Electronic Board Games Of The '70s, '80s, & '90s

[@ZMAN_420]

I remember my grandparents having the electric football. At the begening of the video. Great Content! 👍🏻🇺🇲

[@RetroDaze]

Thanks again ZMan!

[@FirstNationpisces]

I have to agree the hand held football game was the best!

[@Dorelaxen]

Dark Tower was and still is one of the coolest board games of all time.

[@RetroDaze]

Definitely one of the most fun and unique.

[@bluetarantulaproductions6179]

Still have my copy of Electronic Talking Battleship and Electronic handheld Battleship from when I was a kid in the 90's

[@RetroDaze]

Nice! Do you dig them out now and then to play a round or two?

[@bluetarantulaproductions6179]

@@RetroDaze Every now and then I will.

[@RetroDaze]

Nice!

[@lavenderflowersfall280]

I think you've got me. In my story, it takes place on Earth and then the magic world obviously, I like Gen Z kids to experience a simpler way of life. I think I might just utilize this niche from Gen x culture. Like maybe they find an old cabin with a bunch of old electronic games and stuff like that. I don't think it'll be used for the plot just for something I'm working on with the overall plot being that they're on the run and have to get something significant done while still having to improve their relationships. I don't know. I'll definitely consider putting dungeons & dragons in it as well very nice. You've opened up my eyes to have fun is electric video games could be. I've always wanted a light bright so I might just get one one of these days yeah I've always been fascinated by battleship. I was a little girl my dad had a little box that had sound effects from radio shack so I can see the appeal although sadly I'm more of a 90s girl I sort of missed out on these electronic games but I appreciate them

[@RetroDaze]

That story sounds really interesting! Go for it.

[@canuckchuck8836]

Somewhere, I still have my Electronic Battleship, and Merlin. I always wanted Dark Tower as a kid....it looked so cool.

[@RetroDaze]

@@canuckchuck8836 That and Fireball Island were the games that few kids had but we all wanted!

[@Robalini1]

This was awesome! Nobody talks about Stop Thief anymore. Thanks for ths video!

[@RetroDaze]

You are most welcome Robert! Very glad you enjoyed it.

[@lavarsch]

I remember Omega Virus. I always read it as O mega Virus. It was such a cool game.

[@RetroDaze]

It was definitely a step above the typical board game in design and gameplay. A lot of fun!

[@isaacheres1354]

The electronic game I had was Bed Bugs, and I had a used electronic NFL game. I wanted to get Electronic Battleship but my parents thought it was too expensive so they offer me regular Battleship instead

[@RetroDaze]

Ahh well. Either version was fun!

[@VulpisFoxfire]

Not ones I owned myself but I seem to remember a couple of 'made for girls' electronic board games back in the day, one based around shopping at the mall, with the device styled as a credit card reader, and another based around dating boys, with the device being styled as a phone, which among other things played voice clips from the 'boys'.

[@RetroDaze]

Was that mall game called Mall Madness?

[@VulpisFoxfire]

@@RetroDaze Might have been, that name sounds familiar. As I said, nothing I ever owned, just stuff i remember seeing in passing at the store, that piqued my tech-geek interest. :-)

[@RetroDaze]

Understandable. Any new and different way to use current tech was bound to get at least some attention.

[@cartoonistaaronhazouri]

Oh my god, Orson Welles. Wild to see a legitimate genius auteur advertising a board game.

[@RetroDaze]

And to hear him voice Unicron in Transformers: The Movie!

[@jons.6216]

This video appealed to me to watch it - not only because I've enjoyed the ones I've seen so far, but also because Electronic Battleship was featured! I got the first version for Christmas in 1977 and LOVED playing it! I hung on to it after moving out, intending to bring it out again if anyone wanted to play it! Of course, by then people were just as happy to play the old manual versions again! Haha!

[@RetroDaze]

That’s awesome Jon. Do you still have either of those versions?

[@jons.6216]

​@@RetroDazenot anymore! I had to get rid of the electronic version in a move. But by then, many of the pieces had fallen out of the box going from place to place! Years later, however I did find a small version of manual Battleship, but in German language! Haha!

[@serveaux]

I had an "electric" board game called "Beware The Spider". Similar to "Operation" if you touched the wrong spot on the board a little motor flung a foam spider at you. Even though it was foam, it was scary when the spider was flying toward you!

[@RetroDaze]

Ha! One of those games that makes you anxious from anticipation. Kind of like Perfection.

[@serveaux]

Yes! EXACTLY like "Perfection" and its infernal ticking! I also had a battery-operated game called "Turn the Terrible Tank" in which your base shot ball-bearings at a motorized tank to make it turn toward your opponent's base.

[@RetroDaze]

We are imagining all the damage we could have caused with a ball bearing-firing tank. 😆

[@JoylessPumpkin]

That D&D game is gorgeous. I have the LCD handheld game called Dungeons & Dragons Computer Fantasy Game, which is a similar dungeon crawling experience.

[@RetroDaze]

It looks amazing! Check out Jon’s video on it over at GenXGrownUp when you have a chance.

[@ctbinary42]

D&D computer game was my favorite but Dark Tower was great too. Electronic Battleship was annoying in that to reset you needed to press each location button to reset it.

[@RetroDaze]

It was a big improvement when they introduced the preprogrammed location setups for Battleship.

[@bluetarantulaproductions6179]

Still have my copy of Electronic Talking Battleship from the 90's, box has seen better days (looks like it got run over by a moving van). Funny enough it's the one board game that my dad for the longest time tried to beat me at...he failed every time.

[@RetroDaze]

Ha! Your poor dad probably loathes that game.

[@acehole13]

I did have that first version of Electronic Battleship and the pain of programming every single coordinate was so exhausting I never played it much usually opting for the old school version. I did like a game called The Generals and played it a bunch. Probably close to Stratego where you had pieces with military ranks and faced off with your opponent by placing your challenge pieces on this side battle area that would reveal who won without revealing the ranks.

[@RetroDaze]

Oh cool. Need to look that one up.

[@danielkaiser8971]

To this day, I still have the old Electronic Battleship (1:10), Operation and Simon (2:20) and Merlin (2:40); unfortunately, the electronic components have gone bad so they don't work. But I loved this video's surprises, I actually didn't know of some of the games presented in it. Seeing them for the first time now in 2024, I was delighted to remember how I felt seeing such games for the first time back in the 1970s-1980s. Gen X rules! (but now with an achy back! lol)

[@RetroDaze]

Achy back or no… we experienced one of the best times ever to be alive! So glad this video helped spark fond memories and good feelings.

[@johnrossi6212]

I still have Arcade Mania in my basement 😊❤️

[@RetroDaze]

Excellent! Break it out and let’s play! 😜

[@drmgiverdrmgiver5335]

Omega Virus was freaking loud as hell and had no volume adjuster. Lol

[@RetroDaze]

The volume adjustment was a rag and tape. 😆

[@EmoCatgirl]

i had the Winnie the pooh Electro board game but i also dabbled in a TON of Omega Virus i was 100% a Disney kid growing up and of course i played a ton of Battleship

[@RetroDaze]

That’s a nice variety there. Even a version of Electro!

[@scotth4713]

I still have my Simon, Super Simon and D&D game.

[@RetroDaze]

Awesome! Do you still break them out now and then?

[@scotth4713]

@@RetroDaze oh yeah. They sit in my entertainment center along with a few of the toys I still have from my childhood.

[@RetroDaze]

Excellent!

[@MMinifigurecollector]

i had taking battleship it was really fun

[@RetroDaze]

@@MMinifigurecollector It still is even today!

[@MMinifigurecollector]

@@RetroDaze so true

[@VulpisFoxfire]

Aha, I watched this, wondering if you were going to cover the electronic/boardgame hybrids along with the purely electronic ones. I own a copy of Omega Virus, and it's still sitting in the next room. :-)

[@RetroDaze]

That’s very cool! Do you dig it out from time to time?

[@SyntheToonz]

We weren't rich. Between all my friends I had only seen Operation and Simon. Mostly is was plain board games, or D & D.

[@RetroDaze]

Thankfully there were plenty of inexpensive non-electronic board games out there that were fun.

[@bcr1980]

Electronic Stratego was the best, I wish Hasbro would re-release it

[@RetroDaze]

Or at least get some kind of Kickstarter campaign!

[@godofzombi]

One birthday a got a whole slew of New adventures of He-man action figures and there was still a big box waiting for me. I tought it was the Starship Eternia playset. Sadly it turned out to be Electronic battleship. I was a bit dissapointed.

[@RetroDaze]

Ahh. Yeah that would be disappointing. Did you still get plenty of fun out of it?

[@yhsbu]

9v battery not included!!

[@RetroDaze]

Everrr! 😄