Toon-in Radio Game

This mid-1920s game can be used in two ways. The board has six concentric tracks, one per player, each named after a popular radio set or circuit brand: Neutrodyne, Armstrong, De Forest, Crosley, Radiola and Super-H. There also are six D6, marked with the starting letters of the six brands. The board is divided radially into 16 spaces, each with the call letters and city of a major radio station.

The first game is a simple roll-and-move affair. Each player gets a small metal radio horn or "loud speaker". All the dice are thrown at once, and each player moves ahead as often as his or her starting letter shows up. First player to complete the circuit wins. (This appears to be closely replicating one of All-Fair's top sellers of the period, 1922's Spe-Dem Auto Race Game, which - tellingly - also features a board with parallel colored paths labeled in brand names, as well as an identical method of play.)

The rules booklet also suggests a second game called Toon-In Radio Golf. This requires an actual radio set as well as a copy of the game for each player. Players have to use their radios to try to tune in each of the game's stations in turn, waiting until an announcement of the call letters to verify that he has it right. The first person to successfully tune in all of the stations wins.

The game includes the call letters, city, wavelength and power of each signal. (Even the biggest stations used only 1,000 watt0s!) The rules note that in those days, listening to radio was like golf, with all sorts of hazards like static, amateur transmitters and lightning interfering with clean reception.