The Dark Ages
This time of war, plague and famine was nowhere near has dreary as it 's normally cracked up to be, for they were great gamers, the people of the Dark Ages. They enjoyed all sorts of japes to pass the time, from Duck The Witch, Burn the Witch, Throw Rotten Tomatoes At The Witch, and that parlour classic, Drive The Witch Out of The Village with Pitch Forks and Flaming Brands. All of which was great fun, unless you owned a black cat or had a spot on the end of your nose.

The Age Of The Costume Drama
If you believe the crap they show on telly, living in the age of sex'n'skirts was bereft of any sort of fun at all, unless you were rich and took endless pleasure from inventing longwinded, verbose ways of saying, "Hello". But the poor people of that time did play their fair share of games, too. Making Babies was one popular game. Beat Your Kids was another.

The Victorians
Not content with conquering the world, the Victorians also gave us Football, Rugger, Cricket, Shove Ha'penny, Billiards, Send The Kids To The Workhouse... Christ, they were show-offs.

The Twentieth century
Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Jogging, Monopoly, Curling, Rat Attack, Trivial Pursuit, Gazumping, DIY, Centipede, Polo, The Millennium Dome... Mmm. Taking on a woolly mammoth high on fermented pinecones sounds a lot more fun.