1960s Games: Best Board, Card And Video Games

Plastic action games, Twister on the floor, and Spacewar! running on a lab computer.

Below: the board games of the 1960s, the card games people played, the video and arcade games of the era, and how games actually got played at home.

Handy for a themed party, a quiz round, a reminiscence session or working out what someone played growing up.

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Shop greetings cards Look back to 1960 Look back to 1961 Look back to 1962

Cards, prints and badges, made by us

Funny and warm greeting cards, art prints and pin badges, printed in the UK. We do not sell games - this guide is free to read, print and copy.

Congratulations greeting card for a boss promoted to police inspector, with text Congrats Boss Promotion to Inspector. Congrats, Boss! Promotion to Inspector Card £3.87 Minimalist white greeting card featuring bold 'World's Best Boss' typography in a clean black font. World's Best Boss Greetings Card £3.87 See You Later, Alligator (Funny Good Luck Card) See You Later, Alligator (Funny Good Luck Card) £3.75 'Rock On' hand gesture good luck card, ideal for a new job or congratulations. "Rock On" Good Luck Card £3.87

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Board games of the 1960s

  • Mouse Trap (1963) - the first big plastic contraption game.
  • Operation (1965), with the buzzer that made everybody jump.
  • Twister (1966), which turned the game into the players.
  • KerPlunk (1967) and Battleship as a boxed game (1967).
  • The Game of Life (1960) and Cluedo, Monopoly and Scrabble carrying on regardless.

Card games of the 1960s

  • Rummy and gin rummy, the everyday family card games.
  • Pontoon and Newmarket for Christmas and holidays.
  • Canasta fading, bridge steady, cribbage unbothered by any of it.
  • Snap, Old Maid and Beggar My Neighbour for children.
  • Patience, still the thing you played when the house was quiet.

Video and arcade games

  • Spacewar! (1962), written at MIT on a PDP-1 and copied onto every machine that could run it.
  • Ralph Baer's 'Brown Box' prototype (1967-68), which became the first home console.
  • Arcades ran on pinball, pushers and shooting galleries - electronic, not yet digital.
  • Electronic toys at home: Battling Tops, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots (1964).

How people played

  • Games became toys: bright plastic, moving parts, adverts on television.
  • Christmas television advertising decided what sold, for the first time.
  • Playground games ran alongside all of it - elastics, marbles, conkers, hopscotch.

Years covered in the 1960s

  • 1960 - Coronation Street began, national service ended and the sixties had not started yet. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1960
  • 1961 - The Beatles started playing the Cavern and Yuri Gagarin went into space. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1961
  • 1962 - Love Me Do, the first James Bond film and the Cuban missile crisis. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1962
  • 1963 - The big freeze, Beatlemania, Doctor Who and the assassination of President Kennedy. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1963
  • 1964 - Top of the Pops, pirate radio, mods and rockers, and BBC Two. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1964
  • 1965 - Churchill's funeral, the 70mph limit and the Beatles at Shea Stadium. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1965
  • 1966 - England won the World Cup, and then Aberfan happened in October. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1966
  • 1967 - Sgt. Pepper, Radio 1, colour television and the summer of love. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1967
  • 1968 - Manchester United in Europe, Dad's Army and a year of protest. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1968
  • 1969 - The moon landing, the Beatles on the roof and the end of the decade. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1969
  • That is every 1960s year we have written up so far: 1960 to 1969.

How to use this

  • Themed party: pick one board game and one card game from the list and have both out on the table.
  • Quiz round: read a game and ask for the decade, or read the year and ask for the game.
  • Reminiscence: ask what was under the tree one Christmas. Games get remembered better than clothes.
  • Anyone born in 1960 turns 50 in 2010, 60 in 2020 and 70 in 2030.

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Found your words? Now find the card

Shop greetings cards Look back to 1960 Look back to 1961 Look back to 1962

How to write it so it lands

  • Release years matter: a game can be invented in one decade and only reach British shops in the next.
  • For a party, pick a game people can join halfway through. Nobody wants to start Monopoly at ten o'clock.
  • Boot sales and charity shops still turn up the original boxes, usually with one piece missing.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

What board games were popular in the 1960s?

Mouse Trap (1963) - the first big plastic contraption game. The full list above covers the rest of the decade's boards.

What card games did people play in the 1960s?

Rummy and gin rummy, the everyday family card games. The card games section above has the others.

What video games came out in the 1960s?

Spacewar! (1962), written at MIT on a PDP-1 and copied onto every machine that could run it. The section above lists the arcade, console and computer games of the era.

Do you sell games?

No. We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. This guide is free to read and free to copy - charity shops and second-hand sites are the best place to find the older games.

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