Looking for a good family board game?

I have been trying to *acquire* a used copy from Half-Price-Books ever since I moved to a city that has these stores. No luck. I regret lending my Avalon Hill set (from the late 90's) to my inlaws.

The game is indeed very good.

It's one of my favorite games of all time.  I noticed looking through that site that the exact version I used to have is selling for like $500, I wish I still had that in my closet with all the SFB, ASL, and MegaSupremacy stuff I still have.

I realized overnight why I made this post.  It was because I had just made another post about how I thought Star Control should "be more game and less game design".  I really would not want to see un-needed "extra stuff" like tech trees, "officers" that vastly improve ship abilities, and all the other stuff that is usually thrown on top of just about every game just in an attempt to make it more complex or "add more game".  The game it is should be made dynamic enough to achieve "more game" rather than a pile of "extra stuff".

So, naturally, Acquire came to mind.  Acquire is a lesson to game designers in minimalism.  Only the game design miracle of chess has "more game" for it's rules and components than Acquire.  Everyone knows chess, the devs might consider getting a couple cheap non-collectors versions of Acquire and having a game night where they play Acquire.  A single page of rules, a board, some tiles, some cards, and money.  That's all Acquire is... until you actually play it.  There is LOT of "game", and very little "game design".  This is what Star Control should be in my mind.  Like Chess or Acquire, a whole lot of game from very little game design.

There is a line, though, where games can be TOO minimalist.

SC2 would be considered a minimalist RPG due to the RU/Credit system... But the disadvantage to this system is that you get to the point where it gets boring. You have nothing left to improve or buy.

I am not suggesting Stardock jump off the deep end here and implement systems for attributes, alignment, crafting, etc. They need to nudge the system forward so that I always feel rewarded when exploring or fighting.

That's what I am saying.  It should have things in it that make it better, just not things "piled on" just for the sake of having more stuff in the game.  SC2 already has this minimalist philosophy, so it would be in keeping with the original game.  Make what is already there as interesting and dynamic as possible, then see what other elements might actually belong with what is there instead of just piling on every system from every similar game just because "gamers expect it".

+100 on this sentiment.