“Join The Archies in a fast moving, wit-matching game.”
Released in 1969 by Whitman, The Archie Game called on players’ alertness and quick reflexes to avoid capture by Archie and progress up the scoreboard.
The game incorporated Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Jughead Jones, and Reggie Mantle from the Archie Comics franchise. The titular character debuted in Pep Comics 22 (1941). Since that time, the Riverdale teens have been a mainstay in popular culture, appearing in comic books, radio series, comic strips, film, television, toys, and games.
GAMEPLAY
The game board featured three main areas: a circle marked Even, illustrated with the likenesses of Betty and Jughead; a circle marked Odd, with the likenesses of Veronica and Reggie; and a centre circle showcasing Archie.
A scoreboard illustrated with the five characters kept track of the points earned. Players chose a character, threaded a string through the included round tokens, and tied a knot to secure it.
One player took the role of Archie throughout the entire game. The Archie player shook the two dice in the dice cup and quickly placed it down on the Archie circle. The cup was lifted to reveal the dice to all players.
If the roll resulted in two even numbers on the dice, Archie attempted to capture the character tokens placed on the circle marked Even, using the dice cup to trap them. If two odd numbers were rolled, Archie moved to contain the two character tokens in the Odd circle. Players tried to evade capture by using the string to pull their token from the circle. If the two dice turned up both even and odd pips, Archie made no attempt to capture one of his friends.
Archie earned points and made progress on the scoreboard if he was able to trap his friends in the cup or if an over-eager player moved their token prematurely. The other players were rewarded points for successfully pulling away their tokens before Archie captured them or if Archie attempted to trap the wrong characters. In the case of Archie pursuing the wrong characters, all players (with the exception of Archie) earned a point. Players could also gain points if Archie made an inappropriate move to capture tokens when both odd and even pips were revealed.
The first player to progress through all eleven spaces on the scoreboard won the game. The winning player then assumed the role of Archie for the next game.
IN THE BOX
A complete game included a game board, scoreboard, five scoring pegs (red, green, blue, yellow, white), four round character tokens (Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and Reggie), four lengths of yellow strings, a dice cup featuring the face of Archie, and two dice. Instructions were printed inside the box top.
COLLECTOR CONSIDERATIONS
The Archie Game makes a nice addition to a board game and/or Archie collection. The colourful box and game board are attractive display pieces and evoke the energy of the teens and the times.
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