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Retro Bingo: Things from the '70s, '80s and '90s
Retro Rewind is a free bingo game of 48 everyday things from the '70s, '80s and '90s: the phones and gadgets, music players, toys, games and fashions that grown-ups remember. Kids can play along and hear a fun fact about each one, and the grown-ups get to explain what a floppy disk was.
How to play
With printed cards
- Print as many cards as you need (up to 30) and the caller sheet. Every card is different.
- The caller reads the squares from the caller sheet, one at a time, and ticks each one. Read the fun fact too, if you like.
- Players mark a square when it is called. Coins, cereal, buttons or a crayon all work. The star in the middle is free.
- The first player to fill a whole row, column or diagonal shouts "Bingo!" The caller checks that line against the ticks on the caller sheet.
Ways to win
- Any line: a full row, column or diagonal. Quick games of about ten minutes.
- Four corners: the four corner squares.
- Blackout: every square on the card. Longer games, good for a big group.
With a TV and phones
- Open this set on a TV or laptop and pick how to win and how fast to call.
- Players go to roomfulbingo.com/join on their phones (or scan the QR code) and type the four-letter room code. Each phone gets its own card.
- The TV calls each square with its fun fact (it can read them aloud, too). Players tap a square to mark it.
- When a card has a winning line, its BINGO button lights up. The game checks it against the calls and shows the winner on the TV.
Printed cards and phones can play together: when someone shouts "Bingo!" on paper, the host types the card number and the TV checks it. It works the same way as Roomful Trivia: no app and no accounts.
All 48 squares, with fun facts
- Rotary PhoneBefore the rotary dial arrived in 1896, some callers sent a phone number's clicks by quickly pushing a button.
- Cordless PhoneA cordless phone talks by radio to a base plugged into the wall, and it can roam up to about 330 feet (100 meters).
- Answering MachineAnswering machines around 1970 were big office machines, and some came with a gadget to play back messages from another phone.
- PagerThe first practical pagers were used by doctors in New York City in the 1950s.
- Car PhoneThe first car phones, shown off in 1946, weighed about 80 pounds (36 kilograms), and an operator connected every call.
- Fax MachineFax machines trace their roots back to 1843, when a Scottish mechanic named Alexander Bain got a patent for an early design.
- TypewriterOne early typewriter could type only capital letters, so a capital I also had to stand for the number 1.
- Floppy DiskThe first floppy disks, from 1971, were 8 inches (20 centimeters) wide and held about as much as 3,000 punched cards.
- Dial-Up InternetThe screechy sounds of dial-up internet were really two modems using sound waves to connect.
- Desktop ComputerSome early home computers used an ordinary TV as their screen and saved programs on audio cassette tapes.
- Dot-Matrix PrinterA dot-matrix printer builds every letter out of tiny dots, made by little pins that pop out of its print head.
- Calculator WatchAn early calculator watch from the 1970s had keys so tiny that it came with a little pen-like stylus to press them.
- CamcorderBy 1988, some camcorders were small enough to be held in one hand, and they were nicknamed palmcorders.
- CB RadioCB radio users share 40 channels, so they take turns and should never talk for more than 5 minutes straight.
- Rabbit-Ear AntennaRabbit-ear antennas often need help from an extra wire loop or bowtie antenna to pick up channels 14 and up.
- Overhead ProjectorOverhead projectors go back to the late 1800s, and one early brass model was made by an instrument maker in Paris.
- Vinyl RecordLong-playing vinyl records arrived in 1948 and held about six times as much music as older shellac records.
- Record PlayerIn 1887, inventor Emile Berliner got a patent for a machine that played sound from flat discs instead of cylinders.
- 8-Track TapeAn 8-track tape played on an endless loop, and it was first dreamed up to bring music into cars.
- Cassette TapeCassette tapes came out in 1963 and were first meant only for recording spoken words, a job called dictation.
- MixtapeCassettes let anyone with a tape deck act like a music producer, and homemade mixtapes made great personal gifts.
- BoomboxSome big boomboxes needed 20 large D-size batteries, which made them very heavy to carry around.
- Portable Tape PlayerThe first pocket tape players of 1979 weighed about 14 ounces (400 grams), and the first 30,000 sold out in Japan.
- Compact DiscA CD player reads music with a tiny infrared laser that scans microscopic pits on the shiny disc.
- VideotapeVideotape stores TV pictures as electrical signals on magnetic tape, and a TV network first used it in 1956.
- Video Game CartridgeIn 1976, engineer Jerry Lawson's team built the first home video game system that used swappable game cartridges.
- Arcade GameWhen an early table tennis arcade game was tested in a bar in 1972, its coin box got so full that it seemed broken.
- Handheld Video GameOne of the first handheld electronic games, from 1976, fit its whole game onto a chip with just 512 bytes of memory.
- Virtual PetOn average, a pocket digital pet took about 12 days of care to grow from a baby into an adult.
- Puzzle CubeAbout 100 million of these twisty puzzle cubes were sold in just the first two years they were in stores.
- Yo-YoThe name yo-yo means "come come" in Tagalog, a language spoken in the Philippines.
- Flying DiscOne of the first plastic flying discs was made in 1948 to sell at county fairs.
- Milk Cap GameA game a lot like the milk cap game, called menko, was played in Japan as far back as the 1600s.
- Water BlasterAn early model of a famous water blaster was built from plastic pipe and a soda bottle.
- Glow StickPutting a glow stick somewhere cold makes it shine dimmer, but the glow lasts longer.
- Troll DollTroll dolls were made in a small factory in Denmark starting in 1959, and fans called them good luck trolls.
- Slap BraceletA straight slap bracelet stores energy in its metal strip, so one tap makes it curl right around your wrist.
- Bell-BottomsMany hippies bought their first flared pants from Army and Navy surplus stores.
- Leg WarmersA 1970s pair of knitted wool leg warmers at a London museum is decorated with big teardrop shapes and little bees.
- Shoulder PadsIn the early 1980s, shoulder pads showed up in all kinds of women's clothes, not just in suits.
- ScrunchieAn astronaut used a scrunchie to keep her long hair tidy on space shuttle trips in 2000 and 2002.
- Jelly ShoesJelly shoes were made of soft PVC plastic and came in a rainbow of colors, and sandals were the most popular kind.
- Light-Up SneakersMany light-up sneakers of the 1990s had a small battery sealed right into the sole to power their flashing lights.
- Mood RingMood rings use the same kind of heat-sensing liquid crystal found in some forehead thermometers.
- Tie-Dye ShirtTie-dye is ancient, and the oldest known kind, from South Asia, is thought to date back to about 4,000 B.C.
- Friendship BraceletFriendship bracelets may have roots in woven bracelets from Central America, drawing on Mayan weaving traditions.
- Instant CameraThe instant camera idea began in 1943, when an inventor's little daughter asked why she couldn't see her photo right away.
- Roller SkatesIn 1863, a New York inventor designed roller skates you could steer around curves by rocking your feet.
Print the cards
Cards print two to a US Letter page, each with its own card number in the corner, plus a one-page caller sheet that lists the squares in a random calling order. Everything is made in your browser: nothing to sign up for, nothing sent anywhere.