“Crossmatch,” from 1972, is a kind of pictorial version of Scrabble, created using images cut out from back issues of Popular Science. You place the magnetic image squares on the board based on inventive relationships – two cards might match because they both contain circles, or scenes of nature. “The subtlety of relationships, the beauty of conception, and the delight of the imagination will become your natural goals.” The best part is that you can store the whole thing on the wall as modern art between games!

"Who are these people? Diplomats? Generals? Heads of State? Actually, they're a bunch of suburbanites sitting in a game room, playing a new breed of adult games." In 1965, strategy games like Risk were becoming big hits with grown-ups. The author of this article takes the trend a bit too seriously, though. One game is said to raise players' IQ by more than 20 points. If games of Risk back then were anything like they are today, players were likely to experience a spike in blood pressure before an intelligence boost.

To win this post-WWII game, tilt a homemade racetrack back and forth to guide 10 marbles into high-scoring slots before one of the marbles passes the finish line. "Everyone naturally wants to guide as many marbles as possible into the 100-point stall. But that's a risky business, for just ahead lies the finish line. One slight error in judgement, and a marble might slip through." I'm sure the crafty PopSci readers of old were eager to take that tiny DIY diagram out to the workshop. 

As people were increasingly stuck indoors during the blackouts and frugality of World War II, board games rapidly gained popularity. “Treasure Hunt” is an exciting game in which you spell words like “jiggs” and “ai.” In “Foto-Electric Football," players choose cards representing football plays, and a light-up screen shows the result. “Tripoley” is great for parties, and “Jingo” is a combination of jigsaw puzzles and Bingo. Huh? “Instead of filling in a numbered card, the player fits odd-shaped pictures into corresponding spaces.”

Judging by the deranged, unfocused look on this young boy's face, the 1936 walking-top game was a pretty wild time. Grab a wooden board and an old alarm clock wheel, paint or carve a game surface, and then perfect your top-manoeuvreing skills. "This peculiar walking action of the top and a player's first attempts to control it will cause much amusement." 

Oh dear. “Wari” is basically mancala, “a very simple but entertaining game popular among African savages.” Now for little white children in 1935! Like almost all of Popular Science’s pre-1940s articles about games, this one comes with instructions to build your own version. DIY has a long history at PopSci. 

This game from 1931 claims to be “both educational and entertaining,” but I’m going to have to disagree. In “Wash Day,” children sort handkerchiefs by colour. For fun. Good for a “blue Monday,” the game “gets more interesting toward the end when but two players are left.” Somehow, I doubt it. 

A giant, outdoor version of checkers soon "may rival midget golf in popularity." Players use three metre long poles to move the pieces, which each weigh several kilograms. The author says the large game is a great opportunity for exercise, but deck chairs come included for the easily tired. In this photo, spectators watch the first exhibition of the game on top of an unnamed hotel in New York City. Ah, the days when everyone dressed up in full suits and hats for a few rounds of oversize checkers.

You know a game is really fun when its sales pitch has to say that “the suspense towards the last is what makes the game amusing.” From 1929, this DIY contraption is kind of like roulette. Players push a little ball onto a spinning pan with one space marked “gold.” If you strike gold, you win! If not, you don’t. Nice and simple.