My secret passion: board games from the 1960s.

Don't judge!

But out of all the many wonders that the Internet has created, surely one of them is that I can play board games on their boards from the 1960s, thanks to eBay.

The best of these is Acquire. In the Games Hall of Fame (yes, there is one) Acquire came out in 1962 and was released by 3M. It's technically about hotel chains on a grid-like board, but that's only a small part of the story. Like many good games, even when it's not your turn, the other player's action has a direct effect on you (as opposed to say, Monopoly where the game play when it's not your turn doesn't affect you much). Also, it only needs three players, but can accommodate more. It's also got a pretty good balance between skill and luck. And, a game takes about an hour with four people, and is quicker with fewer. I get to play it once a month or so with my dad and my friend Phil.

A close second would be Diplomacy, which came out in 1959 (also in the Games Hall of Fame). Diplomacy is like Risk (released in 1957, so also of this era but not nearly as good) but without the dice. There is no luck. I like diplomacy because of the challenge, but it's hard to play. First, you need 7 for it to be really good, but can make do with 5. And even 5 is hard. Second, you need at least three hours. But if you can get over those hurdles … it's pretty great. I play online with people all over the world, communicating anonymously as the King of France or Czar of Russia. But it also means the games take a few months, which–obviously–has some significant drawbacks. Strategically, it's just a whole lot of fun and was apparently popular with JFK, Kissinger, and Cronkite (not that they played together, although that would have been pretty interesting to watch).

Again, thanks to the Internet, I've tried some other old board games from the era. Mary got the Nancy Drew Mystery Game, and we tried a game my mom played when she was growing up. Acquire was so great we tried two other development games: Square Mile (which I'm still a fan of) and Prize Property (which was a real dud). I've played Junta! a few times (a game where you run a banana republic and try to cheat the citizens out of their foreign aid money). And speaking of cynical games, how about the one from 1971 called Lie, Cheat, and Steal, wherein you are a corrupt politician trying to embezzle funds from your campaign and buy votes (the game ends when you buy 500 votes to win the election).

Part of the fun is the artwork, too. I love the illustrations and the aesthetic. Makes for a fun night of game play.