Traditional Meets High-Tech

No need to choose between traditional board games and high-tech virtual ones. You can have your board and your screen too.

 

“There’s nothing like sitting at a game board, being able to see what’s happening in that world on the table and then getting some input and the special effects adventure from the screen, then coming back and picking up a card from the deck,” says Susan Adamo Baumbach, Vice President of Research and Development for Pressman Toy Corporation. “I think you get the best of both worlds – great action animation and the more personal interaction between the players.”

 

While Pressman does offer traditional options as well as high-tech ones, Baumbach says the company has nearly a dozen hybrid games and more in the hopper, where players enjoy a traditional board along with such high-tech components as animated storylines, automatic scorekeeping, and game variation.

 

In the company’s Scooby-Doo! DVD Board Game, for ages 5 and up, the DVD component allows its young players to take a different mysterious adventure each time they play. The goal is to collect three clues and find the villain.

 

There’s also Livin’ the Tamagotchi Life, a Pressman game built around the popular Tamagotchi virtual pet line. In this children’s game, for ages 7 and up, each player tries to reach adulthood first. The players receive meals, toys, and other items from the “Tamascreen”

For teens and adults, Pressman has DVD board games based on such hit TV shows as Amazing Race, 24, American Chopper and more.

“Having traditional game components included keeps the physical and social aspects of the games intact. That's what always attracted me to games over any other toy category,” shares Baumbach, adding “We can’t forget that the kids who are toddlers now were born into a high-tech world. We can’t live in our own bubble of the past.”                

Even so, she prefers to keep one foot there. This past year, Baumbach, who teaches game design at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, presented her graduating students with a pair of dice to remind them that if you carry around something so simple, you can always create a game.

MSRP for above games: $15.00 - $29.99 

Pressman games are available at many locations. For store listings, visit www.pressmantoy.com.