Eldrbarry's Table Games Part 2
Games in My Closet with Links
Our Game Closet
Through the years, we have accumulated and played a lot of games in our closet. Some have been enduring hits, some had brief moments of glory, some were never played more than once. There is a lot of information on the internet on these various games including for some variant rules or alternate ways to play. Wikipedia (which has many pages on board games, standard playing card games and dedicated deck dard games and collectable card games) and Board Game Geek, in particular, has a lot of useful information regarding various games. Pagat has rules for lots of Card Games, including many invented games, and The Game Cabinet has archived the rules for a lot of the older games as well. Another source of rules is Master's Games Traditional Rules. In the sections that follow on this page, I have hyper linked some of these and other information concerning the many games in our closet. The links below include links to Funagain Games - which carries a lot of games at very good prices, as well as (Wiki)pedia and Board Game (Geek) pages on the various games.
First of all are the Classic Games
These games are very well known, and will appear repeatedly on my following lists, So I thought it best to put them first:
- Chess (Wiki) has been a significant game for me ever since I got my first cardboard teaching set as a child from my parents. Or when I learned my first opening. I was in the chess club in Jr. and Sr. High. See my collection of sets and my other chess pages for more. Here are links for a some chess variants as well:
- Scrabble (Wiki) (Alfred Butts 1938) . . Worldwide Scrabble . . Mattel Scrabble . . Hasbro Scrabble
- Monopoly (Wiki - Geek) (Clarence Darrow 1935) Hasbro This game in recent years has spawned a lot of different versions.
- Parchisi (Wiki - Geek) or (India - Elisha Selchow 1874) Sorry!(Wiki - Geek) (Parker Brothers 1934) and Aggravation (Wiki- Geek) (1962) are modern descendents of this "Royal Game of India". Other versions include Ludo, Uckers (two English versions), Parchisi and Chaupar. Though most use dice, the game originally used six cowdry shells - the number landing with the open side up determined the "roll". A popular variation played by RV'rs is Pegs and Jokers, usually played on home-made boards. It uses three decks of standard playing cards shuffled together for peg movement.
- Chinese Checkers (Wiki - Geek) Actually originated in Germany derived from Halma
- Pente (Wiki- Geek) (Gary Gabrel 1977 Parker 1984) (derived from Go (Wiki) 1 . . Decipher . .
Mindsports . .
Pente Varients
- Yahtzee (Wiki - Geek) ) (E. S. Lowe 1956)
. . History
. . Yahtzee.org
- Uno (Wiki) (Merle Robbins 1971) a Variation on Crazy Eights (Geek) Mattel 1971 Variations
- Skip-bo (Wiki) (Hazel Bowman 1967 - International Games/ Mattel 1980). A commercial version of the card-game "Spite and Malice".
- Risk (Wiki - (Geek) (Albert Lamorisse early 1950's - Parker Brothers 1959) . .
Hasbro . . Risk Strategies . . Risk Revisited
- Stratego (Wiki) 1961 (Geek) Ed's Stratego Site . . Matt's Stratego Site
- Clue (Wiki - Geek) (Anthony Pratt 1948) Hasbro: Parker
- Dominoes (Wiki) There are quite a variety of Domino Games including our favorites: Mexican Train and Chickenfoot. And there are other Tile-based Games as well.
- Checkers (Wiki) (aka Draughts). Dating back to the 1500's, numerous national versions of this game are played, and the board sizes may vary. There are now a couple of unbeatable computer versions. One unusual variant is Lasca, which was invented by Emanuel Lasker, the Chess Grandmaster.
- There are numerous Card Games using Standard Playing Card decks
- Cribbage (Wiki) (Sir John Suckling 1634) Invented this game that uses a peg board to keep the score of play.
- Hearts (Wiki) A card game for basically four players, it has been around for decades and has numerous varients.
- Poker {Wiki ) Poker has three forms: Draw Poker (all cards are hidden) and Stud Poker (Some cards are hidden) which date back to the the mid 1800's; and Community Cards Poker variations (where some cards are played to the table and shared), such as the recent and popular Texas Hold 'Em.
- Sources for Playing Card Decks. Popular brands include Bicycle, Bee, Hoyle and Aviator; all manufactured by the United States Playing Card Company. There are two sources for decks with more than four suits: StarDeck - 5 suits and FatPack Cards - 8 suits
- * Backgammon (Wiki } Essentially a dice driven race to move pieces around and off the board - we haven't played this one yet. It is descended from the Iron Age Roman game of Duodecim Scripta, also known as Tabula or Alea, which was also played in Norse Germany and Scandinavia where it appears to have been known as katrutafl. Similar also to an ancient Eygptian game called is Senet, the modern version was described by Edmund Hoyle in 1743. A helpful site for rules and variants is Backgammon Galore
- * Mah Jongg (Wiki) Imported to the West from China in the 1920's - this tile game was a sensation in the 20's and 30's.
- Mankala a large family of "Sowing" and "Count and Capture" games found in many parts of the World, but are barely known in the West.
- * Nine Man MorrisWiki } or Merels - is a descendant of the African game of Morabaraba. Boards have been found dating back to Rome.
- Tafl {Wiki - Geek) (aka "Hnefatafl" or "Tablut") is sometimes called Viking Chess or King's Table, - an ancient Scandinavian game, with computer versions, it is played on a grid (sizes vary) and is unusual in the the two players have different forces and objectives, the defender, with a King and 8 men, seeks to move his King from the center square to a corner square without getting surrounded by his 16 opponents. All the pieces move like the rooks in chess. I plan to make my own set using pieces from two Japanese chess sets and a homemade board, with a 9 Man Morris board on the back.
- Acquire (Wiki - Geek) Designed by Sid Sackson in 1962; and produced first as an 3-M bookshelf game, then an Avalon Hill game, then by Hasbro, it will again be available after a number of years out of print in June, 2008. The game involves playing tiles to create, build or merge hotel chains, and buying and selling stocks in these chains to acquire the most money at the end of the game.
My wife and I have always enjoyed playing games together. I put together a games pack which we take with us on over-night trips with some of our favorites. We have always played lots of Scrabble, Pente, Yahtzee - but here are some other games we enjoy . .
- Fjords (Geek)
- Mancala in its simpler variations - an African game. I hope to bring home from Uganda an Omweso Board.
- Abalone (Geek), a kind of "sumo wrestling" with marbles. The rules are pretty simple, but the strategies are not. There are also a number of variations for play. Boutique. . Oshi is a similar game.
- Carcassonne With just the two of us, we play tiles from hands of three. A Cribbage board makes a good scorekeeper.
- Hey! that's My Fish! which can be played by up to four.
Upcoming tryouts:
- Lost Cities (Score Sheet coming) . . Kosmos has a Series of Two Player Games including Lost Cities, Hera and Zeus, Odin's Ravens, Jambo, Balloon Cup, Crocodile Pool Party, Tally Ho!, Elk Fest,, and others.
- Crazy Chicken - English Rules (A hard to find card game with cartoon chickens - the game has been recast as Simply fun's Drive with collector cars as a theme. (It can also be played by 3 or 4 with a slight adjustment in the rules)
- Schotten Totten - English Rules (A hard to find card game by Reiner Knizia with cartoon Highland Scots battling over boundary stones - The game is essentially the same as Battleline by GMT Games. The two games are essentially the same, though the later has 10 cards of each suit, and seven cards make up a player's hand.
- War & Sheep Another sheepish game is Shear Panic
- Balloon Cup Some Balloon Cup Variations
- WordSpot
- "Also rans" have included Triominoes, Boggle, and Cathedral (Geek) (Official Site)
- Following in the lines of Pente and Abalone are some abstracts of possible future interest: Kaliko (formerly Psyche-Paths); various Cheapass Hip Pocket Games such as The Very Clever Pipe Card Game or Steam Tunnels; or the six games of the GIPF Project designed by Kris Burm: Gipf. Tamsk . Zertz . Dvonn . Punct and Yinsh.
- Geek Lists: Enjoyable Abstracts . Abstracts for the Missus
Looking for Two player games? Some Geek Lists
With my friends in my early teens I purchased and played endlessly early editions of some enduring classics:
Risk, Stratego and Clue. But there were several "wargames" that we played a great deal as well.
American Heritage Battle Cry (Milton Bradley 1961) (Geek) Which came out during the celebration of the 100 years anniversary of the American Civil War. Somewhat abstract in its play, it involved moving little Infantry, Calvary and Cannons around on a map of the Eastern US and lining them up for battles. One Christmas, I got two copies of Broadside (Milton Bradley 1962). A simulation of the sea battles of the War of 1812 using little ships of various configurations with removable masts to try and sink the other players merchant vessels. I also had a game simulating WWI dogfights with little plastic Spads and Fokkers, American Heritage Dogfight (MIlton Bradley 1963) was also a lot of fun. Of course I painted my planes.
With my family, I remember playing Monopoly, Chinese Checkers, and Scrabble - but the main time for games was on family camping trips by lantern light in our fold out tent camper. Two of our favorites were:
Square Mile (Milton Bradley 1962) A game in which you developed property by building roads, subdivisions and buildings and selling them to build more. Clearly a game of its time. The other was also reflective of the sixties and today would be hopelessly dated.
World Flag Game About the United Nations (Parker Brothers 1961) A board and card game where pictures of flags were played into their continental groups. Both are long gone, but I remember them fondly.
Later in my teens, Games were frequently played with my church youth group - either on Sunday nights, at socials or Friday night gatherings. Some of those that come to mind included
Aggravation (Geek) - an aggressive version of parcheezi,
Pit (1908), which could get very loud - sometimes we played silent using fingers to indicate our trading offers,
and Uno, which was then a new game, but has continued through the years as a favorite - especially with the addition of some house rules
My wife and her family played Careers, Clue, Seven Up, Anagrams, Dominoes, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Bingo, and a word game, Probe.
- Heres a Geeklist listing lots of games we grew up with in the 60's/70's.
Our Family's Games
At Christmas Time, every year since our first year of marriage, there have been games and jigsaw puzzles under the Christmas Tree from John Allen Frog. He gave us Monopoly our first Christmas in 1974. So games were added every year. Some were winners, some not. As my children came along, and when they were growing up, there were a number of games that were very popular with the family. Of course when they were little Candyland and Chutes and Ladders; Paul liked Battleship and Sarah, Connect Four - she was good at beating Dad. Actually it is an old game - called the Captain's Mistress by Captain Cook's crew during his voyages. Mousetrap was still popular, I remembered it from my childhood. We continued the tradition of playing games by Coleman lantern light on the picnic tables or in the tent on family camping trips.
- Milton Bradley's Game of Life (geek) The one with the little cars and the pegs for the family and the cute board, offering a choice between career and college - and ending up at either Millionaire Acres or The Poor Farm. The game was originally The Checkered Game of Life. (Invented by Milton Bradley in 1861) With some things obviously becoming socially or politically incorrect, the Game of Life was updated in the 1970's (when inflation doubled the dollar amounts) and again 1992 which rewards players for "good" behavior, such as recycling trash and helping the homeless (spaces which cost players a good deal of money in previous versions.)
- Survive! Parker Brothers 1982 (The game is still around in a slightly different European version called Escape from Atlantis (Waddington) Purchased by J. Allen Frog about the time of Mt St. Helens' eruption and a touch of Indiana Jones - it was a lot of fun fleeing the collapsing volcanic island.
- Scotland Yard (Geek) (Five detectives work together in London try to capture Mr. X before they run out of taxi, bus and subway tickets)
- Payday The all too real game of coping with living from paycheck to paycheck. (Most reviews prefer the older version)
- Take Off! The "fly around the world game" we played before we all became world travellers.
- Jenga A game of skill with a stack of wooden blocks.
And of course the Classic enduring favorites included
Sorry,
Pente, Yahzee, and
Scrabble
Among popular card games were
And more recently,
- Skip Bo (Geek) which was originally a game called "Spite and Malice,"
- Dutch Blitz (Geek) (a scrample with everyone playing at once)
- Rat-a-Tat-Cat! (don't peek, unless it lets you)
- Fluxx Kind of a different sort of game - light and somewhat unpredictable as the rules are constantly changing.
- Guillotine Kind of fun despite the morbid theme.
- Loot Also called Pirat or Korsar.
As well as these "tile" games,
A few of the "losers" included Conspiracy, Scavenger Hunt, Advance to Boardwalk, Spy vs Spy, Upwords(Geek), Rand McNally's Destination Vacation (which might have lasted if we hadn't lost the rules, then given the game way to Goodwill before I found the rules on the internet), Liar's Dice INot to be confused with the tavern game, if they had called this board game "Bluffer's dice," or by its original name "Perudo," it might have caught on at our house). Pigmania (which had a brief moment of glory - it is dice with pigs - still around as Pass the Pigs) Other games included Mastermind (still around) and This Game is Bonkers.
And card games that haven't caught on, included such as Racko, Turkey's Wild (a "gobble poker"), Trumpet Game (Trick Taking or Rummy games have never seemed to catch on with us), Weather Slam, Sting, O'NO99, Beggars and Thieves, James Clavell's Shogun (a kind of Japanese themed stud poker) and Flinch.
Current New Favorite Games
Of particular interest are the new European style board games. My son, Paul was introduced to them by fellow interns at IBM. Many of these are being published in English by companies like Rio Grande Games or Mayfair Games. Once J. Allen Frog got word of them last Christmas, the family was soon hooked! Expansions and other games are being added. And we are having fun introducing them to friends as well. I have more on the European designers in Part 3. I am also glad that Cardhaus Games is nearby.
These we have, but haven't yet played:
There are others which I am considering trying out: