Pre-computer games

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Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Wasting time on an online game, I found myself thinking about the games we used to play on paper when I was a kid. Did anyone else ever play this one:

You mark out a grid of dots, 10 x 10. (or if posh, use graph paper). Players (it was normally 2, but no reason it couldn't be more), then take it in turns to draw in a line between two of the dots (no diagonals). If you managed to draw the fourth side of a square, you get to put your initial in it. At the end, (all the dots joined to make a grid of 9 x 9 squares) the one with most squares, wins... Obviously, at first, it's a bit random, but as the lines get added, you start to think more tactically - and sometimes one line can bag you two squares...

Seems terribly dull compared with Ninja Car Theft 8, or whatever, but I used to love it. The hardest part was persuading a parent to draw the grid of 100 dots... (or drawing it yourself - that bit was dull).

And there was the usual hangman and stuff too.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Remember that one - was actually playing this 'lines/boxes' game last week when we took the kids out for lunch, the restaurant had 'activity sheets' and this game was on it...:biggrin:
 

Willow

Senior Member
Location
Surrey
Arch said:
Wasting time on an online game, I found myself thinking about the games we used to play on paper when I was a kid. Did anyone else ever play this one:

You mark out a grid of dots, 10 x 10. (or if posh, use graph paper). Players (it was normally 2, but no reason it couldn't be more), then take it in turns to draw in a line between two of the dots (no diagonals). If you managed to draw the fourth side of a square, you get to put your initial in it. At the end, (all the dots joined to make a grid of 9 x 9 squares) the one with most squares, wins... Obviously, at first, it's a bit random, but as the lines get added, you start to think more tactically - and sometimes one line can bag you two squares...

Seems terribly dull compared with Ninja Car Theft 8, or whatever, but I used to love it. The hardest part was persuading a parent to draw the grid of 100 dots... (or drawing it yourself - that bit was dull).

And there was the usual hangman and stuff too.

those are still good holiday games.
 
Location
Rammy
Arch said:
You mark out a grid of dots, 10 x 10. (or if posh, use graph paper). Players (it was normally 2, but no reason it couldn't be more), then take it in turns to draw in a line between two of the dots (no diagonals). If you managed to draw the fourth side of a square, you get to put your initial in it. At the end, (all the dots joined to make a grid of 9 x 9 squares) the one with most squares, wins... Obviously, at first, it's a bit random, but as the lines get added, you start to think more tactically - and sometimes one line can bag you two squares...

we used to use graph paper that my dad had got free from somewhere
hangman was good too
battle ships

get a piece of paper each (needs to be 4 people or more) about the width of a supermarket receipt

everyone draws a head at the top and then folds the paper to show only the bottom of the neck, next person draws the body down to the waist including arms and hands, folds paper over as before
next person draws legs
next person draws feet

you can start at the feet and work upwards but you all must start with the same end.
for added hilarity start by drawing your own head and writing your name, then its a picture of you :biggrin:

a similar one is to write out, folding the paper and passing it on as before

boys name
+
girls name
+
went to
+
did...
+
saw
+
result of trip

however, playing this with 5-10 year olds is amsuing, playing it with 10+ you can get some dubious results...
 

Joe24

More serious cyclist than Bonj
Location
Nottingham
We used to play it in school.
Then in 6th form, the games changed. We had a Playstation 2 with a big tv, but the tv was taken away because people spent too long in there on the Playstation and not long enough working.
We now have a ping pong table:thumbsup:
 
For some reason, that reminded me of 'Slinky'!

Maybe they were next to each other in my toy cupboard! :biggrin:
 

peanut

Guest
battleships and minesweepers great i'd forgotten about them.
Someone ought to design the software for an online version in 3d so you can take your sub out on a mission against the former USSR awesome just thinking about seeing another sub coming out of the gloom or maybe a torpedo coming towards you. periscope depth scanning the horizon .

ahem sorry about that got carried away there :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 
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