All the latest NEWS, announcements, reports, events, calendar listings, new game releases and such sent to us from players, collectors, puzzle people, authors, editors, associations and game companies can be found by going to News in the Main Menu.

Check the menu at the top and the pages at the left for new articles and updated information.

New News!

The Big Game Hunter, aka Bruce Whitehill, has published another game. So far, it’s only in Europe, but U.S. distribution is expected soon. It’s three-player abstract strategy game which requires you to play two players at the same time on two different boards with only one set of pieces. Check out Talat!

If you’re interested in game design, be sure to have a look at my articles on “Game Boxes,” on “What a Game Must Have” and on “Inventing and Selling Games,” which includes information on prototypes, presenting games to a company, licensing, competitions for new designers, and books and other resources.

We interrupt this interesting news to bring you a commercial message!

There’s lots of information on this site and it’s all yours for the taking. If you appreciate the material and the work that went into it, please share the site with friends, colleagues and social media sites, and consider making a donation to support my efforts.

Also, remember that The Big Game Hunter, Bruce Whitehill, earns his living as a writer and editor, and as a game developer, rules writer and “fine tuner” of game ideas and instructions. Contact me if you want a consultation or have any editing, research or writing projects, including the development of new categories, questions or trivia for expansions of your word and party games.

And, my German-born wife Sybille and I offer a translation service between German and English, and from either of those languages into (or from) most European languages; we use a team of native speakers for all translations. We are responsible for a lot of the translations in the English-language edition of the German games magazine, spielbox (look for “sbw” at the end of an article), and for a lot of the English material from the Spiele-Autoren-Zunft (SAZ; Game Designer Association).

And now we continue with our regular programming.

How Good Are You?, Whitman, 1937

The Big Game Hunter website is back with lots of news for collectors and historians, and for players, game designers, jigsaw puzzle cutters and mechanical puzzle designers.

There’s also lots of information for the casual enthusiast or anyone looking for some basic information about games, jigsaw puzzles, and mechanical puzzles.

Here are some of the things you will find. Some areas are still being brought up to date, and other areas will be continually updated:

• Timeline, showing significant events and games in the context of the period
• Games Glossary, with a look at the terminology used by players, collectors, designers, manufacturers and the like
• Annotated Bibliography of game and puzzle books
• Books not in English (shown in photos)
• A Classification of Games
• Histories of well-known (and lesser known) game and puzzle companies
• Histories and stories of classic games
• Museums and archives of games.
• Game designers: brief bios and photos of them and their games
• Jigsaw puzzle cutters: bios and photos of their craft
• Mechanical puzzle designers: bios and photos of the designs
• Links to current game companies
• Articles: over 50 articles on games and puzzles
• Dozens of photos accompanying the many texts
• Over 90 links to other game and puzzle sites
• Information for collectors: the how, where, why and what of collecting
• Information for players and about playing, including session reports
• Game reviews
• Game rules and where to find them.
• Game values of collectible games.
• Link to photos of over 900 games in The Big Game Hunter collection
• Link to photos of over 200 jigsaw and mechanical puzzles
• Jerry Slocum’s classification of mechanical puzzles.
• How to clean, repair, store, and display games in your collection
• For Sale & Wanted
• The latest news and events (or, at least what sites to go to that have the very latest news).
• Original “Mind Games” – mental puzzles and brain teasers
• An open forum (still under construction)

King’s Men, 1937 Parker Bros., by Elizabeth Magie Phillips

Bruce Whitehill (“The Big Game Hunter”) says, “I see the site as being something of a transit point for those who want to know how to find specific information on games and puzzles, and a stopping point for those interested in research and the history of games and puzzles. There is a wealth of information plus a lot of interesting reading.”

The Big Game Hunter website focuses on board games, card games, skill and action games, and parlor games, and on the people who play them, collect them, invent them, manufacture them, and sell them. In addition, the site covers jigsaw puzzles and also mechanical puzzles–those objects for solitaire play with which you need to figure out and put together, take apart, move sequentially, or manipulate something in order to solve the puzzle.

Games of Your Life, 1995, Milton Bradley

This website will soon include or link to lots of photos of games and puzzles, and include historic photos of early game company factories and the products they produced.

There will also be a detailed listing of a dozen special game and puzzle journals and websites, and we will bring back the over 140 links to great sites in the games and puzzles world that were on our previous site.

Purpose

The Big Game Hunter site is designed to serve a number of purposes. In no particular order, here is what it proposes to do:

• 1. Provide information, including photographs and articles, on the development of the game industry in the United States, including histories of game companies and the products they produced.
• 2. Introduce information about new game products, through “Posts” and provide playability ratings and capsule reviews, and in-depth analysis of special games.
• 3. Share information about new puzzles–both mechanical puzzles and jigsaw puzzles–as well as provide illustrations and text about classic and collectible puzzles.
• 4. Furnish news about the game industry, its companies, products, and inventors.
• 5. Offer a forum for both players and collectors to tout their favorite games (and puzzles), old and new, and discuss issues related to games, game playing, and game development.
• 6. Provide resource information, including an annotated list of other periodicals and sites for games and puzzles.
• 7. Examine the links between American games and games of other cultures, and to introduce classic games played around the world, and new games just released in other countries.
• 8. Promote interest in games and puzzles within the private, corporate, or government sector, to encourage the establishment of (or the funding for) a game museum in the United States, as there is no such museum in the entire country.
• 9. Introduce game manufacturers and independent developers in the game industry to The Big Game Hunter. Having been a game inventor, game developer, consultant and rules writer for over 25 years, I am always anxious to talk with companies about the possibilities of my doing game development, or writing final instructions or advertising copy, plus working as a consultant in the areas of “fine tuning” game products, playtesting, research, and marketing.

I welcome your comments and suggestions as to how to make this a better site.

Ben Hur, 1959, Acorn Industries

Who is “The Big Game Hunter”?

[Click here on bio of Bruce Whitehill, to see a complete biography of "The Big Game Hunter."]

The Big Game Hunter is Bruce Whitehill, one of the foremost historians on American games, and author of the book, Games: American Games and Their Makers, 1822-1992, which has been touted as the most authoritative work on the history of American game companies.   He has served as the senior editor of Games Annual, the associate editor of the international magazine, Games Games Games and the senior editor of the games magazine, Knucklebones. His writing has appeared in encyclopedias and in international journals, as well as in cultural and collector magazines throughout the U.S. and Europe, and in Germany’s long-running game magazine, spielbox.  He has been featured nationally in magazines and on radio and television, and he has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal and in a college textbook on marketing. He is a frequent speaker at the symposia of the academic games research group, The International Society of Board Game Studies. He is on the selection committee of the National Toy Hall of Fame, a part of the Strong museum in Rochester, New York. Bruce Whitehill is the founder of the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors, an international organization aimed at recording and preserving the history of games and puzzles.

Mr. Whitehill has worked as a game inventor since his two-year stint with Milton Bradley Co. starting in 1982, and as an independent game developer and consultant to the Toy and Game industry since then.   His latest game, “Talat” was introduced at the 2011 Games Fair (SPIEL 2011) in Essen.

As a collector, The Big Game Hunter has amassed a collection that represents the cultural history of American games, and he has had major game exhibitions at museums around the U.S. and in Europe. His smaller collection of European games shows the comparison between the development of games in different countries and cultures. Bruce Whitehill also has a unique collection of advertising games and premiums.

Hot Links!

Check out our links to other great sites by clicking on any of the links in the menu at the far right. There are over 165 links, including links to over 60 of the current major game companies in the U.S. and Europe. Links are divided into 11 different categories:

• 1. Game Associations, Clubs, Fairs, Tournaments
• 2. Game Collecting
• 3. Game Companies
• 4. Game Playing
• 5. Games & Game History
• 6. Games and Materials For Sale
• 7. Jigsaw Puzzles: Cutting, Collecting, History
• 8. Mechanical Puzzles

• 9. Mental Puzzles, Trivia, Word Games
• 10. Misc. Links, mostly game related
• 11. Museums, Archives, Collections

Peanuts, Aaugh jigsaw, 1952, Milton Bradley

Why Log In?

It is not necessary to log into The Big Game Hunter site, since you can navigate throughout the site without a login. However, if you wish to comment about an article or participate in a forum or survey, register  using your web name or real name and log in.
Password: A few headings in the left menu are marked “Password Req.” and require a specific password given out only to those for whom that section was intended.

What’s It Worth?

We will not respond to inquiries asking what a game is worth, or how rare a game might be. However, you can submit your inquiry through the Readers’ Forum (click on “Inquiries & Forum” in the Main Menu at the left), and if your inquiry is posted (editor’s discretion), other readers might respond. If you are looking for an appraisal, an appraisal service is available for a fee; appraisals can be for an individual game or puzzle, or for an entire collection for insurance purposes or other legal requirements; contact us if you want more information.

Final Curtain, Who-Dun-It Murder Mystery Jigsaw Puzzle, Lagoon Puzzles

Do You Have a Question? A News Item? A Problem?

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If you have a question that possibly could be answered by one of our readers, please go to “Inquiries & Forum” in the Main Menu on the left, or click here: Inquiries. Select the appropriate forum in which to post your question; click on it, and then click on “Post a New Topic” on the upper right side, and you will be taken to a box into which you can type your inquiry. Under “Subject,” be succinct–use words totaling under 17 characters and spaces that will give the reader the best idea of what your inquiry is about.

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At Forum / Inquiries - you may post any questions about products or events connected to games or puzzles, including information about items you are looking to buy or sell, or about which you are trying to get more information. Keep your question, offer, or “sales pitch” short, and use only up to three key words in the title of your posting.

Bug-Eyed Monsters, 1983, West End Games

We cannot be responsible for the accuracy of any answers you might receive through the Forum.

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If you have information that may be of interest to other readers (and does not require a response), you can post that on the website by going to “Submit News” in the Main Menu on the left, or click here: News. Events and calendar listings should be posted here.

If you have a problem or a question or comment about this site, or a question specifically about or for The Big Game Hunter, then click here to be taken to “Contact” in the Main Menu at the top.

No matter what you’re searching for in the arena of games and puzzles, THE BIG GAME HUNTER site should have something about it somewhere:

• board games, game boards
• card games
• skill & action games, dexterity games
• bagatelle games
• television (TV) games, educational games
• ethnic games, cartoon and comic character games
• western games, political games
• German games, English games, French games, Indian games
• old games, antique games, vintage games, classic games
• modern games, new games, games to play, playable games
• boxed games
• gameboards, dice, pawns, playing pieces, spinners
• game rules, game instructions, game parts
• jigsaw puzzles, hand-cut jigsaws, sliced object puzzles
• mechanical puzzles, dexterity puzzles
• game exhibits, game books, game magazines, game articles
• game repair, repairing paper games, cleaning paper games
• games to buy, games for sale, games forum