Space Game

[ANZinSpace]

I'd only seen a written description of this game which was either a 1953 or 1954 advert. Unfortunately I can't find a copy of it now though I do remember it saying the spinner was in the centre of the board which may mean there's another Aussie version of this game out there. Anyway when I saw this game up for auction I put an offer in and won it. It's a fairly simple game, you travel round the board and collect gold rocks and have to watch out for the Black Bandits. It was originally put out by Parker Bros in the US in 1953 and this is the licenced version put out in Australia by John Sands.

When I bought it I first thought the space rocks were going to be cast plastic but they're actually gold painted rocks. So I thought that someone had substituted these rocks because the originals were lost but according to information I found on the Board Game Geek Forum (see below) they actually made it with gold painted rocks. The other thing that's odd is that three of the corners of the game board are for storing the pieces but there are only two items to store - the spaceships and the rocks.

 

Quote from BoardGame Geek forum:

Quote

An Australian version was produced by John Sands (Sydney) under licence from Parker Brothers. The concept of the game is the same but considerable differences in graphics can be seen on the board, spinner and box. The US version shows the Americas visible from earth while the Australian version shows Australia and south-east Asia. The spaceship playing pieces are the same as the US game although the instructions suggest only 4 players instead of 5 in the US version. As players advance around the board they collect (or lose) gold nuggets which are simply small stones painted gold. This also seems to differ from the collecting pieces in the US version.

[Tinman]

Great piece ANZ, don't you wish the game board was made from lithographed tin, that would have been awesome!