The Games We Play
Reflecting on the board, card, and video games that shaped my life
For as long as I can remember I've been playing games. Card games, board games, video games, games on my phone. Momcat and I played so many games together when I was a kid. I clearly remember a concentration/memory game using a deck of cards from the National Wildlife Federation: each card featured an image of an animal, bird, fish, or flower. Even now I play the Memory game on a Solitaire app I have on my phone when I feel I need to sharpen my memory skills and gauge how my attention span is at that moment. Momcat taught me Crazy Eights and Gin Rummy, and kept a deck of playing cards in her purse so that if we were someplace together and had to wait for a long stretch, we could play a card game together. I also remember when she bought a couple books on different kinds of solitaire spreads and picked out a couple games to try—I still play those now, but mostly on my phone.
Then there were the board games that didn't require more than two people in order to be really fun. One of our favorites was Benji, a board game based on the popular 70s movies featuring a scrappy little mutt. The playing pieces and dice were made out of painted wood, the edges sanded down so they felt smooth in your hand, which Momcat really liked. The objective was to be the first to get your piece to the end—I think it represented Benji making his way back home—and you had to get it on an exact roll of the dice, so there was often a lot of back and forth movement and no guarantee on who might win the game.
Deena and I played a ton of board games together as tweens. Our favorite was the Mad Magazine game, which I owned. It was a satirical, twisted version of Monopoly, but the objective was to be the first person to lose all your money. We'd sit on the floor and play, laughing hysterically at the directions given by each card you drew based on the space you landed on. Sometimes one player had to scare the other; there was also a card that said to cluck like a chicken. She and I both remember the time we were playing the game and one of us pulled the card that read "This card can only be played on a Friday" and nothing else. We looked at each other and one of us stuck the card under the board. Problem solved.
Another friend of mine, Winnie*, got into the video arcade scene back when it began, with her parents investing in a few machines and placing them in arcades. I went with Winnie and her mom several times to collect the quarters, my eyes wide as she pulled out the bin full of shiny silver coins. From their profits, we’d each get a pile of quarters to play games with, and I'd go to the Ms. Pacman and Frogger machines, doing my best to reach higher levels without sacrificing too many lives. It wasn’t until her folks brought the Ms. Pacman game back to their house and set it to Free Play that I was able to finally reach the banana board, which was a huge deal back then and would take a lot of quarters if you didn’t figure out the best strategy to clear all the dots while avoiding the ghosts.1
One year, Deena's parents bought her an Atari 2600 for Christmas, and we had a blast playing Jungle Hunt and Space Invaders together. Soon after I received an Atari 5200 and games of Pole Position, Centipede, and Ms. Pacman, plus a baseball game that Pops and I played. Thanks to all those long play sessions at Winnie’s house and in front of the TV in my parents’ den, Ms. Pacman is still one of my favorite arcade games. Whenever I find it at a laundromat or carryout restaurant, I scrape together a few quarters to play for a while.
The best part of playing most games was that it was a social activity. You sat around a table with friends or family, dealt out the cards or fought over who was going to be Colonel Mustard or Miss Scarlet, and then it was game ON. Some games required way more strategic planning, while others were simply the luck of the draw. There was lots of laughing and teasing. Aunt Gigi might make Pops sit under the table for insisting he knew the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question only to be proven wrong. In later years, at family gatherings, Pops taught all of us how to play Texas Hold 'Em poker. We'd sit around a table in a beach house or condo somewhere along the Atlantic, or perhaps the Gulf, playing for chips or pennies, some of us better at bluffing than others. Uncle Oliver* might discreetly show me his hand to ask if he had anything good, and he never did. My cousins Eric* and Lance* might get extra competitive, with Lance consistently winning as he was exceptionally good at bluffing, but also showing his frustration if he lost.
If there's one thing I miss the most from my younger years it's all that time playing games. It's looking in the game closet and seeing all the games Momcat bought on sale at Toys R Us, or the ones given to me by Emily, Desi or another friend for my birthday. It's knowing that there's always going to be another opportunity to beat Deena at Mad Magazine, Trouble, or Inner Circle. Playing games like Wordle and Connections on my phone is fun, sure, and Deena and I now text each other about these games. We even play Yahtzee together on the same app sometimes. But it still can't beat those warm spring afternoons on the front porch, dealing out flimsy fake bills, laughing over everything and nothing.
I learned how to do it, thanks to a mass market paperback Winnie had on winning popular video arcade games. No, I will not be sharing my secrets at this time.
I’m a war baby so my view is not modern. I recall playing cards and board games with my brothers and neighbors. Those games seem more social than screen play, more emotionally healthy. And you could play 52 card pickup with abandon. Thx for the memories.