This, but the box held together with tan packing tape applied in the 90s.
this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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I used to play this all the time. So did my parents. And grandparents. It’s been a favourite of our family’s among the generations probably since the 80s. I’m pretty sure someone in my family has that exact box, I’m not sure who though. But I’ve definitely seen it before.
My dad has this box. I remember playing it with him constantly.
Loved playing this game with my gpa.
Every now and again I play something like this or Wordle.
Ive got it but a lot of the pieces are now missing unfortunately
Reminds me of this:
That's probably inspired by the mastermind box 😅
Seeing this immediately makes me smell cigarette smoke.
Not just cigarette smoke, the smell of cigarette smoke permeating everything in the room for years.
Have this game as well I think, is kind of rare to have just a photo of people on the box without the game or anything
I had this exotic gem. Sophisticated players only.
I inherited this same edition with that box art from my parents who lived in the UK in the 80s. What's the deal with the Asian gal and the most uninteresting man in the world?
Was this an old TV show or something, does anyone know?
There was a UK quiz show called Mastermind (it may even still be going, I'm not sure), so it may have been trying to ape the aesthetic of that.
Unlike more quiz shows, Mastermind was presented in a fairly serious tone, contestants sat alone on a black leather chair answering 2 minutes of quick fire questions on their chosen specialist subject, under intense spotlights, somewhat similar to the trope of interrogation techniques with the light being shone directly in the face.
Although this board game really had no similarities in content to the show, they could well have been trying to gain some of the show's mystique (for want of a better term) by making it look quite serious.
I thought he was just going for the bond villain aethetic. You know a ~~criminal~~mastermind
Oh, definitely a bit of that too.
There may be no relation to the BBC show at all, of course - but it's been my head canon since I saw one of these games a long time ago! 😁
Yep. I remember Mastermind, and it's still going. But I thought that there was some other show around that time I just missed as a kid.
Yeah, quite possibly, I'm not sure tbh 🙂
it may even still be going, I'm not sure
It is!
It's started, so it won't finish!
As far as I recall they weren't anyone special, just some models.
I had that one (french version): https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jB_0gDq-z5U/S_wcG9n9LkI/AAAAAAAAEp8/VYszHxROVVM/s1600/Mastermind.jpg
And also this weird version with plastic squares containing letters and numbers instead of the colors, but I was too young to understand the rules: https://ludessimo.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/a_07_3194-mastermind-duo2.jpg
Omagad I had this version at my dad's with the plastic board!! Many hours spent on this thing preparing for Wordle without knowing
This must be making the rounds since the McSweeney’s bit came out earlier this month.
Finest piece of satire I’ve seen in awhile!
I have this on my bookshelf. It's the one I played with my Grandparents as a kid in the 80s 💜
4 out of 6 colors & 10 guesses = guesser can guarantee 100% wins :)
I've always seen it as a "take turns at being the guesser, and whoever does best wins" kind of game. If you take six goes and your opponent takes seven, then taste that sweet victory.
A digression, but the "viking chess" game Hnefatfl basically guarantees a win for white as written. So you need to mix it up - play two games, see who wins fastest; or constrain it like backgammon, roll dice and that's the moves you must make.
I’ve always seen it as a “take turns at being the guesser, and whoever does best wins” kind of game. If you take six goes and your opponent takes seven, then taste that sweet victory.
Do you mean working with two boards in parallel? Or sequentially, so that basically you write down scores? Either way, it makes a bit more sense like that, yes.