CEDAR FALLS -- It's Saturday night and the popcorn is in the microwave.

The DVD player is off. The lights are on. The family room is anything but video rental quiet.

Pop, pop, pop.

"OK, spell catastrophe backward," Jill Pedretti says, reading the yellow "Word Worm" card.

Nick Sly and Dylan Huey are quiet until Pedretti flips over the plastic hourglass. Quickly, the two race to spell the word in reverse.

Instead of a six-pack or poker chips as their coffee table centerpiece, this Saturday night finds these University of Northern Iowa seniors sitting around plastic game pieces and a colorful Cranium board. The game, which targets adults and post-teen-agers, was created in 1998 and incorporates a variety of activities: sketching, sculpting, humming, whistling, trivia and charades.

"I think there's something for everyone," Pedretti says of Cranium. "Watching a movie is hanging out, but it's mind numbing in a way. You're not getting to know each other any better. With games, you can get to know people or reemphasize friendship bonds."

New and old board games, like Cranium and Scrabble respectively, are gaining popularity (or a resurgence, since Scrabble entered toy stores in 1948) in the United States.

NPD Funworld, which tracks the toy and game industry, said that in a slumping market overall, board game sales continue to climb. From July to December 2002, Americans bought $1.55 billion worth of games and puzzles, which is a 19 percent increase from the same six-month period a year earlier.

According to Toys R Us in Waterloo, local board game sales have grown by 25 percent since 2001.

Aaron Buck, the gaming representative at Toys R Us, says popular adult board games include the traditional, like Scrabble and Monopoly, and the newer, like Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture DVD and the electronic Catch Phrase.

He adds that the themed versions of older games also do well with older kids, like "Lord of the Rings" Monopoly or "Simpsons" Clue.

In the '90s, video games pummeled the board game industry. But recently, with the frequent use of computers and consoles, people are revisiting board games as a way to unplug on the weekends.

"Any kind of board game is going to foster open conversation, since it's a lot less individualized than any kind of video game," Huey says.

Pedretti adds, "It lets people stretch their comfort zone too."

The sociability of board games is not a new discovery.

Cedar Falls resident Myque Franz, 23, remembers that when he was younger, his family played Clue every Saturday night for an entire summer.

"SORRY doesn't provide the same fun as it used to," Franz jokes of his board game evolution.

Today, Franz prefers more cerebral games, like Tribond or A Rhyme in Time. Tribond asks players to identify how three items are alike; Rhyme is a creative poetry-esque game.

He and his friends still enjoy the classics, like chess and checkers.

"We just played Clue last weekend, and it was really fascinating because the last time around the board, almost three-quarters of the players knew who did it, and so it was just a matter of whose turn came up first," Franz said.

Though Franz finds board games to be fun, the low cost (i.e. free) of a night of Clue is another incentive.

"And sometimes we just don't feel like going out. It's definitely satisfying," Franz says. "It's not like card games, which can get really repetitious. There's more drama to it -- there's a build."

Board games can also have a competitive edge. Risk and Magic the Gathering are notorious for requiring days to complete. Scrabble clubs are strong throughout the world, with Cedar Rapids claiming the closest club to the Cedar Valley. More than 500 U.S. Regional tournaments are held regularly throughout the year, and the National Scrabble Association holds an annual National Championship. This year hundreds of people will converge in New Orleans to show off their double and triple word score abilities.

These tournaments are serious. Everyone who plays in an NSA sanctioned tournament earns a rating. Anyone with a rating above 1600 is considered an expert. The NSA recognizes over 500 experts.

If you're not looking for a game with a competitive edge, Toys R Us stocks more than 150 games in their store. Buck says other popular games include Scattergories, Catch Phrase, Balderdash and Outburst -- all games that encourage loud, uninhibited behavior.

Pedretti recalls when she staffed the freshman summer orientation, she encouraged her students to play Catch Phrase.

"The rest of the day they're all stiff, but then they'd play (Catch Phrase) and be hilarious," Pedretti says. "Games in general are a great way to get people talking and to open up."