Games are a multi-sense experience, the touch of the playing pieces, the sound of the laughter, the visuals of the bright colours and shapes, the smell of opening a new game box (it’s not just me, is it? That smell!) and the taste of ermm…. success? (Please don’t lick our game pieces!)
Let’s focus on one of these that’s not often highlighted, the sound of games.
We’ve chosen 5 classic games, recorded their iconic noises and have clips of them below… Below we’re going to reveal what they are and talk a bit more about these games that, if you’re of a certain age, will take you right back.
(We’ve realised for some reason these don’t work on iOS, sorry! They should work fine on PCs, Macs and Android phones at least…)
Sound 1
Sound 2
Sound 3
Sound 4
Sound 5
There we go, how do you think you did? Blame my poor recordings if you didn’t do well!
(we inserted a picture above so no spoilers are accidentally seen!)
1) The Red and Yellow Fellow
This was a bit of a cheeky one to start with, the noise of the discs being cleared in Connect4. It’s a total classic (you’ll hear that word a lot in this blog!) and gets such a lot of plays in our cafes… We’ve tried to find out why red and yellow were the chosen colours against that blue background, I mean, it’s iconic and stands out beautifully but there seems to be no known reason, maybe it’s just traditional now and the true reason is lost in the dark recesses of time… still, it wouldn’t be the same in any other combination.
That noise though, takes us right back!
2) All Fall Down
A lot of these noises may sound different depending on the surroundings, this one very much varies depending on the surface it’s played on. Yes it’s another cafe favourite, Jenga! Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay and has become a staple game in every family collection, yeah we love this modern twist on it but we still can’t resist a game of this too!
This game has been doing the rounds since the early 70’s and it’s estimated that over that time more than 4 billion blocks have been produced… Yikes! Imagine the noise THAT tower falling would make…
3) Like a Record, Baby
We’re showing our age, it’s low hanging fruit referring to that song by Dead or Alive every time we write about spinning stuff… ah well, that’s just the burden our punning selves will have to bear. In this instance it’s the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ style spinner from Game of Life being taken for a spin.
This classic was originally made in 1860 but you wouldn’t recognise it, it wasn’t until 1960 that the board you know and love was designed and the spinner made it’s first appearance. Before that it had a teetotum. Yeah, you read that right. A teetotum, what a great name! It’s just a specific type of spinning top but has a cooler name! Bring back the teetotum!
(Teeeee-tooooo-tuuuuum, what a lovely word, almost as nice to say as polyomino!)
We could talk about the changes over time that The Game of Life has undergone… hmm, maybe another time.
4) Pop, Pop
If you’re reading this in America, this noise is from Trouble, in Finland it’s named Kimble but here in the UK the game is known as Frustration. The noise is the awesome Pop-o-matic that resides in the middle of the board. Push down the dome and the dice that rests on the metal base underneath it jumps up on release and tumbles to rest shortly after. What a great noise this is too!
Who cares why they did this back in 1965, it’s truly an iconic noise and turned what was just a Pachisi variant into something else! If you do care why they did it, nobody really knows, but it’s assumed that it saved people losing the dice and potentially stops people cheating by rolling the dice improperly.
Remember… always roll your dice randomly and fair, it’s just not cricket to do otherwise.
5) Flawlessness
Here’s one that not everyone may know but it’s a corker! It’s a solo challenge that only takes a minute but is a great spectator spectacle too. The noise? The timer running out on Perfection and the board releasing and throwing all the pieces in the air!
In this game you have a timer counting down and the challenge is to place all 25 shapes in their correct slots before the timer runs down. No batteries here, it’s all clockwork. Great game of skill and adrenaline and guaranteed to make you jump!
Now we’ve covered the sound of great games, maybe we should try a different sensation? ‘Watch’ this space, we have a ‘feeling’ we’ll do another real soon! (come on, we had to end on a pun or two…)