Dreamphone

Dream Phone, or "Electronic Dream Phone", was a board game by Milton Bradley, originally made in the early 90's. The goal of the game is to discover who "your crush" is out of a selection of 90's Boys. Though designed as a multiplayer game, the simple mechanics allow for solo play as well.

The selling point was the inclusion of an electronic toy phone, allowing players to dial phone numbers and "talk" to boys. When a number is dialed, a clue is revealed about one of the 24 boys featured in the game. The goal of the game is to using deductive reasoning to discover which of the boys has a crush on you before the other players.

Gameplay

Dream Phone is a conceptual cousin of the classic board game Clue. In Clue, you are trying to discover a murderer by deductive reasoning. Unlike Clue, Dream Phone doesn't have any player pieces or a game board per-se, the entirety of the game is based on the interactions of the player, the game cards, and the Dream Phone device itself, with occasional PvP interactions between players.

Game Board, Cards and Clue Card

Dream Phone Game Board
The game board is a codex for reference of the Boys' names, location, clothing, sport and food information.

Game Cards
(missing images) The deck consists of the Boy Cards as well as 12 special "PvP" cards.

Dream Phone Clue Card
To keep track of your clues, the game includes a pad of paper that you can scratch off the locations, clothing, etc. that doesn't fit your crush.

Setup

To setup the game, perform the following sequence:

Sort the Deck: Separate out the 12 special cards from the deck. The special cards are "Speakerphone", "Share a Secret" and "Mom Says Hang Up".

Distribute Special Cards: Each player receives one of each special card ("Speakerphone", "Share a Secret" and "Mom Says Hang Up") face up in front of them. Remove any extra from play.

Shuffle The Deck: The remaining "Boy" cards are shuffled and placed face down on the game board. As cards are used, they are discarded into a discard pile. If the main stack of cards is exhausted, the discard pile is shuffled and used again as many times as required until the game ends.

Start The Game: On the Dream Phone device, the "New Game" Button is pushed, starting the game. Note that the game will turn off if no interactions are made to the device in 5 minutes.

Main Game

Players take turns performing the following sequence:

Draw a Card: The player draws from the stack of "Boy" cards.

Dial a Boy: If a Boy Card is drawn, the player uses the Dream Phone to dial the phone number for the boy that is printed on the card. The response from the call can be useful (e.g "He's not at the Mall!"), or can be not useful (e.g "Ha Ha! I'm not telling"). The player then should scratch off any information that they have received from their notepad. The Dream Phone responses are broken into loud and quiet portions. The category of the clue is announced ("I know where he hangs out!") over the loudspeaker, but the clue itself ("He's not at the mall!") is only revealed to the current player over the quiet earpiece.

Next Player: Once a Boy card is dialed, the card goes into the discard pile, and the current player's turn is over. the action goes to the next player in sequence.

Player Vs Player

At any time before the current player dials, other players may use one of their special cards.

Speakerphone: If a speakerphone card is played, the current player must push the "Speakerphone" button on the Dream Phone before dialing their current boy. This will play both potions of the clue over the speakerphone, allowing all players to benefit from knowing the clue. Once the Speakerphone card is played, it is taken out of the game.

Share a Secret: If the "Share a Secret" card is played, the current player proceeds as normal but must reveal the clue that was exposed during the phone call to the player who played the card. They can do this by sticking their ears near the earpiece, or by using the "redial" button to repeat the last clue. The "Share a Secret" card is not discarded when played, but goes into the possession of the player it was used on.

Mom Says Hang Up: When a "Mom Says Hang Up" card is played, the turn is lost for the current player and they are not able to dial a Boy and must pass the phone to the next player. Once played, the "Mom Says Hang Up" card is taken out of the game.

Solve

When a player thinks they have enough information to guess which Boy their crush is, when it is their turn, they can press the "Solve" button on the Dream Phone. They then need to dial the number of the boy into the Dream Phone device. A victory message will play if the answer is correct. If not, a "try again" message will play and the gameplay continues.