Badmike wrote:
When we were kids our parents taught us Gin Rummy and Rummy, and we used to play all the time, especially on trips. It would keep us occupied for hours, great fun.  Now all those kids want today is their fancy-schmancy video games...(grumble grumble)

Mike B.

Ah... Rummy is a fun game.  Ever play the version with the little tiles called Rummy-O?  That was a classic.  

I also just remembered another Avalon Hill game we had many hours of fun playing... Britannia.  I don't believe it ever was very popular, but it was a good one.  

The old Dungeon board game was also a fun one.  

~Kat  ^_^

My grandparents played and taught me a lot of card games, but my favourites: Poker (Stud, Hold'em, Omaha), Rummy, Cribbage, Euchre, even solitaire and its many versions (my grandmother taught me a neat version with the cards dealt out like a clock but I've forgotten the set up).  I just wish I'd been taught how to play bridge.

Chess and backgammon--I wish I'd had more time to play Go.

I loved Clue as a child, but Risk was the king of board games.

Would Battleship count as a tabletop game?  

Damn, this is hard to narrow down.

Great topic.

Ahh Euchre... another excellent card game I forgot about when I travel north into Wisconsin   

But as far as newer games go, I would encourage everyone to try out the new Battlestar Galactica board game.

Blackmoor wrote:Settlers of Catan is the winner.  

If you have not played Settlers you are missing out.  One of the best games ever made and it started a whole new "designer game" industry.

There is a huge industry of games that have spun off of this one.

The new board game industry is really impressive.

Blackmoor wrote:Carrcasone (I hope the spelling is correct)

Close.  Should only be one 'r', but double the number of 's's and 'n's: Carcassonne.

Anybody tried any of the "cooperative" games that have had a bit of an explosion in recent years: things like Shadows Over Camelot, the new Arkham Horror (Though we can't make it through a session of this; as much as I like Cthulhu, I don't enjoy the game), and the like?

Shadows Over Camelot

My wife and I have played this on several occasions, always without the traitor (since we're always introducing new people to the game) and have yet to win. There have been times when it has been close, and even a few where the artifacts have been won, but in general, the game is stacked against the players. Like Nightmare (or Atmosfear.)

Invincible Overlord wrote:
My friends and I have won playing Shadows over Camelot (no traitor), and also Arkham Horror. The more difficult co-op game we have trouble with is the Lord of the Rings game...

Those are all great games.

Was looking around the Forum tonight and thought this was worth reviving.

I agree with some on here - Chess is the best game ever, but it doesn't give me my dice rolling fix.

In my group of friends, we probably played RISK most, then A&A, and then Car Wars. We played the Gamemaster version of Axis & Allies and it kind of sucked once everyone really figured it out because you're basically playing the same way every time if you want to have a chance to win. Car Wars is a lot of fun but it was always hard to get other people into it. They play once, get crushed and then never want to play again.

That's where RISK really shined. Easy to teach. People didn't mind playing again if they lost bad the last time. Just a fun game.

Might be different for some on here, for me it's always been less about how good the game is as the group of people you play with.

I don't really think of Card Games as tabletop but if it is - Spades is the greatest Card game not called Poker.

Agent Cooper wrote in Greatest tabletop game EVER:I played many, many games of Spades back in the Air Force.  This seemed to be the game of choice in a lot of ramp shacks when we had any down time between planes and there were no officers chasing us around polish the forklifts.

Dominoes was a close second, played alot of that too.

Ah, I haven't played Dominoes in forever, I used to play with some gangsters in the much rougher neighborhoods a little south of me - man, they were good at it. I don't know if I'm any good at Bones, because those guys whooped my butt every time.

Agent Cooper wrote in Greatest tabletop game EVER:A lot of guys in the military played D&D back then (and I'm talking late 80s early 90s here) which surprised me at the time.  I was afraid to even mention the game when I went in, but turns out it was very common for guys to play.  

But I'm getting off topic.

That was something I wouldn't have thought of too but makes perfect sense, you're holed up with a bunch of people with a lot of potential downtime. A few Tankers (Army) that I knew after they got out said that they played all of the time when they were in Germany.

I was just reading also that this guy (also Army) really liked having the Mini Editions (21st Century Games) because it would fit easily in his pack and they'd break it out and play when they were off duty but couldn't go anywhere. That's something I always liked about the Pocket Games. At school, someone would have one in their back pack and break it out for a quick game. It was perfect.

Agent Cooper wrote in Greatest tabletop game EVER:I love board games, and it's hard for me to choose just one as the best-  but if you held a gun to my head I'd probably have to say Dark Tower.  Man, that rocked.  My brother, my dad and I would play that for hours together.  Good times!

I can't understand for the life of me why they won't re-issue that game.  I understand there are legal issues to work out, but dude.  Working sets still sell for hundreds of dollars on Ebay.  It would be cash cow.  Why leave all the money on the table?

I remember it being fun but I don't think I played it since right after it came out. I had two friends that owned it, but it almost always got pushed aside in favor of playing D&D.
Bringing up Dark Tower always reminds me of my two great "didn't bid" fails in the early days of eBay. One being, some guy putting up 10 non-working but complete towers and some odd pieces in one listing and I see it with an hour to go, the first time I thought of looking for the game on there. I think it went for like $40-50 shipping included. I keep thinking about that and just feel disgust. I've worked on electronics for a job, and if I couldn't have fix some of them - I know people that could have. Maybe all of them had the logic fried out of them and they were really toast - who knows?  More recently, I've bid on a few but have yet to win one. I'm not very aggressive on those though. I keep thinking I'll see one in a Garage Sale or local Auction eventually.

I haven't played one but I know there are emulators out there for that game. Both kinds, one if you don't have the whole game or if you have the game but a non working tower. So it's easy enough to play if you don't mind emulating it.

I don't think large gaming companies concern themselves much with the secondary market. I could be wrong though, video game companies sure don't have a problem with rehashing their old product. Might not be as profitable on a full size game with niche interest though. Could have to do with the Tower itself, not wanting to do it - because they sure don't have any problem with rehashing a billion versions of Monopoly and RISK.