The best old school games we used to play in Singapore

No Spiderman here, just spiders. Spider fighting was a common game among boys, who would go out on expeditions to catch spiders in the bushes, drains, flowerpots – wherever they knew these little critters would hang out. And the arena for these epic spider fights? Your humble little matchbox. The hobby has mostly died out in urbanised Singapore, but there are still hobbyists out there keeping the passion alive. 

Of course, we still fly kites today. But back in the day, children would take part in Kite Runner-esque competitions to cut down and retrieve kites. They would crush glass into a fine powder and coat kite strings with it using glue. Once the kites were in the air, kite flyers would fly their kites close to each other – rubbing the strings together to attempt to cut their opponent's line. When this happened, kids would race after the freed kites hoping to be the first to catch it when it finally lands.

Said to be one of the oldest recorded games in human history, cat's cradle was also a popular game among school children here in Singapore. This seemingly simple game is a great test of creativity. Players pass a loop of string among each other, each time creating string figures between their fingers until a player reaches a dead end or fumbles the string. Apparently, each string figure has a name, such as Diamonds, Manger and Two Crowns, but we daresay that many of us enjoyed Cat's Cradle without knowing these names anyway. 

Zero point is like the flipped version of limbo. In the latter, players attempt to go under a bar that gets progressively lower and lower. In zero point, rubber bands are strung together into a long rope, and players have to jump over it – without any part of their body touching the rubber band rope – as it is raised further and further from the ground. You'll need a hell of a lot of explosive power for this one. 

This game of top spinning used to be popular in Singapore's kampongs. Players would wind a rope around the top and use it to launch it into a spin, competing to have their top spin the longest, or to strike their opponent's top out of a ring. Sadly, this game isn't so common in Singapore anymore as we run out of hard and sandy ground, which was common last time and most ideal for gasing. 

It doesn't take much to play this familiar childhood game, just five cloth bags filled with sand, rice or beans – or even actual seeds or stones, the way it was played during the kampong days. Also known as 'batu seremban', five stones is believed to have been brought over from the West coast of Malaysia. Five stones is such an iconic traditional game that it has been kept alive in various artworks such as Twardzik-Ching Chor Leng's public artwork Five Stones for Singapore Art Week. 

Capteh has a long, long history. The game has been dated to fifth century BC in China, where it was played by military servicemen and Shaolin monks to train their skills. It’s popular in Southeast Asia too – it was included in the 22nd Southeast Asian Games, and there’s even a World Shuttlecock Championship (the 10^th edition was held in France in 2019). But capteh was a friendlier affair for most of us who simply competed among friends in school and at void decks to see who could keep the shuttlecock in the air the longest. 

It’s easy to underestimate this game – after all, it’s just picking up a bunch of sticks. But pick up sticks demands both focus and motor control. Let your concentration slip, or let loose a tremble, and you’re likely to send other sticks in the pile shaking too – not ideal. In Singapore, we typically play with the cheap multi-coloured plastic sticks, but other versions of the game include Mikado, played with sticks that can measure up to 20cm in length.

Oh, the pain of losing your hard-won marbles in a game of goli. Also known as kelereng or guli, this game calls for precision and power as you flick marbles to knock your opponent's pieces out of the playing area – these are then yours to claim. Popular in the 80s in Singapore, goli was typically played on sand, but any flat surface will do.

Another traditional game that brings out the collector in all of us. Flag erasers were hot stuff back then – many students would attempt to flick and flip their erasers onto their opponent's in a bid to claim them for themselves. Don't have the skills? Some people simply traded erasers with their friends to get coveted flags in their collection. A similar, but older, game is kuti kuti which was played with colourful pieces plastic shaped like animals. 

It’s almost a given that primary schools in Singapore have a hopscotch grid somewhere on the school grounds. Players take turns to hop through the boxes while balancing on one foot. To up the difficulty, just throw down wallets or tissue packets to block out squares – so you have to jump further to avoid them. This is a game with a long history and muddled origins – some say it started with the Romans, while others claim it was the Chinese. There's also a French version with a grid that spirals like a snail's shell.