During Christmases past, children would find all sorts of simple games under the tree: Tiddlywinks, pickup sticks and board games could amuse young minds for hours.
Batteries and computer chips have made much of kids' play an electronic spectator sport today, but there are signs of some push-back.
Retailers are now offering a variety of vintage-style games, and many baby boomers are seeking out the toys they remember fondly -- puzzles, board games and the like.
Steven Josephson, owner of The Toy Box store in Mamaroneck, N.Y., said board games are always a big seller, "but in the last couple of years, they've really been popular. People remember the old-fashioned games like Monopoly, Stratego, Sorry, and want their own kids to play them. Parcheesi's come way back this year."
At the New York International Gift Fair last fall, gift retailer Wild & Wolf drew crowds to its Ridley's collection of vintage-style games. The line features many old favourites, including marbles, jacks and tumbling blocks (available at Burkedecor.com, among other sites). The package designs are retro too: cardboard or tin boxes, muted colours, early 20th-century-style lithography.
And indeed, the visuals are part of the appeal of these games. There's something charming about a toy that doesn't come in a loud, primary-coloured box or a plastic case.
Hasbro has teamed up with Target this season to offer classic board games in wooden boxes, including Life, Clue, Risk and Scrabble.
The key woprds now "are nostalgia, family, tradition and longevity," says Riann Henckel, a forecaster for Sphere Trending, in Waterford, Mich.
If you're interested in the actual original board games you played as a kid, you'll find sources online. Prices are often surprisingly modest -- in the $20 range.
Los Angeles-based game collector Desi Scarpone has been an aficionado of board games since he was young, and rues the day he let his mom get rid of his old ones. Scarpone, author of Board Games and More Board Games (Schiffer), sells games from the 1940s through the 1990s at his website, 4gamesgoneby.com
They include some rare games like 1951's Space Pilot, 1967's The Monkees, 1939's Pinocchio and a copy of the only Beatles game ever made, Flip Your Wig.
"There's been a steady resurgence in vintage board game popularity for the last several years. The children of my generation have children of their own, and they want them to feel the same joy and excitement they originally felt when playing these games," Scarpone says.
While today's game graphics tend to scream for attention, "People respond to the innocence of the artwork they remember in a vintage game," he notes.
Vintagegameworld.com offers a comprehensive array of mid-century games and browsing can be a visit back in time. There are old faves like Aggravation, Monopoly, Hi-Q and Careers, but also Easy Money, Acquire and Stock Market ("Anyone can make a million!").
Before there were Gears of War or Battlefield, you could play Tobruk, a war-strategy game based in Second World War North Africa, Arab-Israeli Wars, in which you re-enact tank battles, or the classic Risk.
The site's also got games that exploited TV culture of the '60s and '70s: Man From U.N.C.L.E., Happy Days, I Spy and Six Million Dollar Man.
If you're lucky enough to still own an old favourite but misplaced some parts, they have substantial inventory. And if your instructions are long lost, you may find them here too.
-- The Associated Press
Online
www.burkedecor.com - Ridley's games, $6-$16
www.target.com - Hasbro classic games, $20 range
www.4gamesgoneby.com - collectible board games
www.vintagegameworld.com - vintage board games
