Prize Property

A relic of my husband's youth in Miami, dredged from the bottom of the family game closet: Prize Property, the 1974 Milton Bradley land development board game. The object: "to develop wastelands into prize properties."

At the start of the game, the board is covered with overlays showing the undeveloped land, brown and in places, on fire. Old brick factories and farm buildings stand abandoned, gaping holes in their roofs. These overlays are removed as players "improve" their property, revealing lush green sites where casinos and resort hotels may be built.

To win, you must be the first to construct all nine of your resort buildings. On the waterfront, you build a tennis & swim club, a marina, and camp grounds. In the middle tier, you build a golf course, a health spa, and a dude ranch. And finally, you build a hotel, a casino, and a ski lodge. Nope, no affordable housing for the people who run your properties, but the little buildings sure are cute.

The money is counted in the millions, and players must navigate town meetings; legal actions are settled by drawing colored marbles from a plastic gavel. Periodically, a marina is flooded or a camp ground burns.

Aside from creative genius of the game's design, it's actually pretty dull to play and it comes in a large awkward box. But we keep it around because it's just so..., well, they just don't make them like this any more.