Retro is a term thrown about a lot these days. Anything that isn’t in the Now is retro, someone said to me “nice retro shirt” once, it just had a grandad collar, you can still get them but as I had had it a while apparently it looked retro. What is truly retro are old things, games consoles started this, people getting their old Nintendo's out and blowing on the cartridges once more. But we were still looking at tech, so out came the boards and because they were used they are classed as Vintage. I, without even meaning too, have become cool.
Monopoly in its various forms, scrabble, Cluedo, Jumanji and Trivial Pursuit have all had the dust blown off and set up on a Friday or Saturday night but now with an open bottle of wine. My wife and I have become fans of these older board games, even getting hold of an old family chess set, then trying to remember what to do and how the horse moves. Playing all these games sent me on a bit of a nostalgic journey of my childhood and the search began for a game, a game I never played much as a child due to my sister not wanting to play it, it was a classic boys game at the time. The name of this game was “Key to the Kingdom” a simpler version of D&D games out around the same time. I began on auction sites and retro selling sites, some had the game but with pieces missing and still wanting hundreds of pounds sterling or dollars for it. Really? Is this what retro and vintage have created? A world of greedy forty year olds, cashing in on the stuff hoarded in a loft or basement.
I gave up on the search, until a few weeks ago after a brain melting game of Trivial Pursuit we got onto the discussion of other games and my beloved but lost Key game came up again. And on a whim I googled it and there it was, right at the top and foremost at a vintage (that word again) games site, a small family run company and they had a full used version, in good condition with nothing missing, all for less than £100. I bought it straight away, without thinking about it, and finally after a few years and giving up I had paid money to someone late at night for this game.
Within a week it arrived and that Friday evening with wine in hand, we began playing a nerdy adventure board game from my childhood together, now who says romance is dead.
