2022 has been a big year for gamers. We’ve seen major titles like God of War: Ragnarok, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Gran Turismo 7 go on sale, along with a rebooted version of Saints Row and sizable updates for popular games like GTA Online, Fortnite, and League of Legends.
As the year has progressed, some gaming companies have also experimented with offering NFTs to players.
Before the end of the year, we’ll also be treated to a long list of other new releases, including two new Call of Duty games, Overwatch 2, and Resident Evil Re: Verse.
Yet, despite all this new content hitting the market, many players will turn to trusty titles that continue to offer fun and excitement, years, decades, or even centuries after they were first created.
That’s partly been driven by a wave of love for the video games of yesteryear, including many retro hits like Zelda, Mario, and Doom.
However, there are even older games that continue to be a firm favourite among players, despite them being older than anyone (or almost anyone) alive today. This includes board games like Monopoly and Scrabble which both made it onto the market in the first few decades of the 20th century.
Though they’re still much older than some of these.
Blackjack
Blackjack is one of the world’s most popular card games. Played against the dealer with one or more standard decks, it requires the player to try and make a hand of two or more cards that is as close to 21 as possible, without going over that figure.
It comes in several different flavours today since many casinos have tweaked the rules slightly here and there.
This includes changing the number of decks, providing the option of side bets, and altering the payouts for certain hands. But perhaps one of the most noticeable tweaks is to the hole card.
Traditional versions of blackjack turn over one of the cards in the dealer’s starting hand, giving players the chance to use it in their decisions of whether to hit, stand, fold, or double down. Some casinos like to remove the hole card as it gives them a slightly higher edge as players have one less piece of information to use.
Blackjack has been around for several hundred years, with similar games existing in several European countries and the Middle East. It evolved over time, eventually becoming the blackjack we know today in 20th-century Las Vegas.
In addition to being played in almost every casino on the planet, you’ll also find blackjack available online through computers, smartphones, and tablets.
Chess
Chess is significantly older than blackjack. While the card game has been enjoyed for several centuries, chess has been entertaining humans for more than a millennium.
Originally created in India, it presents an intellectual challenge that’s matched by very few games. The original versions featured different pieces as they were based on the branches of the Indian military, so you would move elephants and chariots.
Chess was an evolution of a much older game (more on that in a minute) and is distinct because its pieces are not of equal value.
Like blackjack, it can be enjoyed with a traditional physical board but also online through desktop, laptop, and mobile devices.
Checkers/Draughts
At first glance, checkers and chess look very similar. Both games use near-identical checkered boards that have alternating black and white squares.
However, there are some very big differences between these games, most of which revolve around the pieces, their values, and how they can be moved.
In checkers, every piece is worth the same and they can all be moved in the same way. The only exception to this is when they’ve become a “King piece” after reaching the other side of the board.
It evolved much earlier than chess, with evidence showing that it has been enjoyed for at least 5,000 years.
No other game that is played today is as old as this, with the exception of a few from Ancient Egypt whose rules have been lost to time, making it difficult to conclude modern variants are accurate representations.