Escape From Atlantis - 1986 vs 1996 - Which is best? Waddingtons Vintage Board Game Review Survive! 

Hi Guys, A bit of history for you! 🙂The 1986 version of Escape from Atlantis! (EfA) was by Waddingtons. In 1994 Waddingtons was bought by Hasbro. So, the 1996 version was developed by them using Waddington's brand name to market it. Following the success of my game Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs! (LVD) (the first 3-D game on the market) I was asked by Waddingtons to submit another 3-D game. Parker Bros had just stopped selling the game, so I converted Parker Bros 2-D game into a 3-D by making the island on three levels. After 36 years, LVD is back on the market, produced by Lansay of France. Survive: Escape from Atlantis! new edition comes out this year with a major manufacturer. Being launched at Essen. Any questions, ask me on BGG. 😄

Another cracking vid. I didn't even know they were different. Great to have the comparison.

I have the 1996 Parker Version. If you sink an island tile, the Atlanteans fall into the water on adjacent ocean hexes, not on the same hex the island tile was removed from (so no instakill).

Great video, very interesting comparison

Simply mindblown!!! I have the 96 version which we absolutely love it was well worth every minute I've spent counting the bloody atlantians one by one on the flea market to see if anyone is missing hahaha 😜

Totally agree, the 96 version is the best of the Waddingtons versions. Glad that they went out of their way to update and refine the gameplay. Removing land pieces under players figures is so much fun but have actually had it backfire too with them landing immediately into a boat! The sails on the ship have snapped on a few of mine, if you’re trying to glue, try to use something like two part epoxy, it’s worked well on mine. We’ve house ruled the dice, we figured that the dolphin was coming far too regularly as your stats showed. We’ve added a little sticker to the creature dice and that sticker allows you to move a boat...any boat. So ordinarily you’re just able to move boats that have at least one of your men on. Being able to move any boat, you can have them sail directly into a kraken destroying them all or an octopus destroying the boat. Just makes it that more vindictive and dangerous :)

I’ve got a Dutch version by Selecta. Different box, different board, and a cardboard spinning arrow for the monster movements. Otherwise same as the 1986 version.

I own the 1986 version which was a huge updgrade from the Parker Brothers “Survive” that came out in 1982. I do love the pieces from the 1996 version and wish it for the 86 board. It’s such a fun game and introduced it to many friends over the years that always want to play it again. Thanks for the great review as always!

I grew up with the 86 version, but bought the 96 version to play with my kids. I agree with all your points and the do really like the 96 version. However the wobbly Atlanteans do fall over way too easily and it causes problems in every single game. Plus I really miss the feel and tension of the spinner. The ideal version would be 96, but with the spinner and also tweaked figures that don't fall over/fit better in hexes.

Great review/comparison. Bought the 1996 version on the strength of this

Agreed. 96 looks better but I'd be happy with either. They both look more amazing then my newer copy of the game does today. Classic Waddington!!

Man, the '96 version is just vicious! Cool! Maybe they could've still made the dolphins a bit faster than humans, but not as fast as 3 spaces. Maybe 2 spaces instead, along with the protection?

The ‘96 version is damn near perfect. All they really had to do was either make the board bigger or pieces smaller so they can fit in each hexagon comfortably and either make the player pieces with bigger bases or just go with pawns.

I’ll obtain the 96 version at some point but I will say movement and basic rules are better in reprint accessible now so I’d just use most of those rules. Excellent comparison though!

96 waddingtons is beyond a doubt the best. If you ever get a chance, the german version of "atlantis" has some solid pawns that work better than fiddly 96 waddingtons does. No matter what, they are all good.

Can u adapt some rules from this game to The Island? I thought they were the same game but The Island was a sort of modern version, but I realised that there are a bunch of differences

Great video. I have 86 version but defo would also like the 96 one too. It would be great to see you compare the 96 version agasint the survive: escape from Atlantis anniversary edition (I know not vintage but would be interesting). I know that survive the island can sink randomly rather than low land, mid and high and that the meeples have values on the botom for point scoring. It will defo score low for compontents (tiles and meeples Vs pieces and figures) but would I wonder which gameplay you'd prefer?

Played and loved the original many times; never even knew they remade it ten years later! Will look for this on eBay. 🙂

Good explanation...

Reminds me of survive

I like this game another... well explained Mark.

The new version looks MILES better than the old one!

It's so weird that I have to different versions of that game and neither of them are the same as yours.

The old version is better by far.

Youʼre just _starting_ to get a _little_ bit nerdy? 🤓😜 Iʼll don the nerd glasses now: Are you sure the ʼ96 rules say “an octopode”? The classical plural of _octopus_ is _octopodes_ (4 syllables, stress on the 2nd) - not _octopi_ as popularly believed - and the word _octopod_ can also be used as a synonym of _octopus._ All this is an excellent argument for pluralizing as _octopuses_ - surely all the buzzing about this wordʼs alternate forms can make one feel Octobuzzy! ✨‍🐙‍💫 In my opinion, the ʼ86 version has overall the better components. Say what you will about advances in sculpts - the fact that the size and instability of some ʼ96 counterparts hinders gameplay is a major strike in my book! And even on a purely esthetic level the newer pieces sometimes fail. For example, while itʼs cool that the generic movers got replaced with humaniform figures, the ʼ96 survivor sculpts, like the box art, suffer from excessive caricature, and their poses are entirely inappropriate when in the water. The ʼ86 knobby movers require some imagination anyway, and the imagination has an easier time moving from abstract imagery than from wrongly specific imagery. Of course, a better solution would be somewhere in between, with survivor pieces that look more human than in ʼ86 but less specifically detailed than in ʼ96. I own the ʼ86 version (only), and Iʼm satisfied I made the right choice. That said, the more cut‐throat gameplay from ʼ96 intrigues me. It might be worth applying those rules to my set sometime. Thanks for the comparison. I appreciate that you outline the details, so that we may better understand your conclusions and become better situated to agree or disagree. Keep on raidinʼ!

Apart from the the newer rules the 96 version is awful. People fall over and nothing fits in spaces. I threw it in the bin.