Uncle Pennybags

  My coolest/cutest find while thrifting was "The Board Game Geek Game." If you don't already know the website Board Game Geek is one of the most popular site among gamers. It provides a description of the game, ratings, photos, and links to tutorials. Players can rank games and the games are given an average rating out of 10. The site also allows members to log the games they own, trade games, interact through forums and private messages. This game was released in October 2009 by R&D Games, to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the BBG website. It was designed by Richard Breese and authorized by Scott Alden and Derek Solko, the BBG creators. The game involves two main concepts, the player acts as a boardgame publisher delivering games to 6 shops and also as a Geek who is trying to purchase games for their groups collection. The game consists of 6 rounds, and each round has the following 6 actions: 1. Games arrive at the warehouse. 2. Deliver games to the shops. 3

 May 27, 2024, Memorial Day, finally the day has arrived for me to close out the Rich Uncle Pennybags blog. Originally started in January 2022, I couldn't handle new home ownership and writing the blog at the same time. The blog sat silent for most of 2022, I picked it back up again in January 2023, and unfortunately became sick in November 2023 until the end of April 2024.  To say I learn a lot would be an understatement. Halfway through 2023 I changed direction of the blog to include all the vintage board games I found while looking for Monopoly games. It was a fun unscripted ride. You never know what will turn up when thrifting, picking up a curb side dump, at a game night, or even talking to a friend.  Initially I toyed with the idea of writing a blog about solitaire games. I regret not following through, many of the games I acquired I wanted to play but didn't have anyone interested in playing with me. There is also a huge time commitment to learning to play a new game. In

 One last game to write about from my curbside finds. WordSpiel was released in 2017 by Play Monster LLC. It's a word card game for 1 to 6 players. Players start with 10 letter cards. The deck is place in the middle of the table, the first card flipped over, and the timer starts. Each player has 60 seconds to complete their turn. The first player must make a word using the flipped card as the first letter of the word. Play then passes to the next player who must use the last letter or letters (going as far back as they wish) to make a new word. The cards must be used in the order played to make the next word. If a player runs out of time or can't make a word they must pick the top card from the deck. Before looking at it the player must decide if they will add the card to their hand or place it at the end of the played cards.  Their turn is over and play moves on to the next player, if the card was placed on the board they must use this letter to form their word.  A round is ov

  Another mistake that could have been avoided. I purchased "Stock Block" from a antique dealer at the barns in Red Bank. He told me that it was the predecessor to Monopoly. Upon reviewing the game board and instructions I realize that I'd been had. This game was first released in 1976, and is almost a clone of Monopoly. The major difference being there are no property deeds, instead players purchase Certificate Cards. Players may then purchase additional shares of stock once they own a certificate.  They may purchase 4 additional shares per certificate and once they own a stock block, or all certificates of the same color, they may build one blue chip per square. The amount of interest they collect increases with each additional share or blue chip owned.  The goal of the game is to bankrupt all other players. In this game it's referred to "29ing" or "Crashing." Chance and Community Chest cards have been replaced by What? cards. When players draw a

 Solar Quest is a Real Estate game set in space released in 1985. It is based on the Landlord's Game, I no longer say based on Monopoly since we now know that these types of games originated from the Landlord's Game. Players build monopolies by purchasing planets, moons, and fuel stations. There are 11 color groups to build monopolies from and 48 properties to own all together. Players roll dice and move along blue dots to get from planet to planet. There are also black dots which represent the planets gravitational pull, players must use fuel to get past the black dots. At times a player maybe stuck rotating around the same planet/moon. The game play is not as linear as Monopoly. Players must also fuel their spaceships, they can buy fuel stations, and both refuel/charge others to refuel their spaceships. If a player runs out of fuel with no way to replenish, they are out of the game.   Game play also involves laser blast and laser battles. Players that are close enough to each

Billionaire is a wealth building game released by Parker Brothers in 1973. The goal of the game is to be the first to become a Billionaire. Luckily this is not another Monopoly clone, the similarity is that the game play involves bidding and auctions. The game can be played by 2-4 players. At first glance you'll notice a smaller board with only 20 action spaces, and 4 headquarters.  This leads me to believe that it's a much shorter game to play than Monopoly, reviews list average game time as 60 minutes. Players rolled the dice and can land on profit, power play, sealed bid, analyze or headquarters spaces. The profit cards are cash in this game, each player starts with 5 profit cards. When they land on the space they take the top card from the pile.  Power play cards may be played at once or held for future use. They are returned to the bottom of the pile after use. They come in the categories; Power Play, Security, Disaster, Espionage, Proxy Fight, or Analyze Any Investment. W

  The game of Easy Money was released by Milton Bradley in 1935. It was so similar to Monopoly that Parker Brothers sued and as a result the game was released again in 1936 with changes to the board. The new version no longer had deed cards, the property information was placed on the board, and the "give-or-take" space was removed, instead a player would pick up one of these cards if they rolled double. Railroads and utilities spaces were updated so there were no longer the same number  as and rent increases would not copy Monopoly.   The board is not color coded, players need to buy one property on each side first. Once they own these four, they can start to build houses and purchase more than one property on the same side. Like Monopoly when a player lands on an un-owned property they can purchase it or it goes for auction. Utility and Public Buildings don't have a set purchase price, when a player lands there for the first time in the current game it is auctioned off b

  I stumbled upon an old Parker Brothers game called Finance. It was originally released in 1932 and was a predecessor to Monopoly. It's based on the landlord's game and features similar mechanics. The version I will be writing about is from 1958. The major differences from Monopoly are there are no property cards, the information is found directly on the board, the railroads can not be purchased, there are no community chest cards, there are no hotels, and house come in a variety of colors.  This is a game for up to six players, each player has a different colored piece and matching color property circle. The banker will give each player two $500 and five $100, 50, 20, 10 and 5. Players roll the dice to determine who goes first, play continues in a clockwise direction. Players add the sum of the two dice, move to space indicated and performs the action. If they roll double they roll again.  If they land on an unowned property they can either purchase for the amount indicated o