“Session Reports” are capsule reviews and experiences reported after a game playing session. Most of these sessions are regular gatherings of players in a particular game group.
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What’s Playing Too
–by Phil
KEYTHEDRAL
We played using the variant of flipping over all of the KEYTHEDRAL seats at the beginning of the game so that the costs were always visible. The general consensus was that this improved the game, as players were better able to plan ahead and manage their cube caboodle. However, the game still seemed to end rather abruptly after only six turns. We also played with the auctioning of first player dibs, and this had a profound affect on the game BIG CITY
The board has modular neighborhoods that are assembled by the players at the beginning of the game; nice bits. Each neighborhood is separated into numbered blocks, for which there are corresponding cards. One card from each of the first six neighborhoods is dealt to each player. Players may then play cards to add either residential or business buildings (which come in three different sizes) to the corresponding blocks on the board. Other actions include adding trolley cars, exchanging cards, adding new neighborhoods, or placing city hall and other special buildings. Each building size has base points, which may be modified due to proximity to other features nice bits. The game ends when either the board is filled up or everyone passes. ZIRKUS FLOHCATI
This is turning into a favorite filler for the group.
What’s Playing?
–by Dave Bernazzani and Ben Baldanza
Here are the good games (listed in alphabetical order) played recently by the South Shore Gamers, according to Dave Bernazzani: Auf Heller und Pfenning, Bohnanza, El Grande, Elfenland, ISI, Lost Cities, Revolution Rosenkoenig, Samurai, Settlers of Catan Card Game, Through the Desert, Tikal, Torres, Union Pacific.
For more information, contact South Shore Gamers at http://www.gis.net/~daveber/gameclub.htm; for SSG Game Reviews, go to http://www.gis.net/~daveber/board.htm . Ben Baldanza supplied us with this list of games played by his Massachusetts group over the past couple of months. The numbers in parentheses refer to the number of times the games were played (and they’re listed from most played to played once).
Shotten Totten (20), Crokinole (14), Boccerball (10), Age of Steam (3), Tony and Tino (8), War and Sheep (6), Canal Grande (4), Odin’s Ravens (5), Gang of Four (4), Glocal (sic) Hexcite (4; Japanese), Hellas (4), Blooming Gardens (3), Clans (3), Heave Ho (3), Mogul (3), Tichu (3), Das Arkitekturespiel (2), Drake and Drake (2), Eketorp (2), Kupferkessel Co. (2), Modern Zeiten (2), Trias (2), Where There’s a Will (2), and ZooSim (2). Games played only once include Bang!, Carcassone, Carcassone Hunters and Gatherers, Code 777, Conxion (rare game by Psuedon of Holland), Dwarves, Fische Fluppen Frikadellen, Golfprofi, Grass, Hit or Shit (odd Valentin Herman game), Null Bock, Princes of Florence, Stimmvieh, Through the Desert, Who’s Your Daddy? (politically incorrect game), and Wildlife.
Session Reports from the Editor
–Bruce Whitehill
-1. DANCING DICE (Mayfair / DaVinci): Pretty good for a dice game in terms of being able to use strategy. I rate it a 6. Simple; light. P.T.’s suggested variation: If you “Rock,” players positioned above you move down. My suggested variation: add 3 different dice (i.e., buy two sets) that can NOT be mixed in with the other dice, but make for a 3rd dance—that opens up the possibilities of when to play your strongest dance(s). Party & Parlor. 2-6 players; best for 4+; 30 mins.; rating = 7.
-1. CONTRARIO (Foxmind [Canada]): Word game using synonyms or antonyms or logically connected related words. Given “A shampoo symphony” with a clue of “Television / Series,” you get to the answer: “A Soap Opera”. Wide range of players’ responses to this one, rating from 4-9! So some players really took to this game. I rated 4 because of inconsistency of questions (some synonyms, some antonyms). Good production values. www.foxmind.com. Party & Parlor. 2+ players; best for 6; rating (average) = below 7.
-1. LIKE MINDS (Pressman): Partner game requiring you and partner to match answers to trivia questions. The twist is that only one partner in each pair knows how many matches are required, and that partner must grab the brain when he/she thinks the other partner has probably written the required number of words to match his/her own. The fun depends very much on partner pairings. Party & Parlor. 2+ players; best for 6; rating = 7.
-1. OSTRAKON (Mayfair / DaVinci): “Philosophical party game” in which players make up questions that can have only two answers/choices (i.e., yes/no) in an attempt to divide the group almost evenly, while the questioner chooses what he thinks to be the majority position. A somewhat long and convoluted set-up is required, but once you get going, the game is good fun. Our group rated this from a 3 to an 8; members enjoyed the interaction and serious questions, but did not like the rules and procedural stuff; it takes the right group, with participants willing to share their beliefs and philosophies of life. Inventor: Silvano Sorrentino. Party & Parlor. 5-12 players; best for 6+; 45 mins.; rating = 7.
-1. SNORTA (Out of the Box): Seen as mostly for kids, this game requires remembering what animals are in opponents’ barns, and what sound they make. Players flip cards one by one (it’s best if everyone does this quickly) until two players’ cards match—the first player to make the appropriate sound of the other player’s unseen animal is the winner and gives up all his discards to the other player. The first player to get rid of all his cards wins. Ratings by adults ranged from 3 to 9 (!), with most comments saying it was really only a kids game; however, the right grouping of adults would probably enjoy it. Good production values—8 barns and 12 animals. Has one “Swap” card for swapping animals—I think there should be 3 more. Party & Parlor. 4-8 players; best for 6+; 30 mins.; rating (average) as a game for adults = below 7; though I would rate the game high (8) for children.
-1. STATION MASTER (Mayfair): Good, simple, quick card game, easy to learn, easy to play. Players play various positive and negative value train cards (carriages) onto one of the engines (number of engines = number of players), or add one of their few passenger chips (value of 1, 2, or 3, played face down) onto the engine. The score is the number of passenger a player has on that train times the value of the train when the number of cars allowed for that train is reached. A great filler. 2-6 players; best for 4+; 45 mins.; rating = 7.
-1. VILLA PALETTI (University Games / Zoch Verlas Design): Balance game. Build levels, remove columns without causing everything to topple. Good production values. The game looks good with all its levels in place (just before that topple!). Skill & Action. 2-4 players; best for 3-4; rating = 8.
Reviews by the Rochester Game Group
written by Clark King and/or George Petry
TREZO: a thinking game very similar in structure to the card game SET. TREZO is a beautiful wooden game with pieces with 3 different attributes—color, shape, and height. The object is to be the first to place on a hexagonal shaped surface the third leg (piece) of a triangle made up of three playing pieces with all the same color or shape or height OR a triangle with none of the three pieces matching. Another twist in the playing is that the last player gets to pick from the remaining available pieces which piece the next player must place. We ended up giving it an average rating of 7 to 8. TEAMS OF ENEMIES: a great new twist on trivia games. The game is structured so that a roll of a die determines which of five slightly different trivia game rules are used for that players round. All of these allow some of the opposing players to play in that round with various mechanisms like identifying items on a list or sequencing items correctly. Ratings averaged in at 8.5. POP SMARTS: another new trivia game. This had a good mechanism somewhat similar to TRIBOND in that you had to deduce from four clues what the clues had in common (e.g. four characters from the same novel). Apparently some of the questions were felt to be too obscure, which impacted on the ratings given. The average was only a 4.5! FORMULA MOTOR RACING: Knizia’s card game. Ratings were strong for the game with an average of 7.5. HELLRAIL: third “perdition” of a nifty card game from England. In this game you are laying cards to build train tracks to take your train to various stations to pick up lost souls and deliver them to other stations in hell. However, movement power is determined by the amount of brimstone noted on the same cards you could be using to collect or deliver souls. In addition, each station has various special rule circle cards that can help or hurt your opponents. Our scores averaged in at 7, making the game worthy of another play sometime.
What’s Playing
CLANS
Reviewed by Greg J. Schloesser
Published by Winning Moves; Designed by Leo Colovini
3 – 4 players, 30 minutes I first played this Leo Colovini design in prototype form back at Alan Moon’s Gathering of Friends in 2002. I wasn’t impressed. However, while attending the Spiele Faire in Essen, Germany last October, I had the opportunity to play the game again at the Winning Moves booth. A few changes were made to the game system and it was enough to significantly elevate my opinion of the game – so much so that I played it again later during the convention and couldn’t wait to secure a copy. Fortunately, copies of the game arrived just prior to our Gulf Games get-together in February and Ward Batty of Batty’s Best brought along a copy for me. It proved to be a popular game during the convention, being played with great regularity. It was my “most-played” game of the event, as I played it on four separate occasions. The game involves several nicely blended mechanisms and, best of all, wraps it all up in a tidy 20 – 30 minute package. This certainly means it should see regular table time well into the future. The board depicts 60 territories of four different terrain types, with a few scattered lakes separating some of the territories. The artwork on the board, although not inspiring, is certainly functional with the different types of territories being easy to distinguish. Also on the board is a chart depicting the five epochs and containing the bonus chips which are earned when an area is scored. These chips also serve as a timing mechanism, as the game approaches its end each time one is taken. A scoring track surrounds the epochs chart. Components include 60 wooden huts, 12 each in five different colors. One hut is placed on each territory, completely filling the board. A scoring marker for each color is placed on the scoring track. Five tiles, each depicting one hut color, are mixed and one given to each of the four players. Players should keep their color secret, which adds an interesting bluffing mechanism to the game, a la HEIMLICH & COMPANY (UNDER COVER). One color will not be represented by a human player, so we have humorously nick-named this color the “monkey tribe”! A player’s turn is quite simple: move all of the huts from one territory into an adjacent, non-vacant territory. On the very first turn of the game, this means that the start player may only move one hut as all territories contain exactly one hut. Players are not required to only move huts of their own color. Indeed, often players move huts from a territory that does not contain any of their huts for various strategic reasons. Concealing the identity of your color can be important as it is quite possible for opponents to make moves to cut you out of scoring opportunities if they know the identity of your color. When a territory contains seven or more huts, those huts may no longer be moved. However, other huts may be moved into that territory. When a territory containing huts is completely surrounded by vacant lands, the territory containing the huts will be scored. First, the player who made the move that isolated the territory receives the top-most bonus chip from the epochs chart. Then, the territory is examined to see if ALL five colors are present in the territory. If so, then all huts that only have one of their color in the territory are removed. The remaining colors then score a number of points equal to the total number of huts remaining in the territory. To this is added a bonus of 1 – 5 points, as listed on the epochs chart, if the territory being scored is the type of territory indicated on the epochs chart. For example, during epoch 1, the territory that generates a bonus is forest, while the steppes generate a bonus during epoch 3. In the fifth and final epoch, any territory generates a 5-point bonus. However, each epoch also lists an unfavorable territory. If the territory being scored is located in this unfavorable terrain, then no color receives any points. This mechanism often yields some nasty results as players trigger scoring in one of these unfavorable territories when they either have none of their own huts present or their opponents have multiple huts in the territory. Quite nasty. An example of the scoring is in order:
In a just founded village (a territory containing huts that is surrounded by vacant lands) during epoch 1, there are 9 huts: 4 black, 2 red, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 yellow. Since all five colors are present, the single green, yellow and blue huts are removed. This leaves six huts remaining in the territory, which happens to be the favorable territory for epoch 1. Thus, a 1-point bonus is added to the score, yielding 7 points for black and red. If all five colors are not present when a village is formed, then scoring is a bit different. No colors are removed and each color receives a number of points equal to the total number of huts present in the territory. To this is added any bonuses that may be granted by the epoch chart. Of course, if the village formed in an unfavorable territory, no points are scored. The game ends when the final bonus chip is taken from the epochs chart or when no further legal moves are possible. There are only 12 bonus chips on the chart, so there will only be 12 villages formed during the course of the game. It’s quick – 20 to 30 minutes to play to completion. Once the game ends, players reveal their colors and receive a 1 point bonus for each bonus chip they secured during the course of the game. The player with the most points is victorious. In spite of its simple mechanisms and short duration, the game is filled with some interesting choices and decisions. Discerning the identity of your opponent’s colors is important as you can attempt to gather their colors together and reduce their scoring opportunities. Of course, you would also want to attempt to form villages with those huts in unfavorable territories, thereby eliminating scores for those huts. You also want to spread out your huts as much as possible so you can participate in a multitude of village formations. However, you must keep a careful eye on territories that contain all colors, making sure you have multiple huts in those territories so you won’t be eliminated from the scoring when villages form in those territories. Occasionally you may want to form a village and trigger a scoring in territories that may earn you less points than an opponent. Why? Those bonus chips are worth 1 point each at the end of the game and they may well spell the difference between the winner and the also-rans. Triggering two scores with one move can be even more lucrative as you can grab two bonus chips. However, just try to make sure you are securing your fair share of the points generated from the scoring, too. Also, try to set yourself up to form the final village. Not only is the bonus for the final village worth five points, but this means all other huts remaining on the board will not score. This could be a huge advantage if you have no or few remaining huts on the board. Players must be careful during the course of the game to not set-up their opponents for easy scoring opportunities. The game can suffer from “Fossil-itis”, wherein a weak player provides a great benefit to the player on his left. I’ve now played the game over a dozen times and find it quite intriguing. Fast, fun, easy-to-understand and filled with strategic choices. We need more games just like this one. Learn more, and read more reviews by Greg Schloesser on the Westbank Gamers website: http://www.westbankgamers.com .
What’s Playing Too
–by Phil Alberg
RETTE SICH WER KANN
Each player has six sailors that must be moved to the islands using lifeboats. Each lifeboat can hold only six sailors, and once each turn a sailor must vacate a boat and attempt to get into a different boat. There’s a hint of intrigue in this one as players on each turn vote on which lifeboat will spring a leak, possibly causing the loss of a sailor, and vote on which boat to move closer to shore. I found the negotiation aspect somewhat lacking, as it was just an exercise in groupthink. The best thing seemed be to “stay under the radar” and hope for the best. MEXICA
We all enjoyed this game. One player started 8 of the 13 districts that came into play, while two others were poachers, trying to outdo each other in building temples. One of the poachers ran out of buildings in each of the two phases, while the other built a temple in a large (14-space) unfounded district, which propelled him to victory. The large area couldn’t be subdivided into the remaining two calpulli sizes, as the canal tiles were exhausted. EDEL, STEIN, & REICH
This is essentially a rocks, paper, scissors kinda game, but it is very compelling as you try to outguess your opponents and play action cards to your best benefit. Each player starts with three each of the four gems, and tries to acquire the most gems of each color during each of three scoring rounds. There are eight turns to each round, during which each player is dealt a card that indicates gems or money that may be collected. The three player actions are: take gems, take money, or take a resource card (which is different each turn). If two players attempt the same action then they barter with their jewels. These bartering sessions can be tense, as you want to maximize your holdings while trying to minimize the resultant gains of your opponent. Each scoring round yields money to the player with the most gems of each color, who then reduces the winning holdings in half. There are also contract cards in the resource card deck that are worth money each round. The player with the most money at the end of the game wins. This is a diabolic little game that presents many vexing choices both during action card selection and bartering sessions. CAPT’N CLEVER
The gameboard depicts nine islands, each of which is associated with a specific treasure. Players move their captain and ship each turn in an effort to acquire treasures from each of the nine islands. The hitch is that the player to the right determines which treasure is to be acquired next, so there’s a bit of strategy as you want to send your opponent to a far island, or perhaps close to your current target so that you may use his ship. Captains may only move between islands if there is a ship that connects the islands together. Any ship may be used for this purpose. Ships may be moved anywhere on the board. Captains must be moved if they are able. Ships need not be moved, and may be moved before or after the captain is moved. One player made a fatal decision in the middle of the game, taking a scenic route to an island rather than a direct route, and was shut out for a while as other players uncovered two or three treasures in the time it took him to find his one treasure. Another player just missed the win because of a goof near the end of the game, in which he kept his captain from moving off of an island he thought another player was trying to reach. (He wasn’t.) This game clocks in at just under an hour.
Suggested Rules Changes for KUNSTSTÜCKE
KUNSTSTÜCKE is a wonderful game by Karl Heinz-Schmiel, released by Moskitospiel. I really like this game of placing and sliding odd-shaped polygons on a limited-size playing board while attempting to score the most points based on bids you make; the bids are for the number of pieces of the same color you think will be joined together at the game’s end. However, I think there is a way to make KUNSTSTÜCKE even better. I offer the following two rule changes:
-1. 1. Anytime a piece is moved, it must *always* be in a legal position; you can not have an interim illegal move which is then rectified by the end of the move;
-1. 2. Instead of being able to bid on a color reaching six-or-more pieces, you bid on six pieces only–the addition of a seventh piece acts as a spoiler, for which no player can receive any points.
Also, one option I would suggest is to allow any move order–that is, you may either place a piece and then move a piece, or move a piece before placing one.
–Bruce Whitehill
What’s Playing
MARE NOSTRUM
….Egypt was populated with neutral legions and influence markers. This turned out to be a huge bonus for Babylon, since its special ability is to place an influence marker in any adjacent territory for free, and the nearest hostile neighbor was way over in Greece….The game was extremely cut-throat. Rome quickly set the tone and mercilessly wiped Greece off the map (except for its capital, which the rules state can’t be converted). Babylon attempted to come to the aid of Greece….Greece, meanwhile, had managed to send a raiding party into a territory in Carthage…. After Rome totally occupied all the Grecian territories, Greece remained as a dangerous three ship pirate fleet, acting as a thorn in Rome’s side for the remainder of the game. While the Greco Roman battle was raging, Carthage and Babylon continued to slowly expand…. All-in-all it was a very fun game….I look forward to playing again soon. Total game time was about 3.5 hours, including rules explanation.
–Brian Stormont
The Best Game to Disappear the Quickest: MONEY!
–by Bruce Whitehill
Every year, hundreds of games are introduced into the marketplace, yet only a few survive into the second year, and only a handful make it to the fifth year. Most of those games are unworthy of continued play, but some are just unnoticed, and a few are dropped in spite of their quality only because of the costs involved, when large sales are needed to cover the expenses of manufacturing and distribution. Not since Milton Bradley’s QUANDARY, has a great game disappeared as quickly as Reiner knizia’s MONEY!.
Initially produced in Germany in 1999 by Simba Toys, MONEY! was released in the U.S. by Rio Grande, which has ceased production; CEO Jay Tummelson admits the game is good, but his company will not be reissuing it. MONEY! has all the makings of a great game. It’s very simple to understand, takes only a few minutes to learn, plays quickly, has good repeat-play value, and has a wonderful mechanism. Players are looking to accumulate one or more different currencies in which they can amass at least 100 of that currency–but preferably more than 200; anything less than 200 is scored for the value minus 100, whereas 200 or more is scored for the full value. Bank notes worth 20 and 30 are, obviously, worth much less than the notes worth up to 60, but three notes of 20 in the same currency, or of 30 in the same currency, count at face value plus a 100-point bonus. The lowest currency is a coin worth only 10, but it is always worth ten–unlike the paper money in which you need to have more than 100 in the same currency before they have any value to you. You decide which cards in your hand (i.e., how much money) you are willing to bid to choose a set of cards randomly displayed on the table (there are two such piles, each of which consists of four cards at the beginning of each round), and all players display their bids at once; you then exchange your bid cards for the cards you want showing on the table. You also may pick up the bids cards of any of the other players. Players get to choose depending on the order from the highest to the lowest bid; tie bids are broken by the lowest serial number of the cards in the bid-off. If on your move you exchange your cards with another player, than that other player now has your high bid cards and that player plays next. One of the quandaries you will find yourself in is have a good–but not great–hand that you need to make better. But this requires bidding for better cards, which means giving up some of the cards in your hand. The decision about what to give up is as important as how much to bid to get better cards. Once again–part of a neat mechanism. The game looks good (though some of the international currencies are a little difficult to distinguish from one another), and is pretty inexpensive. I have tried most of the known sellers in the U.S. and have bought a few of what appear to be the last remaining copies on the market, and now I will search the German market. I highly recommend MONEY!, and rank it as one of the very best card games.
What’s Playing (and What’s Worth Reading)
–by Clark King
100 Strategic Games for Pen and Paper by Walter Joris (Carlton Books, 2002) is a soft-cover compendium of great games, ready to be played, and includes sheets of squared graph paper for your use. The author states that nearly all of the games have been invented by him and could be played alone as well as against an opponent or more. Some are modified versions of traditional board games like FANORAMA, HALMA and SUPERMILL. Many have intriguing names like ATOMIC BOMB and BLACK HOLE. The author has generously awarded a point value of 1 to 5 to estimate the strategic depth of each game. I found the book fascinating and a real bargain at $9.95. It belongs in everyone’s collection and will become something that you carry with you so that you can play a “board game” wherever you are. The current (February/March) issue of “History Magazine” contains an article on pages 49-51 by author Jeff Chapman on the evolution of board games. Jeff does an accurate job of tracing the history of games from their roots in ancient times through their development in Europe and in America. He concludes with a brief discussion of “Modern Games” and “War Games.” He includes illustrations of the Game of Goose and Office Boy. I give him credit for noting game pioneers Anne Abbott (THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS) and Elizabeth Magie (THE LANDLORD’S GAME). I found this and other articles in the magazine to be a fascinating glimpse at part of our history. Since this is the month that the Academy Award ceremonies will be held, I thought that it would be timely to note a new trivia game published by The Movie Game, Inc. called THE OSCARS MOVIE TRIVIA GAME. This game is marketed in a small box marked “TRIVIA in a trunk.” It contains over 1000 questions on subjects such as actors, pictures, directors, ceremonies, honorary awards and oddities. Every question offers 3 choices for answers so that no one is intimidated. Some questions allow the answering team the choice of risking their newly won points on a bonus question for additional points — just to keep things interesting. Also, for those of you collecting different ways that the first player is chosen to start a game, the rules state that the first player is the one whose birthday is closest to May 4th (the founding date of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)! I recommend you use this game as a filler during the commercial breaks on Oscar night (March 23). Next time you visit Starbucks, pick up a copy of the brand new game HOOPLA by the makers of CRANIUM. This game is well made and also is a lot of fun to play. Two or more players attempt to rally together by pooling their talents to empty a play pile of 8 cards and 4 cards from each player’s hand within 15 minutes. The game comes with a nicely made 15-minute timer device that can stopped and restarted. The cards are beautiful, high-quality photographs of people, places and things (Who, What and Where). A player attempts to give clues in one of five methods as determined by the throw of a 10-sided die. These activities are Soundstage (acting out, as in Charades), Cloodle (drawing the clues), Tongue-Tied (using single word clues all starting with the same letter (e.g., clues of “musician,” “Memphis,” and “man” all leading to the answer “Elvis”), Tweener (using the format “It’s bigger than ____ but smaller than _____” to give successive clues), and finally Wild Hoopla where you can choose to do any of the four Hoopla activities. Another new party game that should become a winner. I suspect that there will be many new editions of the photographic Who, What and Where cards to be marketed in the future as add-ons to the game. This game is worthy of adding to your collection. Endless Games has just released ROUTE 66, THE GREAT AMERICAN ROAD TRIP GAME. This is geared to 2 to 4 players or teams, ages 10 to Adult. Your object is to be the first to cross the country from NYC to LA. As you move, you must complete various types of challenges on “postcards” or take “sidetrips” off Route 66 if required. Challenges include acting out answers, fill-in-the-blanks, trivia, true or false, drawing pictures, finding places on the game board, making lists, etc. This is a great way to see the USA and learn new things along the way, while having fun doing it. I found the detailed maps on the “Zoom In!” cards to be the hardest challenge and the “Smooth Navigator” cards, requiring you to sing songs, also a difficult challenge. All in all, I think this is a fun family game that all should enjoy. Clark King, a collector of vintage collectible and newer playable games, organizes a game playing group monthly in Rochester, New York. If you would like to learn more about the group, or care to comment on his commentary, email Clark through this newsletter (click on “Email Us” in the Main Menu).
100 Years of Toys (and Games Too)
A new book, Toys: Celebrating 100 Years of the Power of Play,” is not available at your local bookstore. Self-published by the Toy Industry Association, this 9.75” x 12” 280-page book has wonderful photographs, most taking up a full page, with text about one classic toy or game and additional photos on the facing page. The book is available now only on special order through the TIA, but plans are being made to have it published by a commercial publisher. (I doubt the publisher will be able to retain the actual spinner that graces the current book’s cover.) The book is laid out in ten-year increments, beginning with 1903, the date of “the first American Toy Fair trade show,” which took place in New York. The first game mentioned in the book is listed under 1931, the year Alfred Butts introduced LEXICO, the game that was to become SCRABBLE. (It wasn’t until 1948 that SCRABBLE took on its present look and name.) MONOPOLY is represented, of course, with a great photo of one of Charles Darrow’s circular handmade boards (now in the Forbes Gallery); the text reads that “Monopoly was introduced by Charles Darrow,” but makes no mention of the original inventor of the game (in 1904), Elizabeth Magie.
The war and postwar section offers a host of classic games: NOK-HOCKEY, COOTIE, CANDYLAND, and CLUE. Then nothing until MOUSETRAP and TWISTER in the 1960s. TRIVIAL PURSUIT, is shown and described, and GOOEY LOUIE, a “Pull the gooeys out of Louie (Louie’s nose) and win,” from 1995, is the final game to be featured. Contact this newsletter if you want more information. Or wait for news in these pages about the commercial release of the book later this year.
AMSTERDAM RECALLS
Reiner Knizia’s The Merchants of Amsterdam (Die Kaufleute von Amsterdam) is a wonderful bidding game where, in inimitable Knizia style, you desperately want to do more things than you’re allowed to in one turn. It’s key element is an auction clock which starts at a high price and winds down until someone stops the clock–usually with a sudden, explosive slam. Many of the clocks have not withstood even the gentle touch, and now, the manufacturer, Jumbo, has offered to exchange faulty clocks for good ones at no charge. What a timely offer! For information, e-mail jumbo@euronet.nl.
