Vintage Game: Old Card Game of Cities

With twelve different cities being featured in the old 1945 card game of Cities, the vintage game provides a historical look at important landmarks.

Vintage games offer collectors and players many interesting accounts of past times.  Game creators often featured popular trends, places or happenings of the time in their designs.  The game of Cities utilized and shared facts about twelve of America’s largest cities in 1945.  The images and facts written on the cards and the method of playing and scoring for the game provide an interesting perspective for that time.

There are 36 cards found within the game (three of each city represented).   For each city there is an image of a historical landmark depicted on its three cards.  Underneath the image are historic facts about the city.

For example, the following facts are written on the cards for the city of Baltimore:

BAL: “This city was first to illuminate streets with gas, has the first steam train, the fist railroad station and first to receive a telegraph message.”
TIM: “Fort McHenry, now a national monument, commands the harbor and is a perpetual memorial to Frances Scott Key and his “Star Spangled Banner.”
ORE: “In the Revolutionary War this city was the seat of government when the Continental Congress was forced by the British to retire from Philadelphia.”

To play the game, each player strives to obtain the highest score by matching three cards for a city.  A dealer deals out three cards face up in front of each player and is the first to go.  Scanning over his cards and the other players, he tries to form a match from any of the face up cards.  If he is able to form a set he places the complete set of three to his side and play moves to the next player.

If he is unable to form a set from the face up cards on the table he then draws a card from the undealt (face down) stack.  If he can use the drawn card to form a set, he may.  If he is still unable to form a set, he discards the card to the center and play moves on.  The next player does the same; except cards may now be used from the center if there are any.

Once all sets are created by players, the scores for the players are calculated.

The scoring of the game is based on the population of the cities.  If a player has matched the largest populated city of New York, he receives 12 points for the set.  A player who matches the set for Pittsburg, the smallest, receives only 1 point.  The following is an image of the population chart found within the game.  It is based, as mentioned, on the population of the cities in 1945.

The vintage card game of Cities is a historical and intriguing game to add to any game collection.  The different facts mentioned on each card and the images of the different landmarks give a past viewpoint which can still be appreciated today.  The images of the cards are shared below.