You Sunk My....Carrier?

 Sorry this week's post is a little late! What can I say? Some weeks are just busier than others. 

Anyway, today we have a game that I think I got as an "add on" to another game I bought on eBay. In other words, I think I was buying Battleboard (which I've already written about) and this game was included as a package deal. 

I didn't know about this game as a kid, but it was certainly worthy of my attention. The game is Carrier Strike, by our old friends at Milton Bradly. I'm pretty sure that it was a follow up to Chopper Strike, which was released the year before. It was released in 1977, which would have made me about 14 or 15. Still, even a "cool" (in his own mind) teenager would have found this game fun and challenging. 

Let's take a look, shall we?

My box seems to have a rough case of WBS (wet basement syndrome). However, it only affects the cover art, and the rest of the box and contents are fine.

The bottom of the box offers a quick run down of what the point is to the game. 

Upon opening the box, you see a double fold board. Since the box is already pretty big, you know this board is going to be really big! In fact, it folds out to a 26.5" by 27" "ocean."

Here are all the bits and pieces, and there are quite a few of them. Luckily my game is complete!

The detailing on the pieces is nice, and more than one reviewer that I read commented on them.

Here we have a mock setup. The yellow carriers start from the yellow side and the red from the red side. You can place the carriers anywhere on your side.

A close up of a "loaded" yellow carrier...

...and a red one. Four planes are stored on top and six torpedos are stored below deck. The planes have a slot where they can carry a torpedo.

Attacks are aided by these templates that show when you are close enough to attack. These help because the hexagonal spaces are sometimes hard to judge.

So, let's take a look at the rules, shall we? For a game that packs as much strategy and skill into gameplay, the rules are fairly easy. It should be noted that more "serious" military simulation games (such as Avalon Hill games) use some of these same ideas, not to mention the style of gameboard.

As you can see by the instructions, this game is all about difficult choices. Do you move the carriers or the planes? Is my pilot good enough to engage in a dogfight? Do you split your roll between the planes or go all in on one? Are you at a good enough angle to launch your torpedo? Heck, even "If I launch my torpedo, am I going to accidently hit my own ship?" 

All in all, Carrier Strike is a fun game that's easy to play, but difficult to master! People that had it as a kid rave about it being one of the all time classics. I'm glad I got it as a "thrown in" game, since I knew nothing about this gem!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

One That Didn't Getaway!

 A lot of stuff I post on here, I've had for quite a while. Sometimes, however, I'll post a brand new find from a thrift store or estate sale. Today is one of those days!

Yesterday (yes, yesterday) I was looking at Facebook Marketplace when I saw a grail item for me. The AMF Getaway Chase Game from 1966! The price was extremely low, so I contacted the seller, half expecting not to hear back (Marketplace transactions can be a bit flaky). However, I DID hear back and a couple of hours later I owned a copy of this great game!

Now, it isn't perfect, but few are. The seller went out of his way to point out that the cars didn't work, and it was missing a couple of pieces. Still, let's take a look shall we?

This box is pretty big (20x24x3). It's also remarkably clean and intact after 59 years. AMF made this game for DX gas stations to sell in 1966. The game is actually a slot car type toy where the players try to bump each other's cars bumpers. You do this by changing the car's direction with switches in the track. 

Upon opening the game, we find the parts! And there are a lot of parts, although most of them are folded cardboard buildings and trees. 

I went to the trouble of assembling everything. I was surprised that the halves of the track (which are identical) and the switch controls fell together perfectly. The switches still work great! The buildings were a bit of a challenge, mainly because all of them have specific places where they go (they are numbered) and it takes a while to track them down in the instructions.

The "city" is to the left. The "country" is to the right, by the way.

Here's a little close up action! As you can see, the gangster car is zooming around a turn in the city, followed closely by the cops!

The cops score a point by tapping the gangsters' bumper! You can see the switches in the track.

Ok, now for the not so good part. All of the action in the previous pictures was faked, because these cars aren't going anywhere. Kids, this is why we take the batteries out of our toys! The C cells that were in these cars leaked and ate away most of the metal. Those motors are completely frozen (and useless) These are going to require a complete rebuild with fresh parts. Fortunately modern motors are easy to find! 

There was also some paperwork included. This is a envelope (not folded) and some scraps of stickers

This is the other side. You could get accesories! Cool!

And what about a DX credit card? Well, just fill this out and go back in time 60 years!

Now let's take a look at the instructions. I feel a bit sorry for the girl in this picture, as I'm sure the camera just caught her at a bad time, not actually having some sort of medical emergency...

This is what I was referring to when I said everything fit together perfectly. It really did just fold together.

And here is the building and tree map. I'm just missing the fire department and tree number 26. Hopefully we won't have a fire, as thin cardboard probably burns pretty well. Oh, and I'm missing all of the special "DX" buildings and signs. They were optional, but it's weird that none of them were included.

Here is how to build your cars...

Finally, we get to the game play. There are three types of games outlined here. There is the standard game, a road rally game (which is a lot like model airplane dogfighting) and a DX travel game which makes no sense and is stupid. 

Somehow my problem with the cars isn't covered on this page...

Hey! I'll just order new parts! Oh...wait. i don't really think that will work. Sigh...

And there you have it! The strange thing about this game is I'm pretty sure I didn't have it as a kid, but my cousin did. I have "sorta kinda" memories of it. Well, it doesn't matter, because I have it now! 

What's that? You want to see a period tv ad for it? Why sure!

Tv Ad!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Very Vintage Clunker!

 Hey guys!

This week I'm going to feature a game that makes Recall look like best best thing since sliced bread! I picked this one up at an estate sale that really didn't have much of anything interesting. It was cheap, and old, so I figured "why not?"

Here it is!

Yep! It's "Spelling and Anagrams!" How's that for raw excitement? You can see how thrilled those kids are on the box, as they say their tag lines in glorious monotone!

The box is small, as I demonstrate here with my hand...

Now they tried to make this turkey exciting by putting thrilling descriptions on the sides! It didn't work.

The people responsible for this version of the game. Apparently the letter tiles are printed on squares of photo matting board.

The top comes off to reveal...

And there we have it! 216 tiles with letters on them! Yay!!!

Although the 1930 at the top of the instructions references the product number, I think it's also the publishing date. All the sources I could find (yes, I did research) say 1930s.

Read the instructions if you want. I couldn't make heads or tales out of them. Mainly because the game seems so mind numbingly dull.

And there you have it! I can honestly say that I'll probably never even attempt to play this game. These go for very cheap anywhere you see them for sale, by the way. 

However, they do have some historic value. You see, they inspired a certain Mr. Butts to come up with Scrabble, which is, in every way, a better game.

So there you have it! Until next time, keep seaching for treasure!

From the Depths to the Sky!

 Last week we explored warfare in the deep with Milton Bradley's Sub Search. This week we're taking to the skies with another Milton Bradley offering, Chopper Strike!

Offered in 1976, Chopper Strike is a little less well known than Sub Search. It's still a fun game of strategy, though. Like Sun Search, Chopper Strike uses a unique 3D board. In this case the whole top level is transparent, however. Let's take a look, shall we?

The box art probaby gives the best picture of how this game sets up. The idea is that each player has six jeeps (with anti-aircraft guns) and six choppers. The first person to take out all of their opponent's jeeps or choppers wins. In that way, it's very much like Sub Search. That's about the only way, though.

On the inside of the box, you get a short run-down of the idea...

And here is my game all set up! The clear plastic parts aren't stiff, brittle plastic, but are, rather, a little rubbery. This really helps with setting up the game. It also helps with not breaking the almost fifty year old parts! The only signs of age are a very slight yellowing of the clear.

A top down view gives you a better idea of the layout.

And here are the all important instructions (printed out from the internet)

Game play is actually very interesting. There are two die which are rolled each turn. One (with only a 1,2, or 3 possible) tells a player how many pieces he can move. The other regular die tells the player how many spaces each piece must move. The choppers can move anywhere, while the jeeps can only move on spaces not occupied by a lake or a hill. 

Destroying the enemy is also interesting. Choppers destroy enemy pieces by jumping them, as in checkers, while jeeps destroy enemy pieces by landing on them, as in chess. The upper and lower levels are considered one board. In other words, if a jeep lands on a space under a space occupied by a chopper, the chopper is shot down. 

I picked this game up many years ago at a thrift store. I was lucky that all the parts are there, except for one AA gun for a jeep, one one set of rotors for a chopper. That doesn't affect game play in any way. 

I was surprised that I didn't remember this game from my youth, as it's a really good strategy game. I guess I was beginning to think about girls and rock and roll a bit too much to be bothered with a board game. Also, Chopper Strike doesn't seem to have made as big of a splash as Battleship and Sub Search ("splash" Get it?)

That being said, I'm glad I discovered it, as it's arguably the best designed game of the three. It's easy to play, but still takes quite a bit of skill to master! 

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Searching for Subs....

 And not the sandwich kind! 

Last week I shared a dud of a game that was thrown in with an purchase that I really did want? The wanted game? Sub Search by Milton Bradley! 

Sub Search was launched in 1973 as a "3D version" of Battleship. In reality, it's a better game, since there is more strategy involved. Let's take a look, shall we?

The box is in kind of rough shape. I think it was sitting in the same basement as the Recall game. 

Upon opening the big box, we see a lot of big parts!

This game didn't come with the instructions, but fortunately you can look up all of Milton Bradley's game instructions online and print them off! That's what I did here...

The Sub Search game board is a thing of beauty! Four levels of game playing fun! Each player gets three ships (with white peg "depth charges"), three subs, and a mine. 

Notice that the end pieces are translucent plastic. This is a smart idea so that the lower levels will have light. Also note that the different depths of the game board get darker the lower you go. 

Simulated game play!

Here are the instructions. They are actually pretty easy. The 3D aspect of near misses and torpedo attacks add quite a bit of excitement to game play. By the way, a torpedo attack is kind of a desperation move, since it shows where your sub is. Oh, and subs can't move. Bummer!

You can win by either taking out all three of your opponent's ships or subs (the subs are more likely). All in all, it's an exciting strategy game!

As boring as Recall may be, Sub Search more than makes up for it. So, I guess I can forgive those people for slipping in the clunker game with it. 

Sub Search is, sadly, out of production so if you want a copy Ebay is your friend. They seem to go for around fifty bucks, which is fair. 

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!

Total Recall

 No, not the movie, the GAME from 1968! I got this game tossed in to another game purchase years ago (I think the game I was after was Sub Search). I've never thought much about it, but I figured I'd do a quick post on it, so here we are!

Recall was put out by Milton Bradley in 1968. The idea is pretty simple; arrange some pre-printed die cut cards on a tray, let the other players see them for a moment, and then see how many details they can remember!

This is the rather large box (all the better for point of sale displays). Mine isn't in great shape, having at some point apparently been in a damp basement...

And here are the instructions. Over half of the print is just covering how to assemble and operate the wind-up turntable. 

The actual pieces are large and colorful, which kids tend to like. I was a little concerned that my turntable might not work after all these years, but with a bit of coaxing, it sprang to life (get the spring reference?)

And here are sample scenes that could be set up! Yay!

I really don't remember ever actually playing this, but a notepad in the box indicates otherwise. So I know I've played it at least once. And apparently it didn't make the biggest impression on me...

All in all, it's an ok game for a thrown in freebie, but it's not great. Speaking of "not great," here is the vintage 1968 commercial for it. "Not great" is an understatement.

Recall Ad

Yeah, get THAT catchy jingle out of your head.

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!