It's Goodwill Gaming Week here at Goodwill Hunting for Geeks! All this week I'll be featuring a game or games that I've picked up at Goodwill. Some of them I have mentioned here before, but I'll be going into greater depths. Other games I'm showcasing for the first time... like today for instance.
Today I'm going to feature a board game I found at Goodwill for 1.99. The MAD Magazine Game from Parker Brothers! I was a big fan of Magazines like MAD and CRACKED when I was a kid. They were definitely one of my gateway drugs to comic book collecting. So I was pretty excited to see Alfred E. Neuman's gap-toothed grin peaking out at me from the board game section at my local Goodwill.
The box evokes all the great insanity that you know and love from Mad Magazine. It's pretty busted up, and yellowed with age, but the artwork still looks great regardless.
The rules were not included in the box, but there's a Wikipedia page that gives the full run-down. As far as I could tell before looking at Wikipedia, the object of the game is a sort of anti-Monopoly, where the goal is to lose all your money first. There are various ways of gaining money on the board, and ways of losing it, giving it away, trading it, etc.
Here's the least glare-y photo I could get of the game board itself. As is the strange purview of most old games, the board itself is in MUCH better shape than the box is.
These are all of the accessories that were still included. "MAD Money" and cards to draw from the pile with various different instructions. Missing are dice and pawns, and I don't know how many of the cards there are supposed to be. There's obviously not enough MAD money included to cover the kind of exchanges described on the cards and board. (Forgot to get pictures of some of the cards, and I'm too lazy to go do it now...)
Here are some close-ups of different squares on the board to feature a few choice panels.
As you can see there's some work from MAD alums Dave Berg, Don Martin, and Mort Drucker, along with the rest of the rogue's gallery of MAD artists. Spy Vs. Spy has a pretty big presence on the board, as does the ubiquitous Alfred E. Neuman for obvious reasons.
The game looks like fun to play. I think I'll scalp some dice from my dice bag, fish some cheap plastic figures out of a bin for new pawns, and maybe make a few more pieces of MAD money out of construction paper and give this bad boy a whirl.
Remember, all this week I'll be focusing on Goodwill Gaming, meaning I'll be featuring games I've picked up at Goodwill. So I will be back really soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!
You just brought back a flood of memories. I so remember having this game now. I haven't thought about it in many years!
ReplyDeleteGlad I could flood you!
DeleteOne time my psycho clean-freak mom got this brilliant idea to throw out all my (worn around the edges, but otherwise perfectly fine) board game boxes and replace them with Rubbermaid plastic containers because they "looked neater" and were "more durable." I told her she also just made all of my games "more lame." I never had much interest in playing with them after that. Half the excitement of playing board games is poring over the box art, agonizing over which one you want to play, hoping you'll have as much fun as the stock photography family on the cover.
ReplyDeleteWe've done that with some of our card games, just because they were taking up a ridiculous amount of space... but doing it to board games seems sort of like sacrilege. What kind of board game doesn't have a big, long, garishly colored box? Thanks for taking the time to check these all out by the way.
DeleteOf course. I read everything you post.
DeleteI used to have this! Found it at a flea market as a teen but bein a teenager and all, didn't value it like I should have. We played that game sooo much! Now that I'm older and more appreciative of things, I OFTEN kick myself for letting my nephews tear it up and nonchalantly leavin it behind when I moved out.... So glad to see it here. I know it will be treated with the utmost kindness.
ReplyDeleteNow off to actually read the whole post (I was too excited to even finish before commenting!)
I keep seeing some really wild ones, like The Miami Vice board game, or the Mork and Mindy Board Game... but they tend to be 10+ dollars, and I have no storage space for them... else I'd have a CRAZY collection of old board games!
DeleteI didn't know if you knew this, but some people sells parts out of old board games on Ebay. So if you are missing a piece of two out of a board game you bring home, you might want to check there. Also, you might want to try xeroxing game money at a local kinkos type place and then printing 3-6 a sheet to the appropriate colored piece of paper. An elementary school teacher I had once had a huge stack of Life game money that was printed off and cut with a paper cutter. It looked exactly the same, perhaps the cutting was crooked but it did the trick.
ReplyDeleteThose are great ideas! Heck, I could even make copies at home with my scanner/printer. I usually avoid eBay unless I'm looking for something desperately, so what I did was find an assortment of weird old figures like a cowboy, an astronaut, a pirate, etc. to use as pawns.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for chiming in! I really appreciate the advice.
Man, I passed on a copy of this game at the DI because it was missing the board, but now I wish I had that MAD money! You should for reals make copies and send them with Christmas cards or something!
ReplyDelete