All in the Game Newsletter 2003

FOR ARCHIVES OTHER THAN THE ALL IN THE GAME NEWSLETTER, click here.

Here is the old All in the Game newsletter, for 2003, transferred from a couple hundred pages of text! A great place to find information. If you’re looking for something specific, or have been directed to this page after using the search window in the upper right, then do a normal “find” (as you would in any document on your computer) and you will be taken directly to the word(s) in the lengthy text below. Also check out the All in the Game newsletter for 2004.

You may also want to have a scroll down memory lane. There’s information about some of our favorite people, such as Sid Sackson and Alex Randolph, and about lots of things that made news then which are still a part of our game-playing, game-collecting lives today. Happy reading!

NOTE: “Timeless” articles and game reviews have been removed and put in the appropriate sections in other parts of this website. What’s left is lots of news of a time gone by.

All in the Game, June, 2003

Welcome to the June, 2003, issue of the “All in the Game” newsletter. In this issue, there’s news about

• Rare Premium Game in Hake’s Auction
• Rio Grande Reports
• Editor Named to National Toy Hall of Fame Panel
• Game & Puzzle Collectors Hold Colossal Convention
• New News from Austria’s Game Museum
• Quilted Gameboards

Reviews of

• CLANS
• EDEL STEIN & REICH
• SAVE THE PRESIDENT
• THE REALLY NASTY HORSE RACE GAME
• DUEL OF AGES
• VISUAL EYES

with quick takes on

• RETTE SICH WER KANN (THE LIFEBOAT GAME)
• MARE NOSTRUM
• MEXICA
• CAPT’N CLEVER
• PROCLAIM!
• BEAN TRADER
• RA
• SPACE BEANS
• AMUN-RE
• INTRIGUE
• TAJ MAHAL

Plus

• Jim Polczynski’s look at “Game Themes”
• Wayne Saunders’ “Beware! Time and Again” and
• Bruce Whitehill’s “Saying Stuff: Problems with Ebay”
• Games for the Not-So-Young
• Who’s Watching What?–The BGH Photo Gallery

Plus over 75 photos–Our largest photo issue yet! See them all beginning on page 9 of the Newsletter Photo Gallery: http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/Newsletter?&page=9

SECTION 1*********************NEWS

Rare Premium Game in Hake’s Auction

Ted Hake’s Americana & Collectibles Auction #174 is on-line now, closing June 3rd – 5th. Major categories include toy premiums, political campaign items, advertising, transportation, original art, and character items from movies, comic strips, radio, television and music.
Item # 3060 is the SKOOKUM SYRUP INDIAN VILLAGE GAME. This rare 19” x 25” stiff paper gameboard from 1929 is an advertising premium from the D. B. Scully Syrup Co. The path game board is a map which features an overhead view of a forest area, with illustrations for “Settlers Home, Scouts Camp, Bison Blocking Trail,” etc.; included on the board, to be cutout, are playing pieces of Children, Indians, and Scout, plus a “Counter” (die). There are also inset portraits of Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull and a scene “Pocahontas And Captain John Smith.” To see the photos, go to our Games Photo Gallery at http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/gamesgallery/aji and http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/gamesgallery/ajj. To see this and other games in Hake’s auction, go to http://www.hakes.com/index.asp.

Rio Grande Reports

Here’s the latest word from Rio Grande games–perhaps the best source in the U.S. for buying the best playing European games:
Later this month we will release two new games: Mammoth Hunters and Capt’n Clever.
Magna Grecia and Gulo Gulo are scheduled for release in July or August. We
are also working on Lord of the Rings®: the Duel, Circus Flohcati, The Bohnanza
Expansion, Ricochet Robots (with new boards), and Mü (with an English title,
yet to be determined) and plan to release them in September. And, a new
Carcassonne game (title to be announced) will be released in October.

–Jay M. Tummelson, Rio Grande Games; www.riograndegames.com

Editor Named to National Toy Hall of Fame Panel

Bruce Whitehill, editor of “All in the Game,” has been appointed to serve on the panel of twelve experts who rule on the selection of toys and games nominated for induction into the Toy Hall of Fame. The public sends in nominations throughout the year, by mail or through the Toy Hall of Fame website at http://www.strongmuseum.org/NTHoF/NTHoF.html. An in-house group chooses those items that meet the criteria for admission. The panel then decides which two items will be inducted for that year.
Whitehill, “The Big Game Hunter,” is the country’s leading historian of American games, and a “student” of popular culture. He moved from Rochester, New York, to Providence, Rhode Island, a year before the National Toy Hall of Fame was relocated in 2002 from Washington state to the Strong Museum in Rochester. He reminds game players that they can nominate any games for the National Toy Hall of Fame by going to the website shown above. The only games among the 26 items inducted are MONOPOLY and jacks. Other items include marbles and the jigsaw puzzle, and a host of trademarked products such as Etch A Sketch, Erector Set, Tinker Toys, Barbie, Lincoln Logs, Hula-Hoop, Duncan Yo-Yo, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky, and Silly Putty.

Game & Puzzle Collectors Hold Colossal Convention

The Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors (AGPC) held its 19th annual convention in May in New Haven, Connecticut. Members and guests from all over the United States–from Maine to Tennessee to California–to England and Japan came in for a glorious three-day weekend of fun, friends, learning, and, of course, buying and selling. The weekend began with a pre-convention steam train and riverboat ride, followed by dinner at the famous Griswold Inn in Essex, CT. The conference, which took place at The Colony Hotel, included a visit to the nearby Yale Center for British Art where there was a special exhibition of early European games, displayed just for the group. Another visit was to the Eli Whitney Museum, which houses a collection of A.C. Gilbert puzzles and games. The highlight of the weekend was a talk by Nob Yoshigahara, one of the world’s foremost mechanical puzzle designers. Nob flew in from Japan to accept the AGPC’s honored Loyd Award, which is bestowed upon outstanding individuals who have promoted the art and craft of mechanical puzzles throughout the world. Nob brought many puzzles for display, and others for sale at the group’s yearly auction.
There was a special Show & Tell table of games and puzzles made in Connecticut, and presentations about the history of A.C. Gilbert, extraordinary games and puzzles from 1880 through 1910, and checkerboard puzzles. Participants also had an opportunity to work jigsaw puzzles and mechanical puzzles (mostly those “put-together,” “take-apart” and “fit-all-the-pieces-in-the-box” puzzles), and to play everything from century old parlor games to new party games, and the latest and greatest games from Europe.
Next year’s special 20th anniversary convention will be in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, April 30 – May 2. The program includes workshops on cleaning, repairing, and storing games and puzzles, and visits to some outstanding collections, including one of the best collections of baseball games in the world.

The 2006 meeting will be in England 28 April – 2 May, and will have speakers from all over Europe, and presentations by the Benevolent Confraternity of Dissectologists (jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts) and the Dutch Cube Club (mechanical puzzle aficionados). Conventions are open to members and their guests only. For more information about the AGPC, go to the website at www.agpc.org.

New News from Austria’s Game Museum

The Austrian Games Museum is happy to announce that it has been accepted by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). They will celebrate this acceptance with a special weekend from 23rd to 25th of August and would be happy if you could join them. During this weekend we will also open an annex to the museum.
The museum is also offering their Games Flash CD 2003, with 42 recommended games.
The CD contains a pdf-file with text and pictures, and the text is also available in audio. The price for one CD is 10 euro. Short representations of the games can be found on the Austrian Games Museum website under “News” and on the right hand side under “Spieleblitzlicht (alle)”. Visit the website at www.spielen.at . For more information, contact Dagmar and Ferdinand de Cassan at .
If your German is better than your English, here is an edited original press release:

Das Österreichische Spiele Museum ist stolz, mitteilen zu dürfen dass es als eine Museum zum Thema Spiele in den Internationalen Verband der Museen, International Council of Museums, ICOM, aufgenommen wurde. Wir werden dieses Ereignis mit einem besonderen Wochenende vom 23. bis 25.August feiern, und würden uns freuen, wenn Sie diesen Termin wahrnehmen könnten. Im Rahmen dieses Wochenendes werden wir auch einen Zubau zum Museum eröffnen. Gesonderte Einladungen folgen. Auch jetzt freuen wir uns schon über Ihre Anmeldung!
Wir möchten Sie darüber informieren, dass ab sofort die CD Spieleblitzlicht 2003 mit 42 empfehlenswerten Spieleneuheiten verfügbar ist. Die CD enthält einen PFD-File mit Texten und Bildern, wobei der Text auf Wunsch auch vorgelesen wird. Kurzvorstellungen zu den 42 Spielen finden Sie auf www.spielen.at unter News und rechts unter >=Spieleblitzlicht (->alle). Die Kosten für eine CD betragen euro 10,00.
Für weitere Auskünfte stehen wir jederzeit gerne zur Verfügung:
Dagmar und Ferdinand de Cassan: dagmar@decassan.org

Quilted Gameboards

Toni Thompson hand makes quilted game boards (backgammon and TIC-TAC-TOE with checkerboards on the back) that measure approximately 24″ x 16″ and are varied in materials. See the photo in our newsletter gallery at http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/Newsletter?&page=9. You can contact Toni at .

SECTION 2*********************REVIEWS

SECTION 3*********************VIEWS

Games for the Not-So-Young

As the AGPC approaches its 20th birthday, I thought it appropriate to buy a book I came across entitled, Games for the Not-So-Young, by Sid G. Hedges. The dust jacket on this 1957 tome (published by the Philosophical Society, New York), reads, in part, “Most game books are for young people, but here he (the author) provides hours of new interest and entertainment for the over-fifties. Mr. Hedges has written a book to lessen loneliness and enhance good fellowship, to encourage social intercourse and to give back the carefree fun so generally lost in middle years. It is a delightful present for any elderly person, and a ‘must’ for every ‘past fifty’ organization….” I could say more, but I’ve written enough and need to rest now.
–Bruce Whitehill

Who’s Watching What? –Stats From My Photo Gallery–

The Games & Puzzles Photo Gallery on the website has a counter showing how many hits each album has had. Here are some stats, which give you an idea of who is looking at what. The Photo Gallery contains a series of albums which were created at different times, so the viewer count shows a different number of months for each album.

The Games Gallery album has been viewed 1,150 times in the past 15 months.

The Mechanical Puzzle Gallery album has been viewed 1,150 times in the past 12 months.

The Jigsaw Puzzle Gallery album has been viewed 800 times in the past 12 months.

The Playable Games album has been viewed 15,400 times in the past 15 months.
There are over 1650 game & puzzle related photos in the website Photo Gallery, and over 360 travel and personal photos. Visit the Photo Gallery at http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/ .

Saying Stuff: Problems with Ebay–Beware!

Ebay is one of the most amazing things to happen since the microwave oven. Those of you who use it, know what I’m talking about. Those who don’t are surely missing something. But it is not without its problems. Recently, before eBay showed a percentage number for positive feedback, I bought two games from a dealer who had a high feedback number; what I didn’t realize at the time–because I didn’t check–was that a lot of the feedback was negative. Too late–I had already bid, and won. I paid for my items immediately with PayPal, then waited, and waited for my games. They didn’t arrive.

When I emailed the seller, Barry Goodman, who goes under the name “Toysensations” (Toysen@aol.com), he kept apologizing, said he had been sick, and told me he had just sent them out or would send them the next day (I’ve kept all the emails). This went on for nine weeks. Finally, a package arrived. In it was one game, just what I had bid on, in excellent condition. One game. What happened to the second game? I emailed again and he wrote back that he would check on it. A month later, I left negative feedback–twice–one for each game, stating one had been received but only after two months, and the other had never been received. The result: he left negative feedback for me.
If you go to check Barry Goodman’s feedback, you can see the numbers (69 negatives, 92 neutrals) but not the comments. It’s hidden at the seller’s request. Ebay says on the feedback form, “Some information is concealed to protect member privacy.” What’s the point of feedback if you can’t check it out? I will never again bid on anything being auction by someone with hidden feedback. But what do you do if someone whose feedback is hidden is bidding on something you have up for auction? The point is that eBay needs to review and change this policy, if it’s feedback program is going to be completely successful.
The second point is that after receiving negative feedback because I had left negative feedback, I contacted eBay to initiate a inquiry or grievance or whatever. Ebay said it could do nothing because the incident fell outside the 30-60 day limitation. I said it’s their company and their policy, so they can do something–even if it means changing the policy. Ebay recommended an arbitration board that works through them. I tried that, but the board merely asks the other party if he wants arbitration. Of course he said no, and so I could not pursue that line.
I asked eBay how they could allow negative feedback from a seller, that occurs after the buyer has left negative feedback for the seller, when the buyer paid immediately for the items won. I asked to have the negative feedback removed. Ebay’s response was, “While retaliatory feedback is strongly discouraged by eBay, it would not qualify as grounds for removal.” Once again, eBay needs to take a serious look at its feedback policy, and change it so this sort or retaliation can’t happen.

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All in the Game, May, 2003

Welcome to the May, 2003, issue of the “All in the Game” newsletter–which is still maintaining it’s monthly status at this time. In this issue, there’s news about

• Mechanical puzzle maven Jerry Slocum on HGTV
• The next Sid Sackson auction
• The Game & Puzzle Collectors Convention

Reviews of

• MARE NOSTRUM
• FRESH FISH
• VISUAL EYES

with quick comments on

• SCHNAPPCHEN
• JAGD SAMURAI
• Suggested rules changes for KUNSTSTÜCKE

and

• A review of a great, new Board and Table Games book

Plus views from Wayne Saunders

• ”The Games, History, and Life of Dice (Part Two)”

Jim Polczynski

• on would-be board game inventors

and Bruce Whitehill

• ”A closer look at Alex Randolph”

and

• The Best Games to Play under 2 hours
• More Best Games, using a different rating system

More reviews of new games introduced at Toy Fair will be added during the week of May 5.

SECTION 1*********************NEWS

Ultimate Puzzle Collection on TV

Jerry Slocum and his Puzzle Collection will be one of the collectors
shown on HGTV Network Television in May.

• TV Show: “Ultimate Collectors”
• Channel: HGTV (Home and Garden TV Network)
• Date: Saturday May 3, 2003
• Time: 6:00 pm Eastern Time

Jerry will be the second collector shown.
The Home and Garden TV web site has some information about the
“Ultimate Collectors” show and Jerry Slocum’s Puzzle Collection segment. Go to www.hgtv.com .

Sackson Auction, Part II

Auction of Sid Sackson Collection
The second part of the auction of games collected by the late games inventor and historian, Sid Sackson, will be held Saturday, May 3, in New Jersey. Only a portion of the Sackson collection could be sold in the one fall day allotted for the auction, so the remainder will be auctioned off now. Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning has been set aside for previewing the collection.

At the first auction, bidders came from as far as Colorado, California, and even England. Some items were sold individually, but most went in box lots. Some treasures were found in those boxes, and many have since turned up on eBay.

Sid Sackson, who died last year, was America’s premiere game inventor, credited with dozens of exceptional games, including such classics as ACQUIRE, SLEUTH, CAN’T STOP, FOCUS (DOMINATION), BAZAAR, METROPOLIS, MONAD, TAKE FIVE, and VENTURE, among others. Sid was an author of many game books and spent many years as a games reviewer for Games magazine. Read more about the great Sid Sackson in the December/January All in the Game.

For more details about times and location, go to the auction house website: http://www.northriverauctions.com/ .

AGPC Hosts Major Gathering of Game and Puzzle Enthusiasts

The Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors (AGPC) holds its 19th annual convention May 16 – 18, 2003, in Hew Haven, Connecticut. There’s also an optional pre-convention steam train and riverboat ride, along with a puzzle cutting demonstration on May 15 in Essex, CT, followed by dinner at the famous Griswold Inn.
Join a fun group of game collectors and players, and puzzle cutters and collectors (and puzzle doers) for a seriously amusing weekend. New Haven, Connecticut, is a city that combines New England charm with a robust cosmopolitan life and is alive with world-class architecture and memorable international cuisine. The city itself is a cornucopia of cultural riches in the performing and visual arts, all set in the heart of Yale University, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world.
The conference will be held at The Colony Hotel at Yale in downtown New Haven. A special event just two blocks away at The Yale Center for British Art will be an exhibition of early European games. Also nearby is the Eli Whitney Museum, which houses a collection of A.C. Gilbert puzzles and games.
A highlight of the weekend will be a talk by Nob Yoshigahara, one of the world’s foremost mechanical puzzle designers, who has flown in from Japan to accept the AGPC’s honored Loyd Award. This affords a rare opportunity to see samples of an incredible collection of outstanding hand crafted puzzles, and meet the man responsible for it.
Besides workshops, sales, and an auction, there will be a special Show & Tell of games and puzzles made in Connecticut. Members also partake of century old parlor games or new party games, and each day ends with game playing for the insomniacs.
Informal talks include:

• The History of AC Gilbert.
• Game & Puzzles from 1880 through 1910 – How They Reflect the History of the Times.
• The History of Authors
• Checkerboard Puzzles

Attendance at the convention is open to all AGPC members and their guests. For membership information, go to our website at www.agpc.org .
For convention information, contact hosts Diane and Steve Olin between 7 PM and 9 PM at 203-397-0336, or email them at steve@playthingspast.com . The Registration Fee is $125 and includes dinner Friday and Saturday and breakfast on Saturday & Sunday. The fee for the optional Essex Train and Riverboat Ride is $18.50 per person. Dinner at the Griswold Inn is “Pay as you Eat.”
This is The convention for anyone interested in games or puzzles, old or new, whether a collector, player, designer or “doer.” We hope to see you there.

SECTION 2*********************REVIEWS

SECTION 3*********************VIEWS

Alex Randolph–A Closer Look

–by Bruce Whitehill

Alex Randolph is one of the most prolific and best known of the world’s game inventors. At age 80, he was recently honored in Essen for his lifetime of work. And, in spite of poor health lately, he continues to work, creating games for a game-playing public of many languages.
Alex sold his first game almost a decade before he was called in, along with Sid Sackson, to develop a game line for Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M). His first game for them: TWIXT, a world classic. The last 3M game was Alex Randolph’s MIMICRY. Now, with Sid’s passing late last year and the publicity surrounding the two-part auction of his huge collection, it seems a good time to talk about Alex, the man whom Sid considered a friend and one of his first colleagues.
Alex Randolph attributes his path toward game inventing, in part, to the overindulgence of rich American parents. The rich “drop their children off (at private schools and the like) where they are well nourished and stuffed with culture.” He was educated in a Swiss boarding school and attended to by an Austrian-German governess (and was born while his parents were visiting Czechoslovakia), which may account for the fact that his games transgress cultural borders. He learned many languages, and his parents always figured that if he failed in life he could at least join the Diplomatic Corps.
But failure doesn’t appear to be part of Alex Randolph’s life–he has succeeded in creating games played by millions of people around the world for decades. As a child, playing games was, as Alex describes it, a “sort of paradise.” “…Madness, happiness would overtake me.” Waxing philosophical, he remarked, “Something that gives so much pleasure must be very deep….”
One of man’s compulsions is, according to Alex, “the need to make order….All the higher achievements of man–art, music, philosophy–begin with the need to order and inquire about the natural world….to simplify and make understandable all the elements of life around us.” But he sees games as something else–as “imitations of life…reproductions of life itself…we don’t know how it’s going to come out; games represent the chaos.” The rules exemplify man’s attempt to make order. But “games need some element in addition to rules.”
“Play means to really lose yourself; the only important thing is playing the game you are going to play.” Alex goes on to explain how a bishop playing piece “on a table is nothing, but on a chess board, it takes on life; it can acquire tremendous power.”
“And how do you know if a game is good?” I asked him.

“It has to captivate you totally so the rest of the world disappears.”
Alex Randolph doesn’t gamble, and he doesn’t play dice games. But he admits, “I love dice. When I see them on a table, I have to pick them up. (Throwing dice is a) wonderful way to hear the answer of the gods.” He noted that the Japanese don’t “throw” dice–they use a dice cup, hold the cup over the dice and then wager. Alex says he uses dice in his games, but in a different way, so they are not a part of chance.
“I have a theory that all children are game inventors. If there is a possibility of playing a game, they will play.” If the game or the game “pieces are not available, someone will invent the game.”
Alex’s first game was PANKAI, invented around 1959 for a small U.S. company called Phillips, the same manufacturer that produced the SPILL & SPELL game Parker Brothers made famous. I asked him what a game needs to have in order to be good. “It must be easy to enter into the game immediately…(it must) offer surprises…(it must have) a clear objective, (clear enough so there is) no arguing or questioning…(it must be) endlessly repeatable, always different.”
I asked Alex what his favorite game was. He replied that he rarely plays other people’s games. What about his favorite game of his own? “The last one I made,” he replied. His favorite classic game is SHOGI. “The original feature of SHOGI is the ability to re-use your opponent’s captured pieces.” And his favorite proprietary games still in print? Sid Sackson’s ACQUIRE, and Eric
Solomon’s ENTROPY (HYLE 7).
Alex is more than a game player and game inventor. He is an advocate for all game inventors. He was the person most responsible for getting the inventor’s name on the game, a practice prevalent in Europe and mostly missing in the mass market games of the U.S.
Alex shares his Venice home with American wife Jovana, an equally independent and high-spirited partner whom he met in 1952 in Italy. They moved there in 1972. He keeps his workplace in a different part of Venice, with a work room, a storage room, and an office with a little window overlooking the water. I’ve been to the home of many collectors who would point to a wall of games, saying “This is my collection.” When Alex did that in his small studio, his collection on shelf after shelf were games all of his own making.
One more question. What about rules that come into question during a game? Alex says that if a question arises, there are always two additional rules:

• Rule One: “Anything not prohibited is permitted.”
• Rule Two: “In case of controversy, doubt, or questioning, the right solution is the most amusing one.”

This article on Alex Randolph was edited from a piece originally published in Games Game Games magazine.

Wanted: Would-be Board Game Inventor

–by Jim Polczynski

In 1997 I started developing a computer program to build board games from scratch. The program allowed the user to create boards composed of squares or hexes. Pieces could be added with supplied images or images the user created. Rules were added via a set of wizards. I allowed the user to save their game creations and I had plans for options to merge games together or evolve new games. I envisioned players sharing their games over a network. I hired an investment broker to get the program in front of potential angel investors. After a half-dozen presentations it was clear I was not going to get my money. The sense of failure ran deep and I turned my attention to other avenues. The game building program was laid to rest.
Last year I attended the Board Games in Academia meeting in Barcelona. I gave a presentation on the history of wargames and one of the other attendees asked me if I invented games. I said no and added that I only studied games. I either researched the history of games, game developers and game companies or I programmed existing games and studied the strategies and dynamics of play. The idea of inventing games, though, began to excite me and I realized I had started to invent games with my game building software, but it was a cowardly way to approach it. I was going to have a program do the inventing for me. I was clearly on the outside of game inventing as a spectator and not a player.
I started looking for where to start. I own quite a lot of games so I started going over my favorites and identifying what I liked about them. From that I invented a few unique moves and rules. This was a far cry from a game, but a move in the right direction. Now I needed to develop a context for the moves and rules to play in. This is when I started adding themes and trying them out. Then I thought this approach was backwards. Shouldn’t I pick the theme and then the moves and rules? I blundered on anyway. After many unsuccessful attempts at theme application, I turned to things I actually know something about. This may seem obvious, but I came to it slowly. Now I had my themes and I had my moves and rules that I liked. I still did not have a game. About this time I started wishing there were a school for board game inventors. I would even settle for a really good textbook on board game design. Steven Peek’s The Game Inventors Handbook was very helpful, but I am talking about something more systematic, something with a calculus for board game design and a solid methodology of development. Is there room for a discipline of Board Game Engineering with solid metrics that demonstrate good board game design versus bad? There will always be the art of board game design, but more science might be helpful. It seems like I am inventing my own.
I now have four games that I think I am ready to build some prototypes for. Two are abstract strategy games and two are simulation games. The simulation games are more involved and will take more time to complete, but they excite me more, so one of these will be my first to produce. I have someone who can make plastic molds. Near me are local film and box companies and many good printers. I am willing to spend the “play” money to throw at this, but what if it doesn’t work out? Will I give up? I don’t know. I gave up on the game building program. One thing I do know is that if there is an original idea, eventually someone will realize it. It is a very empty feeling to see your own idea brought to be by someone else. Is it all a “simple twist of fate,” a combination of skill and luck, a matter of hard work, or some of all of the above?
Reiner Knizia said a powerful thing in an interview with Stephen Glenn (available at funagain.com): “I’m putting games in the center of my life because they are in the center of my heart.” Sid Sackson’s advice to would-be inventors (from Inside Santa’s Workshop) is “love it very very much–or forget it.” In the same book, Julie Cooper advises the would-be inventor, “Don’t give up–don’t grow up.” Only grown-ups truly give up.
Jim Polczynski, a contributing editor of All in the Game, is a researcher and collector of strategy games. You can comment on his review, or suggest other games for him to consider, by contacting him through this newsletter.

Next Issue’s Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle

Author and ANTI-MONOPOLY inventor Ralph Anspach is recovering from minor surgery, so his regularly scheduled column will not appear until the next issue. We wish him well.

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All in the Game, April, 2003

Welcome to the April, 2003, issue of the “All in the Game” newsletter. This month:

News:

• Crossword Puzzle Championship is a wordswhile success
• The best game company(ies) to be stuck on an island with
• The BGH gives game talks in Switzerland & Germany
• Board Game Studies symposium in Marburg
• The 39 Best Games to Play!
• Castle Croquet coming

Reviews:

• MONEY!–one of the best card games
• LORD OF THE RING: THE TWO TOWERS
• KEYTHEDRAL
• CONSPIRACY
• BIG CITY
• ZIRCUS FLOHCATI

Views:

• Wayne Saunders on “The Games, History, and Life of Dice”
• Bruce Whitehill on “Early Strategy Games”
• Jim Polczynski’s “Strategy Games: An Evolution”
• and Chapter 11 of Ralph Anspach’s continuing saga about the great MONOPOLY swindle: “Operation Darrow Cleanup and the Black Box”

But first:

April 1, 2003: Headlines from UPI, AP, Reuters, CNN, and BGH news sources

OPERATION Gets a Facelift

Plans are underway to update the classic game, OPERATION. According to an unnamed spokesperson, the game is being modernized to keep up with the latest diseases and procedures. Players will now try to remove kidneys, cataracts, the spleen, and parts of the lower intestine. A special, limited edition Michael Jackson version will allow players to remove the nose as well. The new game is expected to be released as soon as negotiations with local HMOs are completed.

CANDYLAND and UNCLE WIGGILY Merge

In a surprise move, the company that makes CANDYLAND and UNCLE WIGGILY announced today the combining of the two classic children’s games, in what speculators see as a major cost-cutting move. The new game, to be called, “Uncle Candy,” will have the aging rabbit racing to Dr. Possum’s house, eating candy along the way. The move, one of a planned series of name changes that began with Rich Uncle Pennybags’ name change to Mr. Monopoly, is aimed at making life simpler for children, a spokesman said. Release of the new game is expected to be met with protests from the ADA.

Maureen Hiron Clashes

Maureen Hiron, noted internationally British games inventor, was questioned by reporters today following her arrest for indecent exposure at New York’s International Toy Fair. “She was fully clothed, but still indecent” said the arresting officer, describing the clash of garments which turned New York’s fashion world on end. Hiron’s lawyers, who pleaded “no contest,” said they expected the judge to show leniency, considering Ms. Hiron, if we can call her that, has games placed with almost all the major companies in the world this year. In an attempt to extradite Ms. Hiron for trial, officials noted that the difficulty was in keeping up with her.

R&R CEO Answers FAQ

Frank DiLorenzo, CEO of R&R games, in answer to reporters’ questions about the name of his company, announced this week that he is considering changing his personal appellation. “It has nothing to do with legal entanglements or evading police,” he said in an interview, “but the need to have two ‘R’ names to match the ‘R&R’ title of my company.” Frank says he will agree changing his name to Ralph, if his wife agrees to change hers to Rachel. R&R Games produces a line of quality products including TIN SOLDIERS and Reiner Knizia’s TOO MANY COOKS. Plus RIDDLES & RICHES, SOLD!, TIME’S UP!, OVERTHRONE, PIGPILE, and BALIWICK, many of which have been covered in previous newsletters. Check out www.rnrgames.com .

Jaffee Still Saving the President

Jack Jaffee, in his 32nd year of selling “Save the President,” announced today that “this is one game that won’t go away!” “All modern presidents have played the game,” according to Jaffee, “except George Bush Jr., who was unable to understand the directions.” Jaffee is now working on a sequel called “Save the Empire,” which has received early endorsements from Dick Chaney and Donald Rumsfeld.

Happy April 1. Serious news follows

SECTION 1*********************NEWS

Crossword Puzzle Championships

The 26th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, the world’s oldest and largest crossword event, held March 14-16 in Stamford, Conn. (See the article in the February issue.) According to its organizer, “The New York Times” crossword editor Will Shortz, the event drew the biggest crowd ever–495 contestants plus more than 100 officials and guests from more than 30 states, Canada, and Europe.

The winner was Jon Delfin, a pianist from New York City, who has now won the
event six times. Full details and results appear at www.crosswordtournament.com .
The eight tournament puzzles are available for play-by-mail for $20. Solvers can send in their answers and times for judging. They’ll get back their scores plus their rankings in every solving category in which they’re eligible to compete.

The Game Company to be Stranded With

You know the question, “If you were stranded on a desert island, what five things would you want to have with you?” I asked myself something like that at the 2003 Toy Fair. If I were stranded on a desert island, what one company’s games would I most like to have with me?” At the risk of making one friend and lots of enemies, I will (in the name of opinionated reporting) answer that question. If I were alone on the island, I’d pick Binary Arts. Besides games, they have so many great puzzles that one could keep one’s mind occupied for ages while awaiting rescue. Binary Arts makes RUSH HOUR and a ton of others. Go to http://www.binaryarts.com/ .

If I were stranded with a companion, I would choose Out-of-the-Box. This company has grown so much in the past few years, adding one excellent game after another. And this year they have joined forces with Pin International, a Thai company that makes interesting abstract strategy games in wood. Out of the Box products include BOSWORTH, SQUINT, BLINK, MY WORD, QWITCH, WHEEDLE, GOLD DIGGER, SHIPWRECKED, and Pin International’s CITYSCAPE, FIRE & ICE, OCTILES, and QUADTRIA; they have also just re-issued the classic 1903 stock market game, GAVITT’S STOCK EXCHANGE. And if there were a group of us trapped on that island, the game of choice would be APPLES TO APPLES. Go to their website at www.otb-games.com .

The Big Game Hunter to deliver talks in Switzerland and Germany

Bruce Whitehill (The Big Game Hunter) travels to Switzerland and Germany in April to deliver two talks on games.
The Swiss talk will be at the Suisse Museum of Games, near Montreux. The director, Ulrich Schaedler, suggested the talk be given on a Thursday, which, in French, is “Jeudi,” which means “the day of the game.” The talk will be “Classic American Games from CHINESE CHECKERS to MONOPOLY–Facts and Fables,” and will examine some of the truths and fantasies surrounding those two games as well as COOTIE, OTHELLO and REVERSI, BATTLESHIP, PARCHEESI, and others.

After a visit to the French Museum of Toys (and games) in Morains du Montagne in the Jura Mountains, Whitehill moves on to Marburg, Germany, to attend the International Society for Board Games Studies colloquium. (See accompanying article in this newsletter.) His topic will be “Sid Sackson: The Man & His Legacy,” and will be a tribute to the prolific American inventor who died last November.
Sackson, known by the many serious game players in the U.S., was better known by the general population in Europe because, unlike their American counterparts, European manufacturers credited Sackson for his inventions by naming him both on the box and in the instructions. Many of Sid Sackson’s American games were redone for the European market, and many were produced in Europe without ever being released in the U.S. Sid Sackson is known for dozens games, and best known for ACQUIRE; see also the tribute to Sid in the December/January issue of the newsletter.

International Symposium: “Board Game Studies VI”

–taken from the Board Game Studies website

Games in the sense of rule- and material-bound “board and table games” count among the oldest cultural expressions of mankind, older than all ideas and laws set down in written form, and almost as old as the earliest pictorial representations. They represent a historically evolved cultural asset, with many connections to other cultural techniques, such as performing arts, mathematics, the arts of construction and war, and also to religious and mythological conceptions.
With the increasing recognition of the importance of play for the development of humanity, scientists from the most varied specalisations are beginning to take a more intensive interest in games, their structure and effects, their cultural and social history. At the University of Leiden (The Netherlands) scientists from all over the world met for the first time in 1995 to exchange the results of their research in an inter-disciplinary symposium. Additional events concerned with this subject have since then been held, again in Leiden, and subsequently in Florence (1999), Fribourg (2001) and Barcelona (2002). The presentations made on these occasions were published in a special series “Board Game Studies” by the Center of Non-Western Studies (CNWS) in Leiden.
“Board Game Studies VI” this year again brings together researchers from all over the world to exchange their research work. The total of 24 presentations makes evident once more that games research is today conducted on an international, and at the same time inter-disciplinary level. India, which in the mean time has to a considerable extent come to be seen as the home of chess, is presented as a country which has also produced a substantial number of other board games.
Irving Finkel, Curator of the British Museum in London, reports on new discoveries concerned with the Tibetan game “Sho”. Other presentations bring the Indian Ocean into focus, or go more deeply into research on chess, which has in the last years become very extensive.
A particular emphasis of this year´s symposium is to turn the scientific spotlight onto contemporary games. Bernward Thole opens this part of the Symposium with the introduction of the Deutsches Spiele-Archiv (German Games Archive) as a unique site for documentation of and research into the development of games during the time since the Second World War. Further presentations are concerned with subjects including the modern institution of “game authors”, the history of games in the GDR, the reception of the game “Siedler von Catan”, and the use of board games in management training.
The international symposium “Board Game Studies VI” takes place between Monday 07/04/03 to Thursday 10/04/03. The German Games Archive and the Institut für Vergleichende Kulturforschung, Religionswissenschaft und Völkerkunde (Faculty 03 of the Philipps University) have been commissioned with the organisation. The symposium is held under the auspices of the Lord Mayor of the city of Marburg, and is sponsored by the Jury of the Critics´ Prize “Game of the Year Award”, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The presentations are made in public.
Here is the program for Board Games Studies VI

(Marburg, Germany, 06.04.2003 – 10.04.2003)

• WelcomeMark Münzel, Bernward Thole President Philipps-University, Mayor of Marburg, Synes Ernst (Spiel des Jahres)
• A discussion on the concept of evolution in gamesCosimo Cardellicchio
• An inquiry into the earliest game boards, pieces, dice from IndiaR.Vasantha
• Special features of some traditional board games of TamilnaduV. Balambal
• The Tibetean game of Sho: new discoveriesIrving Finkel
• Isopaedia and the Indian OceanAlex de Voogt
• Ritual context an ritual aspects of indian chess (caturanga) gamesMaria Schetelich
• The games soldiers play: board games from the late roman fortress at Abu Sha’ar (Egypt)Linda Mulvin
• On some unusual types of stick dicePeter Michaelsen
• On what there is. A project for a general chess bibliographyJürgen Stigter
• The “German Games Archives” and its classification of modern board gamesBernward Thole
• The inventor of a game as a shaping factor for the recent development of a culture of gamesTom Werneck
• Games and game producers in the German Democratic Republic (GDR)Rudolf Rühle
• “Europäisches Zentrum für Spielforschung und Spielentwicklung” in Erfurt/Chemnitz. Tasks and developingPeter Lemcke
• The significance of players for the reception and further development of a contemporary games: “The settlers of Catan”Sybille Aminzadah
• Sid Sackson: the man and his legacyBruce Whitehill
• The use of board games in management trainingMonica Sabino/Lucia Uba
• A logistic model of game`s elaborationHiroyuki Iida
• BOSS Management Game
  Fred Horn
• The influence of the checker on the chessArie van der Stoep
• Exploring the possibilities of finding out the nature of chess in its original formC. Rajendran
• Symbols of war on games tablesMayari Granados
• The difference between board games and pen and paper gamesWalter Joris
• The “doctor´s game” from Stanway:
  the “doctor’s game” is an exceptional find made by British
  archaeologists when they excavated a celtic burial site near Colchester. In
  a grave of a celtic druid (known to be a doctor, since there were also surgical
  instruments in the grave), they found the remains of a wooden gaming board with
  the counters still in position. Since the wood was completely decayed the
  question is what kind of board game was it?

  Ulrich Schädler

The Best Game to Disappear the Quickest: MONEY!

–by Bruce Whitehill

Every year, hundreds of games are introduced into the marketplace, yet only a few survive into the second year, and only a handful make it to the fifth year. Most of those games are unworthy of continued play, but some are just unnoticed, and a few are dropped in spite of their quality only because of the costs involved, when large sales are needed to cover the expenses of manufacturing and distribution. Not since Milton Bradley’s QUANDARY, has a great game disappeared as quickly as Reiner knizia’s MONEY!.

Initially produced in Germany in 1999 by Simba Toys, MONEY! was released in the U.S. by Rio Grande, which has ceased production; CEO Jay Tummelson admits the game is good, but his company will not be reissuing it.
MONEY! has all the makings of a great game. It’s very simple to understand, takes only a few minutes to learn, plays quickly, has good repeat-play value, and has a wonderful mechanism. Players are looking to accumulate one or more different currencies in which they can amass at least 100 of that currency–but preferably more than 200; anything less than 200 is scored for the value minus 100, whereas 200 or more is scored for the full value. Bank notes worth 20 and 30 are, obviously, worth much less than the notes worth up to 60, but three notes of 20 in the same currency, or of 30 in the same currency, count at face value plus a 100-point bonus. The lowest currency is a coin worth only 10, but it is always worth ten–unlike the paper money in which you need to have more than 100 in the same currency before they have any value to you.
You decide which cards in your hand (i.e., how much money) you are willing to bid to choose a set of cards randomly displayed on the table (there are two such piles, each of which consists of four cards at the beginning of each round), and all players display their bids at once; you then exchange your bid cards for the cards you want showing on the table. You also may pick up the bids cards of any of the other players. Players get to choose depending on the order from the highest to the lowest bid; tie bids are broken by the lowest serial number of the cards in the bid-off. If on your move you exchange your cards with another player, than that other player now has your high bid cards and that player plays next.
One of the quandaries you will find yourself in is have a good–but not great–hand that you need to make better. But this requires bidding for better cards, which means giving up some of the cards in your hand. The decision about what to give up is as important as how much to bid to get better cards. Once again–part of a neat mechanism.
The game looks good (though some of the international currencies are a little difficult to distinguish from one another), and is pretty inexpensive. I have tried most of the known sellers in the U.S. and have bought a few of what appear to be the last remaining copies on the market, and now I will search the German market. I highly recommend MONEY!, and rank it as one of the very best card games.

The 36 Best Games to Play

Thirty-six? Why 36? Because I started with Aaron Fuegi’s Top 100 Games list, which he publishes on the internet (and continually updates) at http://scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/Top100/ . Aaron uses all sorts of stats and computations to rate the games, based on game players providing a particular rating, and then he computes a score from rating averages and another factor. No need to go into it here–you can see the full list, with scores and averages and other data, on Aaron’s site.
I have chosen those games listed in the Top 100 list from March 10, 2003 (compiled using ratings sent in by 606 people), that scored an average of 7 or higher, played (rated) by more than 20 players, and excluding war and simulation games, RPGs, and “generics,” such as bridge; I combined CARCASSONNE/CARCASSONNE – HUNTERS into one, and did the same for DIE SIEDLER VON CATAN/DIE SIEDLER–SEAFARER. They are listed here in alphabetical order (the rankings are so close, that I would not be inclined to say that any particular game on the list would play better or be better liked than any other game on the list). All the games on this list are considered by most serious game players to be great games to play.
Newer games played fewer times might have “inflated” average rankings as a result of fewer negative ratings. And there are certain to be some additional great games out there which have not yet received the distribution necessary to develop a good following, hence, a good ranking, and have not yet made the list.
My thanks to Aaron. If you have any questions, additions, corrections, or suggestions, contact him directly at aarondf@bu.edu. If you want to see what some of these games look like, go to the Photo Gallery in this website at http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/index.php , and do a search for a particular game title, or scroll through the Playable Games album at http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/playable to see over 100 often-played games.

Game Title Company Year

• ACQUIRE 3M 1962
• ADVANCED CIVILIZATION Avalon Hill 1991
• ANNO DOMINI Fata Morgana 1998
• BOHNANZA Amigo 1997
• BORDERLANDS Eon 1982
• CARCASSONNE/CARCASSONNE – HUNTERS Hans im Gluck 2000/2002
• LA CITTA Kosmos 2000
• DURCH DIE WUSTE Kosmos 1998
• EL GRANDE Hans im Gluck 1995
• EUPHRAT & TIGRIS Hans im Gluck 1997
• FUNKENSCHLAG 2F-Spiele 2001
• DIE FURSTEN VON FLORENZ Alea 2000
• GREYHOUNDS Hans im Gluck 1985
• DIE HANDLER VON GENOA Alea 2001
• KARDINAL & KONIG Goldsieber 2000
• LOST CITIES Kosmos 1999
• LOWENHERZ Goldsieber 1997
• DIE MACHER Hans im Gluck 1986
• MEDICI Amigo 1995
• MODERN ART Hans im Gluck 1992
• MU Doris & Frank 1995
• OHNE FURCHT UND ADEL Hans im Gluck 2000
• PUERTO RICO Alea 2002
• RA Alea 1999
• SAMURAI Hans im Gluck 1998
• DIE SIEDLER VON CATAN/DIE SIEDLER–SEAFARER Kosmos 1995/1997
• STADTE UND RITTER Kosmos 1998
• STARSHIP CATAN Mayfair 2001
• TAJ MAHAL Alea 2000
• TICHU Fata Morgana 1998
• TIKAL Ravensburger 1999
• TORRES FX 1999
• UNION PACIFIC Amigo 1999
• URSUPPE Doris & Frank 1997
• VINCI Eurogames 1999
• WALLENSTEIN Queen 2002

Close runners up include:

DAYTONA 500 (Milton Bradley, 1990), EL GRANDE: K & I (Hans im Gluck, 1997), HARE AND TORTOISE (British Intell, 1973), and KOHLE, KIES & KNETE (Schmidt Spiel, 1994).

New games (from 1998 on) showing promise (good scores from the fewer than 20 who have played and rated the game) include (listed in order of scores, highest to lowest) HIVE (Gen For Two, 2001); TIME’S UP (R&R); AGE OF STEAM (Warfrog, 2002); DIE SIEDLER VON CATAN–DAS BUCH (Kosmos, 2000); ROADS AND BOATS (Splotter Spell, 1999); KARDINAL & KONIG: DAS KARTENSPIEL (Spiele aus Timbuktu, 2001); LORD OF THE RINGS: FRIENDS & FOES (Kosmos/Fantasy, 2001); LORD OF THE RINGS, THE CONFRONTATION (DER HERR DER RINGE – DIE ENTSCHEIDUNG; Kosmos, 2002); HIGH BOHN (Lookout Games, 2000); LORD OF THE RINGS: SAURON (Kosmos/Fantasy Flight, 2002; TRIAS (Gecko Games, 2002); TROJA/DIE GROSSE MAUER (Kosmos, 2001).
It’s sad to note that only three games on the list are from U.S. companies (Mayfair, Avalon Hill, 3M), and there is no American game listed from Sid Sackson’s ACQUIRE in 1962 until Avalon Hill’s 1992 ADVANCED CIVILIZATION.

Castle Croquet in July

Save the Dates: The fourth international Castle Croquet tournament will be held in July with playdowns on Saturday, July 5, and the finals on Sunday, July 6. The location is the field behind the Old Game Store, run by Martha Folsom and Rich Gower in Arlington, Vermont. For information, email games@thebiggamehunter.com .

Castle Croquet is a mental strategy game version of croquet, and was invented by Lewis Carroll (with rules updated and modified by yours truly). Click on “Castle Croquet” in the Main Menu at the left.

Chess Chatter

A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing
in the lobby discussing and bragging about their recent tournament victories. After two hours of this incessant boasting, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. “But why?” they asked, as they moved off. “Because,” he said, “I can’t stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.” –taken from cyberspace; thanks to Clark King

SECTION 2*********************REVIEWS

SECTION 3*********************VIEWS

Early Strategy Games

–by Bruce Whitehill

Games, besides being used for education and moral teaching, have been a source of recreation and social interaction for thousands of years. Many of the earliest games were strategy games, usually pitting only two competitors against one another, in a mode of play that benefited little from luck. The classic strategy game of MANCALA, or WARI, which re-emerges every so many years having undergone a change in style or title, is considered to be one of the first board games, around 7000 years old. The game of SENAT, a strategy game whose rules are still being re-invented, was found in 1922 in the tomb of King Tut and is known to be from about 3000 B.C.
The origin of games can be traced back to many countries and continents. CHECKERS, called DRAUGHTS in England, dates back to the 12th century; CHESS was said to have originated either in India in 600 A.D. or China before 200 A.D.; and BACKGAMMON, a variation of a game called TABULA (known in Iceland as CHASING THE GIRLS), goes back to the 1st century. DOMINOES, one of the most widely-played games in the world, is probably Chinese, its origin being between the 1st and 12th centuries; DOMINOES are actually “flattened dice–the early sets of DOMINOES and Oriental versions of the game do not have any blank halves. MAH-JONGG, with its various spellings and different names, had been the favorite game in China for centuries before it was introduced into this country around 1922. MAH-JONGG, “sparrow of a hundred intelligences,” like DOMINOES, was meant to be played with noisy abandon as players purposefully slapped the hard tiles against one another and against the table top.
A European favorite that at various times had a following in the United States was FOX AND GEESE, which had its origin either in the 12th century or around the year 1300, possibly in Iceland. In this excellent strategy game in which the two competing players have different numbers of playing pieces, the fox must capture enough geese so they cannot surround him, while the sixteen geese try to trap the fox so he cannot move. A good example of how games tell us something about the society from which they emerged is borne out by North American Indians playing this game with pieces representing a coyote and chickens.
The GAME OF GOOSE, sent by Francesco de Medic in Italy to King Phillip II of Spain in the 16th century, became one of the most popular games in Europe. Its principles of virtue rewarded and vice punished fit in well with the moral attitudes of the period. The GAME OF GOOSE originated in Europe around 1500, and the earliest known American GAME OF GOOSE was printed in 1851. The morality teachings of this game were mirrored by the earliest American path games, including the MANSION OF HAPPINESS, games of ERRAND BOY and MESSENGER BOY, and the better known SNAKES AND LADDERS, which evolved into the classic CHUTES AND LADDERS of today, losing it’s morality content in the process (the spaces on which the player lands, allowing a move ahead or forcing a move back, no longer list the vices and virtues responsible for such progress or descent).
Many popular American games can be traced to Africa and to the Orient. The oldest board showing the game of NINE MEN’S MORRIS, a strategy game popular throughout the world for centuries, was found in Egypt. The game, also known as MILL or MORELLES, requires players to first place pieces in succession onto the gameboard, and then to move them into a winning alignment. Another alignment game, GO-BANG, known in Britain also as SPOILS FIVE, was taken from GO-MOKU, which originated in Japan. The game may have been played in the United States long before it received a U.S. patent in 1882. GO, an ancient game still popular in Japan, was introduced to Europe and the U.S. around the 1880s.
PICK UP STICKS was played by European and American children in the 1880s, though the game was then known as JACK STRAWS; the earliest sets often had pieces shaped like farmer’s tools–hoes, rakes, shovels, even wheel barrows–and some sets were made of bone or ivory rather than the usual wood. PICK UP STICKS was one of the first classic “skill and action” games, requiring dexterity in addition to the more-limited strategic thought required to determine which sticks to pick up when. One of the earliest dexterity games, JACKS, the game with a ball and star-shaped metal pieces, was played over 2000 years ago in Greece; it was called KNUCKLEBONES, because the “jacks” were the knuckle bones of sheep.
The GAME OF INDIA, one of the most widely-played games in the world, can be traced to the Korean game of NYOUT from the third century, though it took its present form in India over 1200 years ago. Milton Bradley and a company called McLoughlin Brothers produced the game in the United States around the turn-of-the-century, while in 1896 a similar version was being played in England under the name LUDO. The most famous GAME OF INDIA, however, was patented in this country in 1874 under then name PARCHEESI, and it’s still one of the most popular games today.
Hundreds of games are introduced into the marketplace every year, but most of the games never see a second year of production. Nearly all of them are touted as being “new,” and yet many are nothing more than revisions and variations of games that have been around for ages. One of the most striking examples is the popular game of OTHELLO, which won an award for the “best new game” in 1976, yet was in vogue in the United States in the 1950s under the name of REVERSI–the same name it had when it first appeared in the U.S. (via England) in the 1880s.

The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle

As an exclusive for “All in the Game,” game inventor, historian and author Ralph Anspach, a professor at San Francisco State University, offers our readers a monthly chapter by chapter summary of his 26-chapter book, with short excerpts from each chapter.

Chapter 11: Operation “Darrow Cleanup” and the Black Box

–by Ralph Anspach
This chapter details the detective work which unraveled the reasons behind the Monopoly swindle and determined the culpability for the swindle. The evidence uncovered is so strong that the Monopoly swindle book has been on the market for years without challenge from Parker Brothers. The evidence goes to highly technical features of patent and copyright law and cannot be summarized here. (Interested parties need to buy the book.) I will simply summarize my conclusions.

• 1. Darrow added almost nothing to the Atlantic City monopoly he copied except some design changes and art work by his printer.
• 2. Darrow has minor culpability for the swindle because the game he copied was largely in the public domain and Darrow DID NOT CLAIM legally (apart for one minor exception) that he invented the game while he was publishing it on his own between 1933 and 1935.
• 3. When Parker Brothers licensed the “rights” to the game from Darrow, it found out almost immediately that he was not the inventor and that the game was in the public domain.
• 4. Parker Brothers therefore could have published the game without paying royalties to Darrow just as much as it could have published chess without paying anyone royalties.
• 5. But in that case, Parker Brothers would have had to compete with anyone else who published the public domain monopoly. Instead Parker Brothers chose to fabricate Darrow as the royalty- receiving inventor of Monopoly and directed its lawyers to dupe the Patent Office into granting Darrow a fraudulent invention patent.
• 6. With this patent, Parker Brothers had the exclusive right to publish Monopoly for seventeen years and thereby the patent became the lynch pin in its illegal monopolization of Monopoly.
• 6. Therefore, Darrow turns out to be but a willing accessory to the Monopoly swindle while its real culprit is the corporation.

–Copyright 2002 by Ralph Anspach

“The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle,” First Edition (without photos), is
available from the Anti-Monopoly web site (www.antimonopoly.com) for $16 (including P&H). The Second Edition (with photos) is available from XLibris Corporation and may be ordered for $19.54 plus P&H by calling 1-888-7XLIBRIS, or by e-mail from Orders@Xlibris.com .

Coming next issue

–Two games from Rex Games: TANGOES, a puzzle game like TANGRAMS in which players compete to using seven plastic shapes to make the silhouette shown on one of the 54 puzzle cards. And WORD TREK, a word game “inspired by Lewis Carroll” in which the letters of one word are replaced or rearranged step by step until they form a second word.

We’ll have a look at R&R’s TIN SOLDIERS and wonderfully whimsical TOO MANY COOKS, and Out of the Box’s MY WORD, plus more fun from Basic Fun, with game keychains and now game charm key rings.
Also, we’ll review Cranium’s HOOPLA and CADOO, Mayfair’s SETTLER’S OF THE STONE AGE, Patch’s SWAP card game, and GnuGames’ gnuest game, SPINERGY, a cool-looking fun party game. We’ll review two new books from Western Reflections Publishing: Charles Overstreet’s “Early American Toys & Games: A How-To Guide,” and Karen South Arnold’s “Playing Grandma’s Games.”
And we’ll look at two of the many new “opoly” games from USAopoly, FORD MONOPOLY and GARFIELD MONOPOLY, and at some new products from Channel Craft, including MORGAN’S REVENGE, the disentanglement PIONEER PUZZLE, wood classics like PICK UP STICKS and JACKS, and a tin box jigsaw puzzle of American flags. New disentanglement puzzles from Puzzle Master, and Dennis Sucilsky’s latest wrought iron tavern puzzle from Tucker-Jones House. Plus Birdcage Books’ latest Art Game, VAN GOGH & FRIENDS, as beautiful as the first two in the series. — All, and more, coming next issue to an internet near you!

]]]

All in the Game, March, 2003

Welcome to our latest newsletter– March, 2003. This begins our second year of publishing! We produced ten issues last year (a double summer issue and a double December holiday issue). We shared with you hundreds of pages of information on games and puzzles and the people that invent them, make them, play them, do them, sell them, and love them, and we provided lots of links to other sites with news and information in the games and puzzles arena. We have tried to cover everything from the old collectibles to the classics to the newest items on the market.
This year, after this newsletter, there will be a slight change to our newsletter content. Some of the types of news releases and informational articles which have appeared in the newsletter will now be found in the “Announcements” section of the website, an area that will be updated regularly. The newsletter will continue to feature special articles, views from our regular columnists and contributing editors, and reviews and comments about new products. As always, there will be plenty of accompanying photographs in our Photo Gallery.
This month’s newsletter offers the musings of our regular contributors, Wayne Saunders, Jim Polczynski, and Ralph Anspach, and reviewers Mark Edwards and Clark King. Plus, there’s news about

• Toy Fair
• the Great American Trading Co.
• OCTI, and inventor Don Green’s latest, JUMPIN’ JAVA
• a Lewis & Clark game
• a jigsaw puzzle newsletter
• eBay auction prices
• the International Board Game Studies colloquium in Germany
• the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors convention in New Haven
• The Big Game Hunter’s latest trip to England to meet with Waddingtons’ Victor Watson, visit the game-filled Abbey Museum in Leeds, and spend the night in Doncaster in a place adjacent to a pub with a game that takes up an entire ceiling
• FAMILY REUNION and GIVE & TAKE
• CADOO (from the CRANIUM group)

There’s a special section on game playing groups from Washington State to Washington D.C., (and mostly groups in the New England area). Plus reports on game weekends, TotalCon, and who’s playing what, where.

Mark Edwards reviews, in brief,

• INTRIGUE
• SUNDA TO SAHUL
• UM REIFENBREITE
• VINCI
• CANNES
• ROYAL TURF, and
• AVE CAESAR.

Clark King tells us about two writings,

• 100 Strategic Games for Pen and Paper (a book), and
• an article on the evolution of board games in “History Magazine” (a magazine),

and three games:

• THE OSCARS MOVIE TRIVIA GAME
• HOOPLA
• ROUTE 66, THE GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIP GAME

And Wayne Saunders gives us the play by play on Texas’ favorite game, WAHOO, while Jim Polczynski takes his best shot at BATTLESHIP.
Ralph Anspach is up to Chapter 10 in our exclusive chapter-by-chapter synopsis of his book about the great cover-up to the true story of MONOPOLY.
That and more–Enjoy!

Toy Fair

The International Toy Fair (once the New York Toy Fair) was held in New York in February, hosting game and puzzle (and doll and toy and other) companies from all over the world. Inventors were there touting new products, small companies were there showing how much their product lines had grown, and the well-established companies were on hand to provide a glimpse of the latest in fashion. New companies were there trying to break into the industry with their first game, one each company thinks is the best game since MONOPOLY.

We have learned to expect good things from Out-of-the Box Publishing and R&R games, and we were not disappointed. The melding of great-playing games and puzzles and great-looking items was continued by Family games of Canada. Winning Moves grows its excellent line of both licensed and unlicensed products, as Binary Arts comes out with even more interesting mechanical puzzles.
Full a more detailed report on some of the products and companies from Toy Fair 2003, read Herb Levy’s report at http://www.gamersalliance.com/tf03.htm . Herb runs Gamers Alliance and publishes a number of excellent reports during the year about the game industry and the newest products.

Great American Trading Co. Alive and Well

It was inevitable. When people attending Toy Fair could not find the booth for the Great American Trading Company and the response to inquiries was that they had cancelled their N.Y. appearance, rumors flew regarding the financial health of that long established company. CEO Dave Karkowski admitted the company had fallen behind in readying products for Toy Fair, but said the company was healthy and doing well, and would be introducing new products for 2003. Though they missed Toy Fair, The Great American Trading Company, which is located in Pennsylvania near where the aliens landed in War of the Worlds, will be doing the Toy Show in Pomona, California, later this year. Unfortunately, the personable, long-time associate Yale Gordon left the company to move on to a wire molding company, which is more closely linked to his former industry, hardware.
The Great American Trading Company sells a number of excellent strategy games, among them, OCTI, a superb game for any thinker, and OCTI EXTREME, an amazing game for even brainier thinkers. Both games are discussed elsewhere in this newsletter. Abstract strategy games include AVALAM, TREZO, and BALL AND CHAIN, one of my favorites, in which each of your playing pieces is attached to another of your pieces, the object being to chain in (encircle) your opponent. Traditional strategy games from Africa include MANCALA (actually, it’s played all over the world), CEEGA, and YOTE. The company has also reproduced three classic tin marble-rolling skill & action games. To see The Great American Trading Company’s robust line, go to http://www.gatco.net/ .

OCTI Update

I met Yale professor and games inventor Don Green at Toy Fair a couple of years ago. His then new game, put out by Great American Trading Co., was a wonderfully strategic game called OCTI. It was on the level of chess, and a little too much for me to take in after days of viewing dozens of games. Then I had a look at his OCTI for children game. “This is wonderful,” I exclaimed, wondering if my game playing skills had just dropped to the under-twelve level. This, the kid’s game, should be regular OCTI, and the standard OCTI game, with lots more spaces, more playing pieces, and, consequently, more options, should be your “OCTI for Geniuses” game. Well that’s just what happened! Don made the OCTI for kids game the standard OCTI, and turned the more advanced game into OCTI EXTREME. Both are powerhouse games–very simple, but requiring a great deal of strategy (and no luck). Players add small “directionals” to their playing pieces, which then dictate the direction those pieces are allowed to move. It’s a capture game governed by the best positioning. (If you like SMESS and its other named variations, you’ll love OCTI.) Photos of both games are in the Newsletter Photo Gallery and in the Playable Games Gallery.

Don, the A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Political Science at Yale University, is also the inventor of JUMPIN’ JAVA, a strategy game with cups and saucers, which, unlike CRANIUM, is meant to be played in coffee shops as well as at home; Don says the end game is always close, so you can’t tell who’s going to win until the final moves. This game by Fundex, due out soon, will be reviewed in a later issue, but I can tell you now that it really looks good.
Another of Don’s games, RAZZLE DAZZLE is due out in May, also from Great American Trading. Don describes it as “an abstract version of the ultimate Frisbee quick pass.” (The Frisbee Pie Company was located in Don’s town of New
Haven.)

Full Disclosure

“Full Disclosure” sounds like it would make a great name for a new game. However, my use of it here is to disclose that many of the people I say good things about in this newsletter are people I know personally. As any editor, I like what I like (and say what I say). As for games and game companies, I do have my favorites–based on the products a company has and the people I meet who represent the company. I don’t accept gifts or favors from companies whose products I review. (I do accept sample products for review.) Companies that have slighted or cheated me, like TDC, I just don’t write about. Companies that treat me respectfully might get more newsletter space, but only if they have good products for me to talk about. I have been in the game industry abut 20 years now, since the early 1980s, and I have worked full time for some companies (Milton Bradley, Pressman, Mattel) and have consulted for many others (among them, Parker Brothers, Hasbro, Winning Moves, Binary Arts, Coleco, Endless Games, R&R & R, Proverbial Wisdom, U.S. Games Systems, Radica, and Talicor, which continues to carry my Stealth game). They’re all my favorites; and yet I try to avoid any bias and especially look to give the small, independent game developer or company a chance to tout new wares. If you feel your product or company would like more space in “All in the Game,” write me at games@thebiggamehunter.com .

–Bruce Whitehill (editor)

Jack Jaffee’s Libido

Speaking of disclosure, I should tell you that Jack Jaffee is a friend of mine. But I must also disclose something about his past. First of all, you should go directly to the photo gallery and check out the picture, by clicking here on Jaffee. The caption reads, “Jack Jaffee is a journalist who writes on games for ‘Men Only,’ ‘Penthouse,’ and various other magazines.” Could that be the same Jack Jaffee who for years has been hawking his SAVE THE PRESIDENT game (which actually has been played by a U.S. president or two)? A hard sell in these times, since the object for one player is to try to kill the President (while the other player tries to save him). You knew Jack was a singer, gamesman, and man about town, and you knew about his ego, but did you know about his libido? Actually, that should read, “LIBIDO,” since the style in this newsletter is to capitalize proprietary game names. Oh, didn’t I mention it?–LIBIDO is one of Jack’s early games, one he invented about 20 years ago, and the photo in the Newsletter Photo Gallery comes from the box.

Lewis & Clark Attempt to Reach the Entire Nation

With the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark Expedition on the immediate horizon, the new LEWIS & CLARK FAMILY GAME, a product of West Dakota, Ltd. (LLC), makes its appearance. West Dakota, a North Dakota firm located near the trail of the Expedition of 1804-1806, will eventually be offering a series of games under the “American History Games” brand.
According to the company, “The LEWIS & CLARK FAMILY GAME challenges up to four players to be the first to complete the journey west to the Pacific coast and back again to St. Louis. All of the obstacles and hazards which confronted the real Expeditioners are embodied in the game’s play, with the added test for participants of challenging each other to see who can win. The game…will serve to educate players about the events of 200 years ago, and the unbelievable story of the epic journey.” For information, go to http://www.lewis-clarkgame.com/ .

Jigsaw Puzzlers Publish Spring Issue

The BCD, Benevolent Confraternity of Dissectologists (you know they must be British!), has just published its 67th issue of its newsletter. In operation since 1985, the BCD publishes a quarterly journal, and holds meetings every three months in varied locations throughout England. The editor of the BCD, Penny Melling, can be reached at penny@familymelling.freeserve.co.uk .

The group was formed to further the enjoyment and collection of jigsaw puzzles, old and new, and has members in about ten countries, including the U.S. The club has among its 350 members a few puzzle cutters and an entire membership that enjoys doing puzzles–at every BCD meeting, members assemble puzzles throughout the day. Visitors are welcome! For information, contact the founder and chairman Tom Tyler at tom.tyler@btinternet.com .

Auction Prices

Here are some prices realized on eBay:

In the U.S., Sid Sackson’s SHANGHAI sold for $20.10.

In the UK:

• HOTEL, 22 GBP ($35)
• HARE & TORTOISE (1973, Intellect Games), 21 GBP ($34)
• DIPLOMACY (1976, Avalon Hill), 18 GBP ($29)
• CHAD VALLEY GAME VAN (rare tin windup with game images), $765

SECTION 2****************NEWS & CUES

Board Game Studies Symposium in Germany

The International Society for Board Game Studies will hold it’s annual symposium April 6-10 in Marburg, Germany. The International Colloquium on “Board Games in Academia” discusses the role of board games in academic research and enhances multi-disciplinary co-operation in games research. This year’s host is the Deutsches Spiele–Archiv, the group responsible for the popular, juried “German Game of the Year” award.
For more information, go to www.boardgamesstudies.org/colloquium/ or contact this year’s host, at Board Games Studies VI, c/o Deutsches Spiele–Archiv
Barfüßer Str. 2a, D- 35037 Marburg; Fax: +49/6241/62720; e-mail: Spiele–Archiv@t-online.de .

Game Collectors Readying for May Convention

The Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors (AGPC) is holding its 19th Annual Convention May 16-18 in New Haven, Connecticut, with a pre-convention steam train and riverboat excursion in Essex on May 15. Hosted by AGPC Charter Members Steve & Diane Olin, the convention marks an opportunity for game and puzzle enthusiasts to share information, learn from visiting speakers, and enjoy a camaraderie that’s very special among collectors (we all understand why our closets are full and our time always occupied!). The AGPC honoree this year, recipient of the Sam Loyd Award for his outstanding work in the design of mechanical puzzles, is Nob Yoshigahara, who will be attending from Japan. A visit to the Yale Center for British Art to see their special collection of European games will be a key event, along with visits to the Eli Whitney Museum, which houses the collection of A.C. Gilbert, and other local museums. The program also includes an entertaining show-and-tell, interesting and informative presentations by members and guests, a live auction, game playing and puzzle doing, and always a few surprises. Like every AGPC convention, games and puzzles will change hands throughout the weekend, amidst various opportunities for attendees to buy, sell, and trade their wares.
The convention will be held at the Colony Inn at Yale (Tel. 800-458-8810; or visit http://www.colonyatyale.com/ ). The AGPC rate is between $85 and $89 per night. The registration (which will be announced in the next issue) includes dinners on Friday and Saturday evenings, Saturday breakfast and Sunday brunch. Membership in the AGPC is required in order to attend the convention, unless you are attending as a guest of a member. For information, go to the AGPC website at www.agpc.org. For further information about the convention, contact Steve or Diane at steve@playthingspast.com .

England: Waddingtons’ Victor Watson; Leeds Museum; Doncaster Game Pub

Bruce Whitehill, America’s “The Big Game Hunter,” travels once again to England to ferret out more information about games in the UK.

Over the new year, I met up with Victor Watson, the former CEO of Waddingtons giant game and puzzle company. After a brief meeting in Victor’s office, one which included Penny Melling, England’s foremost historian of early Waddingtons jigsaw puzzles (see photos in the Newsletter Photo Gallery and the Jigsaw Puzzles Gallery), the trio went to a British pub for lunch and talked about the similarities, and differences, between U.S. and British companies. Victor Watson has agreed tentatively to speak at the May, 2004, meeting in London of the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors. Readers will have the opportunity to read more about Victor Watson and Waddingtons in an upcoming article by Penny for “All in the Game.”

Victor Watson’s headquarters is close to Leeds in the northern part of England. In Leeds, the Kirkstall Abbey Museum has accumulated a nice collection of very early games and puzzles. Besides toys and games in the window of a shop on a recreated “Main Street,” there are entire rooms upstairs filled with draws of 18th and 19th century games and jigsaw puzzles. The GAME OF HUMAN LIFE, a morality game similar to Milton Bradley’s first game, THE CHECKERED GAME OF LIFE, makes for a good comparison between the values of the two cultures. (More about this in a later article.) Other “vice & virtue” games and geography games are hung on walls and displayed in glass showcases. For anyone venturing north of London, the Kirkstall Abbey Museum outside of Leeds is a must. You can go there virtually, at http://www.leeds.gov.uk/abbeyhouse/ . Also, across the street from the museum is the abbey, an architectural beauty with most of its huge stone walls still standing. You can see pictures in the “England Album” inside the “Personal Photos Gallery” by clicking on England .
En route to the north, I stopped in the town of Doncaster, a famous horse race town. There, a local pub/inn had a huge replica of Waddingtons’ TOTOPOLY horse race game painted into a recessed area in the ceiling, ringed by top hats. Another race game hung on one of the walls. The entire pub has a wonderful racing motif, with lots of great racing antiques hung about. Food wasn’t bad either.
See pictures of Victor Watson and the Doncaster pub TOTOPOLY by clicking on NewsletterPage8 (Photography in the museum was prohibited.)

FAMILY REUNION GIVE & TAKE

Actually, we’re talking about two different games, two different companies. FAMILY REUNION is a surprising entry from USAopoly–after all, it isn’t an “opoly” game and doesn’t play like one. Words and images are used to elicit stories from the players, real or made up, with a view toward sharing memories. The game is best played by–as the title suggests–family members or people equally close.

GIVE & TAKE is a family game from ACT Games. Lots of bright colored chips played on an equally bright colored board. I understand there has been some revision to the latest design and packaging.
Both games are shown in our Newsletter Photo Gallery at http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/Newsletter?&page=7 .

Kudos CADOO

CADOO, from the makers of CRANIUM, won the award for best game of the year at Toy Fair 2003. Check the next issue of this newsletter for our CADOO review.
The press release from CRANIUM reads: “Cranium won Game of the Year at last year’s award ceremony….Cranium Cadoo was designed especially for kids to get them giggling, thinking and creating while they act, puzzle, sketch, sculpt and even crack secret codes on their way to a four-in-a-row win. The game is also the recipient of more than 10 previous industry awards, including the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio platinum Best Toy Award and the National Parenting Center’s Seal of Approval. Cranium Cadoo…is now the sixth-highest grossing kid’s game in America.

Game Groups

Throughout the United States there are game-playing groups, ranging from those that concentrate on role playing or war and simulation games, to those that engage primarily in parlor games, family games, and strategy games. Many of the groups that focus on the latter category play mostly German strategy games–said to be the overall best of the modern lot of “playable” games. Our purpose here in All in the Game is to introduce you to some of the adult game groups specializing in social and strategy games. In this issue, we introduce groups in (from west to east) Vancouver, Canada; Albuquerque, NM; Rochester, NY; various areas in eastern Massachusetts; Providence and Warren, RI; and Washington, D.C.
If you would like your group mentioned, please contact us. Click on “Submit News” in the Main Menu at the left. Type in your information in the box provided. Photos are encouraged–if you have one, it needs to be sent as an email attachment to games@thebiggamehunter.com .

• Terminal City Gamers, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  The Terminal City Gamers meet every Monday night in the Vancouver area to play boardgames. Most of the board games are German imports, such as those from Rio Grande Games. They also play other European imports and North American games. Their website has news, reviews, and articles about games and upcoming game gatherings. Go to http://www.terminalcitygamers.com/index.html .
• Tuesday Night Gamers, Albuquerque, NMThe group of Tuesday Night Gamers (TNG) has been playing games in Albuquerque, NM, since 1999. Webmaster Kevin Whitmore writes up their sessions and rates the games they play, and summarizes the year’s activity–the games most played, most liked, gathering dust, etc. Good info., instructions, strategies, and ratings of popular German and other strategy and family games. The Game Menu provides a way of selecting a game to play, with descriptions and info about how well each game was received, the ideal number of players, and the time required.
• GSG, South Attleboro, MAThis is another Tuesday night game group that meets weekly, mostly at the home of Mark Edwards, in southern Massachusetts. GSG has recently started “on tour,” taking their sessions to other players’ houses. Contact Mark at danger.mouse@attbi.com
• South Shore Games, Dedham, MAAnother Massachusetts game group meets near the Dedham/Needham line off route I-95/128 at Exit 17 (Rte. 135). For information, contact Dave Bernazzani
  daveber@gis.net and check out the website at http://www.gis.net/~daveber/gameclub.htm
• Thursdays in Holliston, MAMore good gaming weekly in Massachusetts. Contact Walter H. Hunt at hotc@attbi.com .
• Topsfield Game Players, Topsfield, MAThis Massachusetts group meets one Saturday a month at Trinity Episcopal Church on River Road in Topsfield, north of Boston. Contact Bob Scherer-Hoock at Bob bobshoock@attbi.com .
• The Game Keeper, Providence, RISaturday afternoons are play days at the Game Keeper, in Providence Rhode Island’s oldest mall. For information about what’s playing at The Arcade
  on Weybosset Street, contact Laurence Whalen Jr. at 401-351-0362 at fmf@pipeline.com .
• Game Night, Warren, RIThis new, informal group southeast of Providence, plays strategy games and parlor/party games; the group also playtests new games recently released or prototypes just prior to release. Contact Bruce Whitehill at game@thebiggamehunter.com .
• The DC Gamers, Washington, D.C.The DC Gamers meet each Saturday in the Washington Metro Area from 3:00 to
  roughly midnight (often later) and play mostly German style games. The group
  typically has 8-12 members in attendance at each session from over 30 total
  members. We play long games (Die Macher, Roads and Boats), dexterity games (Crokinole, Spinball), card games (Tichu, Was Sticht, Scheppchen Jagd), unusual games (by Wittig, Herman, du Poel, Fackler, or almost anyone else) and are always on top of the most current releases. Collectively the group has an impressive collection of both new and rare games. Our members often appear at events like the Gathering of
  Friends and Gulf Games, several have published games, and several appear regularly in print and online. We typically play at homes in Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. See www.dcgamers.org for more information.

  Special game weekends

• Lobster Trap, Gloucester, MAThis is a big weekend event that occurs two or three times a year at the Charbanova Studio of game inventors Aaron Weissblum and Alan Moon, in a fishing village on the Massachusetts coast north of Boston. For information, contact Aaron at aark@charba.com.
• Unity Games, eastern MAThis is another Massachusetts group that holds a few big game weekends during the year. They also offer online news and information about games. Check out http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Unity_Games/.

Total Confusion in Massachusetts

The Total Confusion, or Totalcon, convention was held in February in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The convention focuses on role playing and miniatures and the like, but does offer board game competitions, mainly using the latest German games. There are items for sale, people in costume, and games galore. Our Game Players Album of the Photo Gallery has pics of three of the dealers and some of the board game players, at http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/album02?&page=3 . For information about TotalCon (to be ready for next year), go to http://www.totalcon.com/total/totalpage.html . Mark Edwards’ review of TotalCon follows.

SECTION 3***************VIEWS & REVIEWS

Saying Stuff: A Dangerous Game

Do you think a game and puzzles newsletter is not the place for an anti-war statement? Well, considering what a U.S. war in Iraq would do–considering, in fact, what harm has already been done by Bush’s posturing–any journal is a place where something could and should be said. Already, the image of the U.S. and its people has taken quite a hit around the world. We are no longer just “The Ugly American,” but have now taken on the image of the bellicose braggart, intent on writing the rules of the game, or playing alone. Already, the American economy and, indeed, the economies of some European powers, has suffered as a result of our preparation for war. Already, countless American families have been broken up as members have been called up and sent off to active duty.

The anti-war sentiment around the world, as well as here at home, should have sent a strong message to our President. But President Bush has made two things absolutely clear: 1) He wants a war with Iraq regardless of the position held by world leaders, world economists, and the world’s civilians; 2) He wants to topple the Saddam regime, which he feels he has a right to do as the President of the only remaining Superpower. This is a dangerous position to take–more dangerous than any threat Iraq poses in the immediate future. These are the decisions of a man who had never been to Europe until he became President of the United States.
The polls show a range from little American support to overwhelming support for attacking Iraq. Whatever the numbers, why are so many Americans behind the President? The answer is linked to the climate of fear that has been carefully cultivated since 9-11. That, and the continued thirst for revenge. (As an aside, it seems that only in the U.S. could you find a book I’m Afraid, You’re Afraid: 448 Things to Fear and Why [Melinda Muse, Hyperion, NY, 2000]); and you should see Michael Moore’s film, “Bowling For Columbine,” in which the American documentary film maker attributes gun violence in America not to the abundance of guns as much as to the propagation of fear in this country.) If your neighbor had a basement full of weapons and was going to attack you while you were asleep, and your Neighborhood Watch leader was yelling “Attack! Attack!” wouldn’t you be in favor of an assault on your neighbor, if you couldn’t relieve him of his weapons? Possibly, but Iraq is not our neighbor–it’s an ocean away; America never sleeps, as our defence systems are alert at all times; and we only think Iraq has weapons that would pose a threat.
Ever since he was elected to the power of the Presidency, Bush has taken his own stand, contrary to the world community, on trade, the environment, the International Criminal Court, and other issues. Do we really want the message we send to the world to be one in which we beat our chests, tell the world we are the only world power and the only one with true democracy, and state emphatically that we can stand alone, we don’t need anybody? Would you want to maintain a relationship with a bully “friend” with such an attitude?
Let’s forget for a moment that George Bush just happens to be an oil man from a big oil family. Let’s forget for a moment that a team of his key advisors had proposed an invasion of Iraq and the toppling of the Sadam regime even before Bush was elected to office. Let’s just look at why we should and why we shouldn’t go to war.
Let’s deal with the latter first.
Why the U.S. should not attack Iraq:

• A pre-emptive attack on any country opens the way for any country to go to war using the excuse of self-defense, claiming that they knew the other country was going to attack them so they had to attack first.
• We would love to retaliate for the attack on 9/11, but Iraq was not the country that sent planes into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, and the terrorist core is not centered in Iraq.
• Saddam is a tyrant, dictator, butcher and barbarian. But we have no right to go into another country to change a regime that we feel is unjust, without their being imminent danger to any population.
• The “imminent” danger posed by Iraq is much less than it ever was. The President’s accusations against Iraq are pointed at instances and instigations that are between three and ten years old. Why are we looking to attack now?
• The UN team in Iraq is actually making progress, finally, uncovering and destroying potential weapons materials. The more progress the teams make, the more insistent Bush becomes, arguing immediate, unattainable deadlines, which suggests he is more interested in seeing Saddam forced out of power than he is in seeing the disarmament work.
• We have not seen the evidence Bush alludes to regarding the hidden weapons of mass destruction and the purposeful charade and hide and seek game being perpetrated by Iraq. Not only is there no smoking gun, there is no gun–only a smokescreen being sent up by our President.
• Leading American and world economists have speculated that a war against Iraq would be very hard on the economy at best, and devastating at worst. Disruption of oil flow has been a leading cause of previous recessions, and thiswar could have disastrous effects on the oil situation.
• An attack on Iraq will fuel an induction of more radicals into the terrorists camps around the world than any other single event or any present policy. Though we should not avoid war because of a fear of retribution, we should not act impetuously and arrogantly in such a way as to incite more people against us.
• Bush says an attack is acceptable because Iraq is not responding to U.N. resolutions. And yet, as Russia emphasized recently, if the U.S. attacks Iraq in the absence of U.N. support, then the U.S. is in violation of U.N. mandates. Is our breech more forgivable than Iraq’s?
• Finally, the idea that not attacking Iraq is a sign of weakness, and the idea that protesting the war, as I am in this newsletter, is unpatriotic–both these notions are full of the kind of machismo and bravado and chauvinism and jingoism that takes people from around the negotiating table and puts them on the battlefield. This stance is not a reason to go to war.

Why the U.S. should attack Iraq:

• It would make our President very happy.

Saying Stuff, Part Two: Rules of the Game

No rational person wants nucular–I mean, nuclear–war. Iraq should be disarmed, as agreed upon in the terms of peace following Iraq’s defeat after their foray into Kuwait. Chemical and biological weapons should be removed from the clutches of a man ruthless enough to use them. But if you can’t attack the man, do you attack the people? If you haven’t located the weapons and the missiles you want removed from the country, then what are you going to bomb?! If you haven’t identified or located the terrorists, then whom are you going to attack? If the weapons inspectors are still inspecting–and while they are inspecting there is absolutely no threat posed by Iraq–why would you want to remove the inspectors? Why attack now?

I would hate to have someone take a shot at me because he thought I was carrying a gun and that I might use it. Our cowboy Leader is doing just that, as he tries to rule the world like a top gunslinger in the Old West. He keeps talking about freedoms and constitutions and democracy, and yet, having secured his place as high honcho of the land, he has just set himself up as prosecutor, and as judge, jury, and executioner.

OTHER JOURNALS AND SITES

There are many excellent game newsletters, magazines, journals, and catalogs in print and on-line, plus some excellent websites that deal with games and puzzles.

Here are some of the best, with brief descriptions as provided by the editors of the periodicals and websites:

Gamers Alliance and GA Report

Editor: Herb Levy, president of Gamers Alliance

www.gamersalliance.com

Email: gamers@gamersalliance.com

• 1. How often it is updated on-line?GA Report has been published quarterly since 1986. Our Information Center is continually updated!
• 2. What is the focus?We review the newest and best games on the market today as well as
  highlighting some of the great game classics from the past. Plus news about
  new releases and items of interest to the gaming world.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?News, views and lots of game reviews.
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar web sites?GA Report, the longest-running gaming magazine in the Western Hemisphere, is published by Gamers Alliance; GA membership also offers members access to the largest and widest selection of out of print games in the world, and provides a free, international search service for locating rare and elusive games (you get a $10 coupon
  good towards your first purchase).

The Games Journal

Editor: Greg Aleknevicus

www.thegamesjournal.com

• 1. How often it is updated on-line?The Games Journal is updated on the first of each calendar month.
• 2. What is the focus?General purpose articles on (primarily) German-style games.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?Articles, reviews, variants, puzzles, letters.
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar web sites?We try to focus on articles about games in general rather than focussing on
  a specific game.

Luding

Editors: Stefanie Kethers and Jörg Henrichs

luding.org

• 1. How often it is published or updated on-line?More or less daily.
• 2. What is the focus?Information on board games, including links to reviews on the Web. Also
  information on game designers and publishers. Main focus: linking
  to other game-related information on the Web.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?Games: name of designer, name of publisher, pictures, list of game
  components, links to reviews, rules, homepages, etc. on the web; information about player number / age, etc.
  Designers: list of games published, short biography, address
  Publishers: list of games published, address
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar publications or web sites?- Luding is big! The database contains: 12000 games, 2000 designers,
  1700 publishers, 15000 links to reviews, homepages, etc.

  - Luding is fully bilingual English/German and covers both German and
  American / British games

  - Luding acts as “meta-index” for reviews and other game pages on the Web

  - Luding is non-commercial, i.e., access is free, and there are no banners
  or advertisements

  - We try to make Luding very easy and comfortable to access. Don’t know if others think so, though but we are always open to suggestions and
  criticism.

About Board Games

Editor: Erik Arneson

boardgames.about.com

• 1. How often it is published or updated on-line?The About Board Games web site is updated at least weekly, and the
  discussion forum has new messages posted every day.
• 2. What is the focus?About Board Games focuses on the entire spectrum of board games — designer
  games, party games, word games, war games, abstract games, etc. Naturally,
  some areas receive a bit more focus than others.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?The site includes a variety of articles, some of which are interviews with
  game designers. It has a fairly robust news section updated several times
  monthly, and a large directory of links to other boardgame sites.
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar publications or web sites?The site is updated with new articles and news items regularly, it has
  links to hundreds of outside sites organized in a logical way, and it
  doesn’t focus on any particular subset of games. I think that kind of
  breadth is what makes About Board Games a little different.

Brett & Board

Editor, Mik Svellov

brettboard.dk

• 1. How often it is published or updated on-line?The site is updated continuously, with a daily update in the two main seasons–just prior to the Nurenberg Fair and prior to the Essen Spiel Fair in October.
• 2. What is the focus?A Danish site with News in English on German Games. Using the German website
  spielbox-online.de as my main source, I simply translate the information
  about new releases into English. As neither my German nor English is
  perfect, I have made a virtue out of not being able to write verbose
  articles of relevance. Speed is the essence.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?The site includes a NEWS section with brief information about the German
  games scene, a GAMES database containing information about some of the
  games I write about (not nearly as developed as I would like it to be), a
  MAGAZINE-section with information on some of the printed magazines I
  subscribe to, an AWARD-section with information on the big German game
  awards, Travel-information about Essen, plus a database with LINKS to a long
  line of other gaming sites.
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar publications?Brett & Board is the work of love by a single hobby gamer, and it is
  intentionally made with a relaxed look and feel as the site is
  not aimed at the general public as such, but is targeted to “friend”–a term used in a broad sense aimed at all hobby-gamers. The site is done solely in my spare time.

Boardgame Player’s Association

Editor, Don Greenwood

www.boardgamers.org

• 1. How often it is published or updated on-line?The Boardgame Player’s Association (BPA) publishes a monthly e-newsletter–often referring to more detailed material on its website which is
  updated regularly as warranted.
• 2. What is the focus?The focus is on boardgames as played at the World Boardgaming
  Championships (WBC), a week-long gaming conference held outside Baltimore, MD,
  each summer.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?Recognition for tournament winners, event and organization details, and errata and house rules for games used in the WBC’s tournaments.
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar publications?The BPA is a non-profit corporation “owned” and governed by the
  collective will of its membership as defined by an elected Board of
  Directors.
• The site is open to all on the worldwide web at www.boardgamers.org. A
  subscription to the newsletter is free by submitting your name and email
  address to doncon99@toad.net.

Strategist

A magazine of the Strategy Gaming Society

Erik Arneson, President, Strategy Gaming Society

• 1. How often it is published?Strategist , the newsletter for members of the Strategy Gaming Society, is published monthly.
• 2. What is the focus?The focus of Strategist is all types of strategic games, with a particular emphasis on both designer games and war games.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?Reviews, interviews, session reports, a calendar of upcoming events, and
  much more.
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar publications?Strategist is written by and for the members of the Strategy Gaming
  Society. As such, it presents opinions and news from a diverse group of gamers.
• Strategist is available to members of the Strategy Gaming Society.
  Membership — which also includes discounts from certain retailers and
  other benefits — costs $15 in the U.S., $18 in Canada or Mexico, and $25
  elsewhere. Send a check or money order payable to SGS to: George Phillies,
  87-6 Park Avenue, Worcester, MA 01605.

Abstract Games

Editors: Kerry & Connie Handscomb

www.abstractgamesmagazine.com

• 1. How often it is published;This high-quality print publication, with covers in color, is published quarterly.
• 2. What is the focus?Abstract strategy games that are not established.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?Reviews, strategy articles, new games, historical articles, game design
  competitions.
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar publications?In print it is unique. We present beautiful games in a beautiful way. It’s
  a magazine for the game connoisseur.
• Email: conniekerry@telus.net; address: Carpe Diem Publishing, PO Box 33018, 1583 Marine Drive, West Vancouver, BC, Canada V7V 1H0.

The International Society for Board Game Studies

www.boardgamesstudies.org

• 1. How often it is published or updated on-line?
  The website is updated whenever news come in. The journal is published yearly.
• 2. What is the focus?The focus is on the culture-history of boardgames.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?The journal contains studies about board games from the ancient cultures in
  Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Rome, the Mesoamerican cultures as the Maya and
  Inca, ancient India, the Arabic-Islamic world, Africa, the far east including
  China and Japan, historical Europe including medieval and later games, and
  modern games from Europe and the U.S.

  The website contains summaries of the articles, research notes not published in
  the journal, an agenda of forthcoming events, a search-function, which allows you to
  get information about all the games treated in the journal.

• 4. What makes it stand out from similar publications?The approach is international and interdisciplinary, so that we have
  contributions from various disciplines, i.e., archaeology, ethnology,
  mathematics and computer sciences, biology, cultural history, linguistics, and
  so on.
• Subscribe to the journal by writing an e-mail to the following address: Dr.W.J.
  Vogelsang, Research School CNWS, Leiden University, PO Box 9515, RA 2300 Leiden,
  The Netherlands, cnws@let.leidenuniv.nl. The price is 23 Euro annual (1 volume
  per year) plus postage (VISA-card accepted).

Globetrotter Games

A site about board games and travels.

Editor: Carl-Gustaf Samuelsson

globetrotter.crosswinds.net

I’m maintaining my own site myself on a hobby basis, so the updates are from 2 weeks to 3 months. Unfortunately I don’t have time to answer emails regularly, although my target is to answer within a couple of weeks at least.

I use my site ‘Globetrotter Games’ to publish information about my own games only. There is a review in both English and Swedish for each game, containing a list of content, ratings from my gaming friends, digital pictures, and scanned rules. This site is the only Swedish board game site, except for one from a publisher.
mail:globetrotter@crosswinds.net

Bits & Pieces

A catalog for mechanical puzzles since 1983.

www.bitsandpieces.com

• 1. How often it is published or updated on-line?The catalog comes out four times a year, and the website is update regularly.
• 2. What is the focus?Bits & Pieces still specializes in wooden jigsaw puzzles.
• 3. What are some of the things it contains?Novelty jigsaws, including 3-D, glow-in-the-dark, hidden images, metallic effect, shaped puzzles (no regular border), silk effect puzzles (with a silk-like texture finish), puzzles up to 12,000 pieces, mechanical banks (some reproductions, some brand new concepts), and secret opening boxes.
• 4. What makes it stand out from similar publications?It is a unique catalog offering unique products!Tel.: “800-jigsaws” in the U.S. or 0870-750-7750 in Great Britain.

Game Playing in Austria

A great magazine, called Win, and its associated websites shown below, are wonderful resources for all information about games and game playing events in Austria and throughout Europe. However, you will need to be able to read German.

Das Portal „Spielen in Österreich“

www.spielen.at hat eine komplette Neugestaltung erhalten. Durch die ehrenamtliche Mitarbeit kompetenter Programmierer, die zugleich auch verspielte Mitglieder des „Spiele Kreis Wien“ sind, war das möglich.

Spielen in Österreich Community

Unsere Community umfasst Chat, Forum und ein Gewinnspiel. Wir laden Sie/Dich ganz herzlichst ein, den Chat und das Forum auszuprobieren und beim Gewinnspiel mitzuspielen. Der Beobachter gestattet es, die Aktivitäten im Chat zu beobachten.

Spieledatenbank

Die Abfrage unserer Spieledatenbank www.spielemuseum.at wurde durch unseren SQL-Spezialisten komplett neu gestaltet. Die ca. 13.000 in der Datenbank genannten Spiele sind wirklich im „Österreichischen Spiele Museum“ vorhanden und derzeit ist davon ca. 1/3 davon zusätzlich mit Texten und Bildern verfügbar.

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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, jigsaws, sliced object puzzles
• mechanical puzzles, dexterity puzzles
• game exhibits, game books, game magazines
• game repair, repairing paper games, cleaning paper games
• cutting jigsaw puzzles, hand cut jigsaws
• games to buy, games for sale, games forum

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