Gold Discovered on Mystery Planet in Outer Space! Expedition Under Way Must Guard Against Space Bandits!
This is the first in a series of spotlights on Parker Brothers Games, specifically the ones that have gorgeous game boards. It’s Parker Brothers Space Game from 1953.
Click the gameboard photo to supersize the image. There’s a lot to like here.
- The delicate orange and green color scheme is spectacular, especially today, when we feel constrained to make space either black or blue. No satellite photos = green space, yellow stars.
- The smiling Conditioning Chamber: people enter in gray post-war garb and emerge in Chris Ware space suits belching orange flame.
- The rocket-ship design on the box cover looks like it was stolen from Ward Kimball’s top drawer.
- The Disney dark ride serpentine gametrack.
- The Nicholas Tesla fever dream bad guys with big magnets in the upper right corner.
- There are rumors that Black Bandits are 
hovering in outer space – it is well to avoid these dangerous people, if possible, because they demand booty if they contact a Space Man.
- Black dots = Danger spots.
- Parker Brothers: At The Cutting Edge Of Science. Two wormholes, here called Short Cuts.
- And the classic Parker Brothers logo.
