We have already looked at 70s and 80s board games. Before we tackle the 90s we wanted to turn back the clock all the way to the 60s. We have already established in previous articles that every five to ten years board games improve visually, mechanically, and in enjoyment. However, one of the games on this list also appears as one of the top 10 best-selling board games of all time. Of course, being around longer means you have more time to sell copies, but there must also be a better reason 60s board games have sold so well.
Table of Contents
- Acquire (1964)
- Nuclear War (1965)
- Bazaar (1967)
- Mr. President (1967)
- The Game of Life (1960)
- 60s Board Games: Cold War or Atomic Hot?
Acquire (1964)
Acquire is a real estate and stock investment game. In this game players invest in business that are on the tiled board. However, it would be wrong to think Acquire is a stock market simulation game, even though on the face of it that might seem to be the case. The game focuses heavily on creating mergers with other businesses. As the businesses grow, they start to cover more tiles, eventually merging to create one bigger business. When two businesses merge, the majority stock holder receives a cash bonus which they can then use to reinvest into other businesses across the board. The player who was a minority holder may either: cash their shares at the current price or trade them at 2:1 for shares in the newer business.
Unsurprisingly, in a game like this, the aim is to finish the game with the most money. Money is everything in Acquire, it is the tool with which you grow and the tool you use to punish your opponents. It is all about investing wisely and not letting yourself get beaten down. As is typical of games of this nature, however, it does suffer from snowballing. When one player gets far ahead, they get really far ahead. The problem is much more pronounced in a three player game than a four player game though, with a bit more of a constricted board in a four player game making it harder to run away with.
Nuclear War (1965)
In 2022 it is hard to cast one’s mind back to the 60s, when the threat of nuclear war hung over the heads of many every single day. Truthfully, even today, nuclear war has begun to lift its ugly head – but this is not a political commentary, it is a website about board games (I just enjoy history a bit too much). Interestingly, the largest nuclear bomb of all time, Tsar Bomba, was test detonated in 1961 – over 2000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
Now, back to board games. Essentially, the game is a last man surviving situation. Population cards are dealt to all players, when you have 0 population left, you lose. Population can either be stolen from other players, using propaganda cards, or nuked to oblivion. It is helpful that in the game all nuclear bombs must have a delivery devices, which takes a turn. This means in classical mutually assured destruction fashion, all players will be pointing their nukes at each other in a Mexican standoff by the end of the game.
An enjoyable feature of the game is the “Final Retaliatory” strike action. As what would likely happen in a true nuclear war, the player who has lost all their population can fire every nuke in their hand so long as there is a delivery system to accompany them. If they hit a player and that player loses their population, they may also launch a final retaliation at someone else, like a domino effect. Eventually, the nuclear bombs create a world in which there is no winner. Instead, a shattered earth.
Bazaar (1967)
Bazaars are market places typically found in the Middle East, if you have ever been to a country like Turkey or Iran, you will know that buying products in a Bazaar is all about bartering. The aim of the game is to gain points through ware cards. Players begin their turn by throwing a coloured dice, the player then picks a coloured stone that matches the colour on the dice face. Then, the game is all about exchanging, the coloured stones act as currency, this currency can be exchanged at the bank for different coloured stones. Still following? Now that we have different coloured stones, we can exchange these for ware cards to get points. The ware cards come in different levels of complexity, the more complex the ware card, the more points you get.
Essentially to sum up the mess which is the above: Roll a dice to get stones, exchange stones to get more/different stones, exchange your new stones for ware cards.
That’s really all there is to the game, and of course competing against your opponents to get the most points. It has been criticised by some for being a bit brain numbing, but at the end of it, it’s a game focused on exchanging items – you should know what you are getting yourself into!
Mr. President (1967)
Interestingly, if you google “Mr. President”, the first hit to come up – at least for this poor researcher – is a German Eurodance group formed in 1991. In the 60s board games sense, however, is a game that attempts to act as a realistic re-enactment of a Presidential campaign.
Candidate cards in the game focus on the following stats: campaign ability, press support, fund raising, financial support, and advertising. The game functions around a blind balloting system with neither truly knowing how many votes are needed to win a state. Each state is either pro-Republican or pro-Democrat and so candidates of these party will receive extra votes depending on which state they campaign in.
Amusingly, the hot topics of debate reflect the time and it is fun to see how different issues of the 60s are today. Policies that candidates may identify with are things such as urban renewal and the space program, which have taken a back seat in modern politics.
The Game of Life (1960)
Saving the best, in terms of sales at least, till last is The Game of Life having sold over 50 million copies since its release. In the board games world this 60s game is incredibly well known. The game’s success mostly comes from its simplicity. It has a very straight forward moving mechanism using a spinner which tells you how many spaces to move; or moving when landing on a space which has an action attached.
The aim of the game is to have the most assets by the end of it. It is all about the choices you make and when you make them. Is it worth going for this degree (something that still keeps me up to this day)? Is it worth buying this house at this time? Getting married? The game essentially crams a whole life in an hour long board game, but does a good job of not making it feel like a rush.
60s Board Games: Cold War or Atomic Hot?
Ironically, the 60s board games have actually aged better than their 70s successors. The Game of Life is still one of the most popular games of all time. It is always interesting to see how the board games of the time are effected by the current political landscape. Nuclear War, of course, focuses on the Cold War and fear of mutually assured destruction. Acquire is reminiscent of Wall Street’s bounce back after the war and Mr. President outright discusses the political issues of the time.
