I used to love Monopoly (where Dad would always win), Clue (where Mom or Dad would win), and Risk (where I'd play with friends instead of my parents, so I sometimes won
) As I grew older, I liked Clue more and more; it was a very good logic puzzle, and I learned to play by not only learning about the murder based on what I asked, but also based on what others asked as well. And if you played against experienced players, you could use that against them as well. On one game, on my first suggestion I used person, place, and weapon that I all had in my hand. It went around the table and of course no one had any evidence. This therefore set up a perfect red herring, since everyone else thought I must've figured out one of the clues right off the bat. So while everyone else was trying to figure out which of the 3 clues was the real one, I could continue searching for the correct clues.
Our family had also gone to an auction when I was maybe 10-12 yrs. old, and we picked up a box full of different board games. There was one that I really thought would be a lot of fun to play, but unfortunately the learning curve was too great that I never was able to get anyone to sit and play with me. The game was Dune, based on the Frank Herbert series. You got to play as one of the factions / families in the Dune universe, and it was basically a game like Risk where the winner had gained world domination. However, there was also other winning conditions based on the faction that you chose to play. For example, the prophetic Bene Gesserit would be the sole winner if at the very beginning of the game they selected which other faction would "win". I wished I had held onto that game when I left for college and joined a gaming group out there; it was much more of a board game for the serious game enthusiast.
I also vaguely remember playing the McDonalds board game. A few months ago I went hunting online to see what this game I remembered was all about. I guess it was only produced in 1975 (
http://www.angelfire.com/az2/gamesgoneby/images/mcdonaldsgame2.jpg). I think I may have mostly enjoyed this game because of the theme and not so much for its gameplay. Some other oldies that I loved as a kid included Mousetrap and Run Yourself Ragged (
http://www.angelfire.com/az2/gamesgoneby/images/runyourselfragged.jpg), the later being like the board-game version of my favorite Atari game at the time: Pitfall!