Board games were among the essential toys that made up my childhood. My sister and I would spend hours, rain or shine, rotating between our favorites or replaying one continuously until we both won at least once or twice. It is my only hope that when I have kids these often non-technological toys will appeal to them too, and they'll appreciate the ones I've saved over the years.

1. Don't Wake Daddy

Remember how the suspense of pressing the white button on the alarm clock was sometimes almost too much for your 6-year-old self to handle? Regardless, this game was easy fun and the fact that winning was purely based on whether you were lucky enough not to set off the alarm made it lower on the sibling-fighting-over-who-won scale. Bonus points if you didn't lose Daddy's yellow cap.

Side note: my dad has brown hair so I basically thought this game was made for me.

2. Hungry Hungry Hippos

It says this game is made for two to four players, but everyone knows it was way more fun when there was four people playing because competition became fierce. If you were superstitious like I was, you probably insisted on playing only with your "lucky color."

3. Perfection

Never before had you ever felt such pressure to finish what was essentially a very simple puzzle with such speed. Making sure no pieces rolled under the couch was a necessity during clean up.

4. Mouse Trap

A moment of silence for all of the time wasted on creating your mouse trap only for it to fall apart when you only had one or two parts left. This game was low-key hard, but it was all worth it once you got to actually try out your trap.

5. Connect Four

If you didn't play this game 15 times in a row, did you actually play this game? Playing Connect Four was usually brief, unless you were playing someone among the same skill level as you and ended up filling out almost the entire board until someone got four in a row.

6. The Game of Life

Best part of this game? Seeing what kind of life you ended up with. No two games were the same, and you felt cool AF driving your little game family around the board. Worst part of this game? It took what felt like hours to complete.

7. Guess Who?

Asking the right question had the potential to skyrocket your chance of winning, so the game taught you how to ask wisely. There was only one character that looked vaguely like me so you best believe I would purposely shuffle through the pile of cards and pick her every time I could.

8. Candy Land

Did anyone ever read the rules for Candy Land? Because I'm pretty sure my friends and I just grabbed a card and assumed we were playing the game correctly. You internally hoped that Candy Land was a real place and needed to know how to get there ASAP.

9. Chutes and Ladders

The best parts were squiggling your player down the chutes and the excitement of landing on the tallest ladder knowing the odds of winning were likely in your favor.

10. Sorry!

Even for a not particularly competitive kid like me, saying "sorry!" and knocking someone out of their spot proved you were the Sorry King/Queen. Sliding into safety zone was the luckiest you felt all game. Also, is it too late now to say sorry? (Literally had to).

11. Trouble

I'm not exaggerating at all when I tell you I can still hear the sound of the dice bubble (totally not the official terminology) being popped, and the dice rolling around.

12. Kerplunk!

The fact that one thin, neon, plastic stick had the power to drastically alter the course of the game meant that stakes were high and you were always down for one more game.