The Original (1980) Games 100 - 25 years ago
Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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I have seen some questions asking about old Games 100 lists, so I thought I would post this.
In the Nov/Dec 1980 issue of Games Magazine, they published their first "Games 100" list. They said they limited their selections to "proprietary, commercially produced games", specifically explaining why "chess" was not included. However, some other games that we would today feel belong in that category manage to show up.
If there is a comment other than the rules summary, I have included it. The list was presented in alphabetical order, so I am doing the same. I have listed the publisher, price, entry level, playing time and game type (chance, strategy, action) as listed in the magazine. Note that their use of strategy is pretty loose, and really means skill. And the easy/medium/difficult is supposed to be entry difficulty, not difficulty of the game.
I have selected pictures that are as similar to the picture in the magazine as possible.
This list is less than 100 entries long, because electronic games and game systems (like the Atari 2600), as well as puzzles (like Rubik's Cube) are among the 100 games. There was originally no entry for Quintessence, so it appears out of order on the list.
The other entries in the Games 100: Astro (Kosmos International, $50) - electronic astrologer Baseball 3 (Extex, $45) - handheld electronic simulation Bank Shot (Parker, $50) - Electronic billiards Boffers (New Games Foundation, $14) - foam swords Brain Baffler (Mattel, $60) - Electronic word game Capsela 700 Series (Play-Jour,$45) - construction set Checker Challenger (Fidelity Electronics,$160) Electronic Boxing (Bambino, $40) Electronic Space Invader (Extex,$45) Fore Par Table Golf (World Wide Games, $99) - carroms-like golf game Football II (Mattel, $30) Frisbee and Master Frisbee (Wham-O,$4&$6) Gunfighter (Bandai, $35) - electronic gunfight Head to Head Hockey (Coleco, $40) - Electronic Hockey Microvision (Milton Bradley, $50) - handheld cartridge based electronic game Odyssey 2 (Magnavox, $180) - video game system (TV) Omar II (Tryom, Inc, $80) computer backgammon opponent Rubik's Cube (Ideal, $10) Sensory Chess Challenger (Fidelity Electronics, $150) Skyro (Parker, $5) - flying ring Split Second (Parker, $50) - handheld computer game (8 games) Tomytronic Electronic Tennis (Tomy, $35) Track Ball (Wham-O,$10) - "laccrosse-like racquets" Video Computer System (Atari, $180) - the Atari 2600 VCS Weird Wands (Weird Products, $5) - Dexterity game Wildfire (Parker, $50) - handheld pinball Wizard (Waddington's House of Games, $50) - four electronic games
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1.
Board Game: Nevo
[Average Rating:5.76 Unranked]

Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Invicta, $15, Easy, 20 minutes, strategy
"Despite the title and Omar Sharif's picture on the box, this is a purely abstract game that requires no knowledge of arithmetic"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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John Hansen, $11, medium, one hour, chance/strategy
"More than in any other mystery game, players are made to feel like real detectives"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Waddington's House of Games, $13, medium, 30 minutes, strategy
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4.
Board Game: Acquire
[Average Rating:7.43 Overall Rank:99]

Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Avalon Hill, $15, medium, 90 minutes, chance/strategy
"Acquire is the classic game of getting in on the ground floor" "A delicate sense of timing is important, but greed and a lust for power also help."
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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TSR Hobbies, $10, difficult, one hour, chance/strategy
"Losing a game to awful green things from outer space invariably makes the crew want to play again"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Lakeside, $7, easy, 45 minutes, strategy
"The challenge is to trap the opponent in a maze without getting into the same predicament yourself."
Listed as "Blockade"
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7.
Board Game: Boggle
[Average Rating:6.24 Overall Rank:1273]

Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Parker, $6, easly, 5 minutes, strategy
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Parker, $9, medium, 15 minutes, chance/strategy
"Can't Stop is a gambler's dream"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Parker, $8, easly, 1 hour, chance/strategy
"classic family game"
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10.
Board Game: Clue
[Average Rating:5.60 Overall Rank:5616]

Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Parker,. $9, medium, 1 hour, chance/strategy
"Clue is still THE classic detective game"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Edventure, Inc, $14.95, difficult, 90 minutes, chance/strategy
no picture in the database
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Conquest, $35, medium, 2 hours, strategy
"A cross between chess and wargames"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Eon Products, $12 (expansion kits are $4 each), medium, 90 minutes, chance/strategy
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Essex Game Co, $50, medium, 30 minutes, chance/strategy
"An excellent gambling game"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Avalon Hill, $15, medium, 4 hours, strategy
"granddaddy of role-playing wargames"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Ideal, $40, difficult, 45 minutes, strategy
"It is not electronic Clue, but then you can't play Clue solitaire"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Robert Abbott, $18, easy, 45 minutes, strategy
The pieces and layout in this picture exactly match the picture in the magazine.
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Avalon Hill, $13, medium, 10 minutes, strategy
"True, you can devise your own trivia games, but you won't come up with something as well put together as Facts in Five"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Avalon Hill, $15, medium, 90 minutes, strategy
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Avalon Hill, $13, medium, 1 hour, chance/strategy
"most Monday morning quarterbacks we know choose it as their gridiron"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Ideal, $35, easy, 1 hour, strategy
"Game of the Generals"
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22.
Board Game: Go
[Average Rating:7.77 Overall Rank:40]

Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Milton Bradley, $10, medium, 1 hour, strategy
"Thought by many games to be the finest pure strategy game ever invented, this game of territorial capture is still not well known outside the Far East."
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23.
Board Game: Grass
[Average Rating:5.96 Overall Rank:2537]

Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Euro, $10, medium, 30 minutes, chance/strategy
"the card game that Cheech and Chong have been waiting for"
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Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Lakeside, $7, easy, 10 minutes, strategy
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25.
Board Game: Junta
[Average Rating:6.91 Overall Rank:414]

Stephen Roney
United States Ladera Ranch California
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Creative Wargames Workshop, $12.95, difficult, 4 hours, chance/strategy
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