Horn, Fred

Published Games invented by Fred Horn

The games listed  were made public  or sold 1) through publication in an article or book  or 2) to a private firm.

The listing order is  the historical order in which I invented them, not the date of publication.

Scroll down for photos.

1. CARDO

2. STRIKE

3. TANGRAM-Variaties

4. Three in a Row/AGILIDADE

A. JUMPIN’HORSES/ RENPAARDEN

B. HET SPEL DER CIJFERS/ GALAXY

5. CITADELLA/Maak een Vierkant

6. FIANCO

7. HEXTAN

8. BOSS-MANAGEMENT GAME

9. TWEELINGEN/Twins

10. HAARLEMMERMÉÉRGROEN  SPELLENBOX

11. Puzzle’95’

12. VNO-NCW-TANGRAM –‘De MALIETOREN’-

13. DOUBLE DUTCH

14. DE WIJNPROEF

15. KUNST & KITCH/MEMORIE MOMENTS

16.  I-QUBE

17. SUDOKU-COLOR

18. LANGE JAN/LANGER LULATSCH

19. ZIPHER

20. CAN THE SARDINES

21. KWINTIE/5-in-a-Row

22. CANON-HET SPEL

23. XIN DAO-Tangram

24. MATHZEE

25. SERPENTINE

26. GAME COMPENDIUM -50 in 1-  (included are: 6.FIANCO ; 13.DOUBLE DUTCH) and:

        26.1 CONQUEST

26.2 ISOLATION

26.3 STENENJACHT

26.4 SLIMMERIK

26.5 SEQ

C. HET ZESDE ZINTUIG (in English: the Sixth Sense)

27. KNOTZ!

28 . Familiespel/Jeu Familial  LangeJan

Annex

 D. TANGRAM VROM-Logo

Brief biography of Fred Horn

Fred Horn was born in Amsterdam on January 13, 1945.

When 4 years old his parents moved to the Hague and during his lifetime Fred did change places between these two Cities. Once more he is now residing in the Hague.

He is married since 1969.

Fred & Saskia, Göttingen 2009

During his youth Fred played a lot of games with friends and family. At the age of 8 he did invent his first game called CARDO. In highschooldays he started collecting games, at first mostly focused on abstract/strategic games. Later his interest widened into games manufactured, invented or sold in Holland, thus building through the years a large Collection. In 2009 he did donate the entire ( about 10,000 items) Collection to the “Vlaams Spellenarchief” in Brugge- Belgium, where it is now documented  and made available for everyone  by putting the games on their web-site.

Fred is retired, but in his working days he was a Civil-Servant for the Dutch Government where his job included work as 1) Organisation-Consultant and 2) doing Research on how to house the Government itself, inventing Methods and developing Techniques to be used by housing large Organisations.

Besides his interest in Games, Fred is an amateur musician playing all wind- and brass instruments.

Music mascot with illustration of Joe -King- Oliver in background

His music is captured on tenth of records among them records with the Limehouse Jazzband, which band he did lead for over 25 years. He modeled his style on the style of cornet-playing Joe “King” Oliver.

He is also Chairman of the Board of the Nederlandse Pianola Vereniging.

After CARDO Fred kept on inventing games now and then for his friends and for his own fun. After meeting Niek Neuwahl in 1995 he did become inspired to do more with his ideas and at the moment nearly 30 of his games are published.

On the shelves are more than 100 ideas waiting for the right moment.

Fred Horn with the testversion of TOREN van BABEL (Tower of Babel).

Up to august 2011 not published, although sold to GISEH.
The game-mechanism is used for another game NOTRE DAME, which was developed by Ronald Hoffstätter. He did sell this game to a Russian Company, which will publish it in 2012.

1. CARDO

CARDO is the first game I did invent.
I was 8 years old when I had this smart idea of combining cardsymbols into a Dominolike game. Now I know it has more to do with playing domino in a Rummy-setting.
In 2008 the game was published by XIN DAO.

2. STRIKE
STRIKE is a game I did invent in the early seventies of the last century to make it possible for my chess- and dam-playing colleagues , who did not want to play one of these games together , to have a contest with a new game.
I think this is my best abstract/strategic game. The great master of all inventors Alex Randolph found the way of playing so new and different that he also suggested a new name: FENIX(Phoeniks) .
In 2005 I published the game myself in a very limited number. The game did come out in a box together with 6. FIANCO and A. RENPAARDEN.

Fred playing STRIKE with Thomas Iverson

3. TANGRAM-Variaties
This is more a set of Puzzles than a game.
Together with my good friend Johan Sieders I tried to find some extentions of the well-known 7-piece TANGRAM.
How this worked out has been published in the magazine ‘Natuurwetenschap en Techniek’ in a serie of articles. The english version is yet published in the magazine CFF of the Dutch Cube Club.
One example in transparent Perspex was especially made for me.

4. Three in a Row/AGILIDADE
A simple 3-dimensional Tic-Tac-Toe-game.
This game was the outcome of fun we had on a party at my home. Playing some games one of my friends made a bet that I could not invent a game within 5 minutes!
I won! And this game was the result.
In 2004 ORIGEM published it in Brazil and for the rest of the world XIN DAO did the same in 2007.

A. JUMPIN’HORSES/ RENPAARDEN
A halma-like-game on the 9x9board. Each player wants to bring his horses to the other side. The first to succeed, wins.
See also 2. STRIKE and 6. FIANCO.
The game is invented in 1981.

Hans van Maanen starts in his little booklet “Geen Wolf en Zeven Geitjes” from 1992 as follows –of course in Dutch- :
“Renpaarden komen uit de stal van de Amsterdamse spellenverzamelaar
en -ontwerper Fred Horn. Weer gaat het erom, eerder dan de tegenstander
de hele ploeg aan de overkant te hebben. Het officiële veld voor Renpaarden
is negen bij negen, maar het mag om de smaak te pakken te krijgen ook kleiner.
Zelfs vijf bij vijf voldoet in het begin.”

B. HET SPEL DER CIJFERS/ GALAXY
Way back in 1983 I worked out the idea for a complete new and different Card-Deck.
I did make a test-version and invented a game to be played with these cards.
I tried to sell the Deck to game-companies, but nobody did show any interest!
In 2009 I worked out a complete new design with my good friend Peter Rijkhoff and I have, with help from Sjaak Griffioen, published the Cards myself under the name GALAXY.
All game-inventors that I know are asked to do their best with these Cards but up to this moment the reaction is sparse.
What I did was update the game I had invented that long ago and I gave it a name: TWHIST.

TWHIST is a strange derivate of Bridge.

5. CITADELLA/Maak een Vierkant
This game has got the ‘SPIEL GUT’ price.
On the 9×9-board I tried to think about something new but with a Halma-like touch.
This is the game I used for a present to the invitation for the opening of both Exhibitions of games from my Collection in Deventer and Madurodam in 1983/84.

I made a paper version and the playing-pieces had to be cut out and glued to form the 3-dimensional pieces.
In 2004 the firm CLEMENS GERHARDS brought it out in a beautiful wooden version.

Visitors at the “Deutsches SpieleMuseum” in Chemnitz in 2011 playing ‘CITADELLA’ within the scope of the Exhibition: “Spiele haben AUCH Autoren”.
6. FIANCO
Get one of your man to the other side of the board!
This game was first published in a book “Geen Wolf en 7 Geitjes” ( No Wolf and 7 little Goates) by Hans van Maanen, together with A. RENPAARDEN. See also 2. STRIKE and 26. GAME-COMPENDIUM.

Fred playing FIANCO with Carlos in Paris as Richard Ballam looks on; BGS 2010

7. HEXTAN
A hexagonal Tangram.
This game was used for promotional purpose in 1988 by ICI.
Made from some of their products(plastics) only 100 were manufactered, because of the very expensive way the firm wanted these games produced.
In 2009 NOVA CARTA brought out a cardboard version of the same game, which is in fact a puzzle.

8. BOSS-MANAGEMENT GAME
In the early nineties I developed a management-game for the RIJKSGEBOUWENDIENST, where I worked for my daily job.
This game represents the way in which the Dutch Government take care for housing their Administration and how to finance the chosen solutions.
In total 10 Games were made and distributed among the different locations of the RIJKSGEBOUWENDIENST to play the Game within a learning proces how to do your job better.
I myself was allowed to use the game for promotional purposes outside the Government as a tool for organisations how to deal with the way the Government thinks financially and how they plan their housing within the context of a yearly budget.
At the moment, as far as I know, 3 games have survived: I own one and the other two are in the game-archives in Brugge and Nürnberg.

9. TWEELINGEN/Twins
Place 2 pieces in a turn on the Go-board and with some simple Rules you get a complex strategic game which can be played within a quarter of an hour.
The game was in 2004 published in an article in “Natuurwetenschap en Techniek”.

10. HAARLEMMERMÉÉRGROEN SPELLENBOX
In 1995/6 I developed together with art-designer Frans Mensink a Box with some games because of the coming of the FLORIADE into the Haarlemmermeer.
The Box was made for use at the Schools in the Haarlemmermeer from the third up to the seventh grade by including easy and some more difficult games that could be used by the teachers to learn the children (age 5 up to 10) more about the upcoming FLORIADE, a large exhibition about plants, flowers but also about ecology.
Two of the included Games are familiair ones:
1. a MEMORY-adaptation
2. the “ZWANENBORD-spel” based on the GooseGame
The other ones were especially developed by me to support the learning proces:
3. the “HAARLEMMERMÉÉRGROEN-spel”
and three simple games using some of the material stored in the Box:
4. RACE
5. WERPSPEL, a throw-game
6. “BOMEN PLANTEN”, a game based on making clusters to gain points.

11. Puzzle’95’
In 1995 I dreamed up a puzzle especially for the International Convention for Puzzlers, which was that year held in The Hague. None of the participants could solve the puzzle, which was composed out of 2 levels. First you have to define what and how many puzzlepieces you get from the description and second you must make the Puzzle with the found pieces.
In 2004 the puzzle was used as ZOMERPUZZEL (Puzzle for the Summer) in the magazine “Natuurwetenschap en Techniek”. Two readers did find the correct solution for the pieces, but only One solved the problem how to form a complete and correct Puzzle.

12. VNO-NCW-TANGRAM –‘De MALIETOREN’-
In 1997 the Dutch Employers’ Organisation VNO-NCW wanted a Gift for their business-relations and they asked me to invent something that could be associated to their Organisation. The outside look of the building ‘De MALIETOREN’, that houses the Organisation did give the inspiration for a Tangram-puzzle that looked alike.
The puzzle was brought out in 2 ways, one in wood and one in perspex.

13. DOUBLE DUTCH
Inspired by the game DELTA (published on the 1970th by Ravensburger) I worked out a principle of moving a piece and than play a next one controled by certain rules on a 7×7- or a 9x9board for 2 players.
This game is included in 26. GAME-COMPENDIUM.

14. DE WIJNPROEF
This game is my first association with the small dutch game-company Nova Carta.
They themselves had made a Goose-like-Game with questioncards about wine to put in a winebox alongside a bottle. Because of the not working play on the board they asked me to improve the way of playing.
I did design an improved board and some new gamerules, so my contribution to this game is limited. The game did come out in 2003 and is still on the market.

15. KUNST & KITCH/MEMORIE MOMENTS
The next of my games that was published by Nova Carta was associated to a dutch TVprogram Kunst & Kitch ( in Great Britain: The Antique Road Show).
This game is a complex Memory-derivative. In a mathematical sense the pictures are a (so called) DONUT.
The KUNST & KITCH version had also the added attraction of a game within a game because complete items also have a value and player with the highest earnings at the end wins.

Nova Carta did and still do publish this game with pictures related to a Firm as a give-away.

16. I-QUBE
A 3-dimensional strategic game. Both players start with exect the same pieces to build 3 levels on a 3x3board. Player with his color dominating when looked from above, wins.
A test-serie was brought out by Bernhard Schweitzer.

17. SUDOKU-COLOR
Sudoku-variant, published in 2005 by Nova Carta.

18. LANGE JAN/LANGER LULATSCH
Rummy-like card-game. Players must complete with their cards ( from 5 up to 12 according to the throw of a die) a cartoon-figure (LANGE JAN). A wonderful game for playing with children, published by Nova Carta in 2005.

19. ZIPHER
An abstract/strategic game with Numbers published in 2007 by Nova Carta.

20. CAN THE SARDINES
A fishy game invented in Brazil after a discussion with a Portugese professer how to invent games! Within a quarter of an hour the game was there to proof that a good game did not need a lot of developing, only a smart inventor, and good rules! My horrible english rules were ‘translated’ by David Parlett in the best way I could imagine.
In 2008 the american Magazine KNUCKLEBONES published the game – the only game they ever did publish- and in 2010 the game was used as the first game for a serie of games for the SPELLENKAART, an annex to the Dutch magazine SPEL!.
I myself use this game for my own ‘promotional activity’. It is a give-away with a copied board and licorice fishes as pieces.

SARDINHAS
In 2010 Portugese publisher ‘CLASSICA EDITORA’ brought out a Compilation of Mathematical Games (Jogos Velhos, Regras Novas) edited by João Pedro Neto &
Jorge Nuno Silva.
My game “Can the Sardines” was described and analysed on pages 87-91, although the writers made some mistakes concerning the size of the board and the number of sardines. On a 7×9-board they use 2 x 9Sardines, instead of the 9×9-board and
2 x 8Sardines! Not changing the Game-mechanism, the outcome is a Game with a different tactical concept.

21. KWINTIE/5-in-a-Row
A building game with 1x1x2-Blocks and a 9×1-board.
This 2-person game is really what its name say: Make five in a row with the imaginairy cubes (one Block is two cubes!), horizontal,vertical or diagonal.
In 2007 the game was brought out by XIN DAO.
In 2011 I myself did publish a wooden version, manufactured by Clemens Gerhards.

22. CANON-HET SPEL
In 2007 in Holland the Historical-Canon of 50 important events in Dutch history was promoted and published. Nova Carta did obtain the rights to publish a game using these 50 events. I developed a kind of race game with a trivia element. The players had to answer questions about the event on the field they did reach in their turn.
Nova Carta published the game in 2007.

23. XIN DAO-Tangram
The people of XIN DAO wanted a Tangram which they could sell to transportcompanies. I developed a 12-piece Tangram which was published in 2007 with 4 images on the outside: a truck; a ship; an aeroplane; for thr transport-business and a house for the estate agency. After a year also a version with a Christmas-Tree was made.

24. MATHZEE
This game with five 8-sided dice gives the players the possibility to fill in results , from 1 up to 24 on their scoring-list, after making calculations with the thrown numbers.
Published by Nova Carta in 2008.

25. SERPENTINE
Together with game-inventor Martin Samuel I did collaborate in the development of a fun-game, making streamers (Serpentines in Dutch) on a board .
Nova Carta did publish the game in 2008.

26. GAME COMPENDIUM -50 in 1-
This is what every game-inventor wants published. In one beautiful made BOX a combination of classic games and some of his own inventions.
For me there is also the extra of the design of the gameboards, which combine on 2
two-sided-boards in total more than 15 gameboards, which I had worked on for several years.
Included in the COMPENDIUM are 7 of my games: CONQUEST; FIANCO; DOUBLE DUTCH; ISOLATION; STENENJACHT; SLIMMERIK; and SEQ.
Two of them were old ones: 6. FIANCO and 13. DOUBLE DUTCH.
Five are brand new and especially developed for the COMPENDIUM:
26.1 CONQUEST, a game on the 8x8board which has a lot of similarities to a (at the time not known to me) game with the same name and play-principle.
26.2 ISOLATION, a game on the 7x7board, filled with stones on all the squares. Players move a pawn over the stones to pick them up. Also not a very new concept!
26.3 STENENJACHT, a game on the LUDOboard were players must catch the opponents’ pieces and bring these Home, also not a bright new idea!
26.4 SLIMMERIK (in english: the smart one) is luckely a complete new idea. It is related to MORA in the way a player wins in a turn but the whole concept is really new: come as far as you can by ‘reading’ the opponent’s mind.
26.5 SEQ, a dice-game with four dice. Beat the opponents by making a sequence in lesser throws than they can.

C. HET ZESDE ZINTUIG (in English: the Sixth Sense)
A game made after a popular TV-program with the same name, published by Nova Carta in 2009/10.

27. KNOTZ!
This game is the same game as the game I did invent in march 1981 as ISOLONY.
KNOTZ! Is published as SPELLENKAART-4- in a Dutch-, Austrian- and Italian-version as a promo used in Essen 2010.

28 . Familiespel/Jeu Familial LangeJan
Related to 18. LANGE JAN.
For a ‘Promo-Action’ for Fruit-tella Nova Carta asked me to develop a Variant of the game Lange Jan, but with the “Images” used on the wraps of the Fruit-tella-Sweets.
The game was especially used in the last half of 2010 on the Belgian-market as a gift, presented when buying these Sweets. In Holland the distribution was sparse.

I made three Mistakes in the order of games. The order is restored as follows:

+ Between 4. and 5. I did forget to mention two other published games: A & B.

+ There is one more I did forget, which comes after 26. GAME COMPENDIUM: C.

Date LIST: august/13/2011

ANNEX

D. TANGRAM VROM-Logo
In the Issue dated 21 augustus 1996 of the Magazine from the Ministry of VROM (Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment)this Logo-Tangram was published.

A personal story:

I (Bruce Whitehill) love Dixieland style music. One day, I’m driving around listening to CDs that were pre-loaded months before into a multiple CD player in the trunk of my car. A new album came up, with great American Dixieland music; it was wonderful! “Fred is going to love this!” I thought; “I’ll have to send him the CD.” When I got home, I opened the trunk and unloaded the CD–only to find it was Fred and his Limehouse Jazzband, a CD Fred had sent me months before that I had completely forgotten about. Ahh, a man of many talents….

PHOTOS

Fred Horn playing his Parallelogram with SPEL!-editor Han Heidema at the DUCOSIM-Fair, 2011

Children play Fred's game at the Game Authors Weekend, Göttingen 2007