A history: Video games to board games
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Jan 30th 2008 at 9:40AM }
He begins with the early games like Berzerk, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong (pictured). Quick recap of a few of those game's gameplay mechanics: In Berzerk you would flick the back of your guy and his arms would swing up knocking over the bad guy in the next tile; Pac-Man you pressed as hard as you could over marbles to make them pop into the protagonist, and in Donkey Kong there was actually a rubber band inside the arm to drop barrels -- if you got through a full game without a malfunction you were very lucky.
Yehuda takes us all the way from the strong beginnings in the '80s to the modern seventh generation in gaming. Definitely a gasp-inducing bit of nostalgia for any kid whose parents thought buying the board game was a reasonable equivalent to the video game.
[Via Raph Koster's Website]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ethan Rom @ Jan 30th 2008 9:48AM
I had that Donkey Kong board game and the Pac-Man board game. Neither were that much fun at all and didn't work right most the time. I wonder if I still have them somewhere. I might get a few bucks on Ebay for them.
Dustin @ Jan 30th 2008 10:12AM
Wow, that's actually pretty cool. I have the Nintendo edition of Monopololy, and I thought I was just the bee's knees. Going to have to pick up some of these games, now.
Draken Stark @ Jan 30th 2008 11:44AM
I can't say the transition of Monopoly from board game to video game was as popular as the Mario Party game series. However the same goes for the Mario Party card game/board game with the compatibility of the e-reader thingy majigy.
jsn @ Jan 30th 2008 10:21AM
the doom board game is actually pretty fun.
Gene Platt @ Jan 30th 2008 11:43AM
While the Doom game is fairly well designed, it received some well-deserved criticism for being too unforgiving. The mechanics in that game were later refined (and the difficulty balanced) in a fantasy hack-n-slash game called Descent (no relation to the old PC game). If you enjoyed Doom, I recommend you give Descent a try.
Gerwurztraminer @ Jan 30th 2008 11:29AM
I remember having the Pac-Man game when I was a kid. At the time I think I thought it was fun, but I don't really remember. I think I destroyed the game with Bazooka Joe bubblegum. I might give a few bucks on Ebay for it.
PhrawzT @ Jan 30th 2008 11:45AM
I had the Pac Man board game, though I lost some of the marbles. That game took forever to set up.
Draken Stark @ Jan 30th 2008 11:47AM
@Gene Platt
lol Hold on a sec while I turn the A/C on in hell...
Dahk @ Jan 30th 2008 1:17PM
I saw a Starcraft board game in the toy store a couple floors below where I work.
Someone go buy that board game and let me know how that goes =P.
plyx @ Jan 30th 2008 3:10PM
Holy crap I used to have that and didn't remember it until I saw that picture. Thanks for ruining 5 years of therapy, Joystiq!
scooterbaga @ Jan 30th 2008 7:36PM
Hell ya! Just ordered me some Nintendo Uno...
Jennifer @ Jan 31st 2008 1:38PM
When I was a hardcore video gamer, my most favorite game was Donkey Kong, and the fact that they made it a board game, which I am also a finatic of, is a very exciting fact. This is the first I have heard of them making it a board game and if I were to have heard about it when it first came out I'm sure that I might have been one of the first people to get that game. But I am very disappointed to hear how poorly they have made these games and now that you all are saying that it rare that you can get through a whole game without it breaking that makes me very upset. I am very glad to have heard of this now and not before so now my money can go into a better investment than to be disappointed in a game that would have started malfunctioning within the first time I played.