The Thrifting Gamer - Tape Removal

The Thrifting Gamer Reviews 7 -

Parker Brothers 1955 edition

Game: Careers
Publisher: Parker Brothers
Designer: James Cooke Brown
Year: 1955
Price Paid: $2
Playing Time: 60 minutes
Recommended Ages: 8 and up

Synopsis: Careers is a game in which players make life decisions as they move around a board attempting to fulfill a success formula; a balance of fame, fortune and happiness, determined by the player at the start of the game. Various career path and unexpected events will add or remove points for these three categories. The first player to fulfill their success formula is the winner.

Components: 6 player pawns, 2 six-sided dice, 28 Opportunity Knocks cards, 28 Experience cards, Paper money with $50, $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 denominations, 1 pad of score sheets, 1 rule book

Thrifting Notes: There are numerous versions of this game, and the components are not compatible. The 1955 and 1965 releases are the same, as are the 1971 and 1976 releases. After that, each release has different player pawns and paper money style. The 1979 release features a simplified rule set, and the 2008 release only has 4 player pawns.



Gameplay: In Careers, players start by coming up with a Success Formula, which is a combination of Happiness points, Fame points and money (in thousands of dollars) that adds up to 60 points. This is kept secret from the rest of the players. That Success Formula is each player’s victory condition. Each player begins with a $1,000 salary and $1,000 in cash.

A player sheet is used to keep track of various data that is accumulated throughout the game. The hidden Success Formula, Fame and Happiness levels, Salary levels, Occupation Record (keeping track of the various career paths completed) and College Education.

Players take turns moving clockwise around the board, rolling 2d6. Around the board there are a number of career paths. When a player lands on an entrance to a career path, there is a requirement for entry, such as a certain amount of money, previous experience in the career or the appropriate education. If they player has the requirement and chooses to do so, they may enter that career. In a career, 1d6 is used to roll-and-move. There are special spaces that force a player to roll a certain number to leave that space, and another space where a player may STAY on that space if they roll a certain number. Opportunity cards are gained by landing on certain spaces, while Experience cards are gained by either landing on certain spaces or completing career paths.

Once a player completes a career path, they add it to their Occupation Record. When a player completes a career path, they earn one Experience card for each time they have completed that path. So, if a player completes a path once, they receive one Experience card, twice and they receive two Experience cards for a maximum of three cards. They may complete the path more than three times, but will only receive three cards for each successive completion. Also, after three completion of the same career path, a player may “retire”. The only benefit of retirement is that they may, in place of rolling dice, move immediately to the Vacation space (different versions have different vacations: Florida, Hawaii, etc) on their turn, which offers 4 Happiness points each time you land on it.

One exception to this is the College path. It may only be followed once. Upon completion, instead of Experience cards, the player receives a $2,000 increase in salary and may choose a specialized degree. There are four specialized degrees possible (again, various degrees depending on the version of the game) and a general College degree. Each specialized degree may only be earned by one player, so successive players to finish college must choose between the remaining degrees.

Play continues until a player fulfills their Success Formula and reveals it to the rest of the players. If players become bankrupt during the course of the game, they are not out of the game, but must start from the beginning again, with a $1,000 salary and $1,000 in cash.

There are several other rules regarding trading, paying other players for services and “bumping” players (only one player may occupy a space at a time). There is also a “partnership” variant that allows up to 6 players to play as three teams, pooling their points and money, with Success Formulas totaling 120 points.

Over the years, the contents of the board have changed. While the points, cards, actions and cost stayed relatively static, the careers themselves were altered, as were a lot of the flavor text for different spaces. The original 1955 (and 1958 and 1965 editions) featured Uranium Prospecting in Peru, Expedition to the Moon, Farming, Hollywood and Going to Sea as potential careers. These were altered in the 1971 release to careers such as Ecology, The Arts, Space, Sports, and so on. 

Review: Considering the time in which it was released, this was a pretty forward-thinking game. Various paths to victory, secret agendas and decisions that affect your ability to accomplish things later in the game (ex. an Engineering degree allows you to become a Uranium Prospector for free). The theme is pretty solid, as well. As you move around the board, each circuit represents a year of your life, earning a salary at the start of each new year. As you gain more experience in a career, more rewards come your way and your salary increases, and the spaces that have required actions, while a bit random, fit in with the theme of “life”. Pretty impressive for 1955.

There is also a bit more strategy than you normally would see in a game of this vintage, with planning on how to achieve your goal, trying to figure out other player’s Success Formula and perhaps preying on them when they fall on hard times through bartering. There are choices to be made throughout the game, and it plays very quickly.

All that said, this is a roll-and-move game of the highest order, and so luck plays a major factor here. You may WANT to be an astronaut, but you didn’t land on College until after someone else already earned the Science degree, meaning you now would have to pay to be allowed into NASA. Also, some of the random action spaces are just frustrating, forcing you to lose a lot of money or roll the correct number to start moving again. Thematic, perhaps, but it takes away from the overall experience.

Despite these flaws, Careers is a pretty fun game. Not deep, but it allows players to invest themselves a little into an old style game and try different formulas in successive playthroughs. Also, the partnership variant helps reduce the annoyances of the actions spaces and random events. Best with 4 players (6 in a partnership game) and good for families, Careers is still good, light fun for a game from this era. 

Rating: 7

The Thrifting Gamer Reviews 6 - Dinosaur Island

Parker Brothers 1980 edition

Game: Dinosaur Island
Publisher: Parker Brothers
Designer: Uncredited
Year: 1980
Price Paid: $1
Playing Time: 30-45 minutes
Recommended Ages: 7-14

Synopsis: Dinosaur Island is a game in which you are rival photographers attempting to take the best pictures of the dinosaurs, recently discovered on a remote island. The better the photograph, the more points they are worth. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

Components:1 game board, 48 cards, 4 photographer pawns and bases, 1 six-sided die

* My copy of the game has only 46 cards, with a breakdown listed below:

Photograph Cards:
5 - 0 point
7 - 1 point
6 - 2 points
5 - 3 points
5 - 4 points
1 - 5 points

Attack Cards:
1 - The creature leaps
1 - The monster attacks
1 - The beast charges

Weather Cards:
1 - Eclipse of the sun
1 - Tropical Storm
1 - Nightfall

Action Cards:
4 - Rescue opponent
4 - Opponent loses supplies
2 - Opponent caught in quicksand
1 - Opponent attacked by dinosaur

Thrifting Notes: None 



Gameplay: Players roll and move around a board comprised of six connected areas, each with a number of different spaces and eight cards. Landing on different types of spaces cause different events to happen:

Starred spaces allow the player to draw a card from that area. 
Spaces with two stars allow the player to draw two cards from that area. 
Dotted green spaces allow the player to take a card from ANY area
Go To spaces send the player to certain other locations on the board
Red Spaces indicate danger and require a die roll. Even rolls are safe, odd rolls force the player to discard one card from their hand

The cards are comprised of photographs, each with a point value, weather cards that you can play on an opponent to prevent them from drawing a card on their turn, attack cards that force the player back one die roll and message cards that cause some action to occur, such as switching places with an opponent or taking a card from an opponent’s hand.

Players roll and move around the board, collecting photograph cards and attempting to prevent their opponents from doing the same. Once all the cards on the board have been taken, the game ends and the player with the most points wins. There is no mechanism to handle a tie.

Review: This is a bad game, comprised entirely of luck and take-that play. There is no strategy involved, nothing you can do to improve or counteract die rolls, nothing you can do to prevent bad actions from happening. You simply move around the board collecting cards and messing with your opponents until the cards run out. The artwork is bad, the components are cheap and flimsy and the gameplay is boring. The end of the game drags out by rolling the die until someone lands on the needed starred space to gain the last card, which can be prolonged even further by action cards. The only thing that keeps this from being a 1 in my book is the player interaction can be somewhat amusing and there are some VERY simple choice that players can make (which direction to face, direction choices at intersections). Otherwise there is nothing here that elicits ANY kind of fun.

Rating: 2/10

The Thrifting Gamer Reviews 5 - Kings In the Corner

Game: Kings in the Corner
Publisher: Jax
Designer: uncredited
Year: 1996
Price Paid: $2
Playing Time: 30-45 minutes
Recommended Ages: 7+

Synopsis: Kings in the Corner is a card game in which players attempt to get rid of all the cards in their hand by laying down cards using rules from Solitaire. Chips are used to add points to a pot that the winner of each hand earns. First player to reach 100 points wins the game.

Components: 1 standard 52-card deck of playing cards (+ 4 joker cards), 80 plastic chips, 1 octagonal board, 1 rule book.

Thrifting Notes: This game can use any standard deck of playing cards and any type of plastic chip to replace missing pieces.



Gameplay: Each player is dealt seven cards and the 80 chip are divided as evenly as possible amongst them (removing any remainders from play). One card is placed in each tabbed stall on the board. Everyone antes one chip into the pot, then take turns playing as many cards as they can from their hand. 

Cards are played onto the cards in the stalls. A player may play only a card lower in sequence AND opposite in color onto a card (for example, a red ten on a black jack). Any king card in a player’s hand must be immediately placed in an empty corner of the board (spaces between the tabbed stalls) at the start of their turn, or as soon as the king is drawn. Failure to do so is a three chip penalty paid into the pot. Players may move cards from one stall to add to another stall, if the first card of the first stall can be played on the last card of the second stall. Any empty stalls may be filled in with any card from the player’s hand.

On their turn, a player may continue to play and move cards as long as they can make a legal move. If a player is unable to make a play, they must put one chip in the pot for each card remaining in their hand. At the end of each turn, if the player has any cards remaining in their hand, they must draw a card from the draw pile. Failure to do so results in a one chip penalty to the pot.

A hand is over when one player uses all of the cards in their hand. That player wins the chips in the pot and earns points equal to the number of chips that player has (the chips from the pot plus any chips the player still possessed). The chips are then evenly redistributed for the next hand. The first player to accumulate 100 points wins the game.

Review: This game is essentially multi-player solitaire. There is no interaction, no strategy, just the skill of recognizing the required pattern to be able to play cards to the table. If you have a bad hand, there is nothing you can do to do improve it. If you have a good hand, you will do well. The game itself isn’t bad as much as it is boring. There are almost no choices to make, and the choices there are (where do I play this card?) are obvious. Fans of solitaire may find the game enjoyable, but that is about it.

Rating: 3/10

The Thrifting Gamer Reviews 4 - Quiddler

Set Enterprises 1998 edition

Game: Quiddler
Publisher: Set Enterprises
Designer: Marsha J. Falco
Year: 1998
Price Paid: $1
Playing Time: 30 minutes
Recommended Ages: 8 and Up

Synopsis: Quiddler is a card game for 1 to 8 players in which players are trying to spell words with the cards in their hands to earn points. Hand size increases each round for eight rounds. At the end of eight rounds, whoever has the most points wins.

Components: 118 letter cards, 1 rule book

Letter Card Inventory:
A - 10
B - 2
C - 2
D - 4
E - 12
F - 2
G - 4
H - 2
I - 8
J - 2
K - 2
L - 4
M - 2
N - 6
O - 8
P - 2
Q - 2
R - 6
S - 4
T - 6
U - 6
V - 2
W - 2
X - 2
Y - 4
Z - 2
QU - 2
IN - 2
ER - 2
CL - 2
TH - 2

Thrifting Notes: When counting for completion, be aware there are two additional cards with ads for other games in the box, so the full count should be 120 cards. If it is not, check that all the cards in the box are, indeed, letter cards.



Gameplay: Game play begins by the dealer shuffling the deck and dealing 3 cards to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the table as a draw pile and the top card is flipped over to start a discard pile. 

Starting on the dealer’s left, a player will take the top card from either the draw pile or discard pile. If they are able to use all but one of the cards in their hand to spell a word or words (a minimum of two cards must be used for each word), they lay down their hand, discard the remaining card and “go out”. Otherwise, they discard a card, returning their hand to it’s starting size and play continues clockwise.

If a player goes out, the remaining players all have one turn in which to draw a card and may play any words they have in their hands. After every player has had a chance to play their cards, the round is over and scored. Each successive round adds another card to each players hand, so round two will deal 4 cards, round 3 will deal 5 cards, etc, for eight rounds.

To score a round, players add up the total number of points show on the cards they were able to lay down. Players with cards remaining in their hands subtract the points shown on those cards. Players also keep track of the longest word they were able to make, as well as the number of words made. After all eight rounds have been played, the totals from all the rounds are added up. The player with the longest word made receives a 10 point bonus, as does the player with the most words made. If there is a tie for either of these bonuses, no one receives the bonus. The player with the most points after bonuses are added is the winner.

The solitaire game is fairly straightforward. Eight stacks of five cards face down, then one card face up on each stack. The player tries to make words with the face up cards. One a word is made, those cards are removed and the cards that were below them are flipped over. Play continues until all cards have been used (and the player wins) or no more words can be made.

Review: Quiddler is a light, set-building card game that takes elements of word games like Scrabble and marries them with traditional Rummy-style games. While certainly not deep, the game has a certain amount of strategy with it’s hand management and limited card counting. At 30 minutes, it’s an enjoyable little filler for those that like word games, and, because short words score just as well as longer words in the end, younger players are not necessarily at a disadvantage, so all ages and skill levels can play together. The game plays well with 2-5 players, but I would not recommend more than 5 players, as the down time between turns can get a bit long. This game should play fast, as there is not much to consider while waiting for your turn to come. The solitaire variant is also fairly decent, feeling a lot like Klondike solitaire with letters. Additionally, the card art is wonderful, with lettering taken from an early Gaelic manuscript.

Quiddler is not a bad little game that works well as a filler or a family game. It can be taught in less than 5 minutes, plays quickly and handles up to five players well. If you are a fan of word games and traditional Rummy-based card games, Quiddler is a good choice.

Rating: 7/10

The Thrifting Gamer Reviews 3 - Boggle

Parker Brothers 1980 edition

Game: Boggle
Publisher: Parker Brothers
Designer: Allan Turoff
Year: 1972
Price Paid: $2
Playing Time: 20-30 minutes
Recommended Ages: 8 and up

Synopsis: Boggle is a word game for 2 to 6 players which you attempt to find as many unique words as you can in a given time limit from a 4x4 grid of letter cubes (dice).

Components: 16 letter cubes, cube tray, tray dome, 3 minute sand timer. Needed, but not included, paper and pen/pencil for each player

Letter cube faces:

A-B-O-J-M-Qu
N-T-G-V-E-I
A-E-D-M-P-C
A-D-E-N-V-Z
A-O-I-A-C-T
E-L-U-P-S-T
I-R-O-F-B-X
R-O-M-A-H-S
E-E-Y-I-F-H
I-S-E-H-N-P
T-O-K-U-D-N
W-G-L-R-I-U
D-E-N-O-S-W
C-L-S-R-A-E
A-B-I-L-T-Y
L-G-K-Y-U-E

Thrifting Notes: The letter cubes are the same for all variants of Boggle (Big Boggle, etc) and missing cubes can be scavenged from any variant. 

Gameplay: The game is set up by first giving each player a piece of paper and writing implement, then putting all the letter cubes into the tray dome. Put the tray upside-down on the dome, turn the tray and dome right-side up, shaking the cubes and moving the tray until all the cubes are in place in the grid and laying flat. This is best done at eye level to ensure both that the cubes are flat and that no one can see the letters on top. The tray is then set down between all the players, the dome is removed, the timer is started, and players have three minutes to find as many words as possible and write them in a list. Once time is up, the round is over and players compare their lists for scoring (see below).

Words are formed from adjoining letters, vertically, horizontally or diagonally. No letter cube may be used more than once per word, backtracking is not allowed, no proper nouns may be used. Plurals may count as separate words, and words within words, such as “spare, spa, par, are, spar, pare” are also acceptable. Words with the same spelling and different meanings are not counted more than once and the same word in different locations in the grid are also not counted more than once.

Players are trying to find unique words: words that no other player has found. If any other player has the same word written down, everyone with that word must cross that word off from their list. At the end of the round, players will, one at a time, read off their list of words, and all players will follow along, crossing off any duplicates. Once all players have read their lists and all duplicates have been removed, scoring commences.

Scoring is a simple scale based on the length of the word discovered. For each unique word remaining in a player’s list, they will receive the following points:

Num. Letters - Points 
3 - 1
4 - 1
5 - 2
6 - 3
7 - 5
8+ - 11

Words that use the ‘Qu’ face of the letter cube count each letter, not just the cube, so, for example, ‘squid’ would be a 5 letter word. Once scoring is completed, a new round begins. The game is over when a player reaches the target score. In the original rules, the target score was “50 points, 100 points, or whatever score is considered by all to be a reasonable target”.

Review: Boggle is a good game. Not a great game, but a good one. If you are not a fan of word games, then this will not, obviously, be enjoyable, but for those that enjoy a bit of wordplay, this is a fun, accessible game that can be played with most anyone of varying skill levels. The randomness of the setup keep it fresh, the need for unique words force you to write down any word you see, to defend against your opponents scoring, rather than just look for longer, higher-scoring words and the three minute timer keeps the game moving apace. There is a little strategy involved, deciding what length of words to search for, how long to spend on each area of the grid, etc, but nothing deep at all. A full game should take no more than 30 minutes, a little more with more players.

What keeps this from being a great game are a few issues. Firstly, it is rather easy to memorize patterns of letters that are commonly seen. The randomness is good in the game, but with a 4x4 grid, there are only so many combinations possible. Once these patterns are recognized, it becomes more of an exercise in fast writing rather than word searching. This can be addressed with house rules, limiting certain common words, for example, but will make the game a bit less fun. Also, whomever removes the dome to start the round and turns the timer will have slightly less time than the rest of the players. This sounds minor, and it is, but it is still a disadvantage. Additionally, it does not scale well with more players. It is at it’s best as a two player game, with good head-to-head competition. Up to four players, it still scales well, though scoring tends to be lower as more duplicates are common. With five or more players, the reading of lists can be a bit slow, and the game becomes more about finding obscure words, as most common words will be found by at least two players. Also, and this is a minor quibble that was rectified in Big Boggle, the translucent dome makes it difficult to prepare the grid without seeing some of the letters. Big Boggle added a dome cover to block the faces of the cubes, which helps.

All in all, Boggle is a good, fast game that can be played together with people of all ages. The box says ages 8 and up, and that seems reasonable. It is easy to teach quickly, can be challenging, especially with people of the same skill level. A pleasant diversion, and a good, vintage word game that is not Scrabble.

Rating: 6/10

The Thrifting Gamer Reviews 2 - Booby Trap

Parker Brothers 1965 edition

Game: Booby Trap
Designer: Frank W. Sinden
Publisher: Parker Brothers
Year: 1965
Price Paid: $2
Playing Time: 20 minutes
Recommended Ages: 12 and up

Synopsis: Booby-Trap is a dexterity game for 1 to 6 players in which you attempt to remove pieces from a board that are held together by a wooden bar attached to a spring without causing the bar to move.

Components: Spring board, rulebook, assorted game pieces

At least 20* of each piece:
Large, red discs
Medium, blue discs
Small, yellow discs

* In early printings of the game, there were a random amount of pieces included in each game, but usually a minimum of 20 per piece.

Thrifting Notes: Be sure to check that the spring still retains its tension. If the board has been stored with the spring compressed for a long period of time, the spring can lose its strength and not provide the appropriate tension. Also, don’t worry if the amount of pieces don’t match. As long as there are roughly 60-70 pieces, it is most likely what was shipped with the game.



Gameplay: The game is set up by randomly placing all the game pieces on one side of the board, with the spring-loaded wooden plank holding them firmly against the walls of the board. Each player in turn will attempt to remove a piece from the board without causing the wooden bar to move. Points are scored depending on the size of the piece successfully removed, and points are subtracted if the bar moves more than half an inch. Ruler markings on the side of the board are used to determine how far the bar has moved.

On a player’s turn they are allowed to touch exactly one piece, and must either remove the piece or pass on their turn. If all players pass two times consecutively, the next player is required to remove a piece. Turns continue in a clockwise manner until there are as many pieces left on the board as players in the game.

When a player is successful in removing a piece without the bar moving more than half an inch, they keep the piece in their score pile. If a player attempts and fails to remove a piece (the bar moves half an inch or more), they are penalized the value of the piece they were attempting to remove. Both the piece they removed and an equivalent amount of pieces from their scoring pile are removed from the game. The values of the pieces are as follows:

Large, red pieces: 3 points
Medium, blue pieces: 2 points
Small, yellow pieces: 1 point

If a player does not have enough pieces in their score pile to pay a penalty, they incur debt, which must be paid as soon as they have enough value in their score pile to repay it.

Review: Booby-Trap is a fast, simple dexterity game. Fans of similar games, such as Jenga, will enjoy this one. The larger reward for more difficult pieces and the leeway of that half inch of movement makes the game more interesting and fun for older players and is a rare one that really can be played with the maximum amount of players and still be enjoyable, as the turns are quite fast. The solitaire rules, on the other hand, are pretty lackluster (successfully clear the board without tripping the spring bar more than three times). 

The game plays fast, usually under thirty minutes, and can be taught in about two. It is a decent family game that all ages can enjoy together. The manufacturer recommends ages 12 and up, but younger children can easily play this game. 

Rating: 6/10