''The Great Train Robbery'' is a

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

created by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

military historian Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians ...

and

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Bruce Barrymore Halpenny in the early 1970s, and is based upon the actual Great Train Robbery that took place on the 8 August 1963. Although based on the Great Train Robbery, the board game has been adapted on a few small points, one being the extra farm house that was added for playing purposes. The game is a form of strategy

race game Race game is a large category of board games, in which the object is to be the first to move all one's pieces to the end of a track. This is both the earliest type of board game known, with implements and representations dating back to at least ...

, with the robber player trying to avoid the police players. The game itself took three days and three nights for Bruce Halpenny to design, and then three years to bring onto the market.Stealing the show. ''Toy Retailing News'' - Volume 2 Number 4 - December 1976 - page 2 The famous train artist David Weston was commissioned by Bruce Halpenny to paint the box. The board of the game was original, which made a change from most board games that tend to be adaptations of other games. The board is made up of a quite complex and extensive road network, down which the robbers escape from the train, and through which the police chase the robbers or set road block traps. Its rules are easy to interpret, but the players have to use a fair amount of judgement and skill in order to trap or avoid trapping each other. The game, as well as having a good response in Britain in a year when the indoor games market had taken a knock, was equally popular in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, where a

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

series called ', based on the 1963 robbery, had been a tremendous success. It was also used as a prize on British TV shows such as '' Tiswas'' and '' Crackerjack''. In an interview, Bruce Halpenny said, “With crime you deal with every basic human emotion and also have enough elements to combine action with melodrama. The player’s imagination is fired as they plan to rob the train. Because of the gamble they take in the early stage of the game there is a build up of tension, which is immediately released once the train is robbed. Release of tension is therapeutic and useful in our society, because most jobs are boring and repetitive.”

Reviews

*''Games and Puzzles''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Train Robbery, The Board games introduced in 1975 British board games Party board games Racing board games Railroad board games Roll-and-move board games