research Inc., then sold to 3M. According to the May, 1973, issue of Games & Puzzles magazine, it was Dr. Henry Kissinger's favorite game. Deceit and broken promises govern the play, making it a game not suited to all.
DYNASTY is one of those games that my associates said should be on this list. (Now I've got to find my copy and play the thing.)
FOX & GEESE conforms to the rule that most of the true classic strategy games are two-player games, making each game a one-on-one contest. FOX & GEESE is a classic import from Europe. Traditional boards were drawn or etched on slate or stone, or carved into wood. One player has one piece, which is the fox, the other player has seventeen pieces, which are the geese. The object is for the geese to trap the fox so that it cannot move, or for the fox to eliminate the geese so that it cannot be trapped. The fox may move in all directions along the paths, and may jump over one or more geese, removing them from the board; the geese may move in every direction except backwards, and cannot jump over the fox. The collectible value usually depends primarily on the box graphics and board illustrations.
GAME OF THE STATES made its premiere in 1940 at a time when nationalism was running high and attention was focused on the country's products and resources. The Milton Bradley game has become a staple for teaching children about the states and their industries. (Incidentally, the title is one of few which is recognized only with its "Game Of" lead-in.)
GO is a classic strategy game the object of which is to form a straight line (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) of five adjacent playing pieces by placing the pieces (traditionally stones) on the intersections of lines. Though invented in China, the game has become a favorite with Japanese; traditional Japanese and others are attracted to this game as much for the visual appeal formed by the varying designs of the black and white stones as they are by the intricate strategies involved. Collectible versions are those valued primarily for the quality of the wood board and the playing pieces.
GO TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS, Milton Bradley's game for children introduced in 1938, is one of the earliest popular question-and-answer games, with some questions akin to today's trivia.
HALMA is the only 19th Century internationally-known classic game to have originated in the United States. According to Milton Bradley, "(Halma), while published by us, went to nearly every part of the civilized world...."
Though Milton Bradley claims to have acquired the game from the original inventor (G.H. Monks) in 1885, E.I. Horsman, "The Halma Company," claimed ownership as well. In 1889 Bradley released a revised rendition of HALMA, with the made-up name ECKHA, stating: "owing to the fact that certain parties claim to possess exclusive rights to the use of the word "Halma," ...(and) in order to avoid any controversy, we now designate that game by the new name of "Eckha." HALMA, the forerunner of CHINESE CHECKERS, is a two-to four player game which uses an odd number of playing pieces and a different number of pieces depending on the number of players (collectors sometimes think their set is incomplete when they find it has the correct count of two colors of nineteen pieces each and two of thirteen). HALMA (which means "jump" in Greek) was produced as late as 1961 by Parker Brothers (they hold a 1938 copyright) and was also sold under the name HOPPITY.
THE JURY BOX, a Parker Brothers parlor game that had six editions beginning in 1936, has players balloting on the guilt or innocence of the accused based on the evidence presented through a short case file and two photographs.
KIMBO is a great TWIXT-style game.
LABYRINTH, the steady-hand maze-in-a-box game, can be found everywhere--possibly because it was one of the most copied games. One source (which sells a "knock-off" of the same name, as do Cardinal and Pressman) said it was because it was never properly copyrighted in the U.S. This dexterity game was brought to the U.S. by Brio, a Scandinavian company with a subsidiary in Wisconsin ("Brio" stands for "Brothers Ivarsson of Osby," and was established in 1884 in Osby, Sweden.) They still make LABYRINTH, but now in plastic. The idea for two knobs used to control the horizontal and vertical tilt of a maze board was originated by a young Swede in the early 1940s, manufactured in 1946, and introduced to U.S. markets around 1950 by FAO Schwarz and Abercrombie & Fitch. According to Brio, over three million LABYRINTH games are sold annually worldwide; they claim the game "has been found useful in rehabilitating shell-shocked war veterans."
LIE DETECTOR, a deductive reasoning game, is fun to play whether you buy Mattel's 1960 classic, collectible version or the 1988 remake sold to Pressman in 1989 (after Mattel closed its game division). All the smokers were eliminated in the remake (they now sport pins), and the gangster became a racketeer, while the teacher (is this a sign of the times?) was replaced by a psychic reader.
MANCALA is one of the oldest games in the world. It's traditionally played on a wooden board with hollowed out compartments, and with seeds as implements. The object is to capture as many seeds as possible. Three seeds are placed in each of the six holes along both rows (one row belongs to each player). A player removes all the pits from any one of his or her six holes, then sows the pieces by placing one in each hole going counterclockwise around the board. In MANCALA, the end holes (one for each player) are used to sow seeds, whereas in WARI, a common variation, the end holes are merely used for storage of captured seeds. If the last seed sewn by a player is sewn on that player's side, the player gets another turn. If the last seed is sewn on the player's own side in an empty pit, the player captures all the seeds in the opposite pit, belonging to the opponent. Captured seeds are placed in the player's end pit. The game is over when a player has no more seeds in the six pits on his side of the board. Commercial MANCALA sets, such as by Milton Bradley, are not common but have only limited value to collectors.
MILL (NINE MEN'S MORRIS) is another world classic which has been produced in the U.S. by many companies. Traditional boards of three attached concentric squares were drawn or etched on slate or stone, or carved into wood (the game can be played with a pencil drawing on paper and some markers such as coins). The object is for a player to line up three pieces in a row, entitling that player to eliminate one opponent's piece. Players alternate placing pieces of their color anywhere on the vacant intersections until each has placed nine pieces. Players can then move pieces to adjacent unoccupied spaces. The player who can remove all opposing pieces is the winner.
MR. REE, a Selchow & Righter game from 1937, predated CLUE by eleven years. Early versions, with an interesting gameboard illustrated by William Longyear, had anywhere from 90 to 104 heavy stock cards, eight cardboard cylinders, and four tiny metal weapons (knife, hatchet, revolver, vial of poison) which were concealed in the cylinders; the rare, deluxe versions had plaster character heads that capped the cylinders, and, in some cases, resin with something trapped inside in each cylinder so they all had equal weight and rattled if lifted and shaken. A newer, less appealing edition minus "Miss Lee" was marketed from 1957 until 1966.
MONOPOLY is the game everybody knows, but few know the true story. The game was based on the LANDLORD'S GAME, patented by Elizabeth Magie in 1904, but represented by Charles Darrow as his own when presented to Parker Brothers in 1933; it is interesting to note (and there's a long story behind it) that the patent for MONOPOLY appears on other business games as well. Either you love the game or you don't--many ex-players are annoyed by the numerous basic flaws that caused Parker to initially reject the game. Collectible versions are the 1933/34 games that have Darrow's name (and not Parker Brothers) on them, and the first (1935) Parker games which have (from best to good) no patent number, "patent pending," or one patent number; later sets (which still show only the 1935 date) that have two patent numbers, or sets from the '40s on have little or no collectible value.
MOUSETRAP, first produced by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1963 and now sold by Milton Bradley, is the classic "chain reaction" game, not unlike a Rube Goldberg drawing in 3-D plastic.
NILE, an E.S. Lowe game made in 1967, requires players to place wooden tiles on a board in order to complete a path, block opponents, and cover bonus spaces. It's a good strategy game, not unlike Milton Bradley's TOWN HALL (1939) or PATHFINDER (1954).
NINE MEN'S MORRIS: See "MILL"
OPERATION, a Milton Bradley game for children, has been a popular manual dexterity game since it first came out in 1965. Even adults enjoy trying to remove miniature "body parts" from metal-rimmed openings without touching the metal "forceps" to the rim and activating a light and buzzer.
OTHELLO is a classic, traditional game with an interesting history. The game won at least one award for "best new game" after it was "introduced" to the U.S. market from Japan by Gabriel Industries in 1976. However, by that time it was already 88 years old in this country, having been sold by McLoughlin Brothers in 1888 under the name REVERSI; it was said to have been taken from England where it was introduced around 1870 as THE GAME OF ANNEXATION, later changed to, ANNEX, A GAME OF REVERSES. The game is played on a board with sixty-four squares (8 x 8). Sixty-four disks are black on one side and white on the other (said to be the reason behind the nomenclature given the game by the Japanese, as it is titled after the black vs. white conflict in Shakespeare's play "Othello"), and the game begins with two white and two black pieces in the center of the board. Players alternate turns, placing one disc with their color face up within a square adjacent to any opponent's piece, provided the moving player has another piece along that horizontal, vertical, and/or diagonal line; all opponent pieces "sandwiched in" are turned over, changing them from the opponent's color to the moving player's color. Like GO, this game also has a strong geometric visual sense which appeals to the Japanese that popularized the game. REVERSI has minor collecting value and is not too difficult to find; OTHELLO has only limited value as a collector's item.
PARCHEESI, the oldest proprietary American game still played today, and virtually unchanged since 1870, plays well because of the strategy element requiring a player to decide which of four pawns to move at what time. PARCHEESI by any other name is just as sweet, including HOME, INDIA, LUDO, PACHISI, POLLYANNA, WA-HOO and others. SORRY, introduced by Parker Brothers in 1934, came originally from England, and is different from PARCHEESI in that movement around the board is governed by numbers shown on cards, rather than by dice. Only the earliest PARCHEESI games and unusual or deluxe edition PARCHEESI variants have any value as collectibles.
PASSWORD, the game based on the popular television quiz show, debuted in 1962 and has been in Milton Bradley's line ever since. Every year since the 25th anniversary in 1987, Bradley has been selling the "25th Anniversary edition." PASSWORD is one of the best partnership games, and one of only two games to outlive the TV show (which was off the air for a while) on which it was based.
PIT was brought out in 1904 by Parker Brothers. A classic card game, and a "trading" market game, it is one of the longest-selling proprietary card games in the U.S. It was so popular and is now so common that the original 1904 plain red box edition has very little value; the set to look for is the 1930s' issue with the cover illustrated by John Held Jr.
POLITICS was invented by Oswald B. Lord in 1888 and first published by W.S. Reed Toy Co. Parker Bros. picked it up in 1935, and by 1952 was publishing a modification of it without Lord's name.
RACK0, a 1961 rummy-style card game played with cards set into a special rack, may have had been dealt a raw deal as a collectible now that Milton Bradley has reintroduced the game after a long absence.
RED BARBER'S BIG LEAGUE BASEBALL is one of the most asked-for games in the collectors circuit, and those collectors insist it plays very well. The game was produced in 1952 by a relatively unknown G & R Anthony. A copy sold at auction in 1999 for $1750, and the value is said to have stabilized around $1200.
REVERSI (see OTHELLO)
RISK, which Parker Brothers first sold in 1959, became one of only two territorial war simulation games to be embraced by the general public after WWII (DIPLOMACY being the other). The name "Risk," incidentally, was suggested by a Parker salesman, the letters R-I-S-K being the combined first initials of his four grandchildren. Only the sets with the wood pieces are sought after by collectors.
ROOK is a classic card game brought out by the Rook Co., a division of Parker Brothers, in 1906. It proved so popular that so many sets were sold and many are still out there, thereby diminishing its value as a collectible.
SCRABBLE, issued by the Production & Marketing Co. in 1948, actually had its inception in 1931 as LEXICO, then CRISS-CROSS, and later CRISS-CROSS words. After inventor Alfred Butts teamed up with James Brunot, sales took off and the company hired Selchow & Righter to produce the gameboards. Once S&R bought the game outright in 1971, the 104-year-old company focused on word games. SCRABBLE, which has remained almost the same since it first came out, is the word game, and though the standard early editions may not be very valuable, the deluxe versions (such as the one with the ivoroid tiles and rotating board), and specialized versions in foreign languages or unusual variations (such as a board built into a large cloth table covering) definitely are collectible. J. Pressman Company's 1939 game WORDY is nearly identical to SCRABBLE, except the point value of letters is shown by different color tiles; Cadaco licensed SCRABBLE from Selchow & Righter in 1953 and produced SKIP-A-CROSS, a low-end colorful cardboard SCRABBLE twin.
STADIUM CHECKERS, a three-dimensional skill and action game put out by American Toys in 1952 and also by Schaper, consists of concentric, movable plastic rings which link up pathways, the object being to get your marbles from the outer ring into the center. Other three-dimensional plastic games with movable parts and using marbles as playing pieces, such as FIVE ALIVE, can be found which are also interesting to play.
STRATEGO, Milton Bradley's war strategy game from 1961, offers the unique element of players being able to choose the position of their various-ranking pieces on the board before the movement of the game begins. This element is the same as that used in STRATEGO's predecessors, Bradley's LE CHOC from ± 1918 and All-Fair's INTERNATIONAL SPY from 1943.
TOURING, produced by the Wallie Dorr Company in 1906 ("Original-card deck, patent number 836532"), ranked with AUTHORS and OLD MAID as one of the most popular card games of all time.
TOURING was bought by Parker Brothers, and kept in the line through 1975; there were at least 15 different editions. TOURING is the same as the now popular MILLE BOURNE.
TWISTER, a Bradley game from 1966, owes its fame primarily to Johnny Carson and Ava Gabor. The game, requiring various body-bending feats, was demonstrated by the well-endowed Gabor on the "Tonight" show, and the public couldn't get enough. This is not a game for two, but as a party item it can be great fun. If played with the right group, the most collectible thing about this game will be the memories.
TWIXT is another Avalon Hill classic, supposedly invented by Alexander Randolph for 3M in 1963, though a similar game, BRIDG-IT, was sold by Hassenfeld Bros. in 1960. The Randolph game is a two-player strategy game which is described as being based on the knight's move in chess. Each player tries to build a wall from one side of the board to the other before the opponent connects the other two sides; in ACQUIRE, the "bridges" form angular pathways between any posts; in BRIDG-IT, the posts are color coded for each player, and bridges are placed straight across or at right angles. Other variations include , PSYCHE-PATHS (1968, KMS Scientific Games), TRAX (1981, USPCC), and TURNABOUT (1982, Mag-Nif).
YACHT, the game that became probably the number-one dice game in the U.S. as YAHTZEE, was promoted by E.S. Lowe in 1956 (he got the game from friends) and was taken over by Milton Bradley when it bought out Lowe in 1973. Because of its popularity, the game is omnipresent and has only limited value as a collectible.
YACHT RACE was made in 1961 by Saturday House Inc., and picked up by Parker Bros. that same year. This good strategy game, which uses some of the elements of sailing such as wind speed and direction, is played on a large, grid board; the early versions have heavy, metal sail boats.
ZULU BLOW GUN GAME (1925, Zulu Game Co., Battle Creek, Michigan) is by no means a classic "players" game--its inclusion here is to get us from "A" to "Z" and provide an opportunity to mention a fun category of games no longer available: the "projectile" game. Safety requirements have virtually eliminated all sharp, pointed projectiles from games (other than DARTS), and although the packaging on the ZULU BLOW GUN GAME states "harmless," the game's bamboo dart, when made airborne from the blowgun, could pierce many things, including body parts. This dexterity game is a hot collectible because of its Black character theme.
©2002 Bruce Whitehill (The Big Game Hunter). All Rights Reserved. |
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