All in the Game Newsletter 2004

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

Here is the old All in the Game newsletter, for 2004, 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 2003.

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, Fall / Winter, 2004

Welcome to the fall/winter, 2004, issue of the “All in the Game” newsletter.

Lots of bits and pieces scattered about in this issue. To search for the exact article you’re looking for or game you want to read about, you can search with “Command F.” But we think you should just scroll on down and check it all out.
Here are some of the things you’ll find:

• Americanopoly, a new games book
• Stave puzzles at mass-market prices
• Puzzle Historian Linda Hannas dies
• International Toy Center (home of Toy Fair) for sale
• Scrabble inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame
• Buy games, support Public Broadcasting
• A RISK variation
• CANDY LAND—The Road to Travel
• 150 links
• BALDERDASH Hits TV
• ANNO 1503
• Across the Rio Grande
• A SORRY Week
• National Games Week
• Games Gain Favor in Restaurants
• Board Games at Hilton’s Homewood Suites
• Essen Spiel 2004—the best play is in Germany
• MAH JONGG—not just a game, but themed gifts
• Scam Alert—Playing (and paying for) games online
• DVD Games
• Gumball Game
• Operation Brain Freeze
• QUZZLE: A Unique Mechanical Puzzle
• Age of Mythology—the board game
• Three Fundex games for kids win awards
• News from R&R Games and the Puzzle Parlor
• A chess town in the United Arab Emirates
• AGPC game & puzzle collectors convention in the UK

and two major, world exhibits

• Asia Society Exhibition of Games in NYC
• The Swiss Museum of Games’ Exhibition on Lake Geneva

plus Views and Reviews, including

• Anne Williams’ latest jigsaw puzzle book
• Wise words from “The Bloom Report”
• The latest from Gamers Alliance
• ”Saying Stuff,” including wisdom from The Little Prince, the words of E.L. Doctorow, Bertrand Russell and Erich Fromm, and an opinion about the end of Daylight Savings Time.

and ”What’s Playing”—Mark Edward’s Session Reports, Notes, and Comments on

• SHOW MANAGER
• CLOUD 9
• UNION PACIFIC
• BIG SHOT
• ST. PETERSBURG
• MONEY
• DIE FUGGER:
• MEDICI
• CHRONONAUTS
• ILLUMINATI: NEW WORLD ORDER (INWO)
• GOA
• PONTE VECCHIO
• VIKING FURY

and more, with Old Reviews from Rochester

• TREZO
• TEAMS OF ENEMIES
• FORMULA MOTOR RACING
• HELLRAIL

plus capsule reviews from session reports by Bruce Whitehill

• DANCING DICE
• CONTRARIO
• LIKE MINDS
• OSTRAKON
• SNORTA
• STATION MASTER
• VILLA PALETTI

and

• The Big Game Hunter’s Game Rating Scale

plus regular columnist Wayne Sauders’ review of a new book on MANCALA
If you have news, contact me by clicking on “Submit News” or “Email Us” in the Main Menu at the left.

Now, enjoy your read….

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News

Unless a news article is credited, it is taken from various press releases emailed to the editor and from additional sources; most of the news announcements are edited, some are not.

New Games Book

Americanopoly—America as Seen Through Its Games is the latest book by games historian and researcher Bruce Whitehill, whose first work, Games: American Games and Their Makers, 1822-1992, was considered the benchmark in its field. Americanopoly shows the history of the United States from the 1840s through the present using commercially manufactured American games to tell the story. The book highlights those American games that have gained popularity worldwide, and explains the effect the U.S. industry has had on the games of Europe, especially Germany. In contrast, Americanopoly examines the games of England, Germany, India, and Africa that have had an influence on American games. The book also showcases thirteen themes, showing distinctively American games depicting United States’ politics, films and television, social issues, ethnic diversity, advertising, finance, sports & leisure, pop culture, and other aspects of American lilfe.
Americanopoly begins with a world overview of games. Then it is divided primarily into three sections: the beginning of the games industry in the 19th century, the growth of the industry during the 20th century, and the games that reflect 160 years of American culture. Americanopoly compares the U.S. and Europe in both its game manufacturing and game playing culture of today, and provides a brief bibliography of the best books that explore games as tools to history and culture.
With exceptional photographs throughout, Americanopoly shows games as art, as well as functional tools for education, instruction, communication, and recreation.
Americanopoly—America as Seen Through Its Games was inspired by the author’s exhibit of American games at the Swiss Museum of Games (Musée Suisse du Jeu) in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland (www.museedujeu.com). The special exhibition will be on view through February, 2005.
About the Author

Mr. Whitehill, known as “The Big Game Hunter,” is as a games historian as well as a game and puzzle collector and inventor. He is a game reviewer and feature writer for Parents’ Choice magazine (www.parentschoice.org), and is on the National Selection Committee for the National Toy Hall of Fame. During the past twenty years, in addition to his books, Mr. Whitehill has written over 100 articles on games, play, and society.
Specifications; How to Order

Americanopoly—America as Seen Through Its Games by Bruce Whitehill; Swiss Museum of Games, 2004. Soft-cover, 132 pages, in English, French, and German; 8.25” square; over 110 color photos, including extreme close-ups of game box images.
To order in the US, or for international copies signed by the author, email games@the NO SPAM biggamehunter.com (delete NO SPAM and spaces); please put “Americanopoly book” in the subject line; the cost is $24, plus $3 media mail postage and handling within the U.S. Payment should be made by money order, check (made out to Bruce Whitehill), or by PayPal from a bank account—no credit cards please. (Note that supply is limited in the U.S.)

For a signed copy shipped overseas from the U.S., the total cost, including postage and handling, is $29 by sea (4-6 weeks), $34 airmail (7-10 days).
The book (unsigned) is also available for 24 CHF (Swiss francs) or the euro equivalent at the Musée Suisse du Jeu in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, or by mail order from the museum; email info@museedujeu.com.
See the cover and sample pages in The Big Game Hunter’s online photo album at http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/albums.php .

Stave Puzzle Designs Hit the Mass Market

Stave Puzzles (http://www.stave.com/) is perhaps the most prestigious jigsaw puzzle company in the country. Their hand-cut wooden puzzles are not only beautiful and entertaining, they’re devilishly difficult. The trick puzzles are not always rectangular—some pieces fit inside and outside a puzzle with a non-solid image; pieces may fit in more than one place, or they may not fit anywhere (once in a while a piece is thrown in that’s not from the puzzle). Some pieces, called “figurals” are shaped as animals or objects. A quick look through the web site shows puzzles ranging from $396 to over $3400, with many at a special web price of $1024—for example, a “traditional” 200-piece puzzle cut from a 12” x 8” print by artist Sonia Menna Barreto, entitled “Game.”
Now you can buy an original Stave design puzzle for $12 (!) on the web, through the Great American Puzzle Factory (wwwgreatamericanpuzzle.com). The 100- to 110-piece puzzles are cardboard, but have the same Stave trickery you’ll find in the expensive wood puzzles. FISHBOWL FRENZY, for example, has pieces that will fit in two different places, so you’ll be moving sections of the puzzle around until you find the correct solution. The fishbowl has two cats that fit into the bowl—and once you get that, you reassemble the puzzle to get the fish inside the bowl and the cats outside. An even more difficult puzzle is the SEAHORSE SHANTY, rated as “You’ll need an antacid for the brain on this one.” After you assemble the shack, you need to piece together the ocean below as well as the seahorses; they fit together in different ways, but there is only one way in which the seahorses actually will fit in the open spaces inside the ocean.
This is the ideal matching of incredible art and puzzle design with affordable mass-market manufacturing. A stave puzzle for $12?! This is too easy—I can do all my gift shopping on one website. This press scoop is not a paid promotional product endorsement—this is The Big Game Hunter giving his Best of 2004 award to the Great American Puzzle Factory and Stave Puzzles for combining their respective talents to create the perfect-puzzle perfect-price product.

Strong Museum National Toy Hall of Fame 2004 Inductees

Three playthings—a toy, a game, and an action figure—have been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame this year — the rocking horse, Scrabble, and G.I. Joe.
The rocking horse gallops into the hall after charming generations of young children for centuries. The 400-year-old toy evolved from the cradle, incorporating the soothing motion that quiets and pleases children. Rocking horses became popular toys when horse racing and breeding gained popularity in Europe and Britain. A child could mount his rocking horse and pretend to ride in the races or haul farm goods into town.
Scrabble racks up as an all-time favorite. Conceived and created by an out-of-work architect during the Great Depression, Scrabble wasn’t mass-produced and marketed until 1948; even then, it took until 1952 for word-of-mouth to boost sales. In a game that blends luck and skill, Scrabble players rack their brains and stretch their vocabularies.
G.I. Joe marches into the hall as a major innovator in the toy field. The Hassenfeld Brothers (now Hasbro, Inc.) launched G.I. Joe forty years ago. They named him after a 1945 movie celebrating average soldiers in World War II and called him an “action figure” to appeal to boys. Like Barbie (which is already in the hall), G.I. Joe has been a controversial toy, highlighting differing American opinions on play, gender, politics, and even foreign relations. Love him or hate him, he is significant both as a cultural icon and as the prototype for an influential category of toys.
Nine other toy finalists were considered for induction this year including Big Wheel, Cabbage Patch Kids, Candy Land, Easy-Bake Oven, Fisher-Price Little People, Hot Wheels, Lionel Trains, Rubik’s Cube, and the Wiffle Ball.
The National Toy Hall of Fame is located in the Strong Museum in Rochester, NY. This editor (Bruce Whitehill) is on the National Selection Committee of the National Toy Hall of Fame.

Linda Hannas, 1913 – 2004

Jigsaw puzzle collectors were saddened to learn of the death on October 24th, 2004, of Linda Hannas, historian and scholar, at the age of 91. Her book, The English Jigsaw Puzzle, 1760 – 1890, published in 1972, is still the definitive reference volume for every serious dissectologist. (The first jigsaw puzzles were dissected maps, produced for the education of children.)
After the war, Linda and her husband, Torgrim, a Norwegian resistance fighter who escaped from the clutches of the Nazis in a small boat across the wild North Sea to Scotland, followed their interest in things literary, and became antiquarian book dealers. Torgrim’s particular interest was English/ Norwegian dictionaries (his comprehensive and important collection now resides in the British Library), and Linda’s was that of children’s books. Along with such items from the nursery and schoolroom, she was often offered old wooden jigsaw puzzles. This aroused her interest, and building on the evidence of puzzles thus acquired, she undertook an in-depth investigation of the history of jigsaw puzzles in England. She visited every museum in Britain to uncover the puzzles stored in the archives; she detailed these meticulously, researching the makers and their history. In 1968 her collection formed the basis of an exhibition in the London Museum – “200 years of Jigsaw Puzzles”. In 1972 she published the major reference book, The English Jigsaw Puzzle. This remains today the “Bible” for any serious dissectologist, giving accurate details of old puzzles and their cutters.
She continued to collect and research the history of jigsaw puzzles, publishing a further book, The Jigsaw Book in 1981, which brought the history of puzzles up to date. Only a few years later, she sold her entire collection, as failing health necessitated a move into sheltered housing. She retained an interest in the world of jigsaws, as Honorary President of the BCD (Benevolent Confraternity of Dissectologists) and was always pleased to receive visits from those who had read and valued her pioneering work. A gentle and scholarly lady, who influenced many and will be sorely missed.

–Penny Melling

Penny is the editor of the newsletter of the BCD—the Benevolent Confraternity of Dissectologists, an international jigsaw puzzlers group headquartered in England. For more information, email Penny at familymelling No spam .freeserve. co.uk, leaving out spaces and “no spam” and changing “at” to @.

Manhattan’s International Toy Center is on the Block

Considered the center of the U.S toy industry, The International Toy Center in Manhattan (at Broadway and 23rd Street) is up for sale. The landmark building is home to the Toy Industry Hall of Fame and houses the showrooms of more than half of the Toy Industry Association’s 450 members, who hold 8 to 10-year leases.
When mass merchandisers Wal-Mart and Target started retailing scores of toys at discount prices, game companies using other retail outlets including specialty stores were hurt. Game companies and independent retailers have gone bankrupt and small toy companies are fighting for shelf space in retail shops. Some major toymakers now take their new products directly to Wal-Mart and other retailers, reducing the necessity of presenting their products at a Toy Fair.
Toy Fair has been held in New York City since the early 1900s, and in the Toy Building since the teens. The major exposition for toy retailers is held in February in New York’s Javits Center, but the Toy Building holds the year-round showrooms of many of the larger toy companies.

Buy Games, Support Public Television

“Signals,” a print catalog and online catalog at www.signals.com , has supported public television since 1986. The catalog was purchased recently by Universal Screen Arts, in Ohio—a company that owns two other catalogs: “What on Earth,” a catalog of novelties and gift items, and “Art and Artifact,” a more upscale catalog similar to “Signals.” A certain percent of the total profits of the company is donated to Public Broadcasting (PBS). A spokesman said that management determines what that percent is, and the amount keeps changing.
All three catalogs contain unusual, interesting, fun, educational, often artistic items. As for games and puzzles, the fall preview “Signals” catalog offers the nostalgic replicas of the “First Edition CLUE” and the “First Edition” 1935 MONOPOLY (both $35, and both from Winning Moves Co.); Reader’s Digest’s “The Treasury of Family Games” ($30); an English-made wooden jigsaw of a 1929 Bentley ($40); a poker hands necktie ($40); and a “St. Andrews Box of Golf” cherrywood box game—a game with nine two-sided boards and either pewter figures ($229) or polyresin figures ($149). (Prices are rounded up to the nearest dollar and don’t include shipping.)
To order a print catalog, call 800-669-9696.

Scam Alert: Play—And Pay—Online, Again & Again

In the December, 2004, issue of Consumer Reports is a warning about buying games which you then take home, hook up to your computer, and play online. Before you make your initial outlay, be sure to check whether additional purchases are necessary, such as adapters and cables. Then read the small print on the box to be sure about any monthly fees you may incur when playing online. In the course of a year, your expenses for the game may be three times the initial cost of the product—that is, if you ever want to play it.

Variation RISK

Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast division is putting a new spin on the game of RISK. RISK GODSTORM allows players to use the Norse, Greek, Celtic, Egyptian and Babylonian gods to wage war for control of ancient Earth.
Players can be either the god of war, sky, death or magic, each with its own special ability to aide in the conquest of the world. There are various armies that go with each sect, allowing players to pit men and gods against each other in battle.
Designed to appeal to board gaming hobbyists and mythology buffs the game has very detailed game pieces, miracle cards, faith tokens, territory cards and temples. RISK GODSTROM is shipping to specialty stores with an MSRP of $45.00. There are two game boards included as well. One is a map of ancient Earth complete with Atlantis and the other is of the mythological underworld.

TOYS FOR SMART PLAY: Dr. Toy’s “100 Best Children’s Products for 2004” Award Report Now Available on the Internet—the Best Smart Products for Holiday Gifts for 2004. Toys, Videos, Audio CDs and Tapes, Games, Books, Software/CD-ROM’s and many other new, unique, quality, developmentally appropriate educational items are featured. The 13th Annual report is now available in the magazine, “Dr. Toy’s Guide,” on the Internet at http://www.drtoy.com. The free report is also available by requesting a copy by sending a SASE #10 envelope to Dr. Toy.
“Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products” Awards Program 2004 was developed by noted child development authority, Stevanne Auerbach, Ph.D. (a.k.a. Dr. Toy) as a service to consumers who desire to purchase safe, affordable, educationally oriented, and stimulating toys and products for children.
“As a childhood specialist for over 35 years,” says Dr. Toy, Director of the Institute for Childhood Resources, founded in San Francisco in 1975, “I have seen the continuous, essential need for more year-round resources for consumers to identify and choose the most appropriate, safe and engaging learning and developmental products for all children….The smart play products selected from 100 companies across the U.S., Canada and other countries will provide children with exciting new learning tools that will help them not only to do better in school, but will also provide more constructive activities to do after school.” The winning products include innovative toys, games, books, videos, audiotapes, software/CD’s, crafts, socially responsible and other children’s products.

“Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Products” were carefully chosen from among hundreds that she has reviewed at toy fairs, catalogs, and through many other sources, and by using extensive criteria she has developed over many years. Among the criteria used are: safety, age-appropriateness, design, durability, lasting play value, cultural and ethnic diversity, good transition from home to school, educational value, learning skills, creativity, improvement in the understanding of the community and the world, good value for price, and, naturally, fun.
In addition to the “100 Best Products,” Dr. Toy has created eight special award categories for products suitable for babies to older children including products ranging from handicrafts to hi-tech, priced from $5.00 to $100.
The report, “Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products for 2004”, is being released according to Dr. Toy to “encourage parents and teachers to focus on the value of play as essential to the learning process.”

CANDY LAND—The Road to Travel

For 55 years, the CANDY LAND game has been a favorite first game for preschoolers in the U.S. In 2004, children will enjoy the game’s new look, updated characters and expanded story line. The game will also cross the Atlantic and Pacific for the first time so that children in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand will have the opportunity to enjoy this childhood classic. The first-ever CANDY LAND movie is scheduled for direct-to-video release in the U.S during spring 2005. As expected, there will be an expanded licensing program for the product. A broad range of publishing opportunities for the CANDY LAND brand are also being explored.

BGH Site Reaches 150 Links

The Big Game Hunter’s site (that’s where you are right now) has hit the 150 links mark. One hundred fifty websites that promote games, jigsaw puzzles, mechanical puzzles, and a few other interesting things are linked—you can get there from here. Links include companies, research and resource organizations, dealers, shops, magazines, and people touting their online games and services. Games old and new. Collectible jigsaws and new, handmade puzzles—jigsaws and mechanical puzzles alike, designed and cut by America’s top puzzle makers. Small game companies making “Euro” games and the best games to play in this country. Check out the variety at “Web links” in the Main Menu at the left. You’ll find some of the best sites and resources for games and puzzles and information.

BALDERDASH Hits TV

Comedian Elayne Boosler is the host of PAX TV’S New Game Show ‘Balderdash’
The promoters leave out no exaltedly exciting adjectives in describing the new show as follows: “Boosler Brings Her Signature Feisty Sense of Humor to Hilarious New Series Run by the Production Team of Long Running Hit ‘Hollywood Squares’….Based on Mattel’s hilarious bluffing board game, (it airs) Monday through Thursday. Boosler will host the outrageous showcase of comedic talents as a panel of three celebrity comedians presents two competing contestants with a series of sidesplitting bluff answers to a variety of questions from the game’s original categories including words, movies, people, famous epitaphs and looney laws. The contestants make their way through several rounds for a chance at winning fabulous prizes.”
BALDERDASH, the game, was well-promoted and outlasted the half dozen other “find-the-real-definition” games that came out around the same time. Friends and I have watched the TV show and found it slow and forced funny. Like the game, when you read these couple of paragraphs, you have to decide which words and phrases about BALDERDASH, the TV show, are true and which are balderdash.

What Happened in 1503?

Brave pioneers explore uncharted islands in tall ships, finding bountiful
lands that yield valuable resources, while establishing homes and becoming
the first settlers of this new world. Soon their isolated cabins grow
together, forming villages, and before long they begin to establish trade
with the inhabitants of neighboring islands. The island world begins to grow
- the inhabitants attaining prosperity and wealth as they become skilled in
trades and commerce. This idle life is treacherous – wildfires threaten the
rapidly growing colonies, and the seas hide gold-greedy pirates intent on
booty & plunder…
Since it’s first appearance, the PC-game ANNO 1503 has been a true success
story. No other PC-game has been so successful in the German-speaking world
in so short a time. Now master game-designer Klaus Teuber has succeeded in
transferring all this to a board game. ANNO 1503 is a game for 2-4 players, ages 10 and older, and is co-produced with Kosmos, GMBH. See Mayfair Games, Inc. at mayfair@mayfairgames.com

A SORRY Week

November 15–21 is being proclaimed national Sorry! week by Parker Bros., the Hasbro-owned company, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of SORRY! the game,
Parker Bros. wants to give everyone an opportunity to atone for their minor misdeeds without fear of repercussion, a company spokesman said. Recently, the company conducted a survey that finds Americans say sorry five times a month and wives and girlfriends seem to have a harder time saying it than husbands and boyfriends.
The survey, conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation, found that men are more likely than women to indicate they say “sorry” to their spouses or significant others by a whopping 15 percent (56 percent compared with 41 percent, respectively). But it seems men are less likely to say “sorry” to the little ones: women are 13 percent more likely than men to say “sorry” to their kids (21 percent compared with 8 percent, respectively).
Also a majority (59 percent) of Americans are most sorry if they forget an important date, followed by 44 percent who feel sorry if they are late. Forty percent said they feel sorry if they leave a mess around the house. And speaking of which, men are more likely than women to be sorry for a variety of misdeeds around the house.

National Games Week, November 21-27

National Games Week has been established to promote the educational, social and entertainment value of playing non-electronic games–people across the country are encouraged to turn off the television, step away from the computer and play a game. Any sort of game will do, such as board games, card games, roleplaying games, miniatures games and family and party games.
During the past decade, there has been a boom in non-electronic games. What was once considered a niche market has become mainstream. Board games have already set a sixth straight annual sales record, even before the key Christmas season. The art of game design and appearance has grown incredibly. There is a vast variety of games that adults and kids can play together, and all enjoy the shared experience of a smart game, some competition and a lot of interaction. The industry has evolved to include 40,000 products with over $5 billion in sales expected for 2004. Many of the games are available through specialty stores rather than the mass market.
“Millions of game enthusiasts already know that games are positive, social entertainment.” said Mark Simmons, the founder of National Games Week and publisher of Games Quarterly(TM), “We are encouraging individuals, schools, game stores, churches, and anyone else to hold a Games Day event during National Games Week, showcasing the fun of game for family and friends.”
Key sponsors for this year include Wizards of the Coast, makers of Magic The Gathering(TM)and Dungeons & Dragons(TM); Eagle Games, publisher the new Bootleggers(TM); Pokemon USA, organizers of huge Pokemon(TM) Trading Card Game events; Rio Grande Games, whose title Carcassonne won Best Game of the Year in Germany and the USA; and Mayfair Games, whose flagship game Settlers of Catan has won the same two awards and produced an entire product line. (a) According to annual industry surveys through 2001 and extrapolations by industry experts.
Thousands of Games Day Hosts have been provided with the tools to make a fun, successful event — posters, invitation cards, National Games Week Official U.S. postage stamps, information for educators, even promotional copies of games, via the web site www.nationalgamesweek.net.

Games Gain Favor in Restaurants

According to an AP release, some people “cozy up at coffee houses to challenge friends to a game of MONOPOLY or, perhaps, BATTLESHIP, while others gather in pubs for a rowdy night of trivia, with prizes ranging from bragging rights to baseball tickets.” The Associated Press’ Brian Kersey says that “Game night” has become the rage in many U.S. cities, as people search for new ways to socialize beyond the traditional bar scene.
“But,” says Kersey,”quiz night—a tradition with British roots that’s gained popularity over the years with TV shows such as “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire” and “Weakest Link”— is just one version of game night. At the Whistle Stop Bar in San Diego, patrons can play old standbys, from Candyland to Uno, during “games & grooves” night. And several hotels, including those in New York, San Francisco and Honolulu, have placed board games in their lobbies for guests to use.”
GO, an ancient Asian game in which players strategically place black and white “stones” on a board to gain territory, has been played in a café in Evanston, IL.
They used to call it a good night when more than two people showed up in the mid-’90s—now as many as 40 players come to play on any given night.
“It’s not the nerdy thing that people might think it is. It’s actually a great way to meet people,” says Eric Poses, a 30-year-old from Santa Monica, Calif., who created the game Loaded Questions in 1997. That game, which is making the rounds at coffee houses and bars, features queries aimed at sparking conversation about hidden talents and favorite pastimes, among other things.
The fad seems to be having an impact on sales of “adult” board games. They were up 5% in 2003, compared with the previous year, according to The NPD Group, a research firm that tracks toy and game sales. That’s a notable increase, say those in the industry, since overall toy sales fell about 3% during the same period.

Board Games at Hilton’s Homewood Suites

Homewood Suites by Hilton is offering a new board game lending library and special room rates available seven days a week through January 9, 2005. The promotion provides a one-bedroom or studio suite with a fully equipped kitchen for as low as $79 per night, depending on location. Participating Homewood Suites by Hilton hotels are introducing a complimentary board game lending library for guests to enjoy playing classic board games in the comfort of their own suites. Games featured include OPERATION, CLUE, BATTLESHIP, and more.
Plus, guests who make their Homewood for the Holidays reservations online at homewoodsuites.com will also receive an E-coupon good for a first-time buyer discount of $5 off any purchase of $40 or more from eToys (http://www.etoys.com).
Launched in 1989, the Homewood Suites by Hilton brand today has more than 135 hotels open with another 70 in the pipeline. Most Homewood Suites locations feature a complimentary hot breakfast each morning and a reception with a complimentary light meal and beverages served Monday-Thursday evenings; also featured are a swimming pool and outdoor sports court. Complimentary high-speed Internet access is available in-suite at all U.S. locations. To make reservations at any Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel and learn more about the Homewood for the Holidays™ package, travelers can visit the Homewood Suites Web site at homewoodsuites.com or call 1-800-CALL-HOME and mention the Homewood for the Holidays promotion. For the full press release, go to http://www.virtualpressoffice.com/rod/PressContent/detail.jsp?contentId=1098306407417&uId=1010998069053.

Essen Spiel 2004

What does Essen mean to players? The biggest public games fair worldwide!
In brief, on four days of October, it was 686 exhibitors from 24 nations
presenting more than 400 new games in 10 halls, added by a comic section, all hosting about 150,000 visitors.
In contrast to the Nuremberg fair in February, Essen is an event not only for
industry and commercial vendors, such as dealers, retailers, and company
representatives, but also for the general public, providing players with diverse
opportunities: to gain an overview of the present game scene, to make contact with other players as well as with game authors, to watch national and international championships (CATAN and CARCASSONNE), to participate in contests, and, above all, to test new games and to purchase new, sought-after, or even rare ones.
Besides booths set up by both big and small game companies and other
organizations, there were large exhibit spaces with tables for playing games; the area was so popular all day long that many people were sitting and playing on the floor.
–Sybille Aminzadah

MAH JONGG Makes Gifts Matter

MAH JONGG is making a comeback. MAH JONGG games are being hosted in record numbers. The Internet is bringing this form of entertainment to more people than ever before. One online company, Where The Winds Blow, is offering gifts with a MAH JONGG theme—everything from cutting boards, wine charms and napkins, to dishes, mouse pads, jewelry, snuff bottles and games with unique tiles.
MAH JONGG is played with a set of 144 or 152 tiles that are decorated with images of birds, bamboos, flowers, dragons, circles and other Chinese characters, including four seasons and four winds (hence, owner Faye Scher’s name for her Where The Winds Blow company). For information, go to www.WhereTheWindsBlow.com .

DVD Games

Forbes Magazine reports that one of the ways board games can compete with a growing video game industry is to put board games on DVDs so kids (mostly) can play them using a remote and viewing a screen.

Mattel and Hasbro together do $90 million in game DVD sales, and Mattel has a $640 million advertising budget.

A Game to Gum Up the Works

Gumball machines have been around American businesses for decades. Now there is one you can play. FLIP SHOT™ is the first gumball machine that is actually a game. Patented in 2002, FLIP SHOT™ gumball gives people a chance to play with the gumball before chewing. Instead of simply falling through a chute, the gumball first falls onto a soccer-themed food grade acrylic floor where one or two players each uses a paddle to “flip” the gumball back and forth until someone wins and claims the prize.

For more information, contact Eagle Vend Supply at 1-888-229-0377 or visit www.eaglevend.com.

Hasbro has a Brain Freeze

Have you ever taken such a bite out of a scoop of ice cream that you got a numbing pain in the area just above the nose? During the latter part of the last century, the ailment was labeled in some circles as “brain freeze.” Now, Hasbro is including brain freeze among the ailments of Cavity Sam – the eternal patient of the game OPERATION.
The new ailment, represented by an ice cream cone in Cavity Sam’s head, has been added in celebration of Sam’s 39th birthday. Votes were cast in 2003 by phone and online favored Brain Freeze (54%) over Growling Stomach (27%) and Tennis Elbow (19%). The new Milton Bradley OPERATION game featuring Brain Freeze is now available.

QUZZLE: A Unique Mechanical Puzzle of Simplicity and Complexity

Inventor Jim Lewis sought to design a mechanical puzzle that was both extremely simple and complex. To accomplish his task, he turned to computer science and wrote software to help him study puzzle design. The result is QUZZLE, a nine-piece moving block puzzle whose object is to move one block from one corner to another. However, actually solving the Quzzle can take experienced puzzle fans hours.
After extensive research on puzzle design, Mr. Lewis settled on the classic “Dad’s Puzzle” sliding block format to see if he could improve on its design. A Dad’s Puzzle is so named because it reflects the task of the head of the family rearranging pieces of furniture in a room. The Quzzle is available through http://www.quirkle.com for $19.95.

Brief News From the Companies

Frank DiLorenzo of R&R Games, Inc., tells us that new items now available are the SMARTY PARTY Expansion Set #1 and the SMARTY PARTY Junior Expansion pack. See http://www.rnrgames.com/content/.
Bob David of Parlor Puzzles says “Our new retro-look metal container provides a collectible pocket-sized puzzler for your favorite person. We also offer an eye-catching display that has the sophisticated look of a high-tech instrument panel and holds 8 each of 8 styles for a total of 64 puzzles. Wholesale cost is $2.50 each.”

To see the full-line, go to

http://www.wholesale.parlorpuzzles.com/HTML/displays8.htm

or phone 503-635-7866.

Fundex Products Receive Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Awards

This press release comes from Fundex Games and has been edited:

Three of Fundex Games’ products were awarded with Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Awards for 2005. Cookin’ Cookies™ received the Oppenheim top honor, the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award. Chicken Coop™ Dominoes, Wormy Apples™ and The Storybook Game™ have been awarded Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Awards. This award program is different because there are no entrance fees; all winning products were selected by a “noted expert in child development, children’s literature, and education, and further tested by the most objective panel of judges-kids.” These games were carefully selected from hundreds of game submissions.
In Cookin’ Cookies™, children scramble to be the first to make their cookies. They try to grab all the ingredients with a fun-slappin’ spoon to make the perfect cookies. If a player gets the ‘rotten egg,’ then the whole batch is spoiled and they have to start over again. All the pieces are stored in a lunchbox tin.
The Chicken Coop™ Dominoes Game Set packages all the fun of the popular chicken foot domino game in a convenient tin. Players build “chicken legs” out from the Chicken Coop™ hub. When a double is played, all play is suspended until three “chicken toes” can be built on the “chicken leg.” The first player to play all his dominoes wins, and gets to press the center domino to hear the “Chicken Coop™ Cluck.”
The Storybook Game™ is a never-ending story told differently every time. Children create a unique story, one card at a time, memorizing the cards as they are played. This game is great for children to use their imagination and increase their memory skills.
In the game Wormy Apples™, children race to rid their apples of the pesky worms. Players get to pull worms out, give a worm to an opponent or even trade for an apple with fewer worms. All the game pieces are carried in a lunchbox tin.
Fundex Games, Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of family games such as “Phase 10®” and “The Fundex Mexican Train Game™.” Fundex Games, Ltd. was founded in 1986, and is a privately held company based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The company also produces a broad line of board games, dice games, and card games for mass and specialty retailers in North America. For more information, go to www.fundexgames.com.

Across the Rio Grande

Rio Grande Games reports that 5TH AVENUE from WILKO MANZ HALLI GALLI, MAHARAJA, and RICOCHET ROBOTS are back. MASTER THIEVES, a beautiful game delivered in a wooden box and based on a lovely wooden jewelry box, will be available only here. We have completed work on DAWN UNDER (one of the top five games from Germany this year), High BOHN PLUS (the first of two BOHNANZA), GOLDBRÄU (a new game of investment from Franz-Benno Delonge), CIRCUS FLOHCATI (from Reiner Knizia), and FEARSOME FLOORS (the reprint of Friedemann Friese’s FINSTERE FLURE. We are also working on a new stand-alone CARCASSONNE game and a new CARCASSONNE expansion, TORRES (with new graphics by Franz Vohwinkel), TIKAL, MALL WORLD from Andrea Meyer, a new two-player game from Rüdiger Dorn called JAMBO. Also HARE & TORTOISE, SOLE MIO, NAVAL WARS, and the PUERTO RICO Expansion.

• JAMBO: “Jambo” is the friendly greeting Suaheli traders offered their customers in Central Africa before colonization. The players are traders in this day, competing to be the first to earn 60 gold by selling tea, hide, fruits, salt, silk, and trinkets. The game is played with cards which represent goods, people (which can help you or hinder your opponent), and animals (which add a bit of spice to the game). Players take turns with up to 5 actions per turn until one player reaches the goal and wins the game.
• CARCASSONNE: THE COUNT:
  This small expansion adds the 12 tiles that represent the actual city of
  Carcassonne and are the starting tiles for the game. During the game, players who help others score points may place followers in the city and later move them to scoring features outside the city. Author: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede.
• CARCASSONNE: THE CITY:
  Here is your chance to build the city of Carcassonne! Players build walls,
  build towers, found markets, and place followers in the normal way. At the end,
  you will all enjoy looking at the beautiful 3-D city you have built! The
  game comes in a beautiful wooden box. Author: Klaus-Jürgen Wrede.
• SOLE MIO!: Mama’s back in the kitchen! Only she has the nerve to attempt to make pizzas
  with the very special desires of her strange customers. It is normal for a
  pizza to have mushrooms – but with pineapple? There is also a relative simple
  order with double salami. But with the stranger orders, a helping hand is always
  welcome! 2-5 players; aged 10+; 40 minutes; author: Uwe Rosenberg.
• HEART OF AFRICA: Between 1845 and 1870, many expeditions were penetrating the heartland of
  Africa. Names like Burton, Speke, Baker and Livingstone are set is stone: they
  became true heroes of the modern world. Two to five players set out to gain as
  many victory points as possible. As manager of a colonial trading company, you
  initially have only limited resources. Each round, a bidding structure decides
  the order of turns. Although bidding is costly, rewards may be rich.
  Resources, conflict, choice of actions, wholesale trading and players’ reputations are
  all matters of concern. 2-5 players, aged 10 +; length: 60 minutes;
  author: Andreas Steding.
• NAVAL BATTLES: A fast and furious game of naval combat in World War II for
  2 to 6 players. Each player commands a fleet of World War II ships. His goal
  is to launch attacks from his ships and sink the ships of the opposing players.
  The game includes surface vessels and submarines of six different nations –
  France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the United States. Naval
  Battles contains two types of cards: Action cards and Ship cards. At the start of
  the game a player chooses a fleet of ship cards. These ship cards are used to
  launch attacks. In addition, a player receives action cards to play out of his
  hand. 2-6 players, aged 10 +; length: 30 minutes;
  author: Dan Verssen.
• MALL WORLD: Players compete in the building of Mall World, scheduled to be the largest
  indoor shopping mall in the world. In the planning of a mall this size, it is
  important to get the right shops in the right locations and the player best able
  to do this will win the game! 3-5 players, aged 12 +; length: 60 minutes;
  author: Andrea Meyer.
• HALLI GALLI Christmas Edition: This will be an exciting Christmas, with candles, snowmen, Christmas trees
  and Christmas tree balls. Each player turns over a card with one or more of
  these items. Watch closely! As soon as exactly 5 items of the same kind have been
  revealed, you have to ring the bell.
  Only the quickest can win this game. 3-6 players, aged 6 +; length: 15 minutes;
  author: Haim Shafir.

Go to www.riograndegames.com

Information is from the Rio Grande Games newsletter, as per Jay M Tummelson.

An Entire Town for Chess Players

Translated from the German magazine Spielbox by Sybille Amenzadah.

As planned by the chess world association, Fide, an entire town
consisting of each 16 black and white hotels, all of them in the form of
chessmen, is supposed to be built for 2.4 billion Euro ($2,960,000,000) in the United Arab Emirates. Details such as the financing have not been explained yet except for the intention to start building in January. The hotels will be placed according to a game played by grand masters Bobby Fischer or Garri Kasparow.
See also http://www.spielbox.de and http://www.toyscene.de .

AGE OF MYTHOLOGY–The Board Game

This press release comes from Eagle Games and has been edited:

Eagle Games, Inc., today announced that the board game version of the wildly popular PC game, Age of Mythology® is now available in six languages (English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Greek). Age of Mythology is the most recent title in the Age of Empires® franchise, developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft® Game Studios.
“As a board game designer and avid board game player, I think a board game version of Age of Mythology is a natural extension for the PC product,” Bruce Shelley, senior designer and founder of Ensemble studios said. “The Strategic game play translates easily, and the mythological elements will offer a unique experience for board gamers.”
Human… Hero… Myth…all are at your command in Age of Mythology: The Board Game. Players control armies made up of warriors, priests, heroes, and mythical creatures from ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Norse mythology. They gather resources, which allow them to create buildings and armies. Special buildings are required to allow players to build new army types and improve the abilities of their units. Battles are resolved with a unique dice and card system that keeps the action moving. You get the fast-paced action of a real-time game, with 3-D pieces, and face-to-face gameplay.
A game of epic proportions: 38 Unique Sculptures; 300 Miniatures; 3 Cultures (Greek, Egyptian, Norse). In Age of Mythology, you will: Explore the world, claiming production sites (farms, gold mines, lumber camps & temples); Gather resources; Build structures that give you advantages in production or battle; Recruit armies of mortal warriors, mythic creatures and heroes; Face off against other cultures in epic battles.

Assets and reviews of current products may be viewed on the company’s website: http://www.eaglegames.net.

Events

Asia Society Exhibition of Games

Major Asia Society Exhibition Examines the Art and Legacy of Games in Asia
Now – January 16, 2005

Presenting stunning works spanning 2,000 years, a major exhibition at Asia Society examines the art and legacy of games in Asia. Using paintings, prints, and decorative arts that depict people playing games as well as the paraphernalia of games, Asian Games: The Art of Contest is the first major exhibition to explore Asia as a source of chess, Parcheesi, Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, playing cards, polo and other games. Featuring key loans from China, Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany, the exhibition examines the role of games as social activity and as indices of cultural values in the diverse societies of Asia.
“Many of the games that we take for granted today have their origins in ancient Asian societies,” notes Asia Society Museum Director Melissa Chiu. “What we see in this exhibition is that games have been as significant as trade and religion in transmitting cultural forms and ideas. In tracing their spread across different societies, we also see how certain games retained unique qualities that reflect the cultural aspirations and values of their players.”
“Without games, people would be unendurably bored,” notes exhibition curator Colin Mackenzie, Middlebury College Museum of Art. “Yet the role of games in society has been largely neglected by cultural historians. By exploring the evolution and social functions of games in Asia and their transfer to other regions, Asian Games illuminates important yet unfamiliar aspects of Asian culture and their ongoing legacy.”
The Exhibition
In traditional societies, games were enjoyed by kings and commoners, men and women, young and old. Game sets and paraphernalia were treasured possessions and status symbols, finely crafted and elaborately decorated. Images of games and game-playing pervade literature and the visual arts throughout the ages. Artists have been fascinated by the drama and excitement of games and the range of emotions that are revealed by the players of games.
Asian Games: The Art of Contest has a broad chronological and geographical reach and is comprised of approximately 200 works of art of the highest quality. Included in the exhibition are spectacular examples of game sets dating from the 12th to early 20th century, Persian and Indian court paintings and illuminated manuscripts of the 14th to 18th century and Chinese and Japanese scroll paintings, screens and ceramics that depict game-playing. Select earlier examples of games dating back as early as 200 B.C.E. are included.
Perhaps the most remarkable exhibition loan is the only complete set of the ancient Chinese game of liubo, on loan from China and never before exhibited in the United States. A “craze” for over 500 years, liubo was intimately connected with divination and its board is thought to have represented a schematic diagram of the cosmos. This set, finely crafted in lacquered work, complete with pieces, tallies and an eighteen-sided dice, was found in the tomb of a Han dynasty aristocrat who died around 168 B.C.E. Attempts are currently being made to work out the rules of this game and a prototype playable reconstruction will be included in a special interactive area.
Asian Games is organized so as to suggest the impact of particular games as well as the cultural values of their players. Emphasis is given to games that have cross-cultural relevance and have inspired significant artworks. The exhibition is organized into four broad categories or types of games—chance, strategy, memory and matching, and physical skill. In addition, there will be an area where visitors have the opportunity to play the kinds of games featured in the exhibition. Specially designed tables with changeable tops will enable visitors to play chess, liubo, go/weiqi, shogi, xiangqi, Parcheesi, backgammon, and Snakes and Ladders. On afternoons and weekends, New York City students will engage visitors in game-playing.
The Artworks

The exhibition opens with games of chance, which include dice, pachisi (Parcheesi) and the Indian game that inspired Snakes and Ladders. Many early games of chance were not strictly about a race to the finish but were also about players attaining a spiritual goal or state. The game of Snakes and Ladders played today by children in Britain and the United States had its origins in India as a more complex game in which players attempted to reach a “place” representing a state of nirvana.
While early Indian sculptures depict the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati competing at dice, in miniature paintings they are generally depicted playing pachisi, as in a beautiful ink and watercolor painting, Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupar, from the late 17th century. This painting, on loan from the Metropolitan Museum, depicts Shiva and her consort playing what was a sophisticated race game involving skill, strategy and luck. For centuries it was played with elaborate and varying rules throughout India by both the poor and the elite—Emperor Shah Jahan played a life-sized version of the game using court ladies as his “pieces.”
The exhibition’s section on strategy explores games in which positions, territories and battlegrounds are paramount, and focuses on chess and weiqi, a game of intellectual skill. Major loans in this section include a magnificent Rajasthani chess set dating from 19th century India. The complete set—so delicately crafted it was likely ornamental—is comprised of ivory figures, including elephants, camels and horses. Also on loan from the Metropolitan Museum is a spectacular 18th century Burmese chess set, made of ivory with details painted in red and green, that depicts decorated figures astride elephants. In contrast, a 12th century (Seljuk period) Iranian chess set, another loan from the Metropolitan Museum, includes elegantly abstracted figures once thought to reflect Islamic avoidance of figural representation. These and other chess sets show the pervasiveness of chess as both an analogue of war and a royal game. First appearing in India in the sixth century and known in Europe as early as the tenth century, chess is a game that neatly demonstrates how games can reflect the cultural values of their players. Just as early Islamic sets are abstracted, later European sets show kings and highly powerful queen and bishop figures.
Illustrating the importance of games in early societies, mastery of weiqi was considered by Chinese people to be one of four essential cultural accomplishments along with music, calligraphy and painting. Another unique loan is an eighth century Chinese manuscript on weiqi from Dunhuang, now in the British Library, that includes a text written on the subject by the Emperor Wu (502-550) of the Liang Dynasty. The Japanese version of weiqi, known as go, is also featured in the exhibition. A highlight example is an exquisite early 18th century set with a highly decorated, lacquer board and agate pieces, from the Kozu Kobunka Kaikan Museum in Japan. The set is decorated with the crest of the Tokugawa family, the military rulers of the Edo period, and is thought to be part of the bridal trousseau of a member of the Tokugawa family.
The exhibition examines the development of backgammon, a game of both strategy and luck, which is claimed by the Persians as their invention and remains a popular game in Iran today. Included in Asian Games is a finely decorated board from 19th century Iran, on loan from the Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. The central motif dividing the two halves of the board echoes patterns found in Roman game boards. Figural depictions on the board include lovers in European clothes, a couple in Iranian dress and a woman nursing a child. An earlier, Safavid era illustration from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) depicts Buzurjmihr Inventing Nard (backgammon) in Answer to the Kain of Hind’s Chess Challenge is a striking image, not only for its depiction of the invention of backgammon, but for the use of games as an identifying cultural idiom.
The exhibition section on memory and matching looks at playing cards, dominoes and mahjong (all Chinese in origin) along with esoteric but spectacularly beautiful Japanese games of matching such as shell and incense identification competitions.
Finally, a section on games of power and dexterity looks at physical games like kickball and polo. The quintessential pastime of emperors and kings, polo is thought to have originated among horseback chase games, like buzkashi, still played in Central Asia today. In China, references to polo date from the late 7th century, but by then it was already played in Persia, from where it was transmitted to India. It was played with enthusiasm by the great Mughal emperors Akbar (r. 1556–1605) and Jahangir (r. 1605-1627). In India, it was adopted by British colonials who brought it to the West. A highlight of this section is the depiction of Dasaratha’s Four Sons Practicing Royal Pursuits from the Ramayana. This miniature painting (India, 1712), on loan from the British Library, shows Lord Rama engaged in the Indian royal pursuits of elephant riding, archery and polo. Other highlights include Tang dynasty ceramic figurines of ladies and foreigners playing polo, a 17th century Japanese screen showing Tartars playing the game, and ceremonial Japanese kickballs. Important Indian and Persian polo paintings on loan from the British Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are also included.
Asian Games: The Art of Contest is curated by Colin Mackenzie, Middlebury College Museum of Art and Irving Finkel, British Museum. It is accompanied by a vibrantly illustrated 280-page catalogue. The exhibition will be presented at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. from February 26 through May 15, 2005 and at Middlebury College Museum of Art in fall 2005.
Major funding for Asian Games: The Art of Contest is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.
About the Asia Society

Asia Society is America’s leading institution dedicated to fostering understanding of Asia and communication between Americans and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific. A nonprofit, nonpartisan educational institution, the Asia Society presents a wide range of programs including major art exhibitions, performances, media programs, international conferences and lectures, and initiatives to improve elementary and secondary education about Asia. The Asia Society is headquartered in New York City, with regional centers in Washington, D.C., Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Manila, Melbourne, and Shanghai.
Asia Society and Museum

725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City.

(212) 517-ASIA, www.asiasociety.org

Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M.; Fridays extended evening hours until 9:00 P.M.; Closed on Mondays and major holidays.

Admission: $10; $7 for seniors and $5 students with ID; Free for members and persons under 16; Free to all on Friday evenings, 6:00 – 9:00 P.M.

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Exhibit of American Games in Switzerland

The Swiss Museum of Games (Musée Suisse du Jeu) in La Tour de Peilz, Switzerland, is featuring an exhibition of American games through February 2005. The exhibit, “Americanopoly—America as Seen Through its Games,” focuses on games that reflect a part of American culture—the people and events unique to the country’s development—and highlights a myriad of American game manufacturers and the classic games that they have produced. Emphasized are games of themes particular to the United States, such as American sports, film, television, and politics, to name a few of the thirteen categories presented. Alongside the games whose titles might be familiar to many will be obscure and rare games of historic or social significance.
The Swiss Museum of Games is a castle located on the shores of Lake Geneva, nestled between the towns of Vevey and Montreux, and backed by mountains. It is the world’s most outstanding museum devoted entirely to games. The museum offers special programs and exhibits throughout the year, in addition to the excellent permanent collection of games from different countries.
Guest curator will be American games expert and author Bruce Whitehill—The Big Game Hunter—whose first book, “Games: American Games and Their Makers” set the standard for research in the field of American games and game companies.
The Swiss Museum of Games put out this press release:
Americanopoly– America as Seen Through its Games

• Special Exhibition
• September 10, 2004 through February 28, 2005
• Swiss Museum of Games
• Au Château – CH-1814 La Tour-de-Peilz
• Tel. + 41 21 944 40 50 – Fax + 41 21 944 40 79
• E-mail: info@museedujeu.com – www.museedujeu.com

Dedicated exclusively to American games, this exhibition will also offer a view of American culture and the myth of America as reflected by the games American people play(ed).
Monopoly, Scrabble, and Halma are very popular games all around the world. They represent perhaps the most important contribution of the United States to the world of modern commercial games. Nonetheless, in Europe it is hardly known that American game manufacturers such as Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers have produced games for more than a hundred twenty years.
Many Europeans do not even know that those two “global players” are American at all. For the first time, therefore, the Swiss Museum of Games will dedicate an entire exhibition to the impact of American game producers on the culture of play in Europe. But this is not the only subject of the exhibition. The variety of games in the exhibition will create a picture of the USA, a mosaic of its traditions, its culture, and its beliefs in a journey through over 160 years of American history.
Our guest curator Bruce Whitehill, collector of games and author of numerous publications, is one of the major experts on the subject.
Americanopoly presents:

• The earliest American games published in the 1840s and other games of the 19th century. At that time many games were still “imported” from Europe, in particular from Britain. Games were primarily educational or of moral instruction and were often based on authors, history, or geography.
• The “Classics” of the early 20th century. Monopoly, derived from the 1904 “The Landlord’s Game”, by Elizabeth Magie, and other well-known and popular games such as Scrabble, Parcheesi and Halma will be showcased; Halma, the forerunner of Chinese Checkers, is the only 19th century game invented in the U.S. that is still played around the world.
• The great companies. For 40 years during the beginning of the game industry, four great companies were competing on the American market for the number one spot: McLoughlin, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers and Selchow & Righter. This part of the exhibition will show the relationship between the invention of games and the cultural events of the period, as well as the decisive impact the 3M game series in the 1960s had on the rebirth of the adult game in Europe.
• Games as a reflection of the “American way of life”. The games produced in the second half of the 20th century mirror the interests of the American public in film and television, politics, the myth of the American west, science fiction and spacecraft, American sports, the automobile, and the super heroes and everyday characters of popular comic strips.

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Game & Puzzle Collectors Convention in UK

After twenty captivating conventions and a significant organizational change from an American games group to an international game and puzzle organization, the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors (AGPC) is holding its first convention overseas. They’re heading for England—the country where games manufacturing on a large, commercial level was started (by a then-small company called Jaques, still family-owned). England also gave us Spear & Sons, Waddington, Chad Valley, Gibson, and many others.
The convention kicks off on a Sunday, April 24, with a special event through the BCD (Benevolent Confraternity of Dissectologists, the jigsaw puzzle group), and the main program covers Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, with Tuesday being a London outing, including the British Museum and Bethnal Green. Then there are three days of—as they say in England—“brilliant” tours and home visits. You can come for a few days or spend a glorious week in England, with many special things planned in London, Oxford, and the English countryside west and northeast of the city.

AGPC CONVENTION 21, APRIL 24-30, 2005, ENGLAND

CONVENTION ACTIVITIES:
SUNDAY, 24th

10:30 – 4:30: BCD anniversary meeting, Bletchley Park

The BCD (Benevolent Confraternity of Dissectologists—the jigsaw puzzlers), through its founder, Tom Tyler, has arranged for the AGPC to join in its special 20th anniversary meeting at the historic Bletchley Park. Bletchley Park is the site of the German code breaking efforts of the British (they broke the code, not the Yanks) during WWII, and the public exhibitions there are of general interest to all. In addition to jigsaws with American themes, there will be games on display as well. Private meeting rooms have been reserved, and this distinctive event in its unique surroundings will serve as our convention kick-off. Advance registration required.
Charge: $36 (includes lunch); max. 40 people.
Additional charge for coach (bus) will depend on the number of people attending.
6 PM-10 PM: casual registration and mingling in hospitality room; no formal program or meal; find folks to go out for dinner; come back after dinner for game playing & puzzle doing.
MONDAY, 25th

Formal Program in the hotel: annual meeting, guest speakers from the UK and the continent, including, from the Netherlands, Geert Bekkering (“Is the jigsaw puzzle a German invention?”), Frans de Vreugd (“Mechanical puzzles of Mongolia”), and Gejus Van Diggele (“Games and Puzzles from WWII”); from the U.K., Adrian Seville (“The Games of Goose”) and Richard Huzzey (“Imperial culture and racial attitudes in Nineteenth Century British board games”); and from Germany, Mayari Granados (“European Games of Traveling by Post” and a slide presentation of European game tables with secret opening compartments).
Evening: Dinner with speaker from Jaques company, the oldest family-owned game company in the world. Jaques was a prolific 19th century game company, founded in 1795, and the first publisher of Tiddledy Winks (1889), Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, and the European classic card game, Happy Families; they also introduced croquet.
TUESDAY, 26th

London: British Museum and Bethnal Green museum. (Travel by underground/subway.)

Morning: 10:00 – 1:00: Tour of the British Museum and presentation by Irving Finkel, keeper (curator) of Egyptian and Oriental artifacts, and specialist on games of India. Irving will explain the games and game artifacts of antiquity on exhibition.

Afternoon: The Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. Exhibition of European games and puzzles.
London sites (organized tour) or London on your own.

Evening: dinner on your own in London; organize small groups to dine together.
WEDNESDAY, 27th

Formal Program in hotel: annual meeting, game & puzzle sales (including outside dealers), show & tell, panel, game show, and an auction which will include an autographed Springbok circular puzzle (“Double Image”, 1965) designed by Salvador Dali and signed by him on the box.

Evening: Bradley-Parker Award Dinner honoring Francis Spear (Spear & Sons) & Victor Watson (Waddington).
Convention wrap-up—end of the formal program.
>POST CONVENTION ACTIVITIES:
THURSDAY, 28th

10:00 – 7:00: Oxford, with the BGS (International Society for Board Game Studies): Museum of Oxford (Lewis Carroll material & games); Bodleian, with historic games & puzzles; Ashmolean (anthropological museum); Christ Church College (where Dodgson/Carroll was a professor); evening reception with BGS.
There may be admission fees and a small fee for the reception.
Transportation charge will depend on the number attending.
FRIDAY, 29th

Tour, all day: Spear archives (Ware, Hertfordshire)

A visit to see the Spear’s home and archives (and a real English country ha-ha [look it up!]). AGPC members Francis & Hazel will display some games in the house as well, and serve refreshments for those waiting to get into the archives (the facility will hold no more than ten people at a time).
Transportation charge will depend on the number attending.
SATURDAY, 30th

Tour 1, all day: The English countryside, including Stonehenge, Avebury, the village of Salisbury (Cathedral), and scenic, quaint thatched cottage villages en route; Open house at the home of AGPC member Penny Melling in Overton, which includes viewing her extensive collection of jigsaw puzzles and Waddington’s games, plus partaking of afternoon tea.
Transportation charge will depend on the number attending.
Tour 2, all day:

Morning: walking tour of back streets London.
Charge for walking tour will depend on number attending but approximately $5.50 to $9.

Afternoon: Hampton Court: lunch, maze, gardens, Henry VIII palace, and real tennis.
Charge for bus and Hampton Court entrance fees will depend on the number attending.
SUNDAY, May 1st

AGPC & BGS Tour (for those who are staying): Winchester village—a wonderful walking town with gardens and the great cathedral (remember the 1966 song by the New Vaudeville Band?).
Transportation charge will depend on the number attending.
CONVENTION COSTS:
Room rates: $217 per room; includes taxes, gratuities, and breakfast. This special rate is available for the days leading up to the convention and the days following. Single rooms are $180 per night; you can request to share a room and we will try to accommodate you.
The convention fee is $310.

The convention fee covers the hotel meeting rooms, banquet facilities, audio-visual equipment, the AGPC Hospitality Suite, and miscellaneous convention expenses.
DEPOSIT: A deposit of $230 of the convention fee is required by 1 February.
To attend the AGPC convention, you must be an AGPC member or the guest of a member. To learn more about the AGPC or to join using a credit card, go to www.agpc.org .
For information about the UK convention, or for membership information:

email: game@vermontel.net

or phone AGPC president Martha Folsom at 802-362-2756

Views and Reviews

The Bloom Report

Philip Bloom, in a January, 2004, editorial in The Bloom Report said:
“Hardly a week goes by when we don’t receive information about another independent toy store closing its doors. Manufacturers in our industry should want to help fix this problem…(or) end up with 15 customers (or less) doing 95% of their business. No manufacturer can remain healthy with that kind of mix….What can … the top 20 or so mainstream toy manufacturers do…?
“(The major manufacturers should) consider the several thousand independent toy stores as a single entity (when you view it this way, they represent the largest store count of any chain). Take the major categories in your line (especially the ones you promote), and make meaningful versions of that line exclusively for the independents. And…very important…promote that exclusive line on TV, in print, or in other media that you normally use for your regular promotions. And part of your promotional message is that these items are “only available at your local independent toy store”…. We’re talking about a major product line commitment of important items, with important, meaningful differentiation. Products with significant appeal to consumers. Products that will drive consumers to the independents. And price them correctly. What should the product sell for at retail to maximize sales? Start there. Work backwards to arrive at a cost to the independent toy stores that will yield them a 30-35% markup….”
The Bloom Report can be found at http://www.thebloomreport.com/frameset_report.html .
(Thank you for your wise thoughts Philip Bloom. The Big Game Hunter agrees completely!)

Gamers Alliance Update & Specials

Gamers Alliance is the international gaming network. Since 1986, we have
been featuring the newest and best games on the market in our quarterly
publication, Gamers Alliance Report. With our Fall 2004 issue available to
our Members, we’ve uploaded last year’s Fall issue (the Fall 2003 issue) of
GA Report so non-members can sample what they’ve been missing!

To view the issue, simply go to www.gamersalliance.com and click on
“Sample Past GA REPORTS”. When you get to the sample page, click on the 2003
Fall link and enjoy!

Also, in keeping with our tradition, we have uploaded the Gamers
Alliance 2004 Holiday Catalog. This is an extensive listing of out of print
games On Sale! The GA HC is available to everyone! Just go to our
site and click on “SALE Games” and check it out! (You do not have to be a GA
member to take advantage of the Holiday Catalog.)

Finally, to celebrate our 19th year of publication (we are the longest
running, continuously published, English language gaming publication in the
world!), we have a Special Offer for new subscribers. Join before
December 31, 2004 and you get:

• $10 to use on purchases of out of print games AND
• Five Issues of Gamers Alliance Report for the price of four!

For complete details, go to www.gamersalliance.com and
click on the Special Offer link.

Saying Stuff

The regular column where this editor gets to speak his piece.
In Darkness

Except for Thanksgiving, does anybody like November? The leaves are going, the holiday rush is coming, and it’s dark. For months and months it has been getting darker and darker earlier and earlier. So what do we do? At the end of October we turn the clocks back an hour. Which makes it darker even earlier. Does that make any sense to anyone? It has something to do with WWII or the way farmers used to work or some kid that got hit by a car three decades ago walking to school on a country road in the dark of morning. What do they mean by “Daylight Savings Time”? Isn’t now the time we want to save daylight and use it up later in the afternoon so we don’t have to leave work in the darkness? Hawaii, Arizona and parts of Indiana don’t participate in this outdated ritual—maybe they know something the rest of us don’t.

And in the words of those much more famous than I:

You do not go to war when it is one of the options but when it is the only option. –E.L. Doctorow

If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation will you prefer the grain to the vote? –Betrand Russell

There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as “moral indignation,” which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue. –Erich Fromm

And from The Little Prince

“Adults have a particular liking of numbers. If you tell them about a new
friend, they never ask you the essential questions. They never ask: What does his voice sound like? What games does he love most of all? … But they ask: What is his age? How many brothers does he have? What is his weight? How much money does his father earn?”

The Big Game Hunter Rating System (0-10)

• 10. Great; will play it again and again.
• 9. Excellent; will play it often.
• 8. Very Good; will play it now and again.
• 7. Good; won’t play it much, what with all the 8s and 9s around,
  but would play it once in a while (maybe just to see if it gets better).
• 6. Just above average; may play it a few more times; wouldn’t buy it or suggest it,
  but would play it if someone else suggested it or asked me to play.
• 5. “C”—Average; that translates into “mediocre”; may play it once or twice more.
• 4. “D”—Below Average; I won’t play it again, but at least I tried it.
• 3. “D minus”; once was enough.
• 2. Bad or badly broken; I’m sorry I wasted my time.
• 1. Really bad; I’m amazed—even angered—that this game made it to market.
• 0. Terrible; so bad I probably won’t play anything else by this inventor.

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

All in the Game, Summer, 2004

Here’s some reading to start you off on our summer newsletter, which will be added to all month…

Photos to accompany this newsletter begin on page 10 of the Games & Puzzles Photo Gallery:

http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/Newsletter?&page=10

(The photo gallery is overloaded, so please be patient if it takes a long time to open a page.)
Welcome to the summer, 2004, issue of the “All in the Game” newsletter. Here’s what’s scattered in this issue. (You should be able to do a search—Command F—to get to the exact article you want.)

• Alex Randolph: his life and death
• Lt. Morgan, back from the war zone, re-enlists vintagegamestore
• Butch7999 sends a letter about baseball games
• Swiss summer expo of the best new games in Europe
• Swiss Museum celebrates an exhibition on “The American Game”
• The annual Castle Croquet tournament in July
• Victor Watson & Francis Spear (Waddingtons & Spears) share award
• Inventors David Parlett, Nicolaas Neuwahl, and Tim Walsh challenge players
• Sid Sackson’s I’M THE BOSS is back
• MANCALA and its variant names
• Cadaco’s ALL-STAR BASEBALL
• Front Porch Classics
• The merger of Talicor and Aristoplay
• BIG LEAGUE MANAGER inventor Don Henricksen dies
• MONOPOLY: the FORD 100th year anniversary edition, and the GARFIELD 25th anniversary edition
• and Bruce Whitehill’s “Saying Stuff,” about TV, cars, eBay, and spam

Summer reading, with reviews of

• Phil Orbane’s story of Parker Brothers, The Game Makers
• Tim Walsh’s origins of timeless toys, The Playmakers
• Sue & Jon Hanson’s history and how-to-play book, All About MANCALA

with Mark Edward’s Session Reports and quick takes on

• FISH EAT FISH
• WARCRAFT
• ROADS & BOATS
• DIE FLUGGER
• FOPPEN
• GET THE GOODS
• TICKET TO RIDE
• COSA NOSTRA
• SAN MARCO
• VOLLDAMPF
• DAYTONA 500

and

• Wayne Saunders’ latest essay, “Designer Games”
• Bruce Whitehill’s report on the AGPC 20th Anniversary Conventionand
• bits and pieces about Face2Face, Proteus, eBay, GHETTOPOLY, Mental Floss, puzzles on Jeopardy, HARE & TORTOISE online, BASARI, SHIPWRECKED, Hasbro’s MONOPOLY site, the Rochester (NY) games group, the Big Game Hunter selling on eBay, and more

Plus loads of photos–Our largest photo issue yet! See them all beginning on page 10 of the Newsletter Photo Gallery: http://http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/Newsletter?&page=10 .

Esteemed Game Inventor Alex Randolph Dies in Venice

Alex Randolph, American inventor of games sold in many languages throughout the world, died April 28, 2004, in a hospital in Venice, Italy, after a long illness. I visited Alex five years ago, when, at age 77, he was in good health and hard to keep up with. Here is an edited report of that meeting, from an article originally published in the UK’s Games Games Games magazine.
A Day in Venice
….Alex negotiates the canalside walkways and bridges with a pace that forced me to throw in a jog or two every five or six steps. On the run is about the only way you can spend an appreciable amount of time with the man who may be considered the most prolific and successful game inventor in the world.
Alex 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 past–a history filled with games–his 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, he continues, is 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 games are something else–they are “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.” And 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.

“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.”
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…(the game 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? It’s always “the last one I made.” His favorite classic game is SHOGI. “The original feature of SHOGI is the ability to reuse your opponent’s captured pieces.” And his favorite proprietary games still in print? ACQUIRE and ENTROPY. Friend and colleague Sid Sackson, inventor of ACQUIRE, and Alex were both responsible for 3M games, which is a story onto itself. (Sid died a year and a half ago.) The last 3M game was Alex Randolph’s MIMICRY.
Alex was more than a game player and game inventor. He was 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 shared 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 kept his workplace in a different part of Venice, with a workroom, 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 was games all of his own making.
“And how do you know if a game is good?” I asked.
“It has to captivate you totally so the rest of the world disappears.”
Alex Randolph will be missed. Our memory of him and his legacy will live on.

———————-

Some of the best known games of Alex Randolph include:

• African Queen (Abacus, 1991)
• Big Shot (Ravensburger, 2001)
• Breakthru (3M, 1965)
• Casablanca (FX Schmid, 1977)
• Evade (3M, 1971)
• Genius Rules (Winning Moves, 1997; “Eureka,” 1987)
• Ghosts (Milton Bradley, 1985; “Geister,” 1982; “Jeckyl and Hyde,” 1980)
• Halunken und Spelunken (Kosmos, 1997)
• Inkognito (Milton Bradley, 1988, with Leo Colovini; Winning Moves, 2001)
• Oh-Wah-Ree (Avalon Hill, 1976)
• Overboard (Lakeside, 1978; “Über Bord,” Ravensburger, 1977
• Pan-Kai (Phillips, 1961; “Universe,” Parker Bros., 1967)
• Raj (“Hol’s der Geier,” 1988; Winning Moves, 1996)
• Ricochet Robots (Hans im Gluck and Rio Grande, 1999)
• Scan (Parker Bros., 1988; “Indiscretion,” Piatnik, 1987)
• Sisimizi (Editrice Giochi, 1996)
• Square Off (Parker Bros., 1972)
• TwixT (3m, 1962; various others 1968-1998)

Back from Iraq

Lt. Charlie Morgan, USNR, returned from Kuwait where he was on assignment during the Iraq conflict. Charlie is a clinical psychologist who was serving in a mobile tent hospital to take care of emotional problems of military personnel after combat. His second baby girl, Liv Liberty Morgan, was born while he was away.
Charlie is one of the country’s leading providers of games, game parts, and game information. He is now back in business.
Here is what he has to offer:

• Hundreds of games in our personal stock
• 7,000 games available for order from elsewhere
• 6,000 game & toy instructions available for order
• Repair service for Dark Tower, Voice of the Mummy, Seance, & Haunted House

Welcome Charlie home. Visit him at http://www.vintagegamestore.com .

Disclaimer

Time once again to remind readers that because I am very active in the game industry, I know lots of people from different game companies, and I have worked for many of them. What this may do for me is provide me with more information and material than I would get from companies with which I am not familiar. What it does not do is affect the objectiveness with which I report on games or game stories. I try to be as impartial as possible when reviewing any game or talking about any company.
I should also point out that, by way of a disclaimer, this issue of the newsletter contains a lot of press releases from game companies touting their own products; the information is presented as a press release, and not an article or news release. It saves me a lot of time to let them do the talking (and writing). However, I do not necessarily recommend the product. Let the buyer beware! Games, books and other products I recommend are written about in my own words.

Letter to the Editor

Dear Mr. Whitehill,
Greetings! We’ve only recently discovered your site, and a fine thing it is. Our penchant for collecting (and playing) vintage baseball-themed board games and baseball card games was recently revivified, thus our visit to your site after a bit of Googling and surfing.
All due respect, and please do excuse our note to your site for being a niggling criticism, but while we enjoyed your piece entitled “Collectibles to Play,” we must take issue with your comments on Red Barber’s Big League Baseball Game (G & R Anthony, 1950). While the game may “play very well,” the enthusiasm for it among collectors stems more from its scarcity. Tabletop baseball-simulation enthusiasts would line up in vastly longer numbers behind such perennial favourites as Ethan Allen’s All-Star Baseball (Cadaco, 1941-92, 2003), APBA Baseball (APBA, 1951-present), Major League Baseball (Negamco, 1950s-1990s), Strat-O-Matic (Strat-O-Matic, 1960-present), various incarnations of Sports Illustrated Baseball (Time, 1970s), or Pursue the Pennant / Dynasty League Baseball (Design Depot, 1986-1990s), all of which can claim legions, and in some cases generations, of fans. Almost any one of the many hundreds of other baseball games produced over the last 120 years would have its adherents and supporters, many in greater numbers than the Barber game, and most of them easier and cheaper to obtain for the game enthusiasts to whom you make your recommendations.
While the Barber game is unquestionably highly collectible, largely due to its low production run, we think you also exaggerate its market value. Two separate copies were available on eBay in just the last few weeks, both in excellent condition, and neither sold, both failing to reach reserve prices in the range of $400 — a far cry from the $1200 cited in your article. Reports of inflated price estimates may gladden dealers looking only to make a profit, but hurt collectors who would really appreciate having a vintage or antique game yet find them priced out of their reach by dealers who set the price based on faulty or even deliberately misleading market value estimates.
Thanks for reading. Everything else at your site, or at least as much as we’ve had time to look at, is terrific.

Best wishes –

Butch7999 et al
(I’ve had more people ask me to find them RED BARBER’S BASE BALL in the last ten years than any other game, and the one or two people who had one for sale or had just bought one had the price at $1200. Maybe they all found one, thanks to eBay, and the game no longer warrants the high price it once did.–editor)

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

Premio Archimede

July – August at the Swiss Museum of Games

Since several years now the Italian “Studiogiochi” organizes a competition of prototypes of games. Games inventors participate by proposing their recent creations, hoping to catch the attention of one of the games manufacturers.
From 2004 on the Swiss Museum of Games will select the best entries every year and present them to the public in a temporary exhibition. An exceptional occasion for our visitors to make a journey to the future of our games.

Musée Suisse du Jeu, Rue due Château 11, Case Postale 9

CH-1814 La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland

http://www.msj.ch/

The American Game

Monopoly, Scrabble, and Halma figure among the most prominent contributions of American game manufacturers to the universe of modern games. Yet it is not well known in Europe that Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, and others have been producing boxed games for well over 100 years. For the first time, in an upcoming exhibition, the Swiss Museum of Games will focus on what America has offered and continues to add to the world of games. The aim of this exhibit, a tribute to American games, is also to shed some light on American culture as reflected in the games.
September 10, 2004, to February 28, 2005

Musée Suisse du Jeu, Rue due Château 11, Case Postale 9

CH-1814 La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland

http://www.msj.ch/

Le Jeu Américain

Monopoly, Scrabble, Halma, demeurent de grands « Classics » parmi les jeux de plateau d’aujourd’hui.

Il est intéressant de savoir que leurs fabricants américains dont, entre autres, les célèbres producteurs Parker Brothers et MB (Milton Bradley), sont de vrais innovateurs puisqu’ils existent déjà depuis plus de 150 ans sur le marché du jeu.
Pour la première fois en Suisse, le Musée Suisse du Jeu dévoilera au grand public la fabuleuse histoire des jeux et de leurs manufacturiers américains.
Du 10 septembre 2004 au 28 février 2005

Musée Suisse du Jeu, Rue due Château 11, Case Postale 9

CH-1814 La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland

http://www.msj.ch/

The Sixth, Almost-annual, International Castle Croquet Tournament

JULY 16 – 18, 2004 • Sunderland, Vermont
Join a great group of playful people for a fun-’n-games weekend in beautiful, green & clean Vermont. Contestants in previous years and those expected in 2004 come from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Minnesota, England, and elsewhere.
For more detailed information about Castle Croquet, and abbreviated rules, go to www.thebiggamehunter.com and click on Castle Croquet in the Main Menu at the left.
This game is not just for the skillful and dexterous. It is a thinking game requiring the exact strategy for the moment, as players position two balls on a slightly uneven playing surface, in a race through “Open Land” from castle to castle.

Castle Croquet is a four-player, eight-ball variation of croquet developed by Lewis Carroll in 1866, a year after he completed “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Strategy is as important as dexterity!
Carroll’s rough concept has been adapted into an interesting, modern diversion by games historian Bruce Whitehill. Staying faithful to Carroll’s original concept, Whitehill has refined the game play and defined the rules so that you don’t have to be a regular croquet player to enjoy this game.
The basic idea is that there are four stakes near the corners of a more-or-less square playing field. Each stake, along with the two wickets (hoops) closest to it, represents a player’s home territory, or castle; the territory in the middle, between castles, is “open land.”
Players have two balls: a knight and a guard. The object of the game is for your knight to visit each of the other castles, in any order, and then return home. The strategy comes in determining how to use your guard: the guard can help the knight move along faster (in the same way you get extra strokes for hitting a ball in regular croquet), or the guard can remain in the castle to ward off intruders. If your knight is captured, your guard can come to the rescue.
Complete rules will be sent after you register, but you can read an abbreviated version below.
The setting is rolling spread of grass with a bump or two and an incline here and there make for an interesting course in a clearing in the tree-covered Vermont countryside.
The times are:

• Friday, July 16: Rules review and practice sessions begin Friday at 4:00 PM.Two fields are available. You do not have to come on Friday, but you’ll miss a lot of fun!We’ll all head for Dinner around 6:30, then go somewhere to play board and parlor games.
• Saturday, July 17: The playdowns begin Saturday at 10:00 AM or 1 PM, depending on the number of participants. Everyone will play two games.Saturday, An informal DOUBLES (COUPLES) TOURNAMENT may be arranged, depending on the number and makeup of participants.We’ll all head for Dinner around 6:30, then go somewhere to play board and parlor games again!
• Sunday, July 18: The TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINALS or FINALS (depending on the number of participants) will be Sunday at 10:00 AM; the second game, if required, will be 1:30 PM.

Cost: Tournament: $35 per player.

Onlookers are welcome at no charge.
When you register, you will be sent a list ofmotels and inns in the area. But you need to register early, since it’s a popular location and weekend accommodation fills up quickly! Also, we try to get as many as possible into the same accommodation.

Singles are welcome!
Prizes: Participants will receive something playful; the three runner-up singles finalists will receive ribbons and token prizes; and The Castle Croquet tournament champion will receive the Tournament Plaque, and, upon returning the plaque the next year, will get (to keep) a small, inscribed trophy. The new champion will also receive some sort of prize (–a bigger prize if he/she unseats the current champion!)
Other activities include board games & card game and game competitions. Tour, hike, shop, relax, and eat.

• This is an adults only, non-smoking event.
• The schedule is subject to change.
• Trophies and other prizes will be awarded.The Castle Croquet Championship plaque is held by the winner for one year, and is presented to the new winner at the subsequent tournament, at which time the previous year’s trophy is given out.
• Tournament games and scoring:Succession into the singles finals depends on ranking after both games, or on accumulated score. Details will be available after registration.

Registration: To register for the tournament, contact hosts Martha Folsom & Rich Gower at:

Castle Croquet Tournament

The Old Game Store

6377 VT Rte. 7A, Sunderland, VT 05250

Tel. 800-818-4263

game@vermontel.net

http://www.theoldgamestore.com/

The $35 registration fee must be paid in advance. Because only four can play at a time, space (time) is very limited—so get on the ball!

Waddington’s Victor Watson to Share Joint Award with Francis Spear

Francis Spear, former CEO of J.W. Spear & Sons, and Victor Watson, former CEO of Waddingtons company, a competitor of Spears, will be the joint recipients of the AGPC’s Bradley-Parker Award, bestowed upon entrepreneurs who have made a major contribution in promoting the games industry. The AGPC—the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors—is an international group dedicated to information and research (preservation and dissemination) of games and puzzles.
This is the first time the AGPC’s Bradley-Parker Award will be presented (replacing what was known as the Abbott Award). The last week in April 2005, the AGPC convention will be held in England, making it even more appropriate that the joint award be conferred upon the former leaders of two of Britain’s most famous game companies.
For more information about the AGPC, go to www.AGPC.org .

Game Inventors’ Challenge

Three internationally acclaimed game inventors challenged players at the AGPC 2004 convention in Philadelphia, April 16-18.
David Parlett, took on all opponents in games of HARE & TORTOISE, his most famous invention. HARE & TORTOISE has been popular throughout Europe since it was released in 1973/75, has been published in a dozen different languages, and has sold about 2 million copies (also as HARE & HEDGEHOG). Traveling to the U.S. in hare-like fashion, the game is finally available here through Rio Grande games. David is well known for many other achievements, including his books, “The Penguin Encyclopedia of Card Games,” “The Oxford History of Card Games,” and his more recent “The Oxford History of Board Games.” David is a British inventor, author and historian. See David’s website at http://www.davidparlett.co.uk/ .
Nicolaas Neuwahl brought two of his latest games: his newest game, 1STEIN &CO., and the 3-D version of TOSCANA. Niek, as he is called, is a well-known designer with his own company, NFFX, and he creates paper puzzles and three-dimensional puzzles in other materials. He will bring also some of his wooden puzzles, “The Tomb of the Pentacubes,” “Tetreder,” “Pentamino-Creator,” and “Criss-Cross,” to challenge the mechanical puzzle people (and anyone else willing to have a go at them). Niek is a Dutch inventor living in Florence, Italy. You can see some of his puzzles at http://philos.quasarshop.de/Home.asp?Lang=E .
Tim Walsh, in 1990, along with two college friends, invented the popular TRIBOND. After having the self-published game printed by a long-time commercial printer (since 1971), Patch, he joined forces with Patch to produce and market his game. The success propelled Patch solidly into the game business. The object of TRIBOND is to figure out what three items have in common. For example, “Florida; a Locksmith; a Piano.” Answer: They all have keys. Some of the combinations are quite tricky. The game is fun as a team endeavor, and Tim was on hand to moderate.

Tim also invented BLURT, a party game where everybody knows the answers, but the question is who can blurt them out fast enough. Tim lives in Sarasota, Florida, and is the author of “The Playmakers–Amazing Origins of Timeless Toys,” reviewed in this newsletter under “Summer Reading.” See www.theplaymakers.com.

The Return of a Sid Sackson Classic!

Sid Sackson, who died a couple of years ago, is famous in the gaming world for creating a myriad of brilliant game designs , including I’M THE BOSS. This popular classic was first published in German as ‘Kohle, Kies & Knete in 1994 and was nominated for game of the year (Spiel des Jahres).
I’M THE BOSS has been out of print for nearly a decade but is now available for the first time in English. This English reprinting includes all new art, rule translations for German, Spanish and French languages plus additional ‘house rules’ created by loyal Sackson fans over the years.
According to the company, the game for 3-6 players, ages: 12 and up. The playing time is about 60 minutes. “‘I’m the Boss’ is a game of deal making and negotiation, where you are an investor just trying to make a deal. Through intelligent negotiations, temporary alliances, and cutthroat bargaining you will rake in millions. But watch out for the other investors at your bargaining table who meddle in your affairs and try to take over your deals. As the boss, you stand to gain the most, but you can find yourself quickly cut out of a deal. In the end, the winner is the investor with the most money.”
Other Sackson games soon to be released include SLEUTH and BYWORD; the company hopes to release two Sackson games every year.
Visit www.face2facegames.com or contact Lawrence Whalen at 401-351-0362.

Providence Face2Face

Face2Face, producers of Sackson’s I’M THE BOSS game, is a company owned by Larry Whalen, whose Rhode-Island based business will continue to reproduce Sid Sackson’s games. Face2Face is the store in Providence in which you can find all the current best games to play; Larry runs a game playing session at his store every Saturday. His other company, MonkeyGod, is devoted to role playing games. Larry offers mail order, for both Face2Face and MonkeyGod.

The Big Game Hunter Selling on eBay

The Big Game Hunter, after a temporary hiatus while preparing for the 20th anniversary AGPC convention, is once again selling games and puzzles on eBay. Featured in early June will be a beautiful Parker Pastime puzzle, and later in June, some boxed baseball games to add to the season. Look for items by seller thebiggamehunter.

Antique Shows Just For Decoration

Can’t find what you’re looking for at your favorite antique shows anymore? That’s most likely because of eBay. Thanks to eBay, antique shows are going from collector to decorator emphasis. What you’re starting to find are more early pieces that can be used to decorate a room or shelf, and fewer classic treasures that may not have the visual power to be hung on a wall or displayed on a table.

Pick up Stix

Don’t be confused if rather than a set of instructions you get a menu. “Pick up Stix” is restaurant chain in California, Arizona, Illinois, and Nevada that offers Chinese food they say is best eaten with chop sticks.

PROTEUS Partners

Kadon Enterprises reports on this service: PROTEUS is a game lover’s game, and we’ve often had comments that it’s hard to find good partners to play PROTEUS. We’re offering a partner matching service: If you own a Proteus set and would like to find others to play it with you, either by email or postal, send us your name and email address, and we will compile a databank to be shared only by its members. Email: mailto:kadon@gamepuzzles.com?subject=ProteusPlay

Let the Ebay Buyer Beware

In the June, 2003, issue, I told you about my dealings with Barry Goodman, of Woodbury, NY–an eBay seller who went under the name of “toysensations” with email of Toysen@aol.com. Barry, who cheated me and a number of other people I know, (and responded to one of my more demanding emails with “Yawn…”) dropped his old appellation after at least 69 negatives and 92 neutrals, and is now doing business again as “utopiacollectibles” with a clean slate–no negative feedback. I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone (not in print, anyway) not to buy from a particular dealer. I would just tell people that The Big Game Hunter would never bid on anything from utopiacollectibles. Be forewarned!

Hasbro Demands Manufacturer Cease GHETTOPOLY

Hasbro, Inc. reiterated its demand to David Chang, manufacturer of the highly offensive game “Ghettopoly,” that he immediately stop selling this game to retailers worldwide.

“We want to make it clear that Hasbro has absolutely no connection to the reprehensible ‘Ghettopoly’ game,” said Frank Bifulco, President of Hasbro’s U.S. Games. “Mr. Chang’s game violates our MONOPOLY game intellectual property rights and Hasbro plans to bring suit against Mr. Chang if he does not immediately stop selling the game.”

MANCALA: A Game by any other Name would Play as Sweet

What term does one use to refer to the group of games that include MANCALA, WARI, OWARI, OWARE, and AWALE, among others?
MANCALA, according to games specialist Viktor Bautista i Roca, is the general term to use. “Mancala” is listed in the Oxford Dictionary, but not in the Third College Edition of Webster’s, nor additional sources I have. MANCALA is a style of game in which seeds (stones) set in pockets (indentations) around a board (traditionally wood) are sewn (picked up and then played one at a time in each hole) in the other pockets around the board. It is a traditional game of Africa, and is played widely around the world. Not listing MANCALA (or any of the others, for that matter) in an American dictionary would be like not finding CHECKERS listed in a European dictionary. Don’t dictionary writers get a chance to play?

Learn all about MANCALA in the book of that name reviewed in this newsletter.

Mental Flossing

According to the magazine Mental_Floss (Vol. 2, #5), Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong seduced young women “during games of Mah-jongg by playing ‘footsies’ with them under the table.”

In Jeopardy

A September Jeopardy TV episode contained a puzzle category. Though one of the puzzle questions dealt with the “puzzling” mystery of the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, three of the other category answers were “Rubik’s Cube,” “Jigsaw Puzzles,” and “Crossword Puzzles.” If you were watching, I expect you got them all right.

HARE & TORTOISE Online

A software company has developed a program that enables people to play David Parlett’s famous HARE & TORTOISE online.
Go to http://www.ludagora.net/hase/index.php?lang=1 .

Game Notes

BASARI, in Europe, has been changed slightly; the American version is a remake of the original.

SHIPWRECKED has been repackaged in a larger box and now comes with a board. This was an unnecessary convenience, as it was easy to play the game by dealing the cards out onto a flat surface. Consumers, however, wanted the neatness guaranteed by a gameboard.

MONOPOLY Words

The Hasbro site for MONOPOLY, http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/pl/page.history/dn/default.cfm , reads very well. And we thank Hasbro for using the correct wording indicating that Charles Darrow showed MONOPOLY to Parker Brothers and not that he invented the game. MONOPOLY was based on Elizabeth Magie’s 1904 THE LANDLORD’S GAME, which turned into a popular folk game.

Rochester Game Group Still Going and Growing

The players that meet every month in different Rochester, New York, households are not your typical, regular game players. Most of them are, well, somewhat normal in an unobsessed kind of way. Only a few are avid players, collectors, and or correctors (you know, those who change the rules of everything they play). But they all enjoy a range of games from the silly “party” games (we older folks still call them “parlor” games), to heavy strategy stuff. Nothing over two hours, please! Good conversation prevails as everyone waits for George to make his move. A pot luck dinner ads to the fun. For information, if you live within range, contact Clark King, a collector of vintage collectible games and newer playable ones; you can email Clark through this newsletter (click on “Email Us” in the Main Menu).

Front Porch Classics

Press Release: Front Porch Classics Wins a Second Toy of the Year Award From FamilyFun Magazine.

Old Century Classics’ Dread Pirate ‘captures’ kids attention across the country. Front Porch Classics, a leading creator and manufacturer of FamilyFun magazine Toy of the Year Awards (T.O.Y.), for the second year in a row. Old Century Dread Pirate “stole the ultimate treasure” when it was named the overall winner in the games category, ages 10 – 12 and was the number four toy overall in this year’s list of top 10 toys of the year.

“The best part is that kid testers choose the toys themselves, and that speaks so much about the fun-factor and quality of our games,” said Steve Edmiston, a founder and President of Front Porch Classics. “It’s refreshing to know that children still enjoy a classic adventure game that does not require batteries and allows them to stretch their imaginations, just as their parents and grandparents did before them.”

Old Century Dread Pirate comes in an authentic wooden treasure chest and is played on a wonderfully illustrated and aged treasure map with cast metal playing pieces, replica doubloons, knuckle bones (dice), treasure bags and pirate treasure. The pirate folklore helps families’ journey into the past for a high seas treasure hunting, pirate battling adventure.

Cadaco Revives ALL-STAR BASEBALL

Cadaco has revived its 62-year-old All-Star Baseball game 10 years after discontinuing it. The decision to again offer the game follows a decade of calls from All-Star Baseball fans asking for its rebirth, said John Lindsay, Cadaco president.

“From the day we stopped shipping All-Star Baseball, our phones have run with calls from enthusiasts,” said Lindsay. “The fans never gave up that we would resurrect their game, and we are returning it to them with more value — and fun — than ever before.”

The game was originally dropped from Cadaco’s line during the slumping board game market of the video game-dominated early ’90s. It puts players in the role of big league managers controlling the on-field action by spinning a statistically weighted player disc.

Cadaco’s new All-Star Baseball Hall of Fame edition features teams made up of 37 baseball Hall of Fame members, such as Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt. The game is packaged in a commemorative tin decorated like a classic ballpark.

BIG LEAGUE MANAGER Player Dies at 78

Don Henricksen, inventor of the popular and long-running tabletop baseball game BIG LEAGUE MANAGER, died Friday, April 16, 2004, in hospital in Duluth, Minnesota, after a long illness. He was 78. An avid ballplayer at the amateur, semi-pro, and professional levels, Don served in the Navy in World War II, during which time he invented BIG LEAGUE MANAGER–one of the first tabletop baseball games to replicate the individual abilities and performances of actual major league players rather than produce random and homogenous results, and one of the most enduring of baseball sims.

Don married Phyllis Harris in 1947, graduated from University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1953, and taught English at area high schools for the next 13 years. Arrowhead Trading Company had begun producing BIG LEAGUE MANAGER in 1958, but in 1966 Don started up Big League Game Company, which took over production of the game. Don is survived by his wife, five children, five siblings, 12 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

BLM, as it’s known familiarly to its many devotees, involves cross-referencing the number indicated by a large spinner, and the numbers shown on annually-updated individual player cards, against the results shown on extensive play charts in order to produce a realistic game of baseball–far easier and more fun to play than to explain. The early Arrowhead editions of BLM command fairly stiff prices from collectors, but Big League Game Company remains a family business and still produces season/player sets for the enjoyment of both new and veteran fans of Big League Manager.
–Butch & Co. Baseball Games (http://members.aol.com/Butch7999/Baseball.htm)

More on Henricksen from the Duluth News Tribune

20 April 2004: Donald R. Henricksen…was a 1943 graduate of Central High and UMD in 1953. He enjoyed all sports; playing two years American Legion Jr. Baseball, one year professional baseball, two years semi-pro baseball, managed men’s diamond-ball team four years, coached boy’s basketball two years.…He moved back to Duluth in the summer 1966 to manage (the) business he started after inventing a table top baseball game while in the service. He loved to read, hunt, and fish, especially in the Boundary waters and Lake Nipagon, Canada. Through his fondness of books, he began selling them on the Internet after retiring.

LicensedOpoly Continues

USAopoly continues its success in licensing all sorts of characters and themes to the MONOPOLY concept. I can never talk about the “latest” release, because by the time I get to writing about it, there’s a newer, later one. My latest ones are MONOPOLY: FORD 100TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTOR’S EDITION and MONOPOLY: GARFIELD COLLECTOR’S EDITION. Both, like all the USAopoly editions, are wonderful MONOPOLY variants. All the cards and properties, as well as the board spaces, relate to the theme, and the pewter tokens are phenomenal. FORD has six different vehicles—a truck and cars ranging from a Model T (or is that an “A”?) to a slick roadster. The buildup has great photos of the cars and the family behind them, and some photos adorn the cards as well.

The GARFIELD edition has highly detailed pewter pieces of Jon, Odie, and, of course, Garfield (asleep, and with Pooky), and an embossed Garfield supper dish and a hamburger. Chance and Community Chest cards are replaced by “Refrigerator” and “Pot Luck” cards, and “TV Tabby” and “Drool Fool” are substituted for Electric Company and Water Works. The traditional houses and hotels are replaced by Bakeries and bright orange Italian Restaurants.

These games are certainly easy to learn—they play just like MONOPOLY—and they look great. Make wonderful gift items. I may not be the biggest fan of ordinary MONOPOLY, but I think USAopoly should make every American holiday and national pastime or anniversary into a game. That’s my philosopoly!

Talicor & Aristoplay Merge

Here’s the (edited) press release: Talicor, Inc. a Chino, California game and puzzle company and Aristoplay, Ltd., LLC a game manufacturer and marketer from Dexter, Michigan, have merged. The combined company will be called Talicor, Inc. with Aristoplay operating as a division of Talicor.

For over two decades, Talicor and Aristoplay have been making and selling high quality board and card games independently that families treasure for years. While building strong lines on their own, Talicor and Aristoplay have both come to share the philosophy that games should provide rich experiences beyond the first play. “Bringing these two companies together makes a lot of sense. We will expand distribution for both lines as well as make it easier for customers to supply their game and puzzle needs,” said Nicole Hancock, president of Aristoplay. “We want to maintain the qualities that have made these product lines successful up until now while consolidating shared operations. This will help us to continue to grow both lines as we go forward.”

Aristoplay was founded by a middle school teacher who discovered that using simple games allowed students to open up their minds and thus feel free to accept and retain the concepts presented. Aristoplay believes the most important criterion for educational games is that children have fun playing them. This creates a healthy attitude toward the subject and in turn motivates children to want to learn more. This recipe for creating hands-on, hearts-in entertaining/educational games has become a template for all Aristoplay products. Product quality has become an art form, earning Aristoplay games a reputation that remains a hallmark to this day. From its first of many Parents Choice “Best Toy” awards in 1984, Aristoplay has consistently won top honors and commendations throughout the toy industry.

Talicor believes that learning through play does not have to be just for kids. Talicor makes popular, award-winning games for the entire family to learn and play together. For over 30 years, Talicor has offered a wide variety of board and card games designed to promote enriching family and get-together time. From the unique family communication game called Ungame® to scores of other trivia, math, strategy and dice games, Talicor has become known as “The biggest little game and puzzle company in the world” and welcomes the addition of the Aristoplay games to increase its offerings to its customers.

“Our biggest little game and puzzle company just got bigger…and better,” said Lew Herndon, founder and president of Talicor, Inc. “We are looking forward to a great association with Aristoplay.”
Talicor and Aristoplay have sold millions of card and board games through their own catalogs as well as through specialty toy, book and gift markets, museum shops and educational distributors.

For additional information about both companies please visit www.talicor.com and www.aristoplay.com. Both products can also be ordered directly by calling toll free 800-433-4263.

(Bruce Whitehill’s game, STEALTH, is still being produced by Talicor.)

Saying Stuff

The section where, as editor, I get to say anything I want about positively anything.

Nader: He’s Upset, I’m Upset, the Elections could be Upset

Nader Self-Serving Upset

Ralph Nader is still under fire for his run for the Presidency, a move which could draw votes that otherwise might have been destined to reach the Democratic hopeful. My long-term respect for this man continues to plummet as he ignores public sentiment in order to further his own agenda. Nader, a man whose life was devoted to making the world a better place, is now involved in an activity which could make this world a more dangerous place. Some pundits credit Bush’s first win to Nader, who received many votes that might have moved Gore into the Presidency had he gotten the votes Nader received. (The thought is that the people most likely to vote for a candidate who supports consumer reform over big business are the ones most likely to vote for a democrat.) I won’t tell you who to vote for, but will remind you that a vote for Nader is not a “none-of-the-above” vote—it is a vote that might have more consequences than you imagine, from which neither Nader nor this country would benefit.
Spam

We all hate it! How can companies be making any money doing it? Is somebody really going to open an email where the subject is (really—I got these) “harelip mynah reprisal cabana” or “cabdriver bone confession pancreas,” or “eldest aborigine megalomania oregon”? The government is supposed to be doing something. It needs to do more!

Correcting and Relisting on eBay
If you’ve made a mistake with your listing and have messed up the shipping or insurance information, you can’t change it once someone has bid. So my $260 optional insurance fee could not be changed to the correct $2.60, and I, instead, had to add a correction to the item description. Same thing when the shipping was to be calculated by the bidder, but my “stock” description said S&H was a fixed charge of $8.

When your item doesn’t sell on eBay and you want to relist it, there could be other problems. If, on your original listing there was no reserve price, you will not be able to add the reserve price on your new listing.

TV: Sweeps, Commercials, and 60 Minutes
Now that summer is here, we can reflect on a mixed TV season. I want to know why the TV raters announce when they will be judging the shows on television, instead of doing random or spot testing. With TV sweeps, occurring at specified months of the year, producers pull out their wallets to attract the best guest stars and beef up their interior sets and location shoots, and then show re-runs for weeks after the Sweeps, because they’ve used up their budget. Shows and series should be rated for the average program they produce, not the one special ones they’ve poured all their money into. Are you listening Neilsen?

We’ve almost reached the stage where TV commercials are interrupted by programming. The average one-hour program is 42 minutes or less. At this rate, we’ll soon be back to the half-hour series the Baby Boomers grew up with (only it’ll take an hour to watch them).

“60 Minutes,” the award-winning news show that’s been running for over 35 years, is on at 7:00 PM. No problem there, except that during football season, and when other sports games are featured on CBS Sunday afternoon, the games never finish by 7. Either start the games half an hour earlier, or start “60 Minutes” at 7:30. If a game ends early, the commentators certainly can find lots to talk about, and they can show the replays eight times instead of six.
Roll Over Suzuki!

I share with you the letter I sent to Mr. Rick Suzuki, President of the
American Suzuki Motor Corporation (3251 East Imperial Highway, Brea, CA 92821-6722), and Mr. Rick Wagoner, President & CEO of General Motors (100 Renaissance Center, Detroit, MI 48265-3000):

Dear Mr. Suzuki and Mr. Wagoner,

.
This is to inform you that I am looking to buy a car this month but that I will never by any Suzuki product and, at this venture, will not consider any General Motors car. I am appalled that Suzuki tried to cover up the rollover instability of its Samurai vehicle, and then, once the car was out of production, had the gall to sue “Consumer Reports” for speaking the truth, as many other media sources had.
I have no fear that Consumers Union will prevail, but the time and money expenditure caused by this frivolous lawsuit takes away from the resources of a magazine that provides a valuable service. As the impartial magazine does not have advertising and relies upon the public for support, that’s my money Consumers is using to defend against your capricious lawsuit.

Shame on you!

Sincerely, Bruce Whitehill

Suzuki responded, shifting blame back onto “Consumer Reports.” General Motors responded, saying, in effect, it was Suzuki’s issue, not theirs.

Summer Reading

There are a lot of great books—books on games and puzzles–that have come out recently, all of which make for wonderful reading and challenging puzzling. Below are just some of them.

For some photos of MANCALA games, go to

http://www.thebiggamehunter.com/gallery/Newsletter?&page=13 .

**********REVIEWS, ESSAYS, & NOTES**********

Behind the Scenes: AGPC Convention 2004

Here is a roundup of the 20th anniversary convention of the international Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors, held in Philadelphia in April. The report is written by the convention chairperson, Bruce Whitehill.
Unloading Wednesday afternoon at the hotel left incredulous onlookers wondering how all that stuff fit into a tiny Volkswagen. Little did they know that Rosemary Howbrigg had brought a trunkload of convention stuff with her, and that many of the prizes and giveaways had been mailed to the hotel. Lots of great things to show and hand out!
We got off to a enlightening start on Thursday with a visit to the Franklin Institute Science Museum, where we met Ben Franklin, saw a steam engine that was driven into the basement, and played with the forces of nature. An afternoon trip to the University of Pennsylvania turned out to be more exciting in the mummy room than the archives. A colorful conclusion to the day was the costume contest back at the hotel. Deborah Haagenson was in full black and white, as an inmate who just got out of jail free, while Steve & Lea Horvath were bursting out in bright tee-shirts depicting Monopoly and Candyland–Lea carefully stitched her way from space to space, and the resulting 3-D effect was marvelous! Dottie Anderson came in a suit of cards. Others were in various degrees of costumed clothing, but first prize went to Penny Melling, dressed in a long, bright red gown and carrying a book, with a large rope hanging out of her oversized handbag–she was, of course, Miss Scarlet with the rope in the library. Yours truly was in a white tee shirt (that was a pillow stuffed underneath) with puzzle pieces and dollar bills taped to the outside–my tribute to the guests of honor, the Lewins, as I was the Spilsbury Dough Boy.
Friday began with a tour of member Bud Newman’s paper mill. It was (by all accounts) fascinating, and more than anyone had imagined; since the paper is made from recycled material, it was only natural that Bud should install his own recycling plant. The facts and figures surrounding this business are amazing. We watched as men with great dexterity hand fed cardboard sheets into machines to be cut, and we stared in awe as an unending river of paper flowed into an automated cutter; we were treated to a “size change,” as the gigantic machine altered the cutting dimensions while a team of men discarded the off sizes that were produced between the old and new–an activity more practical than stopping and restarting the huge machine.
Then, the late morning walking tour of Philadelphia taught us everything we never realized we wanted to know about this fascinating city. Ben Franklin’s grave was covered in coins–until park officials swept the money into handy bags–and faded signs on the sides of buildings told of a society that disappeared long ago.
So a lot of us were already in full motion by the time convention officially opened Friday afternoon. At the reception we were greeted by old friends and new faces, and entertained by Rick Tucker’s ease at tiddling a wink into a small cup; many got the chance to check their aptitude. And there was a mystery guest, none other than Wayne Saunders whom we haven’t seen since he moved out to San Diego; it was hard keeping his arrival a secret–only his “driver,” Clark King, and badge-maker Debby Krim knew–but soon all the old timers guessed who was behind the District Messenger Boy outfit and mask. “Gee, I never knew my body movements were so identifiable,” Wayne remarked later.
Friday dinner was a very special occasion. In talking with Bob and Katie Lewin many times before convention, I never realized just how much receiving the Spilsbury Award meant to them. They knew they had been very successful in their triumphs with producing and marketing quality puzzles, but they had no idea that so many people would have an interest in those products four decades later. The delightful couple, and the stories they had to tell, made the evening a reward for the rest of us. Victor Watson, former CEO of Waddingtons in the U.K., had hoped to be at convention (one of those “surprise guests” I had been promising) but had to cancel at the last minute, sending, instead, a letter of tribute to the Lewins which was read by Penny Melling, an English jigsaw specialist who has met with Victor to discuss the connections between Waddingtons and Parker Brothers.
Long after some people’s bed time, many of us were still in the hospitality suite doing puzzles and playing both classic and new games, some of them represented by their inventors. The “real” David Parlett (as we learned from the evening’s kickoff of “To Tell the Truth”) was on hand with his classic “Hare & Tortoise,” and towering Tim Walsh favored us with his “Tribond” and “Blurt.” Niek Neuwahl, a member of the BGS group (the International Society for the Study of Board Games), gathered quite a crowd as competitors challenged one another in Niek’s newest, “1+Stein,” a keen, two-player positioning game. Cindy Levine had the party animals in the group (Helen Andrews and others) competing in Jax Compnay’s latest parlor games.
Show & Tell enlivened our Saturday morning membership meeting. It always amazes me how many fascinating items there are to show and tell about, and how it’s all so interesting regardless of your primary collecting interest. Then, a very special treat–Will Shortz, with puzzles for the morning mob, set up as an “individual-team” competition. We all knew Will was as clever as they come, but now we learned how many others were bent in that direction as well. I won’t mention any names, but next time I want John Cabot on my team. Will, by the way, mentioned the convention on his Sunday morning NPR show.
The Marketplace packed more buying and selling into a short time than we have ever seen, and was punctuated by the book signings of Phil Orbanes (“The Game Makers: The Story of Parker Brothers from Tiddledy Winks to Trivial Pursuit”) and Tim Walsh (“The Play Makers: Amazing Origins of Timeless Toys” [and games!]). Paul Fink cleaned up in the afternoon with a wonderful workshop on repairing and restoring games (followed by my once-every-ten-years two-minute discourse on removing and replacing rubber bands on game boxes).
Then came the speakers. What a parade of knowledge and talent: modern games historian Nick Sauer on the Legacy of Sid Sackson, jigsaw restorer Bob Armstrong on puzzle cutting techniques and their relation to the puzzle’s value, Strong Museum curator Nic Ricketts explaining the development of a socialist card game infused with photos of famous illustrators, and Winning Moves CEO and former Parker VP Phil Orbanes sharing bits of his vast knowledge on the history of Parker Brothers. The information contained in that room that day could fill volumes. Then at night, dinner was made even tastier with the entertaining Irving Finkel, curator at the British Museum, talking about Parchesi, its ancestors and origins. A hard act to follow, so my talk on the origins of some classic American games was both abridged and accelerated. Besides, we wanted to get on to after hours game playing, with some of the notable guests from Friday night. The treat this night was being able to work on very difficult wooden jigsaw puzzles cut by Clint Martin’s great uncle in the 1930s.
Sunday will be forever remembered for its romantic brunch by candlelight. Unfortunately, many of the convention attendees this year had left their spouses at home. A power outage darkened the hotel. I walked up six flights to make sure the BGS group was OK, only to find when I got to their conference room they had hardly missed a beat–a wall of windows kept the room bright, and the only adjustment required was with regard to the now nonfunctioning audio-visual equipment. Back on buffet level, we had more prizes and giveaways than we had people, so everybody went home with some game or puzzle. We were able to give some of our hard workers only a fraction of the recognition they deserve, and bestowed upon others the usual assortment of gag prizes.
Debby Krim and John Ellerbe, in head to head competition for the award for having attended every convention, were performance-rated all weekend, and it turned out to be a tie. There was one award. It read (with a pause after the 4th line):

IN ORDER FOR YOU

TO SUCCEED DOING RIGHT

AT LIFE MEANS

YOU MUST FIRST LEARN

PLAY WELL ENOUGH TO WIN

The audience acted with alarm–and then amusement–when the carefully constructed, wisely worded single plaque was broken into two. One side now read:

IN ORDER

TO SUCCEED

AT LIFE

YOU MUST

PLAY WELL
while the other side now read:

FOR YOU

DOING RIGHT

MEANS

FIRST LEARN

ENOUGH TO WIN
Though most people left Sunday afternoon, convention wasn’t over yet–members visited the home of Mark C.* to see his incredible collection of baseball games, considered one of the best in the world. And on Monday, a group of us headed out to Roy and Grace’s* house to see one of the best collections of Victorian games and toys. What a treat! (*Last names omitted for security.)
As soon as I unpack, I’m, ready to start re-packing for Great Britain! Then I’ll begin preparing for our 30th anniverasary!
See you in England in 2005,

–Bruce Whitehill

2004 AGPC Convention Chairperson

AGPC 2004: A New Who’s Who, and Some Figures

Now that the work is over, I can look back and say what fun it was to set up the 20th anniversary convention. We had sixteen (count ‘em!) sixteen first time attendees, not including our special guests! Marianne Casper & Ken Wallace, Doran Condon, Henry Dearborn, Lisa Ingram, John & Jerella Keim, Cindy (Jax) Levine, Clint (Purple Martin Puzzles) Martin, Kathleen Murrel, Nick (“The Legacy of Sid Sackson”) Sauer, Jeanne Speizer, Scott (Jack in the Box Puzzles) Stafford, Lynn & John Vorys, and Tim (“The Playmakers”) Walsh. Plus, we had two special “junior drop-ins”: Warren Saunders, son of Wayne, spent some of the weekend with us, and, after a 19-year-absense, Morgan Andrews, son of Helen and an attendee at our very first convention, stopped by; we’d like to think it was to visit us again, and Helen wants to think it was to see her, but we actually know his reason was to meet David Parlett (inventor of “Hare & Tortoise”). We welcomed younger and older, new and veterans, equally, and by Sunday, there were no strangers there.
All in all, from my standpoint, the convention was a success. Financially speaking, having the Board Game Studies group there, we not only benefitted from their knowledge and enthusiasm, but our room rates were kept lower because of the addition of a significant number of total room nights, calculated into the equation when the hotel arrives at its group rates. The hotel catering and conferences management team was very accommodating, and the food was good and plentiful.
Attendance for the weekend was 85 people total, comprised of 72 for the entire weekend plus 13 part-time, including the Lewins and their guests, our four guest speakers, and three non-participating spouses; the 18 BGS members joining us for Saturday programs and dinner gave us a Saturday total of 103 people. I would like to thank all 103 for being a part of the special occasion!

]]]]]]]]]]

CASTLE CROQUET

CASTLE CROQUET TOURNAMENT

JUNE 24 – 26, 2005

Sunderland, Vermont

Join a great group of playful people for a fun-’n-games weekend in beautiful, green & clean Vermont. Contestants in previous years and those expected in 2004 come from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Minnesota, England, and elsewhere.

THE EVENT: The seventh, almost-annual, international CASTLE CROQUET TOURNAMENT

THE PLACE: Behind THE OLD GAME STORE in Sunderland, VERMONT

For abbreviated rules to CASTLE CROQUET, scroll down or click here: CASTLE CROQUET Rules. For more general information about the game and the event, read on!

This game is not just for the skillful and dexterous. It is a thinking game requiring the exact strategy for the moment, as players position two balls on a slightly uneven playing surface, in a race through “Open Land” from castle to castle.

WHAT IS CASTLE CROQUET?

Castle Croquet is a four-player, eight-ball variation of croquet developed by Lewis Carroll in 1866, a year after he completed “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Strategy is as important as dexterity!

Carroll’s rough concept has been adapted into an interesting, modern diversion by games historian Bruce Whitehill. Staying faithful to Carroll’s original concept, Whitehill has refined the game play and defined the rules so that you don’t have to be a regular croquet player to enjoy this game.

The basic idea is that there are four stakes near the corners of a more-or-less square playing field. Each stake, along with the two wickets (hoops) closest to it, represents a player’s home territory, or castle; the territory in the middle, between castles, is “open land.”

Players have two balls: a knight and a guard. The object of the game is for your knight to visit each of the other castles, in any order, and then return home. The strategy comes in determining how to use your guard: the guard can help the knight move along faster (in the same way you get extra strokes for hitting a ball in regular croquet), or the guard can remain in the castle to ward off intruders. If your knight is captured, your guard can come to the rescue.

Complete rules will be sent after you register, but you can read an abbreviated version below.

THE SETTING: A rolling spread of grass with a bump or two and an incline here and there make for an interesting course in a clearing in the tree-covered Vermont countryside.

TIMES:

• Friday, June 24: Rules review and practice sessions begin Friday at 4:00 PM.Two fields are available. You do not have to come on Friday, but you’ll miss a lot of fun!We’ll all head for Dinner around 6:30, then go somewhere to play board and parlor games.
• Saturday, June 25: The playdowns begin Saturday at 10:00 AM or 1 PM, depending on the number of participants. Everyone will play two games (at least).Saturday, An informal DOUBLES (COUPLES) TOURNAMENT may be arranged, depending on the number and makeup of participants.We’ll all head for Dinner around 6:30, then go somewhere to play board and parlor games again!
• Sunday, June 26: The TOURNAMENT FINALS will be Sunday at 10:00 AM sharp(!), and should be over at noon. Awards and closing ceremonies follow immediately.

COST: Tournament: $25 per player if your check is postmarked before May; $35 per player on or after May 1. Registration closes June 15; after June 15, late registration is $45.

Participants and spectators may pay a small additional fee for a deli buffet lunch.

LODGING: When you register, you will be sent a list of motels and inns in the area. But you need to register early, since it’s a popular location and a prime weekend, and accommodation fills up quickly! Also, we will try to get as many as possible into the same accommodation if you decide you would like to join us; evening game playing will most likely be in the main motel/inn.

PRIZES: Participants will receive something playful; the three runner-up singles finalists will receive ribbons/certificaters and token prizes; and The Castle Croquet tournament champion will receive the Tournament Plaque, and, upon returning the plaque the next year, will get (to keep) a small, inscribed trophy.

OTHER ACTIVITIES: Board games & card games; competitions. Tour, hike, shop, relax, eat.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Singles are welcome! Onlookers are welcome at no charge.

• This is an adults only, non-smoking event.
• The schedule is subject to change.
• Trophies and other prizes will be awarded.The Castle Croquet Championship plaque is held by the winner for one year,
  and is presented to the new winner at the subsequent tournament, at which time the previous year’s trophy is given out.
• Tournament games and scoring:Succession into the singles finals depends on ranking after both games, or on accumulated score. Details will be available after registration.

REGISTRATION: To register for the tournament, contact Martha Folsom at:

CASTLE CROQUET TOURNAMENT

The Old Game Store

6377 VT Rte. 7A, Sunderland, VT 05250

Tel. 800-818-4263

game@vermontel.net

http://www.theoldgamestore.com/

Hosts: Martha Folsom & Rich Gower

The $25-35 registration fee must be paid in advance. Becasue only four can play at a time, space (time) is very limited–don’t dilly dally!

MEDIA AND INFORMATION:

Vermont media should contact Martha Folsom.

Anyone else seeking information about CASTLE CROQUET should contact Bruce Whitehill directly