May the Fourth Be With You

No batteries, mods or patches required. 

Back in 1977, the year of our Lord Vader, and the premiere of Star Wars (which would later be re-titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope), a new game came to town. Before home video game systems, and even before arcade video games became the norm, board games were all the rage. 

And that year the Star Wars game was on my wish list. I can't remember if it was given to me as a gift or if I bought it, but all I know is that as primitive as it was, I loved that game! Super simple to play and not very sophisticated  in appearance, this was merely an excuse to slap the Star Wars name onto yet another product. But since I was nuts about the movie (and I say movie in the singular because there was just the one at the time), I forgave Parker Brothers (toy and game manufacturer) for such a quick-off-the-assembly-line effort. I still own my beloved Star Wars game, though I haven't played it in decades. Wait, I might have hauled it out once or twice to play with my daughter when she was a wee lass back in the late 90's. 

Where does it plug in?

The mission is to escape the Death Star's trash compactor (bottom right on the board pictured above), evade Imperial soldiers and other obstacles, and get to the Millenium Falcon, whereupon one must enter hyperspace without any Imperial entanglements. Holy Toledo, what a gas! Yeah, right. Spin the dial, pick a card, move your cardboard token, yawn. Still, the game is still in one piece and is in reasonable condition considering it's nearly four decades old. 

Chewie just got the hyper drive operational, so next stop - the 1990's. Don't ask when... I have no clue when exactly I found this... the Star Wars game for Nintendo Entertainment System. Apparently, this was released in '91, but I know I didn't own it that early in the decade. I am pretty certain I found my gently used game cartridge later in the 90's. Mildly enjoyable but mostly frustrating, the game is based on the story of Episode IV. I haven't looked at the game in ages so I don't recall much about it. Still got the game hanging around here, still in fine working order. Maybe I'll set up the ol' NES again someday and give the SW game a whirl. And maybe figure out how to advance a bit further in the adventure. I was pretty terrible at it back in the day, so I could only get better. 

Let the Wookiee win