Battleship / Bataille Navale France. 1969.
“You sank my battleship!”
Battleship, or Battleships, is a two-player game in which you guess the location of your opponent’s fleet of ships on a concealed numbered and lettered grid. The aim is to destroy your opponent’s fleet before your own fleet is destroyed. Battleship can be dated back to World War I when it was a home-made pen and paper game. In later years numerous companies published printed pad-and-pencil versions, then in 1967 the Milton Bradley company (MB Games) produced a plastic board and peg version with miniature ships. Later incarnations by MB included electronic, speaking, and player vs computer versions.
Battleships. UK. 1983.
Torpedo Run / Opération Torpilles and Touché Coulé Computer / Electronic Battleship. 1988. France.
Touché Coulé / Battleship traditional and elctronic. 1995. France.
Bataille Navale Electronique Parlante / Electronic Speaking Battleship. 1995. France.
Combat Naval. 1995. France.
The Vintage Toy Advertiser 
Ahh, the memories (again..) . Do you still have yours?
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No. Long gone. I kept a lot of my board games but moving around they eventually parted company with me. I’ve managed to keep many of my childhood books and comics, but toys and games hardly any.
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Well, unless my Barbie could have her own ship….. Hmm, Mattel may have missed out here. Barbie’s Battle Ship, with amazing outfits for being an Admiral… etc. Just saying, it would have lured me in. Of course I was busy with Barbie’s Dream Home & Fashion Shop, even if they were my friend’s older sister’s hand me downs!
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A Barbie battleship would have been awesome. War Barbie, Battle Barbie, Admiral Barbie of the 7 seas, Skipper the skipper, Ken the Cabin Boy lol. She did get a couple of cruise ships in her time but they were so teeny tiny… unlike the Glamour Gals line of dolls that got the huge ‘Ocean Queen’ liner as their boat of choice. Pretty stunning. Some pics here: https://thevintagetoyadvertiser.org/category/glamour-galsglamour-girls/
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Love it!
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Wonderful. My childhood friend had this and I loved every minute of playing it! Later I bought it for my own kids. Love the graphics.
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Brilliant. That’s so cool you bought one for your own kids 🙂 I’d like to get one too – I had the non-electronic version as a child and played it often.
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Hi TVTA, I had an early version of the MB Games clamshell non electronic Battleship. It didn’t have the extra decoration to make it look like a ship’s control panel, it was just a peg board with compartments for the pegs. But I did add a little twist to the game and that was to include an aircraft carrier. It was shaped 5 pegs long with a row of 3 next to it. If you “fired” from the carrier you could make it an airstrike so if you called target B5 but your opponent was in B6 you still scored a hit as your attack also affected adjacent pegs (basically a 3×3 zone). But your carrier could be sunk with much less damage. I should have suggested that modification to MB!
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Hi FT. Sounds like you had an early version of the game. I had the non-electronic, non-speaking regular one too, but it did have some nice decals and moulding on the 3D playing board as I remember.
I like the sound of the modifications you made!
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Hi TVTA, it was just a basic early version. Glad you liked the idea of “Aircraft Carriers”. It was back when a lot of American carriers were patrolling and in the news and I thought they would add a tactical dimension to the game that was missing.
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You sunk my battleship! What a classic. I think our uncle got us an MB version of the game one Christmas (along with Atmosfear, which probably dates it!)
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Yes, the catchphrase from the British ads 🙂 I had to look up Atmosfear that you mentioned as I knew the name but not the product – and I discovered it’s a 90s VHS then DVD horror game. Looks like a lot of spooky fun! And nothing to do with any Russ Abbot party songs!!! 🙂
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Haha! I’m not sure which is spookier!
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I had that Torpedo Run game. It was awesome and I’d love to get it for my kids but it was pricey last I checked on ebay. What’s funny about the ad is that the kid in the red shirt is cheating, he went way over the line to fire.
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The Torpedo Run game looks fun – and big! I’d never heard of it till I got hold of the ad.
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Yes, it was big. That board was a hassle since it was made from cardboard and fell apart pretty quickly. But I still loved the ships that came with it. My parents went through a phase where they bought me many similar toys, from Crossbows and Catapults to Immortals of Change.
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I would have loved to have played Crossbows and Catapults. The nearest I had to it was an Airfix (I think it was) World War II playset on a mat with soldiers, tanks, planes etc and these disc-firing pill boxes that could knock the soldiers over.
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I’ve never heard of Airfix but definitely sounds like it’s in the same vein as Torpedo Run.
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Loved playing battle ships! Only ever had the regular version, but always wanted the electronic one with the sound effects. Bet that was fun to play 🙂
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Same here, I had the regular version too and always wondered how good the electronic ones were 🙂
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