Bridge Suit Indicator
That bridge was once taken very pretty seriously can be seen by reading such books as The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. Whenever a passtime achieves such prominence, a goodly assortment of over-produced baubles must follow, such as this little item which reminds players of the trump suit while playing a contract. Interesting that it doesn't also indicate the value of the contract.
Alfred's Other Game
The curse of being a one-hit wonder game designer. This disrespectfully named game, after Alfred Butts, the inventor of Scrabble, is not a particularly noteworthy game according to consensus on BGG.
Poo-Ka-Boo
Speaking of comparatives, new games like to compare themselves to other games in the hopes that you'll think that they're similarly enjoyable and easy to pick up. Unfortunately, this cannot be compared to no-name drugstore brands comparing their active ingredients to more expensive brand-name alternatives.
This rather odd game lets you pick cards and put down pegs in any slot matching the card number of higher, trying to get five in a row.
Print Play Money
Once upon a time we used to have real printed money in our games. This set allowed you to substitute your own branded play money for the stuff that came in your game. You kids born in the year 2007 and later probably can't relate to this.
Butt-Ugly Martians
Gotta give a little respect to a game with a name like this.
Book of Cribbage Hands
Circa 1882. A complete guide to every cribbage hand and what to do with it. A tad pricey.
Spider Web
Another game from the turn of the last century. Most of these were useless games but had great graphics.
Chantecler
And another circa 1910. Other sources indicate that this was actually popular, and I've seen a rooster doll that was sold based on it's popularity, but I know nothing about it.
Virus
An odd abstract strategy game of infecting your opponent's pieces.
Celestial Pursuit
An LDS version of Trivial Pursuit, with a funky shaped board path. Mormons must be into board games, because I sure see a lot of LDS themed versions of popular games.
Yehuda
4 comments:
The Chantecler card game may be related to the popular 1910 play of the same name by Edmund Rostand, which features a cast of many various birds.
Re: mormons and board games: just see Inspiration Games (http://www.inspirationgames.com/) and Settlers of Zarahemla. I think it's pretty obvious: lots of kids, heavy family values, dislike of tv and the sex and violence of modern popular culture - why wouldn't they be heavy board game consumers.
Actually, one of the pieces of "advice" Mormons get from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is to do a family game night once a week. (Sort of like Friday night in a shomer shabbat home?)
Cool, anon.
Yehuda
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