Sunday, August 21, 2016

At Flashbak: 55 Years of Milton Bradley's Stratego



This week at Flashbak I wrote about one of my favorite games, and one that my son Joel and I play frequently.  He actually beat me on our second match, which suggests I’m either a terrible player, or that he’s a really great one.  

Or maybe both.

Anyway, here’s a snippet and the url for my retrospective of Milton Bradley’s Stratego: 



“Created in the Netherlands in the early 20th century, Stratego was first licensed by Milton Bradley in 1960, and introduced to the public in 1961.

The fifty-five year old game was marketed as a “fascinating two-handed strategy game” in which the object was to “move hidden value pieces to outwit your opponent and capture his flag.”

Although wooden pieces were used originally for the game, they were soon replaced with red and blue plastic pieces (which didn’t fall over as easily…), and soon after Stratego became part of the pop culture lexicon. 

Over the years there have been sf versions, nostalgia and ultimate versions, and in 1982, an electronic version was even introduced.

In recent years, there have been Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Chronicles of Narnia and Transformers Editions of the Milton Bradley game as well. 

Since 1991, Stratego competitions have been held around the globe.

On The X-Files (1993-2002), Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) has even mentioned his love of Stratego occasionally. Indeed, it was the very game Mulder and his sister Samantha were playing in the year 1973, on the night she was abducted (ostensibly by aliens).

For me, my love of Milton Bradley’s Stratego stretches back to the early 1980s, and my teenage years.  My father would come home from work, and bring the Milton Bradley game down from the top shelf of his office closet. Then we would sit down at a small table to play each other.  I usually lost, but I loved the time we spent together matching wits and armies (not to mention tripping over bombs)...”

Please continue reading at Flashbak.

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