You got to love the Retro Board Games

My interest in some of the classic board games such as Space Crusade or HeroQuest stems from childhood.

My eldest brother got his hands on this board game that was filled with little plastic monsters and heroes. It came with trap doors, chests, and all these beautifully illustrated cards. It was a cardboard box packed full of adventure and ghoulish foes!

The box artwork had a depiction of a muscular barbarian swinging a broadsword in a gloomy dungeon. Beasts, evil knights, and zombies were swarming what would be regarded as the heroes from all its darkest corners. This foreboding pit or dungeon is where the game was set.

I wanted to be part of the adventure. I wanted to play…

But, the complexity of the game was too much for me back then, I was simply too young — still had a while to grow into my ill-fitting clothes and 1980’s style glasses. And my brother wanted to play with his friends. Being the little brother, I was strictly excluded here.

I was not allowed to be one of these adventurers and certainly was not allowed to play with my brother’s twenty-something friends.

In spite of that, I was quietly a determined little character. Looking out from my severely scratched and wonky glasses I set my eyes upon that game.

I was going to play eventually. Badly, but I was going to play.

This game, like a few that were created around this time, had already hooked me in. Just seeing it was enough. This board game called HeroQuest. And eventually, I did get to play.

HeroQuest was a tabletop adventure game where you could explore an evil wizard’s dungeon, kill monsters and loot treasure chests. That is a general idea but a terrible and unfair oversimplification of what it was.

This was a board game that captured the imagination of many — including myself and brought many hours of fun. There were numerous stories and quests to battle your way thought and a whole range of miniatures to paint. The game was cool. It was as simple as that.

But what is arguably more impressive. Is how this game has stood the test of time. There are collectors and tabletop gaming enthusiasts that still want to play it today.

Then there was Space Crusade

Space Crusade, similar to HeroQuest. But by no means the same. Was a Space Ship crawler. You took on the role of either the alien player or one of the Space Marine squads armed to teeth with weapons such as missile launchers, Power Gloves, and a Power Sword!

I would also go as far as to say that Space Crusade was the game that introduced new players to Warhammer 40k. It contained the early Chaos Space Marines, Tyranids, and all sorts. Each seemingly random alien was a sample of the world from a much bigger gaming universe.

I think, that both Space Crusade and HeroQuest would be playable now. Don’t just leave it on a nostalgia trip. Dig your Space Crusade or HeroQuest out and take you, children or nephews, on a tabletop adventure!

And thanks brother, for inadvertently allowing me to play HeroQuest to do a few terrible paint jobs of your miniatures.

Now, after 30 or so years is as good a time as any to look at playing these classic games. I will leave it to you to create an adventure and find.

Cover artwork copyright GW and MB games

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