NationStates Jolt Archive

I remember as a child playing the game of Broken Telephone. You'd sit in a circle and one person would whisper to another a short, simple message, and the objective was to try and make the message make it around the circle in tact. Of course, it usually didn't make it because it slowly got contorted as it made its way around the circle.

The first person would say to the second something like, "There's a polar bear outside my house dancing with a flamingo", and by the time it got to the end, the message the last person would hear and inevitably have to tell everyone would be a drastic departure from the original. In which case, you might have wound up with something like, "The math book is doing backflips through the English room during happy hour."

Ah, fun times.

I'm sure most of us have played it.

For those feeling nostalgic, there is an internet version of it now: http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/

Except you either write what the picture is about or attempt to (badly) draw out what the cue card says.

Amongst other silly games, what other games do you remember playing? It can be anything.

The ever-fun "Red Rover". Except I was the kid that no one called over.

Wall-Ball... I know, it's stupid sounding, but I imagine most of us have played variations on it. We played with a tennis ball, and if you dropped it when you tried to catch, you had to run and touch the wall before someone else picked it up and threw it there. If they threw the ball before you made it, you'd have to stand, with your ass sticking out and they'd try and throw the ball to hit you in the ass... fortunately, since I played with girls, I usually didn't get hit in the ass.

I'm sure NSG has a few good stories. Let's be nostalgic together!

I've always been a bit of a loner. I grew up playing Video games with my grandparents, reading, and not doing much else. Hell, I didn't have any friends until the forth grade. I really don't have any touching stories or fun games to share here. Yeah, my childhood is not something I like to be Nostalgic about.

We used to play the same game but called it Chinese Whispers. I have fond memories of British Bulldog.

We used to play the same game but called it Chinese Whispers. I have fond memories of British Bulldog.

I've always found it amusing that we have the same games with different names. :) I like finding out what the other names for these games are.

We used to play the same game but called it Chinese Whispers. I have fond memories of British Bulldog.

British Bulldog was fun. I also remember playing What's The Time Mr Wolf? and Duck Duck Goose.

Oh and Stuck in the Mud. That was fun.

We called Broken Telephone Chinese Whispers. And I used to play Bulldog, too. It got banned in 2 of the 3 schools I played it in.

'Hunts' was always a good laugh. Basically a much more violent version of Hide and Seek

Wall-Ball... I know, it's stupid sounding, but I imagine most of us have played variations on it. We played with a tennis ball, and if you dropped it when you tried to catch, you had to run and touch the wall before someone else picked it up and threw it there. If they threw the ball before you made it, you'd have to stand, with your ass sticking out and they'd try and throw the ball to hit you in the ass... fortunately, since I played with girls, I usually didn't get hit in the ass.

I'm sure NSG has a few good stories. Let's be nostalgic together!

Wall ball was awesome. I had many a good time bashing the hell out of the side of my wall with all my friends as a kid. Until my parents saw all the black ball marks and would inevitably yell at us :(


I moved away eventually to a new neighborhood in another city which was still underdevelopment. They had these barricades which were strikingly like long world war one trenches. I bought dozens of Lazer Tag guns and such, and all the kids I knew would come over and recreate a much more humorous battle of the Somme lol...good times!

Wall ball was awesome. I had many a good time bashing the hell out of the side of my wall with all my friends as a kid. Until my parents saw all the black ball marks and would inevitably yell at us :(

No one noticed with us. ;) Which is why I liked playing with other girls. They didn't throw the ball as hard as I did.

Then there was shooting marbles in the sand... I got in trouble for staying out and not telling anyone I was in the school yard playing. My afterschool caregiver was worried. I didn't care. I was in my game. :)

The ever-fun "Red Rover". Except I was the kid that no one called over.

*Worlds smallest violin*

:p

That "broken picture telephone" is the internet version of a game my friends and I often played in college at parties, which we called "The Greatest Game In The World" (or, more often, "Greatest Game"). Very, very fun, especially given that, being a bunch of college-aged people, one of the apparent universal truths of the game was that everything even vaguely ovoid inevitably turned into a penis. :P

Our other favorite party game was quite similar, and called Oracle. The way it worked was that you would start the page with a question; the next person would answer it, fold the page over, and pass it along to the next person, who would have to come up with a question to go with that answer, and so on. Both games led to much hilarity. :)

No one noticed with us. ;) Which is why I liked playing with other girls. They didn't throw the ball as hard as I did.

Then there was shooting marbles in the sand... I got in trouble for staying out and not telling anyone I was in the school yard playing. My afterschool caregiver was worried. I didn't care. I was in my game. :)

Marbles, that brings it all back

We played WallBall, only if you didnt catch it, you were to be pegged with the ball before you touched the wall...

and then youd have to line up against it, lol...just adds that little extra brutality...

I used to play the same game, except we just called it Telephone.

Other favourites from my childhood:
cat's cradle
hide and seek
freeze tag
sharks and minnows
marco polo

Our games here seem to be far different...

I recall that game. I also recall that I'd occasionally intentionally repeat the message wrong, especially if I was the second-to-last person in line.

Tag (and variants of tag)
Duck, Duck, Goose
Dodgeball
Telephone line (another name for Broken Telephone)
Concentration
Hide and Seek

sigh... good times then...

Duck, Duck, Goose

I'd forgotten about that game!

I'd forgotten about that game!

How can you forget about it? It was awesome. So awesome in fact that I've just thought of a drinking game for it.

How can you forget about it? It was awesome. So awesome in fact that I've just thought of a drinking game for it.

I can't quite remember the rules, who does the goose have to race against?

I can't quite remember the rules, who does the goose have to race against?

The goose must race against the person who appointed them goose. In my version, whoever loses does a shot.

The goose must race against the person who appointed them goose. In my version, whoever loses does a shot.

yep... and they have to run around the whole group to get to the open spot without being 'tagged'. then the odd man becomes the next caller.

and speaking of odd man...

Musical chairs!

We used to go down the fish quay and shoot rats with air pistols.

But it was a simpler time. I expect the pettifogging rules that bureaucrats constantly invent have taken away such simple childhood joys.

We used to go down the fish quay and shoot rats with air pistols.

But it was a simpler time. I expect the pettifogging rules that bureaucrats constantly invent have taken away such simple childhood joys.

Shooting small animals is the first sign of a Serial Killer you JERK!!!! :mad:



:p

Whats British bulldog?

Whats British bulldog?

A game best played on tarmac. Everybody apart from one person lines up on one side of the play ground. At a given signal everybody rushes across to the other side trying to avoid being grabbed by the one person playing catcher. Any that are caught also become catchers. This is repeated until only one person is left or the game is stopped for being too violent.

A game best played on tarmac. Everybody apart from one person lines up on one side of the play ground. At a given signal everybody rushes across to the other side trying to avoid being grabbed by the one person playing catcher. Any that are caught also become catchers. This is repeated until only one person is left or the game is stopped for being too violent.

Fun times indeed. In fact I think I'm going to try and start a game of this at uni.

A game best played on tarmac. Everybody apart from one person lines up on one side of the play ground. At a given signal everybody rushes across to the other side trying to avoid being grabbed by the one person playing catcher. Any that are caught also become catchers. This is repeated until only one person is left or the game is stopped for being too violent.

I'd like to add that the runners are rugby tackled to the ground.

Duck duck goose (and the summer variant of duck duck splash)
Shark
Red Rover
Marco Polo
Kick the Can
Capture the Flag

How about the game where your brother sets your shirt on fire using a bottle of hairspray and a lighter, and you have to remove it as fast as you can to avoid being burned.

Anyone? Anyone?

My neighborhood friends and I actually used to race our bicycle on dirt tracks that we've made ourselves. We'd have like 3-4 dirt tracks that we'd race on.

How about the game where your brother sets your shirt on fire using a bottle of hairspray and a lighter, and you have to remove it as fast as you can to avoid being burned.

Anyone? Anyone?

We used gasoline.

I remember one game I foolishly used to play, we called it Wall-ee (that's how we pronounced it.) We'd take turns kicking a football (soccer ball) at a wall, and if you missed, you had to stand in front of it. I remember I was often on the wall and remember taking the ball in the face and in the groin. Ah the memories.

How about the game where your brother sets your shirt on fire using a bottle of hairspray and a lighter, and you have to remove it as fast as you can to avoid being burned.

Anyone? Anyone?

As an only child, I never had that pleasure.

Of course, there was always 'duck duck goose'. I was the kid who walked around the circle three times. Three is the magic number in my book.

When I broke the phone in my home i got an ass whipping. Of course this was back in the day when you had to fill out forms and wait to get a new phone.

Concentration


Shark
Red Rover
Marco Polo


I can honestly say that I've never heard of these childhood games. But maybe that's because I went to a Catholic school where we got into trouble if we ran outside. Don't ask what they expected us to do. The only thing I remember doing is wondering why there was a barbed wire fence around my school's backyard... with the top part bent inward....

Solitaire was fun.

My parents did not like me to socialize with my peers.

I can honestly say that I've never heard of these childhood games. But maybe that's because I went to a Catholic school where we got into trouble if we ran outside. Don't ask what they expected us to do. The only thing I remember doing is wondering why there was a barbed wire fence around my school's backyard... with the top part bent inward....

Concentration is a game of repetition. you have a group sitting in a circle and everyone keeps a beat... usually a four-count. then the starter anounces the catagory... animal, colors, etc.. and names an object in that catagory that starts with A.

say... Animal.
Aardvark.

the next person repeats the previous announcement and continues with something starting with B.

the third person repeats the A and B and continues with C... and so on... any mistake and everyone starts over.

I can honestly say that I've never heard of these childhood games. But maybe that's because I went to a Catholic school where we got into trouble if we ran outside. Don't ask what they expected us to do. The only thing I remember doing is wondering why there was a barbed wire fence around my school's backyard... with the top part bent inward....

Shark: played in a pool. one person is it. All players except "it" line up against one wall. "it" stands/treads water with their back to the players and tells them to go. Players must swim across the pool and touch the other side to be safe. Play goes back and forth untill all but one player are tagged.

Red Rover: form two teams. Each team lines up facing eachother, holding hands. Team A says "red rover, red rover let ____ come over" (____ can be a single player name or a category like "red shirts", depending on version/number of players). That player must then run across the tarmac, and try to break the opposing teams chain. If they don't, they join the other team. If they do, they can pick one of the two people whos link was broken to join their team.

Marco Polo: Played in a pool. One person is it. they cannot open their eyes. they go under water and count to 10. When they come up, they yell "Marco". Players respond "polo". Play proceeds like a game of tag. variation of "fish out of water". players usually must stay in water. With fish out of water, players can get out, but if "it" says "fish out of water", it counts as them tagging those who are out of water.

Concentration is a game of repetition. you have a group sitting in a circle and everyone keeps a beat... usually a four-count. then the starter anounces the catagory... animal, colors, etc.. and names an object in that catagory that starts with A.

say... Animal.
Aardvark.

the next person repeats the previous announcement and continues with something starting with B.

the third person repeats the A and B and continues with C... and so on... any mistake and everyone starts over.
reminds me of a few games we play on long car rides...
we do something like category: cities. first person says a city. Second player must say a city that starts with the last letter of the previous city. So "Boston", then "New York", then "Kansas City" then "Yorkshire" then "Easton", etc. This can be played with any category.

We've also done chains of actors a la 6 degrees to kevin bacon. Start with an actor, then name another actor that was in a movie with them.

I remember as a child playing the game of Broken Telephone.

I rememberthat game we called it Chinese Whispers though.

Let's be nostalgic together!
Other games we would play would be Simon Says, Red light-Ggreen light, follow the leader, red rover (except that got banned in the schools I went to), hot potato, stuck in the mud and a few other games like this but I can't remember their names.

Actually one game we did play was Hand-ball though it was called four square in at least on other state and they usually played it with a basketball instead of a tennis ball

I rememberthat game we called it Chinese Whispers though.


Other games we would play would be Simon Says, Red light-Ggreen light, follow the leader, red rover (except that got banned in the schools I went to), hot potato, stuck in the mud and a few other games like this but I can't remember their names.

my sister broke her arm playing stick in the mud at camp when a counselor fell on her. That was the last time we got to play there :(

I can honestly say that I've never heard of these childhood games. But maybe that's because I went to a Catholic school where we got into trouble if we ran outside. Don't ask what they expected us to do. The only thing I remember doing is wondering why there was a barbed wire fence around my school's backyard... with the top part bent inward....

Only one of the Catholic schools I went to was like this, the reason for this however was the fact that our outside area was one large concrete block so they really banned running to minimise the chance o someone tripping and hurting themselves with the entire school packing the area.

During lunch they took people over to the oval which certainly gave more room.

I remember when in year 1 we didn't bother about this rule and just ran anyway, of course when we saw the Sister or another teacher walking around we would stop and pretend we have just been standing around talking.

my sister broke her arm playing stick in the mud at camp when a counselor fell on her. That was the last time we got to play there :(

Stuck in the mud is the one game I wouldn't expect someone to get hurt in.

I remember one game I foolishly used to play, we called it Wall-ee (that's how we pronounced it.) We'd take turns kicking a football (soccer ball) at a wall, and if you missed, you had to stand in front of it. I remember I was often on the wall and remember taking the ball in the face and in the groin. Ah the memories.

I remember this game quite enjoyable.

Actually another game we played was War. There was two variations to this game.The first being that we were inside and the room divided into two areas. We then each got balls (usually soft volleyballs) and proceeded to pelt them at each other, if you were hit you had to go to the pack of the opposing teams area. This would continue till all players on one team had been hit. There was the chance for someone to sneak across the room and free the 'prisoners' if successful that is without being hit by a ball the freed players would get a free run back into their area.


The other variation of this game was set outside in a much larger area. At the back of each area was two squares one held the 'treasure' (usually just bean bag squares or some other small thing that could be carried) the other square was to hold the 'prisoners' called the POW camp. Basically the aim of the game was to run across the opposing players area and pick up a piece of treasure and get it back into your square. Players could only take one piece of treasure at a time. If the player was tagged while in the opposing players area then he would become a prisoner and be sent to the POW camp. A player could free the prisoners by getting across the area and into the POW camp without being tagged first. All players except for the person who freed them gets to go back to their area freely, they must go back to their area straight away and can not collect treasure on the way back. The person who freed the prisoners can be tagged however is safe if he stays in the POW camp and can go across to the treasure square. The treasure square is a safe area where a player cannot be tagged and can stay in there for as long as they want. The game continues till all pieces of the treasure are in the one square. The team who has all the treasure in the treasure square is the winning team.

I was a big fan of Dodgeball... and played a whole lot of kickball. Then there was the quite possibly Tron inspired Ultimate Frisbee

I was a big fan of Dodgeball... and played a whole lot of kickball. Then there was the quite possibly Tron inspired Ultimate Frisbee

Dodgeball was always a good one. One of the few games that was fun in P.E. as well.

Dodgeball was always a good one. One of the few games that was fun in P.E. as well.

We played Pirates in PE occasionally which was fun.

Dodgeball was always a good one. One of the few games that was fun in P.E. as well.

Until they band it from schools :mad:

We played a variation of dodgeball known as 'Death Ball' after school. Imagine Dodgeball but with only one ball, no boundaries, and full contact rules.

No one noticed with us. ;) Which is why I liked playing with other girls. They didn't throw the ball as hard as I did.


OoOo...smart move dude! I didn't think to do that. *sigh* I always have had a shit load of girl friends too...would've saved me a lot of trouble :(

Anyone else think it was silly to ban dodgeball from public schools? It taught kids valuable life lessons like pick on the week ones first.


I just thought of another one I loved to death too 4-Squares. We used to be highly competitive when I was a kid...

Anyone else think it was silly to ban dodgeball from public schools? It taught kids valuable life lessons like pick on the week ones first.


I just thought of another one I loved to death too 4-Squares. We used to be highly competitive when I was a kid...


I loved dodgeball, still do...granted I was always, without question, picked first. Everytime. Oh wait that happened for every sport...in the immortal words of my father: "You're mouth breathing knuckle dragger." God I love my Dad :D

Stuck in the mud is the one game I wouldn't expect someone to get hurt in.
Maybe we played different...stick in the mud for us was basically freeze tag where you had to go through the frozen players legs to unfreeze them. Well, the counselor was diving through my sisters legs (wow, that sounds wrong), and took out her knee by accident, and she fell, breaking her arm.
Dodgeball was always a good one. One of the few games that was fun in P.E. as well.
We used to play pin dodge ball. There was a small goal in the middle, with four or five bowling pins set upon either side. It was then regular dodgeball, except to get your team back in, you had to knock over a pin. To win, you had to knock over all the pins and get a ball in the goal.
Anyone else think it was silly to ban dodgeball from public schools? It taught kids valuable life lessons like pick on the week ones first.


I just thought of another one I loved to death too 4-Squares. We used to be highly competitive when I was a kid...
We had a few months in elementary school where, for some reason, all the boys played foursquare (the "girls" game), and all the girls played kickball (the "boys" game)

I just thought of another one I loved to death too 4-Squares. We used to be highly competitive when I was a kid...

Was that the one with the ball and you attempted to get someone out by hitting the ball into their square and they were unable to hit it into another square successfully?

Maybe we played different...stick in the mud for us was basically freeze tag where you had to go through the frozen players legs to unfreeze them. Well, the counselor was diving through my sisters legs (wow, that sounds wrong), and took out her knee by accident, and she fell, breaking her arm.

Yeah that's right, I was thinking of another game and calling it stick in the mud. In that case my statement is withdrawn.

Was that the one with the ball and you attempted to get someone out by hitting the ball into their square and they were unable to hit it into another square successfully?


Yep, that one. We'd hold tournaments that would last for hours.

Yep, that one. We'd hold tournaments that would last for hours.

Yeah, same man, the old King, Queen, Prince and Pauper squares.

What type of ball did you use? In one state we used tennisballs but then when we moved into another state they were using basketballs.

We called this game handball but when in the state with the basketballs they called it four square.

Yeah, same man, the old King, Queen, Prince and Pauper squares.

What type of ball did you use? In one state we used tennisballs but then when we moved into another state they were using basketballs.

We called this game handball but when in the state with the basketballs they called it four square.

Regulation soft rubber playground ball inflated to like 5 pounds (2kg) I think. It was those soft rubber ones that nobody felt bad pegging the poor guy in the pauper square with at the first oppurtunity.

Regulation soft rubber playground ball inflated to like 5 pounds (2kg) I think. It was those soft rubber ones that nobody felt bad pegging the poor guy in the pauper square with at the first oppurtunity.

haha, nice don't think we really felt bad if we ditched a tennis ball at the guy in the pauper squae. :tongue: