Computer Junkyard Board Game Review
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Transcript
Want to build a vintage computer? You'll find the parts you need at the computer junkyard.
Thank you for joining us at Tantrum House Studio D. I'm Melissa Delp.
And I'm Kevin Delp. Computer Junkyard is a tile-laying game with some simultaneous play and opportunities to trade with or steal from other players.
The game is for two to four players and takes 60 to 90 minutes to play.
It's published by Dream Egg Games, a father, son, and daughter team. The game originally fulfilled through crowdfunding and is now going to retail.
So, the publisher provided this review copy, and in our video, we'll give a super quick overview of the game and then share our thoughts. In Computer Junkyard, you're trying to be the first person to successfully build a vintage computer with all the necessary hardware to run your piece of software.
Each round has three phases. In phase one, players take turns drawing tiles and taking an action. In phase two, everyone builds their computer at the same time. And in phase three, you check to see if anyone has completed their computer and successfully installed their software.
So, at the beginning of your turn, you draw two tiles from the bag and add them to the junkyard. If you draw a bug, you can add it to someone else's computer.
Then you take one action, either visit the junkyard, debug your computer, or attempt a theft. When you visit the junkyard, you can buy and sell tiles. The price depends on how many of that tile type are already in the junkyard. The more there are, the cheaper they are to buy.
If you have bugs in your computer, you can try to remove them. For each bug tile, you roll the 10-sided die. On a 10, you transfer the bug to another player's computer. On a six or higher, you remove the bug from the game. If you roll five or less, the bug stays, but you gain a bug spray token. Each [clears throat] bug spray you have adds one to your debugging roll.
The third option for your action is to try to steal a tile from another player. You can steal tiles in a player's workbench, the ones that aren't connected to their computer yet, or from their outermost tiles on their computer. You roll the die and succeed on a seven or higher. If you steal a tile, your opponent gains a lock token. Each lock token an opponent has reduces your theft roll by one.
In addition to taking an action, you can also make deals with other players to exchange money, hardware tiles, locks, and bug sprays. You can even make alliances or threats.
After each player has taken a turn, you move to phase two. This phase is simultaneous. Each player builds their computer by adding whatever tiles they'd like from their workbench. You can take things apart, rearrange tiles, and slide your computer around on your board. Each hardware tile has specific hardware pieces it connects to. The arrangement has to be correct for you to win the game.
After the 2-minute sand timer runs out, any player can call time to stop the building phase. Usually, this ends the round and you'll start a new round with the players taking turns again.
But, if any player installed their software tile during the building phase, you move to phase three where you verify that the computer is complete, has no bugs, and is correctly built. If it is, that player wins the game.
That was a basic overview, but we'll go into more detail as we talk about our opinions.
separating the sections into four C's, our thoughts about components, our critiques, our accommodations, and finally, our conclusions.
Let's start with the components. Well, I thought the tiles, all of the hardware pieces that you are using in the game were good quality, good thickness, and they fit well together. Sometimes when you have kind of the puzzle things, they're hard to to slot, but I thought these fit really well together. And I really [clears throat] appreciated that the backside was color-coded for two players, three players, and four players, so it was very easy to sort them for different player counts.
And you can put all those um in a bag, and the bag's a good size. There's also other cardboard pieces like the coins, the lock tokens, and the bug spray. I I kind of really liked uh the lock tokens and the bug spray. They have a cool design, and you know, something that's a little different for the game.
Now, the game does come with a player aid, and I love player aids. This one, the diagram side was a little overwhelming at first looking at it and how the pieces are supposed to fit together, but what I really appreciated was that diagram plus the actual tiles being color-coded was really helpful. So, the inputs and the outputs have certain colors, so if a tile is supposed to plug into the green tile, it will be green on that little output, I think. Whichever, the little knob is green, so you know which color it's plugging into, which was very helpful.
Also, there is a pad of like it's called a tracking sheet. I think it's probably maybe more useful for more than two players, cuz if you're playing two players, you can sort of oh, that person has those tokens. But in multiplayer, might be helpful to track, cuz there is a lot of different uh those pieces going out on the different boards and the workbenches and all that kind of stuff, so.
Yeah, if you're wanting to steal or trade from someone, you can kind of see what they have. Or, you know, except for the special software things, you know, people have to have one of each of the regular things. So, you can kind of see how close they are to building their computer.
All right, let's move on to our critiques. Our first critique has to do sort of with the gameplay. I feel like there could be some sameness from game to game, specifically because you need certain pieces in order to even start building your computer out. Um, the PCI and the data bus, they're sort of like connector pieces in order to get those other pieces around. And if you don't have those two one or two pieces, it you can't really build. And I think you would feel really good if you got one of those or both of those near the beginning of the game, but if you don't get those at the beginning of the game, you're sort of waiting around, sort of waiting to get those two pieces in order to build the rest of your computer out.
Right. So, basically in phase two, you can't build anything while people [clears throat] are building. My critique, this is more of a personal preference of play style.
Okay.
This game has a little bit more interaction than I prefer in games, especially the negative interaction of being able to place bugs in other people's computers or to steal tiles from other people.
well.
Yes, Kevin was a very good roller on his steals and debugging. But, basically, when you're playing at higher player counts, that does allow for some alliances and maybe ganging up on other players like because you can say, "Hey, uh, Kevin, I'll I'll give you a bug spray if you don't put any more bugs on me. Instead, I want you to target Will." Or or something like that. And you can make those kind of social deals.
bit
of those social things going
Um So, for
yeah.
Yeah, for me, that's not the play style. I I don't I want people not to mess with my stuff. Um but, I do think if your play group really does like that interaction and kind of the back and forth and making deals, then it might be a good fit for you.
Yeah, and I and I will just add a little bit on even though people can mess with your board, it's I don't think it's the be-all end-all. It's not like your game's over. There is ways to debug your computer. There's maybe ways to buy another piece. I know it maybe not feel good, but it's not like, "Oh, I can't do anything." So,
Right.
but, yeah. All right, let's move on to our commendations. I like that you can move your computer parts around on the board and they're not stuck forever. There's some tile laying games like you put it there, no movement. So, I like that and you can even move your whole computer around and you want as long as it fits on the board. So, what I appreciate about in Computer Junkyard is the flexibility of the tile laying.
Now, there are some exceptions to that. If you have bugs in your computer, they are going to lock down that whole chain back to the motherboard where you can't rearrange them. Other people can't steal them though. So, it kind of does do some lockdown, which I think actually adds another layer of strategy to the game cuz you could potentially use those bugs and keep them there to protect
Oh, it's a
But, you cannot win if [snorts] you have any bugs left in your computer. And also, there is the possibility that those bugs are actually blocking ports that you need to keep building your computer. So, there's definitely a a timing aspect to those bugs.
I like games that have good like game play like the game play is good, but I also like a thematic game in in my tears. I like that they marry together and I think computer junkyard has that because it's about building a computer. So, you're trying to find the right parts to build your computer and you have those nasty bugs in computers and I think it's a little tongue and cheek, but I think it works well in computer junkyard. I think I like the theme fits the game play well.
In the rule book, they said they used bug spray because some of the early computers, it was actual bugs that got into the computers that made them stop working.
Yep. There you go.
So, there you go with your theme. Oh, another thing I enjoy about computer junkyard is that you have the opportunity when you're building your computer to actually swap a part that you have for the same part in the junkyard. So, maybe it has a up and down connector, but you need a side connector. If it's there in the junkyard, you can swap it during the build phase. I do think at higher player counts that could get a little bit more chaotic as more people are swapping things and you're like, oh, that's there. I'm going to use it in a moment and then they take it. So, again, interactivity in during that simultaneous simultaneous phase.
There's definitely strategy on what pieces you're leaving in your workbench and what pieces you're trying to get on your board because pieces in your workbench are much more vulnerable to be stolen and you can sort of plan it out where it makes it difficult for other players to steal pieces on your board because if a piece is a piece cannot be stolen if it leaves other pieces on your board orphaned. So, you can sort [clears throat] of strategize, okay, I'm going to put this down and these other pieces down. The outer pieces could still be stolen, but I mean, the more pieces you have on your board, the better for you, because it gets you closer to winning.
So, I would say that this game has a fairly light rule set. It's not too complex once you understand how the pieces go together. So, it was a easy game to learn and play, but the rule book does have some variations that you can use to either make the game easier or harder. So, there's some flexibility depending on how difficult you want the game to be. Um also, there's some educational info in the rule book. So, if you want to learn more about the different pieces that go into making a vintage computer, there's a section that explains each type, so you could learn something as well.
All right. Let's move on to our conclusions. If you enjoy tile laying games, I'd say definitely check out Computer Junkyard. I was trying to like compare this one to like other tile laying games. Um the one that sort of came to mind was Galaxy Trucker, not because of the frantic nature of it.
definitely not that like crazy.
But, trying to get your pieces in the right um way on your physical structure, I think there's some comparison there. And also, there's a little bit of the chaos [snorts] factor in like Galaxy Trucker, you have your pieces flying off your board because of meteors or the pirates hitting it. And in Computer Junkyard, you sort of kind of have a little bit of chaos with people putting bugs on your computer or stealing things from your computer. So, for me, I think this is a fine tile laying game, but it's not something I'm going to be running to like on game night to be like, I really want to play this. That's where I think I am on Computer Junkyard.
Okay. Um I like tile laying games and I did like the tile laying in this one, especially the aspect of having or potentially having to rebuild your computer several times throughout the game because even though you need the same mostly the same pieces from game to game, they do have different configurations. So, I start building and then I get, you know, a monitor. Oh, it doesn't fit.
Got [snorts] to get a different one.
So, either [clears throat] I need to get a different monitor or I need to take it apart and redo it so I can [clears throat] fit it in. So, that puzzle aspect of reworking the computer I enjoyed. I thought that was a fun part of the game. I do agree with Kevin. I think especially because of it's not one that I'm going to suggest at a game night. I would play it if someone suggested it, but for me it just has a little bit too much player interaction for my preferences and taste with the trading and the stealing and the bugging and all of that. Now, I do think if your game group really likes trading and interaction, then I think this game would shine for for you. So, I think that's where I stand with it. A little bit too much interaction for me, but probably a great fit for other groups.
There has been a lot of nostalgia as we've been playing this with the older computers. So, I would love to hear from you. What's your oldest computer that you owned? For us,
Commodore 64.
Commodore 64 was our first like
With the big, the actual floppy disk.
The 8-in floppy disk. Yeah. So, tell us, what was that for you?
And what games did you play on it?
Oh, there you go. All right. Thank you for watching. Please like and subscribe.
Woo!