Childhood games: Mastermind, Scrabble, party games

I recently stopped by to see my family in the LA area during my trip out to Gamex during Memorial Weekend.  I decided to step back down memory lane and take photos of some of the games I used to play growing up that were still sitting on bookshelves.

Full disclosure: I only got into heavy euro gaming about five years when I was given my first gateway game, Ticket to Ride.  Growing up, it was all about party games (and a few of those Girl Talk board games at sleepovers), and my sister and I had tons of fun playing these games with other family members.

One of the oldest games I remember having is Scrabble. My grandma and I used to play Scrabble a lot, and I remember playing Scrabble with her after watching her favorite soap operas Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives.  Side note: I can’t believe Marlena and Stefano are still on the air.

My parents also had this game from the Philippines called Sungka, which is what board gamers know as Mancala. This wooden boat came all the way from the Philippines and included little shells as well to use as seeds, which we kept in an old butter tub. The old butter tub has mysteriously vanished from my parents’ home; otherwise, I would’ve taken a photo of the shells. Another game that I learned when I was younger, because of my Filipino upbringing, is Mahjong. Filipino people LOVE to play Mahjong at family parties.

Mastermind is also another board game we’ve had forever. I really liked the code-breaking aspect of this game. I think I received this game as a birthday gift from my parents. It always reminded me of those logic games from elementary school where they’d give you some clues, and then you have to figure out everything else.  Kind of like that board game Alchemist but much easier.

Growing up, a lot of my extended family lived nearby us, so it wasn’t unusual having cousins over all the time. During my preteen years, I we played a lot of the Guesstures and Read My Lips. OMG, I remember having so much fun playing these games!! For anyone who hasn’t played Guesstures, it’s basically charades, but on a timer. You have to get your team to guess your clue before the action clipboard swallows your card. Sometimes your team guesses your clue but the card slips from your hands because you weren’t fast enough to grab it! It’s chaotic and high energy.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, Read My Lips is nothing but total silence, and then hysterical laughter. You are trying to get your team to guess what you are mouthing. It comes with a little board of various colors of hot lips (representing different categories), and the first team to get all 6 categories wins the game. When I opened up the board to take a photo, I said out loud, “Wow, this game design totally takes me back!”

And of course, we all played Monopoly and created a whole bunch of fake rules like the rest of America. So folks, that’s a brief insight to my childhood gaming. What old-school games did you play?