"200 Years of Hot Air Balloons" commemorates the bicentennial of the 1783 first balloon ascent by the Montgolfier brothers. The board is circular and divided into ten concentric rings. Twenty-four "spokes" combine with them to form a grid. Players each have a wooden balloon which shows its altitude by stacking it up, insecurely it seems, on small wooden disks. They also receive at start four ascent cards and four descent (gas bottle) cards. A wooden arrow on a disk at the center shows the current wind direction. Players move by rolling two dice, a special one which describes a change in wind direction or a requirement on the player and an ordinary one which gives the amount to move. There are actually three games in one, all centered around getting a balloon to a specific location, the first two based on real life balloonist games: a chase or "fox hunt" and a target race. The third scenario describes a race to the center of the board.