Unsplash

This is my entry for the Gaming in the 70's contest being run by @archdruid.

Gaming in the 70's was slightly before my time... However, it was still a period where there were some iconic game that were being made. I have fond memories of two games from my early childhood that, upon a little bit of research, I discovered were created or released in the 70's! So, there I have a connection to a decade in which I was only just dimly aware of, and definitely not old enough to play any games!

Computer gaming of that time were a far cry from the gaming of today's standards, due to computing power limitations and general unavailability of Personal Computers. That sort of thing would really take off in the next decade or two, before falling into a bit of a decline due to the prevalence of console kiddies needing their hands held and nappies changed through every testosterone filled power trip.

However, before I offside too many of the younger gaming generations with my old man crankiness... I should introduce the two games from my early youth that made such a mark that I still remember fondly in my aged senility....

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Can there be any more iconic game than Hungry Hungry Hippos? This is the classic parent's nightmare game... it is definitely NOT a quiet game as four kids (or two with two hippos each) go completely nuts and hammer away at the plastic lever that pushes out the hippo head to snap up some of those juicy juicy white balls. So many kids would have grown up thinking that the primary food source of hippos was a funny desert plant that looked like a white ball....

The idea for the game was developed by Fred Kroll in 1967, but it was published in 1978 by Milton Bradley. Oddly enough, I had absolutely no idea that all the different hippos had different names! Apparently they were named Lizzie Hippo (Purple), Henry Hippo (Orange), Homer Hippo (Green) and Harry Hippo (Yellow)! There was a layer to the game that I evidently missed out on.....

There were two types of players in this game... the crazy smasher... hammering as fast as possible on the lever to grab every ball as fast as possible (and driving the parent's completely nuts!)... or the careful sniper.... hanging back, and snapping out to grab that elusive spinning, whirling ball with a single considered shot. Or you could be a mix of the two... if you played the rules where you dumped all the balls out as fast as possible, then the crazy machine gun approach to grab the maximum balls in minimum time... followed by the careful snipe as the number of balls thinned out.

.... why is this not a thing?

Mastermind

This next game, Mastermind, was an interesting one. I remember playing it heaps with my younger brother. As it was a hand me down game from a family that had older kids (about 5-10 years older), we had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what it was and how to play it!

So, we just made up our own games with playing the different coloured pegs on the board... you know, the sort of things that kids do that make absolutely no sense to anyone else! Just making patterns, or pretending that pegs were people that were moving around the board....

... it turns out that the game was a sort of code-breaking game, where one play sets a 4 coloured code and the other player is supposed to try and guess it whilst been given rough hints from the in game feedback given by the other player. So, it is a simple cryptographic puzzle for proto-cryptographers, which is not so surprising given that it was invented in 1970 by Mordecai Meirowitz who was also a postmaster and communications expert.

In the "real" version, there are algorithmic ways to play... which is what the game is likely aiming to train in budding cryptographers. So, in many ways, it was a different experience to the earlier "Hungry Hungry Hippos", which had a different sort of algorithm for winning!

Conclusion

So, these two games are games that I grew up with, of which I have very fond memories... albeit in a different decade! Very different in style, but somehow, both very very satisfying to the child in me! I wonder what sort of games that my own children will find lying around our house... we do have lots of board and card games... plus the new-fangled computer game types as well! It will be interesting what they will remember in several decades time!

Humble Bundle

Have you heard of Humble Bundle? It's a place to get some really great deals on Games, e-books and comic bundles. However, if you sign up for a Humble Bundle Subscription (12 USD per month) you get some really nice bonuses!

1. A 100+ USD bundle of games delivered direct to you each month, redeemable on Steam, Uplay or direct download (depending on the game). This includes recent Triple A games!
2. Access to the Humble Bundle "Trove", a list of 60 games (and growing...) which are free to play as long as you remain a subscriber!
3. Additional Discounts on the Humble Bundle store, with the choice of supporting charities, Humble Bundle or developers in whatever percentage that you wish!

Humble Bundle Subscriptions, it's a no brainer for the dedicated gamer!