A recent 'showerthought' pointed out that chess and checkers could be played on the same board, which made it the first-ever gaming platform. Is this true? Or were their earlier gaming 'platforms?' What are some other historical examples of multiple games played with the same pieces?

Do you mean same board, but different everything else?

Checkers and Chess do not use the same pieces. If you mean the same pieces dice and card games have been around for thousands of years, they are played using the same pieces with different rules. Dice games have been played since at least 2500 BC

here is an Ask Historians post on dice: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3fb5yn/how_old_are_dice/