Retro Board Games: Old Copies and Vintage-Style Reissues

What counts as a retro board game

Retro board games are older games, or games made to look older. On Amazon US, that one phrase covers two very different things, and the table above has both.

• Original older copies. A box somebody kept since 1984 or 1997, listed by a reseller, with the year in the listing name.
• Retro reissues. A new box, made recently, styled after an old edition. These include the Hasbro Retro Series and the Vintage Bookshelf Editions from WS Game Company.

Both kinds are marked as resale stock in our data. The difference is in the edition line. When a listing says "retro / vintage reissue," it's a new game in old-style packaging. When it gives a year and no reissue note, it's being sold as an older copy.

Here's the short version of what the listings state:

• Years in listing names: from 1970 to 1999
• Players: from 1 to 6, where stated
• Age: 5+ to 9+, mostly on the reissues
• Makers on the older copies: Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers
• Makers on the reissues: Hasbro, WS Game Company, University Games

Older copies share one thing: their listings say less. Many leave out players and age entirely. The reissues are new products, so their listings fill in more fields. That's why the table has more dashes in its older rows.

What to look at before you buy a retro board game

The year on the listing

The year is the first field I'd read. Our older copies span 1970 to 1999. A listing like "Stratego 1986 Edition" or "Upwords 1997 Edition" tells you which version of the game you'll get. Games change between editions. Rules get updated. Boards get redrawn. Pieces change material.

The Strong National Museum of Play gives a good example. It says The Game of Life was updated in 1991 to reward players for good deeds, like recycling. So a 1982 Life and a 1991 Life are not the same game in the box, even with the same name on the lid. Our data has both, plus a 1985 edition.

Original copy or reissue

This is the field that matters most and gets missed most. The edition line in our data marks the reissues as "retro / vintage reissue." That includes:

• Hasbro Retro Series: Clue 1986 Edition and Payday 1975 Edition
• WS Game Company Vintage Bookshelf Editions: Clue, Monopoly, Yahtzee, The Game of Life, Boggle, Mystery Date, Sorry, Checkers and Backgammon, Trouble
• WS Game Company Sorry Nostalgia Edition

Note the Retro Series names. "Clue 1986 Edition" has a year in it, and it's a new box. The year is part of the style, not the age of the copy. If you want the game your family actually played in 1986, the reissue gives you the look. An older copy gives you the thing itself.

Marisol's take: "Count the parts against the list in the rules, not against the picture on the lid." She'd know. She keeps the parts list of every kit taped inside its box.

What's in the box

A new reissue lists its contents. An old copy often doesn't. In our data:

• Payday 1975 Edition (Retro Series): gameboard, die, 4 tokens, 64 mail cards, 16 deal cards, play money, record pad
• Parcheesi 1989 Edition: gameboard, 16 wooden pawns, 2 dice, dice cup
• Yahtzee Vintage Bookshelf Edition: rolling cup, dice tray, 5 dice, 8 betting chips, scorebook, 4 pencils
• Boggle Vintage Bookshelf Edition: cube tray with dome, 16 letter cubes, 3-minute sand timer, 2 pencils
• Sorry Nostalgia Edition: full-size folding board, 16 wooden pawns, retro card deck, metal tin
• Battleship (WS Game Company): 2 folding battle cases, 10 plastic ships, red hit pegs, white miss pegs

For an older copy with no contents line, ask the seller before you buy. A game box that traveled for 40 years can lose a die, a pawn or the rules sheet along the way. Payday's play money from 1975 is the one currency that has held its value since then, mostly by never being spent.

Keeping an old copy playable

Once an older copy is home, a little care keeps it whole. These are habits, not rules from any maker:

• Store the box flat, not on its side, so loose pieces don't slide into the corners and crush the lid.
• Bag the small pieces by type: pawns in one bag, dice in another, money in a third.
• Keep the rules sheet in a plastic sleeve inside the lid.
• Write a parts count on a card and tuck it in the box. Check it after every game.

The card is the part people skip. It's also the part that tells you, two years later, whether a die went missing at Thanksgiving or was never there.

Players and age

Where listings state them, players run from 1 to 6. The reissues list ages from 5+ (Trouble Vintage Bookshelf) to 9+ (The Game of Life Vintage Bookshelf). Many older copies give no age at all.

That matters for a gift. If a listing for an older copy doesn't give an age, look up the same game's current edition for its age label, and use that as your floor. Check the age label on the listing. Toys with small parts are a choking hazard for children under 3, and old game boxes are full of pegs, pawns, dice and tiles.

Wooden pieces

Several listings name wood as the component material: Parcheesi 1989 Edition, Rummikub Vintage Edition, Sorry Nostalgia Edition, Sorry Vintage Bookshelf Edition and Checkers and Backgammon Vintage Bookshelf Edition. Wood is a big part of the retro look. It also makes a box heavier. The listings don't say what the board itself is made of.

Retro board games by decade

70s board games

• Masterpiece The Art Auction Game (1970), Parker Brothers: an older copy; the listing gives no players or age
• Parcheesi 1975 Edition, Milton Bradley: an older copy
• Payday 1975 Edition, Hasbro Retro Series: a reissue; 8+, 2 to 4 players, 15 minutes

80s board games

• The Game of Life 1982 Edition, Milton Bradley: older copy
• Battleship 1984 Edition, Milton Bradley: older copy, 2 players
• Life 1985 Edition, Milton Bradley: older copy; the listing says 1 to 6 players and a solo mode
• Stratego 1986 Edition, Milton Bradley: older copy, listed as a strategy game
• Masterpiece Art Auction Game 1987 Edition, Parker Brothers: older copy
• Parcheesi 1989 Edition, Milton Bradley: older copy, 2 to 4 players, wooden pawns
• Clue 1986 Edition, Hasbro Retro Series: a reissue; 8+, 3 to 6 players

90s board games

• The Game of Life (1991 Edition), Milton Bradley: the good-deeds update The Strong museum describes
• Upwords 1997 Edition, Milton Bradley: older copy, 2 to 4 players, a word game
• Yahtzee Electronic Handheld (1999 Edition), Milton Bradley: older copy, electronic

Reissues with no decade on the box

The Vintage Bookshelf Editions don't put a year in the name. They're styled to look like old books on a shelf. Our data lists Clue (8+, 3 to 6), Monopoly (8+, 2 to 6), Yahtzee (8+, 1 or more, solo mode), The Game of Life (9+, 2 to 6), Boggle (8+, 2 to 6), Mystery Date (8+, 2 to 4), Sorry (6+, 2 to 4), Checkers and Backgammon (6+, 2 to 4) and Trouble (5+, 2 to 4). The University Games Rummikub Vintage Edition lists 8+, 2 to 4 and wooden pieces. WS Game Company's Battleship lists 7+ and 2 players.

Older copy or reissue: which to pick

Pick an older copy if the exact edition matters: the version you grew up with, the board you remember, a specific year for a collection. Read the year, ask about missing pieces, and expect the listing to say less.

Pick a reissue if you want to play the game tonight with complete contents and a clear age label. A reissue is a new product with the old look. The rules inside may match a later edition, so read the rules sheet before the first game rather than relying on memory.

Five questions for a reseller

Older-copy listings often leave out what you most need to know. Before you buy, these are worth a message to the seller:

1. Is the rules sheet in the box?
2. Are all the pieces there, counted against that rules sheet?
3. Is the board complete and flat, with no missing sections?
4. Are the cards or money all present, or is it a partial set?
5. Does the year in the listing come from the box itself?

A seller who answers all five has done your counting for you. One who answers none has told you something too.

House rule, ours not anyone's: when an old copy comes into the house, the first game is played with the rules sheet in that box, even if somebody remembers it differently. Rules change between editions. Memories change faster.

Who should skip retro board games

Skip older copies if you need a complete game by a certain date. A reseller listing for a 40-year-old box may not list every piece, and replacing a missing part is a project.

Skip them as a gift for a young child unless the listing gives an age. An older copy with no age on the listing is a gamble on pieces you can't see.

Skip the whole shelf if you just want the game, not the look. Most of these titles have current editions with their own pages here, listed below.

Related pages

Current editions of many of these games have their own pages:

• Classic board games: the old standards in their current boxes
• The Game of Life, Clue, Monopoly, Yahtzee
• Sorry, Trouble, Parcheesi, Battleship
• Stratego, Boggle, Rummikub, Checkers

Most older copies here carry the Milton Bradley name, and the current editions mostly sell under Hasbro. See the Milton Bradley and Hasbro brand pages.

Check the year, then count the pieces.