My copy of this Roy of the Rovers board game is dated 1990. It's produced by Triotoys and Paradigm Games of Basingstoke, under licence from Fleetway publications who produced the comics and annuals of the same name. I wasn't a regular reader of the comic during my own childhood, but I gather that the dedicated comic started up in 1976 and continued until 1995. The character of Roy Race and the Melchester Rovers team go back to the 1950s when they first appeared in the Tiger comic. The dramatic storylines of the comic strip have not transferred to the board game. Every so often there have been relaunches or re-workings of the material and characters, including one where Roy is a manager and his son Rocky is on the pitch. It looks as if a video games company, Rebellion, have at least some of the rights now and there is a website and, of course, merchandise.
Meanwhile, back to my board game. It's a bit battered, but it looks unused and after this post is published it will be on the way to a charity shop. I suspect I picked it up either from eBay or a car boot sale. Indeed there are still some around on eBay, pitched as collectors' items and some with very optimistic asking prices. "For 2-6 Players Aged 5-105", it says.
Like some of the other games in my series of nostalgia boardgame posts - see below for links to the others - it dates from a time before games consoles and personal computers. Having scanned the rules, I would say this one has a lowish ratio of skill to luck in determining the outcome. I would also guess that with two players it would be rather dreary with all the temptations of dubious practices, within the rules, as we may be allegedly seeing in the real world in this era of multi-club ownership.
The board is a jigsaw type. The Bank of Melchester only deals in multiples of £250,000. The stand-up playing pieces are the best feature of the box contents. The game mechanics are familiar. Collect the right combination of players, but some of them are worth more than others. Collect gate receipts. There is one square on the board, "Sacked", which could have led to some interesting confrontations with family and friends. Land on that, and any one of the other players can swop their players with yours. I wonder how many friendships were ended over that.
I should also mention the six teams - you will manage one of the following: Touring Real, Sporting Perez, Dynamo Celtic, San Sebastian, Bayern Dortmund or, of course, Melchester Rovers. If you have Melchester, then you are the only one allowed to have Roy of the Rovers in your team. Everyone else has to return him to the bottom of the pile. This is in accordance with mainstream Race canon - Roy was a one-club man except for a short stint with Walford Rovers as I am sure you will remember.
Thanks for your interest in this series, there will be a few more to come during the season.
Links to previous football game posts on this blog:
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