Nicolas Ricketts explores vintage games that mirror summertime recreational activities.

Released by Milton Bradley in 1975, the Blockhead! stacking game incorporated spatial reasoning, hand-eye coordination, and steady nerves to construct a tower of colourful blocks.

In Mattel’s Slime Monster, players competed against each other to defeat a creature that invaded a town and oozed the green, viscous compound.

The roll-and-move game was positioned as a hipper version of Clue and a reflection of the TV series’ swinging, martini-drinking, sports car-driving style.

Published in 1978 by Milton Bradley, the Terrytoons Mighty Mouse game pitted the anthropomorphic superhero against the evil Dr. Catenstein in a race to save his girlfriend, Mitzi.

Published by Milton Bradley in 1969, The Wacky Races game involved players traversing an illustrated countryside in flamboyant automobiles attempting to race past their opponents for the win.

Published by Schaper in 1956, Tickle Bee was a manual dexterity game that challenged children to move a magnetic bee around a maze using a magnetic wand.

Released in 1964, Kar-Zoom from Whitman was a dexterity game that challenged players to score points by “racing their car” through a series of underpasses.

Nicolas Ricketts recommends lesser-known board games based on popular counterparts.

Released in 1978, Milton Bradley’s Knock Out challenged players to outwit and outflank their opponent by placing “stoppers” in a hexagonal grid.

Published by Schaper in 1967, Don’t Spill the Beans was a family-friendly game that challenged players not to “spill the beans” from an unsteady bean pot.

It was marble mayhem with the 1970 release of Mr. Mad from Ideal.