The Fantomen Board Game was produced by Alga in Sweden in 1984. The 2 to 4 play Board Game was designed by Dan Glimnel with illustrations found throughout the game by Sy Barry, Özcan Eralp and Rolf Gohs.
Alga was founded in 1917 by it’s parent company, Pressbyrån AB in Sweden, which produced and sold newspapers, magazines and stationary. The name Alga is derived from the names of the wives of two of the directors of Pressbyrån AB, Anna Lundqvist (AL) and Anna Gadh (GA).
Pressbyrån AB would become part of the Bonniers group of companies in 1930. In 1938, Alga commenced producing games and in the 1940s, it published children’s books and comic books, not only in Sweden, but also in Finland and Norway.
From the late 1950’s to the mid 1980’s, Alga became Scandinavia’s most famous board game manufacturer, thanks to a successful marketing campaign in 1963, when they created the famous slogan ‘Alla Spelar Alga’, translating to ‘Everybody Plays Alga’.
Alga is still running today, with several games produced by Alga being sold in a variety of countries under the BRIO label, including Denmark and Poland.
The Fantomen Board Game comes in a lift off lid box measuring 17” x 11” x 1.25”, with instruction on how to play the game found printed on the inside of the lid. Images and text are only present on the lid of the box, and not on the tray containing the game pieces.
Found within the Fantomen Board Game box are:
- Game Paper Insert
- Fold-out African Bengali Map/Playing Board 17” x 11”
- 2 Dice
- 4 Player Tokens
- 58 Jungle Drum Cards
- 36 Handelse Kort Cards
- 17 Singh Pirate Cards
- 12 Morris Town Cards
- 4 Scary Skadad Cards
- 1 President Luaga Card
The Fantomen Board Game borders on a role-playing game. The storyline of the game is that the players, all in the role of the Phantom, must free president Luaga who is being held captive at a secret location by the Singh Pirates.
Basic Rules:
Each player (up to 4 players) start as ‘The Phantom’ with their die cut pieces (either Blue, Red, Green, Yellow). The game plays in 3 phases, finally rescuing President Luaga from the Singh Pirates. Throughout the game you are assisted with the help of the Jungle Drum cards and action cards (these various cards will guide the action throughout the game).
Phase One:
Discover the secret location of the imprisoned President Luaga who can be at any of 5 locations. Taking turns as soon as any player draws the first two of the same ‘Jungle Drum’ location cards this determines the location of the president.
Phase Two:
Rescue the President, using your ‘Hero’ card (the Phantom’s Horse Card) you may move one or two squares. If you do not possess a ‘Hero’ card you can only move one space at a time. The first player to reach the president must begin to fight the Singh Pirates, using the ‘Singh Pirate’ battle cards. If you are defeated, the next player now arriving to the same location may have an easier battle being that there are now fewer battle cards.
Phase Three:
The President is freed by a single Phantom player and the remaining players automatically become ‘bandits’ by turning over the die cut pieces to reveal a bandit character. Each bandit character now tries to reclaim the President by fighting the Phantom. The Phantom is fought by rolling two dice. The outcome of this new battle between The Phantom and bandit is determined by the value of the players roll. If the Phantom is defeated the bandit who won the battle now becomes the new Phantom and the old Phantom is now turned to bandit. The ‘new’ Phantom now races to either the Skull Cave or Morristown to end the game.
Alga also released the Fantomen Board Game in Denmark, Norway and Finland in 1984, identical to the game released in Sweden, except it was translated to local languages.
The Denmark version can be seen below, under the title of Fantomet.
The Norway version can be seen below, under the title of Fantomet.
The Finland version can be seen below, under the title of Musta Naamio.
Thank you Christopher Smith for assisting with images and information.
The Phantom 