Humans have been using games to entertain themselves, socialize and learn new skills for millennia, so it is natural that the digital era should be partly defined by the rapid growth of the video gaming industry.
However, while brand new genres and experiences have risen to prominence in the past half-century, there are also a whole heap of classic games that have stood the test of time and made the leap to modern technologies from their humble, physical origins.
Here is a look at just a few of the old school games that have endured the longest and still keep modern audiences hooked.
Bingo
The secret to bingo’s success is its shallow learning curve, as well as its strong social aspect, and both of these things have been preserved and allowed it to flourish as a form of online entertainment, even as land-based locations for play are becoming increasingly rare.
Although bingo in the internet age is fundamentally the same as it has been for time immemorial, it has still managed to grow and adapt to take full advantage of the tech at its disposal. This has led to the emergence of services like Loco Bingo, which let you play for free from your smartphone, using integrated chat rooms to preserve the social side of the experience.
Poker
While bingo is all about getting lucky, poker is a classic game that has also got a proven element of skill, meaning that the best players can go pro.
Online poker has been around since the 1990s, although it has only really taken off in the last 15 years, with the advent of game streaming giving its advocates a way to showcase their skills in front of ever-growing audiences.
Along with bingo, it is one of the linchpins of the online gambling industry, which is benefiting from strong growth at the moment thanks to burgeoning interest from players worldwide.
Monopoly
While it may attract a degree of scorn from serious fans of classic board games, there is no questioning that Monopoly is still one of the best known and most widely played games of its kind, and continues to win over newcomers thanks to its various digital incarnations.
Monopoly has appeared on everything from PCs and game consoles to smartphones and beyond, with local and online multiplayer making it easy to enjoy with friends and family wherever they are. Furthermore, because things like banking are handled automatically, and all of the rules are implemented as they should be, it eliminates the likelihood of cheating getting in the way of an enjoyable game.
Chess
Arguably the most complex and potentially beautiful board game ever conceived, chess has remained a source of fascination for successive generations of players. Like many other much-loved games, it has also found its feet in a number of digital incarnations, while also gaining traction with younger audiences thanks to the emergence of prodigies like Magnus Carlsen in recent years.
Indeed the rise of online chess has effectively turned it into a spectator sport that anyone can watch and appreciate, bringing a new celebrity status to top players who in the past would have been far more obscure than they are at the moment.
Checkers
A more accessible yet still engaging counterpart to chess, checkers has translated successfully to digital platforms, with its mobile versions on iOS and Android making it particularly simple to get into if you have never played before.
Ultimately it is the sheer size and scope of the digital gaming market that means all of these classic games and many more have found new life in the 21st century.
