Has anyone heard of a game called connect 5

Question

I have memories of a game. I'm 30 now and I think I was most likely early teens when I played it, so probably sometime around 1998 or so. I think it was called "connect 5" but I'm not positive on that. It was played by dropping tiles into a physical vertical grid. The game was like the famous "connect 4" except.

1. You had to get 5 in a row rather than 4 to win.
2. The grid had far more positions than a connect 4 grid. The counters were much smaller to accomodate this.
3. It had some (two iirc) horizontal "tricky move" bars in the grid. Instead of dropping in a tile a player could chose to move these bars. This would move tiles sideways and could sometimes cause them to fall out of the grid.

My web searches for connect 5 doesn't turn up anything like this game. Is my memory faulty?

Answer 1

I found this game today at a house garage sale, called "Challenging Tricky 5 In A Row Game", which looks like what you're asking about:

Answer 2

It was called Shift, but I have no idea who manufactured it or what year it was published. I'm looking right at it right now, it's in my hand, but there's absolutely no identifying marks other than the cover image, the title, "(THE TRICKY CONNECT-FIVE) GAME", and the instructions on the back that describe the move you're talking about. Other than that, it says it's "Made in Hong Kong".

Answer 3

The game does definitely exist!

Bizarrely I asked my partner to play it this eve but he actually just threw it out today as a few pieces were missing, thinking it would be easy to replace! I've just gone to replace it hence this search and I cannot find anything like it all online - no images or anything.

But yes exactly as you describe connect 5 instead of 4 with movable sliders that made the game much tricker and interesting! My partner says he got it about 25 years ago, such a shame it was a great game.

Answer 4

Hasbro makes "Connect 4 with Five ways to play" games which have a variation where you slide down alternating red-yellow columns on each side of the board, and must use those pre-played pieces to try and make five in a row instead of four.

Here's a link to Hasbro's PDF instructions showing this variant

That same game also includes a "Pop out" variant where you slide the bottom bar into a "pop-out" position. On your turn you may either drop a checker in the top as normal or pop one of your own checkers out from the bottom row. This adds another strategy of changing the board to a more advantageous position, as the column of checkers shifts down after you pop your checker out of the bottom.

Perhaps your memory was a bit hazy on the "tricky move" bars, this sounds like what you're thinking of for that other variant.

Answer 5

Perhaps you are thinking of this game? Touche ? Pieces don't fall out, but they might flip over and become your opponent's.