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Milton Bradley’s FIREBALL ISLAND!

Yay, done. Sorry, had some siiide business going on and it had to take precedence, because I wanted a reason to use the word "precedence." But now I'm here, and we are one again. Bet you thought it'd feel more special. Specialer? Course, I'm zipping back out in a minute anyway, so don't get used to me, I'll only disappoint. Before the big return to my casket of choice, as Uncle Louis would say, the blesss-sing: Fireball Island was one of the best games ever in the entire world, and clicking that link will take you to my tribute hof hit. It's the tale of multicolored explorers traveling the uncharted jungle on the hunt for jewels and on the run from fireballs, told at last.

Posted by Matt on 01/26/2005. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 157 comments

I loved this game. My brother and I have actually come to blows over whether or not various uses of a fireball was "fair." I remember, "Moooooooom, you’re supposed to ROLL the ball, not PUSH it." I remember us playing it for hours on the Christmas day he got it. Unfortunately, as the only girl amongst my cousins, I was forced to be the lavendar piece.

Chestnuts roasted by Sally @ 01/27/2005 12:35 PM

Fireball made a hit in Spain some/many years ago and fell miserably into a pit of oblivion and phlegm.
I don’t mind the oblivion but the phlegm is something I prefer to avoid unless it’s mine…if it’s mine I pretend I have a BigRed in my mouth, it’s not so cinnamon flavoured but it lasts longer…

great article…oh, yeah!

Chestnuts roasted by melonian @ 01/27/2005 12:43 PM

We still play Fireball island, to this day…only we turned it into a drinking game. Basically you drink when you get smacked by a fireball, and i bet you can imagine we get pretty wrecked.

Chestnuts roasted by Christopher Fireball @ 01/27/2005 1:55 PM

Never played it, but the fact that it’s a ripoff of Indiana Jones reminds me of my favorites from childhood — THUNDER ROAD. It was a ripoff of the Mad Max movies. I don’t remember how game play worked, but I remember the cool playing pieces like cars and trucks and helicoptors.

Chestnuts roasted by Pedro @ 01/27/2005 2:07 PM

Thunder Road, there you are!! http://www.boardgame.de/reviews/thuroad.htm

Chestnuts roasted by Pedro @ 01/27/2005 2:10 PM

Matt! This has nothing to do with the article, but I found out some shockingly awesome news you need to know.

You know how there’s a Fantastic Four movie coming out this summer? I shit you not, but they are soon going to be releasing…

THING FEET! Giant rock feet! That talk! Like the Commish!

Your cat better watch itself now!

Chestnuts roasted by Gavok @ 01/27/2005 2:40 PM

I am SO there.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 01/27/2005 2:44 PM

I have aqbsolutely no idea if I even had this game. Seriously, the game board seems so familiar and I remember playing a game where explorers held jewels in their hands…

And I think I got you all beat for Obcure Pathetic Board Games! I have one based on Tailspin, the so-called Jungle Book spinoff tv series, and one based on Home Alone 2 (not Home Alone 1…Home Alone TWO)

Chestnuts roasted by Invader Norbert @ 01/27/2005 2:52 PM

Ghost Busters- Live action TV show by Filmation. 1975.
Ghostbusters- One of the greatest movies of all time, almost called Ghost Breakers. Had to not offically name the movie till almost the last minute due to copyright/trademark entanglement.
Ghost Busters cartoon- Filmation had title rights for any TV project and tried to head off Columbia for inevitable cartoon franchise which means DIC right smartly calls theirs…
The Real Ghostbusters- A cartoon that could be discussed endlessly on this site, along with the movie. The Destructor itself posts here from time to time.
The above is not to be confused with Goat Busters, but that might just be my delusion.

Chestnuts roasted by kingklash @ 01/27/2005 3:51 PM

Oldskool25 – I loved Crossbows and Catapults, too! :D Oh my, I kinda forgot about that game, but I still have it.

Bad thing about that game was, you couldn’t play it on carpet and nothing shot far enough. We actually wrapped rubber bands around everything (Especially the catapults) so they’d be tighter and shoot way across the room. Of course, that led to more destruction than just to each other’s castles. :D Ha! Love it. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Ryane @ 01/27/2005 4:06 PM

oh man oh man. i had this game, and i used to play it by myself: like not the actual game, but the burning of my micromachines in lava and the death of all those little explorers…oh matt, than you for remembering what i had forgotton! hey there was also a game like this except with monster truck micromachines…or maybe i just played micromachines on it…here’s to the coolest gameboards ever made from hard plastic !

Chestnuts roasted by brandon curry @ 01/27/2005 4:22 PM

I forgot this link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038976/">Spook Busters (1946)
The inspiration for Filmation’s Ghostbusters?

Chestnuts roasted by ME @ 01/27/2005 4:48 PM

King? You called ? Mwa ha ha ha. Actually I was going to give the answer you did but you and then ME beat me to it. Subcreatures! Gozer The Gozerian, Gozer The Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, The Traveller has come. CHOOSE AND PERISH.

Chestnuts roasted by Gozer @ 01/27/2005 7:05 PM

See, I hear Thunder road and I think it’s a game based on a Bruce Springsteen song. Or, the space ship from Explorers. Now, those would be some cool action figures. They could spout out old movie quotes and all be in love w/ River Phoenix.

"Look, I know I must look weird to you but how do you think you look to me? Listen, I watched four episodes of "Lassie" before I figured out why the little hairy kid never spoke. I mean, he rolled over, sure, he did that fine but, I don’t think he deserved a series for that."

http://members.tripod.com/~llwyd/alien/explorers.htm

Chestnuts roasted by trajeal @ 01/27/2005 7:16 PM

I do remember the commercial for this game, but this is pretty much one of the few late 80s board games we never had…and boy, do I wish we HAD now! It looks like the kind of thing that was right up our alley – fun enough to play the actual game, and big enough to use as a erzatz playset for action figures when the pieces started going missing.

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 01/27/2005 7:45 PM

@christopher fireball:
well, if you ever need to quit drinkin’ you could play the same, only done exactly the other way round.
That’d be whenever you drink you get caught on fire…that’d help you thinking about quiting pretty fast or either quiting pretty terminaly.

Chestnuts roasted by melonian @ 01/27/2005 8:37 PM

thanks matt

Chestnuts roasted by gerv @ 01/27/2005 9:14 PM

Awesome article Matt! I must have Fireball Island and launch red marbles at my friends. I’m not sure how I’ve gone my entire life without having it. You must be a terrific ad-man because you sell me on everything you feature.

Chestnuts roasted by carri @ 01/27/2005 10:35 PM

The Real Ghostbusters Game! I’ve had that since it came out and have never read the rules. The rules I made up were all the fun I needed – set up the 3-D board and have Peter, Ray, and Egan take turns flinging the skull down the stairs to knock out Winston, the official gamepiece stooge/target.

Chestnuts roasted by carri @ 01/27/2005 10:43 PM

Name of the C.O.P.S. character? Dr. Badvibes! I’m a NNNEEEEERRRRRDDDDDDD!!!

I remember wanting this game SO bad when I was a kid, and now I am going to search for it at every flea market and thrift store I visit from now until 2043.

Chestnuts roasted by Darth Monkey @ 01/27/2005 10:52 PM

Anybody remember the game Bongo Kongo where you had to steal coconuts out of the backpack of a spinning club-wielding gorilla?

Chestnuts roasted by Luap @ 01/28/2005 12:06 PM

I had forgotten about Fireball Island until this day, 1/28/05. I would only like to thank you for allowing me to remember, arguably, the greatest board game ever made. And what I would like to call your "tribute" hit on everything that made the game great. Once again Thank You!

Chestnuts roasted by Devan @ 01/28/2005 1:25 AM

Hello all:

Sorry to return to the Blog with somber news but the helicopter that went down in Iraq recently was carrying 26 Marines and one Sailor belonging to my old unit.

I used to be with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines and my heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to their friends and family during this difficult time.

Semper Fidelis,
Erik Majorwitz

Chestnuts roasted by EMajorwitz @ 01/28/2005 4:03 AM

Hey Eric Majorwitz, sorry to hear about your loss… My daddy fought in the Angolan War when I wasn’t born yet – I think the CIA helped the old SA regime fight the Commies or something, but thanks to Jonas Savimbi, the war went on for twenty-two years and ended the day he died – one of dad’s best friends was killed by "friendly fire" – he still hasn’t gotten over what he saw up there near Katima Mulilo in Caprivi. Tankguns used on people, etc. War sucks.

In other news, whenever my Barbies got stroppy they were ceremoniously drowned in a washbasket sock-volcano by my My Little Ponies, who had a celebratory tea-party and mistreated the teddy bears. They still haven’t managed to take over the world, though…

Click on my name for some Evil Pony Chia Fun!

Semper fidelis and Si Non Confectus Non Reficiat.

Chestnuts roasted by eminentfreak @ 01/28/2005 5:00 AM

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2005 at 9:47 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.