Games
Board Games From the ’80s Are Rebooted for Generation X
Updated favorites are sweet nostalgia for parents—and they just might separate today’s teens from their smartphones.
In 1981, Milton Bradley Co. released what may be the most Generation X board game ever. The Dark Tower—a fantasy adventure with flashing lights and sound effects emanating from a titular plastic tower—was a huge hit with kids. It even had its own, slightly weird television commercial featuring Orson Welles.
Four decades later, those kids are entering middle age, some with children of their own whose hands seem welded to smartphones. Perhaps out of nostalgia or a last-ditch effort to engage their offspring, those Gen Xers are now looking back to a time when fun didn’t require a glowing screen.