We Wii Today, We Were Board Before

Today the Wii games are the rage with all generations. Enjoying this new form of “Parlor Game” with skill games that entertain and challenge.

The bowling game is our family favorite, especially among the younger set with the undisputed

champ, our 7 year old granddaughter, who has practiced and played to perfection, beating friends and family of the middle generations that are more fit.

I’m not sure of the future collectibility of these electronic video games although I’ve heard Pong is now collectible. But there are plenty of collectors of old board games, me included. We seem to pick them up at garage sales and flea markets and they wind up in the guest room closet. The classic board games, Scrabble, Monopoly, Parcheesi and Chutes and Ladders for the youngest members continue to entertain.

Collectors search for the oldest examples of these and other classic games. Others purchase board games for the graphics on the box or on the board itself – framing them and hanging on entertainment or media room walls. Among some collectors the miniature game pieces are the prizes, with the Monopoly die cast figures most beloved.

Now parlor games are not all winners; each year brings new games, mostly variations of the classics but reinvented with catchy names or tie-ins to movies, TV shows or comics. Others are created with great hope of being the next answer to Monopoly, with very limited distribution and poor acceptance. I also remember movie tie-ins that had so much set-up time for a completed game board that the play was anti-climatic. But as a collector, one of these games found complete would be a real prize. Or a game like this Alli-Oop which was so simple to play with, similar to Tiddly Winks but with almost impossible results.

Ah, but these odd and poorly distributed and most likely “never played” games are the treasure we collectors secretly search for.