boardgames

It is curious, but its sometimes like this even with "simple" innovations, it takes a lot of time. Wheels were invented thousands of years ago. So were boxes for transportation. Maybe suitcases are an improvement over a wooden box but only came on the stage a hundred years ago or so. But it took until, what, the 70s for someone to think of putting some small wheels on a suitcase? Imagine travel with these old suitcases back then and how different this is now, with such a tiny addition of things that were already invented.

Many of the modern boardgames probably could exist back then, sure maybe the pieces are bigger, the cardboard is wood or similar but in principle, many of these do not require some high tech technology to reproduce with alternative materials. Rules could be written on papyrus or similar. But most of these things would never survive to the present day, or at the very least, we would be lucky to find it.