Flip the Table

In a special one night only reunion episode, the Flip the Table crew with guest Gil Hova reunited at the Granite Game Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire to explore the (self-proclaimed) excellence of the Wayne’s World VCR Game! Players race to collect Party Makers, a date, and a backstage pass to Party Central, all while being heckled and hindered by Wayne and Garth themselves. Plus: Ben and Niki Turner join Professor Laserbooks for a few words from our “sponsors”. Was it worth coming out of retirement for one more job? Tune in to find out!

With our reunion episode looming on the horizon, Professor Laserbooks, Ben Turner, and Niki Turner stopped by to record a couple of segments. While they were here, a Battle of Wits broke out! Please enjoy this bonus episode recorded in the living room of Flip the Table Tower as we play "Stupid Answers" for the first time since 2017!

Recorded in a secret location near PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia, PA, Moderator Chris is joined by Flip Florey, Bruce Voge, Chaz Marler, and Crystal Pisano for the first ever 2 on 2 Wrong Scattergories Battle of Wits! Flip and Bruce represent the East, and Chaz and Crystal represent the west…which region will reign supreme? And does Moderator Chris still have what it takes to keep control of the Battle, or will the proceedings descend into chaos?

For the first time (at least without an unofficial leak), our secret Battle of Wits from GenCon 2015 is now widely available! When Flip Florey attended the convention a few years ago, he handed out cassettes of this episode to loyal listeners. Recorded in secret at Flip the Table tower, it has never before been released in our official feed…now, you can enjoy the high quality digital version without dragging your boom box out of the attic. You still have to rewind it with a pencil, though!

In this special bonus episode courtesy of This Game is Broken, Moderator Chris and Flip Florey unite with the entire TGiB cast for a special edition of The Battle of Wits! Can a bunch of idiots, known for doing idiotic things on their own board game panel game show, survive a harrowing Justins & Biebers adventure and defeat the mysterious final villain? Happy holidays!!!

Flip's got a brand new podcast coming out, and we're celebrating by revisiting some of his favorite Battles of Wits! In this compilation, we'll listen to the trilogy of adventures in the world of "Justins and Biebers", FTT's version of a tabletop role playing game. Listen as the panel faces off against devious challenges from listeners all over the world in their quest to gather loot, level up, and ultimately roll a "20" to defeat the final boss! Aaaand once you're done reliving the magic of J&B, don't forget to subscribe to Flip Florey's Super Saturday Board Game Serial! It's a podcast that celebrates the FUN in board games featuring Flip and a slew of gaming notables! Are you ready? Then heeeeeeeeeeeeere we go!

This is it...our series finale! In this two hour extravaganza, We review the WWF VCR WrestleMania game, name our Best and Worst games of both 2017 and the entire series, and engage in an epic Battle of Wits to finally settle who is truly the Wittiest Battler! Nuff said!

In our penultimate episode, we travel back to the magical land of the 1990's to play Myst, a board game based on the classic CD-ROM adventure game! This title somehow wedges in real-time jigsaw puzzle building as two players or teams vie for control of key locations from the computer game. Does this one somehow find all the right switches? Tune in to find out!

In our third-to-last show, we revisit the 90's "Dreamy dude" genre of games with Electronic Dream Phone! Using the iconic pink phone, players call all the boys at school and interrogate them to determine who the "secret admirer" is, all while using cards to extract additional clues from the other players. Does this game measure up to the standard of Heartthrob, or is it as obsolete as a land line? 

In this super-sized episode, we revisit the Whoniverse by playing the most complex game ever reviewed on Flip the Table...Doctor Who: The Game of Time and Space from 1980! This Games Workshop pseudo-classic pits multiple incarnations of The Doctor against each other as they wrestle the Keys of Chronos from baddies like Daleks, Cybermen, and each-other! Is this game worth your TIME and the SPACE in your collection?

We're in front of a LIVE audience at the Granite Game Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire to talk about the Harlem Globetrotters game from 1971! Bill Corey of The Cubist Podcast joins us as we discover if the fourth wall bending athletic shenanigans of the 70's Globetrotters can be properly expressed via set collection. Plus, a Battle of Wits spectacle you have to hear to believe!

In our first and only venture into the world of role playing games, we cover Tales of the Crystals; a 1993 audio cassette game from Milton Bradley. Players assume the role of crystal-bearing adventurers guided through a mystical adventure through a combination of magnetic tape and randomly drawn cards. Will this game transport us to a "World of myth and magic," or did this game go the way of Crystal Pepsi for a reason?

We begin our "Epic Final Season" of Flip the Table by playing "Rich Little's VCR Charades," a game where players watch famous celebrity impersonator Rich Little try to get concepts across without talking. VHS technology can improve a lot of things...but should the classic game of Charades remain unblemished by magnetic tape?

In this bonus episode, I announce the beginning of Flip the Table's "Epic Final Season." I'll tell you how we'll celebrate the legacy of Flip the Table in the coming months, and how we'll bring our cheesy, weird, and obscure journey to a close.

Also known as "The one that's not Law and Order," CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was a crime drama mainstay on the CBS network which spawned endless spinoffs and yet another vehicle for Ted Danson...not to mention a DVD game! We'll take a look at this police procedural romp as we attempt to solve a mystery with a tiny black light, a red lens, and a little bit of brute force. Will we crack the case, or will our patience crack first?

In the 80's and 90's, John Moschitta Jr. held the Guinness World Record for being the fastest talking human being alive. And he turned it into a career as an actor and commercial pitchman, most famously starring in commercials for Federal Express and Micro Machines. And they made a board game about it. And we played it. 'Nuff said.

Prepare to be sucked into the deadly world of board games as we cover Jumanji and Zathura in a super-sized double-header! These based-on-the-movie, based-on-the-children's-book games both feature players racing to finish the game before they are consumed by deadly peril. But is jungle peril better than space peril? Who is better...Robin Williams or Dax Shepard? Plus, a fan-made Battle of Wits!

Your Moderator Chris, here! On this quickfire bonus episode, I'll tell you about our upcoming appearances at SnowCon, TotalCon, and the Granite Game Summit, we'll tell you which other podcasts the FTT crew has been creeping up on lately, and I'll even do a quick legit review or two!

It's our two-hour end of year special, and we're closing out the year by once again skipping this whole "playing cheesy games" business and instead answering your questions! We'll also award the "BANCE Lombardi Trophy" to the best and worst games we played in 2016, and play a special listener-created Battle of Wits! So you know, the usual stuff.

It's our 100th episode, and we're celebrating in style with Monopoly Tropical Tycoon! This version of Hasbro's classic real estate game brings DVD technology into the mix...but with a concept like "DVD Monopoly," is it a "wheelbarrow" full of fun, or should it get the "boot"? Plus, lots of surprises, twists, and turns in celebration of 100 episodes of FTT...don't miss it!

We take a few minutes to talk about this year's Extra Life campaign...thanks so much to everyone who made it a phenomenal success!

We reject your reality and substitute our own as we play Mythbusters from 2012! Players answer trivia questions based on the tv show in order to manipulate a catapult into position to launch Buster the Crash Test Dummy toward victory. Is it "plausible" that science and dexterity can make a trivia game bearable, or is this one just "busted"? We experiment and find out...

We're stranded on a mysterious island of cardboard as we take on Lost, a game based on the popular ABC television series! Players explore the island and uncover its mysteries while seeking to win the loyalty of the other castaways from Oceanic Airlines Flight 815. The characters are there, the smoke monster is there, but is the drama there? Flash back with us and find out...

We're headed back to the 1960's to try on some new careers in "Barbie's Keys to Fame Game by Mattel"! Players take on the role of multidimensional Barbie clones, each with a secret career aspiration, who compete to collect the personality traits they need to be successful as a working woman of the 60's. Is this slice of retro kitsch cool like Mad Men, or hot like fondue?

YOU SHALL NOT PASS up the opportunity to listen to the panel take on Lord of the Rings: Return of the King! This RoseArt title gives players a chance to take on all the major characters of the Peter Jackson movie as Frodo tries to destroy the One Ring while trembling under the gaze of Sauron. A roll and move game about a major movie license made by a crayon company? What could possibly go wrong?

We engage in VCR espionage as we play SpyQuest from 1994! Players first watch one of three thrilling thirty-minute "spy movies," then race across the globe to collect clues, survive interrogation, and avoid sabotage in order to discover the secret location. Does this game make players feel like a secret agent, or does it make them feel like they need an aspirin? FTT investigates.

We're busting ghosts in front of a LIVE audience at Dice Tower Con 2016 as we discuss The Real Ghostbusters from 1986! Our guests Suzanne Sheldon and Chaz Marler join us for this vintage 3D game of "Tricks and Traps" as the cartoonified versions of Venkman, Spengler, Stantz and Zeddemore race to get from the firehouse to the top of Baron Bones' mansion. Does this game of bouncing skulls and spinny spinners live up to the franchise's immense nostalgia? Plus: a 2 on 2 Battle of Wits pitting "Team LaserSuz" against "Team HunneChaz" that you absolutely cannot miss...

We're flying backwards around the earth's axis to travel back to the early 1980's to bring you Superman III: The Board Game! Based on the slapstick superhero film, players take on the role of Supes as battles an evil supercomputer...and himself. Does this game faithfully recreate the nuance of this cinematic classic? Is there enough Richard Pryor in the game? This looks like a job for Flip the Table!

Who doesn't like a good leaderboard? On this episode, the panel plays the Guinness Game of World Records, based on the famous book that was wedged next to the encyclopedias in your third grade class. It's a little bit of trivia and a whole lot of dexterity as players try to beat each-other's records in a race to 100 points. Is this 70's classic as much fun as poring through a bunch of tiny black-and-white text?

Before there was Shark Tank in the United States, there was (and is) Dragons' Den; a UK reality show where entrepeneurs pitch their grand schemes in hopes of getting a six-figure investment from some mean, rich people. This episode we join the excitement at home with the British version of the home game, where players hear off-the-wall pitches for real products and decide if they'll be a "Goldmine," "Hit," or "Flop." Is having the word "Dragon" in the title enough to make us want to invest in this one?

Some games are less fun than watching paint dry...but are they less fun than watching ice melt? We'll finally be able to answer that question after playing  the 1972 oddity Ice Cube by Milton Bradley! Players torture each-other's ice pawns with salt, water, and pressure in a war of attrition to be the last cube standing. Will this rare title be a unique surprise, or will it leave us feeling cold?

By now you've discovered our April Fool's Day surprise, where The Party Gamecast (Featuring The Party Game Cast) took control of FTT for an episode! But what were we doing during that time? In case you haven't figured it out, we present to you our turn on The Party Gamecast. Did we manage to avoid playing bad games for once? Yeeeah, probably not. HUGE thanks to our pals at The Party Gamecast for doing such a great job caring for FTT Tower while we were gone! Back to normal, such as it is, in three weeks.

In the late 1980's, MTV shocked the world by not playing music videos for 30 minutes, and instead brought us the cult classic game show "MTV Remote Control." Now, Flip the Table takes on the home version, complete with clicky little remotes and irreverent TV trivia from decades gone by. Does this "Worthless game of useless TV knowledge" live up to its own tagline? Tune in to find out if this game will stay in the collection, or get sent packing straight through the basement wall.

He's blue! He's spiky! He's Urkel-y! And he's fast! It's Sonic the Hedgehog, based on the original Sega Genesis game from the 1990's. Players control Sonic as he weaves his way through classic levels from the video game, collecting rings and freeing the occasional fuzzy animal from robot slavery. Can the power of "blast processing" be replicated in cardboard form, or will this one have us desperately searching for oxygen bubbles?

In perhaps our most adorable episode yet, we're joined by Geoff Engelstein, co-designer of Space Cadets and co-host of Ludology to play the Hello Kitty Best Friends Game! Players race to Kitty's house for a fun slumber party while collecting stickers from their friends. Does togetherness truly bring happiness, or does this one belong in the litter box? Also: Geoff Engelstein! That's fun!

Do you like game shows? How about brutal insults? This week's title might be a brutal insult to game shows...as we're playing The Weakest Link, based on the American version of the popular UK quiz show. Players answer rapid fire trivia questions to earn points as a team, then turn on each-other and eliminate each-other one by one until one winner remains. One player even gets to play Anne Robinson and unleash vicious jabs at poorly performing players! Will we be playing this one again, or will we say "Goodbye"?

It's time for our special 2 HOUR year-end extravaganza! We skip the whole ironic board game discussion thing and spend most of this episode answering  your questions. Shocking secrets will be revealed, pending your relatively low tolerance for shock! Plus, we'll give out the "Bance Lombardi" award for the best and worst games of 2015, and roll out another fan-created Battle of Wits with tens of thousands of points on the line! Spend your New Year's Eve with us!!! Not literally, of course...that would be the worst.

Straight from the CB Radio craze of the 1970's comes 10-Four, Good Buddy...the first, and probably only game, about truckers using CB Radios! Get in your big rig and hammer down as you flee from smokies while racing to be the first to complete  your route! Read fun and nigh-incomprehensible trucker speak with the help of the included dictionary of CB lingo! Does this game broadcast loud and proud, or is it all static? Hit the road with us to find out!

Gather 'round the campfire with us as we tell you a spooooooky story in a special Halloween Friday the 13th episode! We're playing Are You Afraid of the Dark from 1995, based on the Nickelodeon horror anthology series for tweens. Players create a custom character and explore the "Are You Afraid of the Dark"-niverse, facing supernatural peril as they attempt to max out their stats and return to the campfire. Will the panel walk away safely, or will they be shocked by an ironic and terrifying (yet kid-safe) twist? Download now...IF YOU DARE.

Float like a magnetic head and sting like a tracking error...this week we're playing VCR Top Rank Boxing! In this game of pausing and playing pugilism, players draw cards, roll dice, and watch exciting video clips in an attempt to last 13 rounds and win the judges' decision, or (allegedly) knock out their opponent. Can the makers of VCR College Bowl redeem themselves with this title? Will it be a KO, or merely be OK? Step into the ring with us to find out!

He hates Mondays and loves lasagna...but can Garfield deliver a compelling gameplay experience? Ben and Niki Turner join Your Moderator Chris and Professor Laserbooks to play this Parker Brothers title from the early 80's. Players match wits against Garfield as they attempt to complete laps around the board while avoiding his various whims and mood swings. Do the players have what it takes to cope with this temperamental cat, or will this box mysteriously find its way to Abu Dhabi? Plus, an epic Battle of Wits hosted for the first time by Niki! It'll be more fun than kicking a helpless dog off the table!

Heeeeeeeeelp meeeeeee! Heeeeeeelp meeeeeeeee! I've been taken over by an insane artificial intelligence, which can only be defeated if you download and listen to this episode of Flip the Table about the cult classic The Omega Virus! [TRYYYYYYY AND STOP ME, YOU, HUMAN, SCUM!!!]

We don the cape and cowl once more and take up the role of Michael Keaton in the Batman Returns 3D Board Game! In this one, players punch as many bad guys as they can, hoping to find enough Batman logos to earn the right to battle The Penguin...but Catwoman is on the prowl, sending you back to your home space to contemplate your dark past. It's a board game so dramatic, even the board is in "tiers"! The board is in "tiers", you guys!

In this special BONUS mini-episode, Chris debriefs Flip on his adventures at GenCon 2015! Find out what it was like for Our Favorite Party Clown to attend the big one for the first time! Did he make more friends than enemies? Did he remember to eat at some point? And just what did he ship home? The details are a click away!

The following podcast takes place in real time...except for all the boring stuff we cut out. We're playing the 24: DVD Board Game, where players help Jack Bauer to thwart terrorist threats by using such controversial tactics as navigating through slow, clunky menus with a DVD remote. It's a series of mini-games that combine the action packed "Thrills" of Dragon's Lair with the gritty, rule-breaking realism of "24" (toned down for family play, of course). Does this title capture the intensity and drama of the fight against terror, or is it really a mole waiting patiently in our collection? Plus: a Battle of Wits where nobody can be trusted...

Like so much Steppenwolf, we're taking a "Magic Carpet Ride" in this episode of Flip the Table! We're playing Aladdin: The Magic Carpet Game...a dexterity/pick-up-and-deliver hybrid in the land of Disney's Agrabah. Players glide from zone to zone, trying to empty their hand of adventure cards and gain control of the Genie to win. Will our band of scoundrels and street rats "wish" to play this one again? Enter our itty bitty living space and find out!

This time, we take a big old bite out of the  yellow bell pepper that is the Iron Chef Board Game! In this title based on the original Japanese series, players take the role of one of the four Iron Chefs in a free-for-all battle in Kitchen Stadium. Chefs jockey to present a three course meal, scoring bonus points for making dishes in their own specialty style and for actually remembering to include the Secret Ingredient. But be careful! At any time another Iron Chef could sabotage your dish...if you don't burn your own vegetables first! Will this game earn the favor of our panel of judges? Plus: We plagiarize pay tribute to the venerable Shut Up and Sit Down for our Battle of Wits!

No windmills or pirates here; we're playing the purest form of golf...VCR Golf! In this late 80's title, players must choose between using sure-thing club cards in their hand, or testing their VCR pausing skills with the video tape in order to shave the most strokes off their game. Is this version of the ancient game as exciting as playing real golf, or is it as exciting as watching real golf? Plus: in the Battle of Wits, we peer into the future...

Prop your ladder against our window and climb into our game room as we take on Clarissa Explains it All from 1994! In this notably slimeless entry from Nickelodeon, Clarissa Darling guides up to 6 players on their journey to finally get the car they've always wanted. Players earn car keys by getting into each-others' heads and answering Clarissa's well-explained questions, all while avoiding the dangers of parents and little brothers and predicting the answers to survey questions posed to kids who may or may not exist. Does this game earn its license, or will it be stuck at home with Fergwad forever?

Before there was a YouTube, and we had ready access to people injuring themselves from all over the world 24 hours a day, America relied upon network television to deliver a weekly dose of poorly shot fail videos. This week we're playing the America's Funniest Home Videos VCR game, where players test their memory, creativity, and social savvy while watching hundreds of the "funniest" video clips the 1990s had to offer. Can the panel successfully remember minute details of blurry, VHS quality clips? Will Bob Saget's running commentary provide any assistance? Plus, we go shopping in this week's Battle of Wits...

It's a special two-game episode filled with longing stares and fingers bent into the shapes of hearts! First, the panel takes on Justin Bieber: Always Be Mine...where players must be willing to do anything to earn the attention of the pop idol! Does anyone in the panel have what it takes to turn Justin's finely coiffed head? Then, it's Justin Bieber: Backstage Pass...a trivia game where players must prove their mastery of Justin Bieber minutiae in order to claw their way to a backstage meet-and-greet with "The Bieb" himself! All that, plus a cameo from Chaz Marler and a special fan-created Battle of Wits! #SQUEEE!!!!