VCR Board Games Of The '80s & ‘90s
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- Once again we return to wax nostalgic about board games, but THIS time we get to watch some TV while playing! That's right, we're talking about board games of the '70s, '80s, and '90s that utilized VCRs as a part of the game.
Now let's pop in that VHS tape, set up the game pieces, and press play on some of our favorite VCR board games!
If you enjoy the video, please consider liking it, commenting on it, and even subscribing to the channel. We'd love to have you join in on the fun!
RetroDaze Website: www.retro-daze.org
RetroDaze is a nostalgia related channel that celebrates EVERYTHING from our childhoods, mostly from the '70s, '80s, and '90s. This includes movies, TV shows, video games, toys and action figures, comics and magazines, music, and much more!
Celebrating Yesteryear - In this series of videos, we explore a variety of nostalgic subjects with an emphasis on being both informative and entertaining. We take inspiration from some of our favorite nostalgic channels here on UA-cam, including Recollection Road and Rhetty for History.
RetroDaze Channel -
/ @retrodaze
Visit the GenXGrownUp channel to enjoy more content from your host, Jon! -
/ @genxgrownup
Visit our resident writer's official website to check out all that he has published recently! - www.anthonyjrapino.com
If you're looking for video editing services that are top notch, check out our editor Alyssa LaBotz's official website! - www.labotzmedia.com
Special thanks to Will Padilla of the 1980s Now podcast for providing the Sylvester Stallone impression - www.1980snow.com
Written By: Anthony J. Rapino
Hosted and Narrated By: Jon Reddick
Edited By: Alyssa LaBotz
Produced By: Anthony D. Grate - Розваги
Not a board game but I used to have Captain Power as a kid. It was a bad ass live action show, which interacted with their action figures, which combined with their vehicles, turned everything into a interactive video game. It’s was bad ass!
Indeed! We covered it in our “5 More Forgotten Toys Of The 1980s” video! ua-cam.com/video/7mmDshCJBFE/v-deo.htmlsi=lsIFjq_b0DzFbOhm
@@RetroDazeawesome. I’m a new subscriber of yours and I need to catch up on all of your videos.
Was this 1987? If so i remember the show and interactions. It was a decent idea
The training tapes were pretty good as well. High quality animation from a Japanese company, they were fun to watch even without the toys being involved.
@@mrvxg4820That is awesome! Thank you coming along for the ride with us. We have a great deal of fun doing this!
My friend played the Warrior in the Dragon Strike VHS board game. There was actually plans for a sequel or tv series planned. But due to greed it never materialized.
Really? That’s pretty neat to have a friend involved in the production!
Too bad that those plans for a sequel and show didn’t happen. Would have been cool to see.
I used to play Dragon Strike it was a DnD type game with a VHS tape.
That one seems to have quite a few fans, based on the comments we’ve gotten.
We loved Doorways to Adventure. We played this a lot and even modified the rules later. I still have this in my game collection.
Very nice! Do you still break it out every now and then?
Doorways to Horror was my favorite growing up.
It definitely captures that campy, over-the-top vibe of classic monster movies.
Oh hey, it's Nightmare! Glad to see I'm not the only one who remembers it 😁
Seems like the one that most remember if the conversation on VCR games comes up.
I remember it too.
Same here! I had it as a kid. Wish I still had it now 😅
I didn't realize there were so many different VCR board games. When I was a kid I had Atmosfear: The Harbingers and I thought it was such a cool experience.
They were quite popular for a very short time. Some of them were… not well executed? 😆
Dragonstrike! It was one of my favorite VHS board games. It combined Dungeons and Dragons, at the height of its first burst of. mainstream popularity, with the growing "dungeon crawl" board game genre.
All brought together by the increasingly pervasive VCR!
Loved playing Atmosphere. Great party game. Keep up the awesome work!
Thank you Jayme!
Great video. I was surprised to see so many I knew nothing about. I've held onto a few over the years like Rich Little's VCR Charades Game, the VCR Quarterback Game and Doorways To Horror. I still play 'em ever so often; prolly because I'm old and misty-eyed ;). Myself, I believe games like this would have fared much better if Laserdisc had prevailed over VHS. I absolutely love your channel, and really appreciate the effort you put in. Thanks for being awesome!
Thank you so much for those kind words! We love what we’re doing here, and we’re glad that we can bring some good memories back now and then for folks.
Also, VCR Charades with Rich Little? Now that’s got to be a long forgotten one!
So Cool, VHS board games! It's awesome to end the Trilogy like this. Unfortunately, I didn't have any VHS games growing up but I did have the DVD games though.
I did have a Nickelodeon Scene it game along with a Disney trivia game for my PS2. Both of these were really fun to play!
The format was really perfect for trivia style games, especially with DVDs and the ability to select chapters!
I collect the Nightmare/Atmosfear games and even got the latest crowdsourced anniversary deluxe edition. My family loves playing them.
Awesome! Which versions do you have?
I remember playing star trek tng back in 94. As long as you kept pace it was a fun game
Nice! Still own it?
I actually had the original purple box of the Nightmare VCR board game the gate keeper creeped me out sooo much as a kid it gave me the mentioned nightmares the box advertises with its name!
There was definitely a creepy vibe given by the Gatekeeper. You’re not alone!
As someone who owns both Nightmare and the DVD version Atmosfear, I can tell you that Nightmare on VHS is a million times better. Had no idea about the expansions, the mummy game or the 30th anniversary game. Have to do some digging.
Hurray for VHS! 😁 Definitely check out the other offerings and see if any of them are worthy of the Nightmare/Atmosfear name.
Nevver played one, never even knew they existed until high school or so in the early 2000s, at which point they were gone. Was always confused how they worked since VHS is linear and can't branch off like DVD.
Depends on the game...apparently some have easily visible 'markers' to fast-forward/rewind to in a pseudo random-acess manner. The game I own a copy of, Star Wars, works in a time/event-based manner. The players move around the board as the tape plays in the background, with periodic events on the tape causing changes in gameplay...along with the tape being an overall timer for the game as a whole (events get more frequent as time goes on, and if the tape ends before the players complete the game, they all lose).
Indeed. We wore those VCRs out fast forwarding and rewinding for gameplay. 😆
VHS games were great for family gatherings. I remember playing Commercial Crazies when I was really little, followed by the Clue VHS game in class one day, Nightmare and Gargoyles at sleepovers, and then Scene It! on DVD at almost every family Christmas party until the fad was over
Sounds like your family rode the VCR game fad from shore to shore! 😆
Back in 1993, I was absolutely obsessed with the "Dinoland" VCR game. It was an Italian product, obviously made to cash in on the Jurassic Park craze. It was set on a "lost world"-type island and the players had to rescue various species of dinosaurs, before the island exploded and sunk into the sea. As far as I know, it's completely unknown outside Italy (and even in Italy it has been mostly forgotten). I used to play it almost every day for about a year, until I could recite word for word most of the dialogue from the tape! 😅 And I think it was a pretty good game too, even though I must be wearing massive rose-coloured glasses when I think about it. 😃
Talk about a rarity! Makes us wonder if any exist out there!
Never knew Clue had a vcr game. I would have loved it.
It is a bit more complicated to play than traditional Clue, but still a lot of fun!
@@RetroDaze are games like that made anymore?
There may be some that use phones to act in a similar fashion.
NIGHTMARE! YES! BARON SEMEDI WAS MY BOY!
The Gatekeeper disagrees! 😆
I remember playing a Gargoyles VHS board game while watching the movie. Good times.
Nice! Wait… how were you watching a movie AND the VHS tape for the game when needed? 😝
This is one of the few I actually own, which makes my decision not to include it in the video incredibly strange. 😛
@@RetroDaze They played the movie first then they showed the game. A movie and game both in one video tape.
Woah. That's cool.
@@RetroDaze Agreed.
Long Live Teddy Ruxpin! Would love to see that done as a video
Poor Teddy has so far only got a bit of a mention in our Laser Tag video.
I remember him very well.
my brother and i used to watch the clue vhs like it was a movie. i loved the poison ring.
If nothing else, you could be entertained simply by the segments on the tape! 😆
I personally don't remember playing any VCR boardgames but I'm getting old lol. Thanks for the great content Jon! 👍🏻🇺🇲
They constitute a pretty small blip on our radars at the time. They came and went so quickly.
It's my pleasure, ZMan! It's a true group effort. 😁
those commercials were great
The crazy, over-the-top personality of the Gatekeeper is hilarious. 😆
I had a wwf wrestlemania vcr board game as a kid in the late 80s
Was it any fun to play?
Back in the day, I had a few VCR board games. I definitely had Clue, but two other notables I had include PGA Tour VCR which include various clips of golfers over the years making approach shots with varying degrees of success, and Eyewitness Newsreel Challenge.
This game has participants viewing a short clip and then making up trivia questions based on the clip just viewed. The trivia questions had to reflect what was actually seen in the clip.
Woah. Both of those sound like neat ideas. It’s funny how many ways there were to use the VHS tapes as a part of gameplay.
I can just play the Doorways to Horror VHS from beginning to end. I actually love old horror movies and I think this is what introduced me to them. I had an older sister that played the game a ton with her friends but I only played it a hand full of times. I remember we put the VHS tape on at a low volume during halloween parties. One that you missed that is really good, for presentation if nothing else, is commercial crazies. it would have funny commercials from back when 'where's the beef!' Wendy's ads were running. It had some with the micromachine guy also, I think fedex ads? Anyway, you watched the ad and then had questions about it.
We had a few comments on the Commercial Crazies VHS game. That and Eyewitness Newsreel Challenge seem to have been fairly popular.
Thank you for sharing your memories of the Doorways To Horror game!
I still have Doorways To Adventure in my game cabinet. It’s fun.
Hopefully you break it out once in a while for fun!
I missed the VCR board game craze (middle school). I do have the 80s Trivia Pursuit cards (80s fan!!) and when The Gameboy came out and well...VCR board games???!! And little knowledge and interest diminished
In college, Tetris was - and remains- my FAVORITE game!! (Rubik's Cube a close 2nd); my career is accounting (meshing the numbers)- love puzzles- AND your AWESOME videos!!!! 🎉😊
Anything using numbers is a game right up your alley then!
Very cool + I love Clue. Subscribed.
Excellent! Thank you for joining us on this little nostalgic journey.
I loved the clue vcr game
It was definitely a cool new take on the game.
I remember my sisters had the board game Nightmare back in the day that game scared the shit out of me when i was a kid and i was just watching because i actually thought my sisters were communicating with a devil/demon thing. 🤣😅
Oh geez! Nightmare actually gave you nightmares! 😆
As a kid, I played the Candy land and Chutes and ladders games to death.
Nice! You still have those?
Nightmare was awesome, wish I still had it and wish I had the sequals.
You can find them all on Ebay or Etsy, but be prepared to pay a pretty penny 💰!
@@RetroDaze nope wont bother with the sheisty at Ebay. I will get Atmosfear elsewhere.
My sister (five years older than I am) loved board games, but neither she nor I had any interest in VCR board games....much.
I was gifted VCR Basketball during the 1980s, and have no idea what happened to it. I don't care either lol.
It was fun for a bit, but wasn't for more than a few games.
This was the down side of some VCR board games... replay value. Depending on the way in which the video portions were incorporated into the game, you could end up knowing too much to continue playing more than a few times.
I remember playing Nightmare with brothers a long long time ago when I was little I used to be scare of playing how the Gatekeeper talks to you and have to answer him few year later I played again I’m not scared of it anymore the Gatekeeper looks just like Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars
Hillbilly Aussie Palpatine. 😆
I was fixing to say Surprised u didn't mention the gargoyles vcr game...then u brought it up at the end😂. I actually bought it last yr for 1 dollar to add to my vhs collection
Nice! Did it come complete with everything, or just the VHS?
@@RetroDaze it was complete. I love my vhs but man do they take up a ton of space. I had to slow down lol
Agreed. Have a buddy with like 400 tapes. They need their own room!
I loved vcr quarterback. I still play
Nice. Some games never get old!
Same, my friend had NFL and College football.
7:21 This VCR board game of Robocop is not supposed to be for kids because is a R-rated movie. In the Philippines when Robocop was shown in Philippine Cinemas back in the 1980s and it was for kids. But until Robocop 2 was shown in Philippine Cinemas back in 1990 it was confirmed that it was not for kids anymore it was for adults only
The game maker basically edited out most violence, replacing any pertinent scenes that had violence with text.
YES👏MY👏GATEKEEPER
He watches you sleep at night! Don’t cross him. 😆
I still have the Star Wars board game myself (though I lack a VCR anymore...fortunately, someone has posted a copy of the entire thing on UA-cam, IIRC). The multi-level game 'board' is interesting, and the video, amusingly enough, makes a great 'background noise' to play while doing something else.
It’s always cooler when there is new footage used specifically for these games.
@@RetroDaze Yep. Granted, most of the new footage for the SW game was of Darth Vader stalking down a hallway and using a wall terminal, along with the DS cruising though space. :-)
@@VulpisFoxfireHmm. Well that is an efficient use of the property, using the one character that can be played by pretty much anyone. 😅
I used to own the Clue VCR game. Never played it, but watched the video.
Well at least it was entertaining even just to watch. 😉
I had Doorways to Horror and Eyewitness Newsreel Challenge, which you watch an old clip then try to answer the most questions about it as you can.
A few others have mentioned the Eyewitness Newsreel Challenge! Seems to have been fairly popular among the VHS board games available.
Gargoyles was pretty sick back then
It still has many fans with fond memories.
I got the Wrestlemania vcr game at a yard sale when I was young I was only about 8 and the rules were way over my head so I just watched the matches and ignored any game instructions 🤣
That’s the nice thing about these types of games… all else fails, watch the tape. 😆
I love the Star Trek the next generation VCR interactive board game. You get to wear com badges and rank buttons and you had Garwon yelling at you. I had it back in the day and I wish I still had it.
What’s it fetching on Ebay?
I had the 3 stooges game and another game that had funny commercials including commercials with John Moschitta in them.
Man… the creative uses of VCR board games knew no limits apparently! 😆
Hopefully you'll do one on the dvd games as well
Noted for a future episode, cheers!
We picked up atmosfear the harbingers and the Star Wars vcr game in the 90's. If I recall they were a little difficult to set up and the first time thru felt a little wonky to play. However, once you learned the rhythm of the games they could be a lot of fun to play. Thanks for the memories.
Very cool that you had both of those! Glad to be able to bring back a few memories of them for you.
I saw a copy of the STAR TREK:TNG VCR Game shown in the video. It would be great to spotlight it and its’ unpublished sequel.
Unpublished sequel you say? 🤔
One of my brothers had the wrestlemania VCR board game, but we lost the videotape for. I no longer have the board game itself, because I sold it on Mercari. I also had the board game for Gargoyles the movie, which was given to me by the school librarian back when I was in extended transition in the early 2010s, but I think I gave it away, which I wish I didn't. I'm still trying to find a copy of it on Mercari.
In the case of DVD board games, I have two versions of Scene It: the classic version and the Disney version. I also have the Lilo & Stitch DVD board game, Islands of Adventure.
Nice collection you have there APO!
I actually still have a VHS copy of Gargoyles with the DVD board game that came with it. I've sadly lost all of the pieces so I can't play it anymore, but it's a nice novelty.
Anyway I have two other VHS board games in my collection. One called Eyewitness News which features clips from various genres where players make up their own questions and answers, and Charades featuring Rich Little.
Ahh, Rich Little. Man of 1,000 impressions. What an odd thing for him to be involved in a VHS board game. 😆
i just watched the CLUE game VHS without playing the game. multiple times
You’re not alone! We’ve had few a comments stating this very thing.
I would love to see you do one on DVD board games and then one on video game versions of board games. Keep the series going!
Awesome! We’re most excited that you’re digging these! Great suggestions too.
Born in 1982 and growing up in the 80s and 90s I had no idea this genre of games existed.
Oh wow! There is a whole new area of nostalgia open to you now. There was something for everyone in this genre!
One game you didn't mention was Commercial Crazies from Mattell. Before the age of the Internet, to see commercials from outside your region you pretty much had to be in that region watching TV. This game had 40 commercials from all over the country and even Canada. Looking back, I would say the highlight of the tape is in the introduction where the rules are being told to you by fast-talking celebrity John Moschitta, you know, the Micro Machines guy!
We had our fair collection of VCR Games. We had both Doorways to Adventure and Doorways to Horror. Doorways to Adventure was by far the better game. Doorways to Horror was probably better known for the many clips of classic horror movies. You had clips from the Three Stooges VCR Game. Had that one as well. Also had Disney Cartoon Classics. I used to just watch the tape a lot instead of playing the game. In the case for both Disney and Three Stooges, they would show many of the shorts but they were heavily edited. I also had both Clue games as well as Eyewitness Newsreel Challenge. To this day, I still have most of these games, although they haven't been played for years.
What a great variety of games! Even better that you still have most of them. It’s fun to see all the ways companies used the videos to work within the games. Some pretty creative ways. You mentioned some great examples (Commercial Crazies, Eyewitness Newsreel Challenge).
Thank you for watching and sharing your memories!
Fun note, most of these games can be played still on pc using tabletop simulator.
Awesome! Thank you for that info!
Very cool, thank you!
VCR NFL Football game is really fun too!
Actually Jimmy is doing a video on that game!
@@RetroDaze awesome! Cant wait! Love your channel man!
Thank you Nick! We greatly appreciate you coming along on this nostalgic ride. 🚘
Hey, Nick! How do I pronounce the rest of your UA-cam handle so I can properly shout you out in the VCR Quarterback video I'm putting together?!! Nick-WUZ? Wuh-zee? Thank you :)
@@NostalgAK Thanks man! It's Nick WOOOOOZ :)
Never played any of these but I did have some DragonStrike sessions with my freinds. I can't remember if it was VCR or DVD though
DragonStrike Eh? What was it like to play that?
I have dragon strike too! 😅
Aww, no Rap Rat?
Rap Rat? Must… look… up
You missed the sports based games. I had the VCR Quarterback Game and the VCR College Bowl.
We did indeed. Unless you count TV wrestling as a sport? 🤔 😂
I remember watching a full VHS rip upload of D&D Dragon Strike, the live action dramatization was cheesey to say the least. And the script was written by G.I.Joe/Transformers writer Flint Dille.
Flint Dille! He was part of a podcast series discussing all things D & D. Great stuff, that was.
EDIT: Actually maybe that was an audiobook. Can’t recall now.
I not surprisingly never had those video board games like average games when I was a kid but I do remember my cousins having a DVD and VCR game back in the 90s and 00's.
Did you guys not have a VCR, or just didn’t have interest in the games?
@@RetroDaze I had a VCR for my favorite shows and movies absoluetly lol, but I don't know if they were available at a lotta of stores like Blockbuster or Walmart.
Ahh! Understood.
I've played Nightmare/Atmosfear. It wasn't that bad, although not one I wanted to play again.
Was this recently or back in the day?
@@RetroDaze It was around 2010 or so. A friend of mine had a copy of Atmosfear (VHS version), and he convinced the gaming group to give it a shot.
Well at least the antiquated mechanics didn’t scare everyone off and they gave it a shot.
Atmosfear is the GOAT for VCR Board Games
No arguments here!
I had Flash Match Junior, it was fun exactly 1 times, then there was basically no reason to play it again. I used to always dream about owning Nightmare when looking through the VCR games section of the JC Penny catalog, never got to play it though. Only other time I've owned a game on video playback media was the Dragon's Lair version they released on DVD, it worked decently, but the load times while it jumped disc chapters between action selections made it a pretty rough go. Cool idea though!
Right!? If the loading issue could have been overcome, it would essentially be an exact recreation of the game experience.
Rumor has it that to this day, famous actor, Samuel L. Jackson, is banned from playing 'Don't say Fluffypuffer!' at gaming conventions nationwide.
😆 Just trying to imagine gaming conventions full of adult men playing Don’t Say Fluffypuffer.
Still have my Dragon Strike vhs! It is a trashy guilty pleasure till this day!
😆 Not THAT trashy.
Same Here... It's MY
GOTO DND🐉BoardGame!
(4-Boards, Multidice,
A Bunch Of Plastic
Villians! DM-Shield).
About TheONLY Game
That Trumps It is "X-Men
X-Mansion; UnderSiege!"
There is something missing from this series, videogame-boardgames. Like Tank attack on the Amiga or Quest for the Rings on the Videopac/Oddesy 2
Indeed. But are they video games that play like board games, or board games in digital form? Kind of a gray area.
Never knew it exsisted
Which one?
I need to see if my Clue VCR game
Bring it on over and let’s play a few rounds! 😆
My sister wouldn’t let me play nightmare
Well that just made you want to play it more, right? 😆
Any hope on a dvd board game retrospective?
Did you have any favorites?
@@RetroDaze Scene It was HUGE I remember
Hey Jon I had the wrestle mania VCR game back in the 80’s that’s the one with Hulk Hogan and Andre the giant on the cover of the game box do you remember that one? That was years ago by the end wrestlemania 3-4
Is that the game we mentioned in the video? Or a different one?
And, please note: the little girl is smiling 😊 ..😮?? 🤷♀️
😆 Wondered when someone would comment on that thumbnail image. 😂
I have nightmare. I found it at the good will or savers thrift store. I bought it thinking it might be worth money. Is it worth money by the way?
It does fetch a good amount, especially if sealed!
The vhs board game nightmare was renamed in certain markets as atmosfear due to an copyright issue with an board game with an similar name from MB Games that was loosely based on an 80’s interactive game show for children called knightmare on Uk television.
Atmosfear was an series of nightmarishly board games featuring the ghouls as the host and the franchise was founded in Australia by the four cowboys that specialize in themed board games and the series was ported into an computer msdos game for pcs .
The series was created to challenge each player’s fears and phobias that they have to write it down on fear cards and you have to beat both the board game and stop the video before the time runs out.
Awesome insight there! Thank you for that.
What about dragon strike
Had several folks commenting on Dragon Strike. Seems it was pretty popular in the VCR game world.
My friend and I played nightmare when I was in 4th grade. We got aggravated with it halfway thru and quit.
We’d say you were likely not alone. There were probably a good amount of kids who just ended up watching the tape and not playing at all. 😆
I had the Gargoyles pack in game that came with the movie but holy smokes it stunk on ice. The actual game was boring.
Ahh. That sucks. At least the movie was good? 😆
@@RetroDaze I thought game was fun.
@@RetroDaze The movie was good and the game was free, so I wasn't complaining too much. That being said it's basically chutes and ladders with an added thing with the VHS every time lighnting flashes you have to follow the instructions on the tape. Which just functions as an animated action card. In a game that already has action cards. It adds a bit of spontaneity but the VHS part of it is more novelty than function.
WTH was Video Board Games? I had a DVD game and all that stuff but idk what that is I'm 26 bossman.
Your parents can fill you in. 😉
Watch the video...
Um I may have already posted this..but, I feel posting is so new to me..I noticed in you introduction clip..there's a 5 or 6 year old girl playing Nightmare with a game board that doesn't go together..& I don't think a little kid should be playing Nightmare. I remember this game and played at friends house when I was 19..Can't help but noticed this. Sorry for repeating myself..
Ha! That is some good old-fashioned Photoshop right there. Done for humor. 😆
Had the stooges, paintball and some horror ones. They were shitttttttttttt
Well, they weren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But many seem to have fond memories of them.