Board Game Treasure trove... Part one

One of the things I was looking forward to when I headed back to Canada was rooting through the few old boxes I had left there. I knew that I had left some older games back there, but I was not totally sure what was in there.

Here is what I found...

The first exciting box in the memory pile was the game Hacker (1992). This was a game that HEAVILY borrowed from another game I have Illuminati. Like most Steve Jackson games, it was ok, overpriced and had not as much replay value as you would like. The basic idea was that you are a hacker who is competing with the other hackers to gain control of the most systems. The cards are full of clever "in-jokes" that get a little less funny each additional time you read them.Next up is Marvel Super Heroes, this is an RPG, not a board game. It is funny, this is a game that my friends and I played A LOT, but never really in a traditional RPG manner. Instead of adventures, we would normally create a pool of heroes/villains, then distribute them to each player and have some sort of free for all battle on a big city map. We did this regularly and I have to say it was awesome. The best was throwing in vastly under/overpowered characters into the mix. I am sure most comic fans wanted to know what would happen in a battle between Aunt May, The Fabulous Frogman, and Thor.A game I was thrilled to still have was this one. The Star Trek RPG and Star Trek Advanced Combat Simulator (1986) all in one box. I hardly ever played this one as it was pretty complex and in 1986 I think most of my gaming buddies and I were looking for a quicker fix than power management of capital ships in space. I still have all the books and every single counter, so I think I could still revisit this one, or maybe even EBAY it one day if I think I could need the cash.
Finally (for this post anyway) the single best thing I found was my old edition of Cosmic Encounter. This is the Mayfair Edition, which I purchased around 1992 or so. The original game is from 1977, and I understand it will be reprinted by Fantasy Flight Games later this year. I also owned the expansion, More Cosmic Encounter, but that one was sadly not in the box.

This game is one where you take on the persona of an alien race, and then strive for domination by capturing a fixed number of planets. Each alien race (there are MANY MANY) has a special ability that allows them to do something outside the normal rules. I played this in school and it was a blast. I had already planned to buy the new version, but now I will have to wait and see if it is a straight reprint of this one or contains any improvements.
Stay tuned, there was a bit more in the closet, there will be more posts on this topic coming...