My Favourite Board Games

I've shifted to Texas Holdem Poker

2006-07-24T12:46:00.000+08:00

Shifted to Texas Holdem Poker?!!I guess anyone who is into Monopoly like I am, could very easily be forgiven for experimenting with a game like Texas Holdem: The hottest poker game 'round... thus far.I started playing over a year ago, and let me tell you... I got hooked!But not in a dangerous way, like in gambling my life savings and that. No, it became more of an intellectual obsession to

The Concentration Board Game

2005-11-22T10:24:00.000+08:00

Hi there!Have you ever heard of a board game called "Concentration"? I've seen this board game in many versions, especially at child care centers, pre-school, and primary school.I really like this board game because it helps kids develop the ability of retaining images in their memory and recalling them when prompted. Whilst Milton Bradley developed this game in

1001 visitors Already! Board Games Rock!!

2005-11-08T12:53:00.000+08:00

Greetings!I was glad to find that this blog has reached it's 1001st visitor today!In terms of online traffic, that may not be very significant, but in terms of effort, it is very rewarding.As you may be aware, I keep this blog out of interest in board games. Sometimes I lapse, as I have other websites to look after, but that does not mean this is less important at all.I want to thank you for

Spy Board Games: The Man From U.N.C.L.E Game

2005-11-07T18:30:00.000+08:00

Greetings!What do board games and spies have in common? Well, there is a number of spy-themed board games out there, and I started looking at a couple this weekend. One of them was based on a 1960s American TV show called "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.".If you're an X-generation person, or even a baby boomer, you'll remember the TV series. It was a reflection of the Cold War political tension at the

The Game of Politics

2005-11-02T21:33:00.000+08:00

G'day to ye all!I was doing a bit of a random search for old games the other day, when I came across a Parker Brother's game called "The Game of Politics", which subtitle invites you to "Elect Yourself as President".This game has a large board (17"x 29 1/2" when open) of the U.S. and asks "Can You Elect Yourself President of the United States?" The game is dated Copyright 1935 Parker Brothers,

Monopoly 70th Anniversary Edition

2005-10-29T20:12:00.000+08:00

Greetings!And speaking of Monopoly (at least, I was!), did you know that it's celebrating its 70th anniversary?Well, it is. And, of course, they're releasing a 70th Anniversary Monopoly Board edition:Click Here To Buy Your 70th Anniversary Monopoly EditionIn reality, as you may already know, Monopoly is much, much older than that. It is actually about 101 years old (Elisabeth Maggie patented an

The Addams Family Card Game

2005-10-29T19:48:00.000+08:00

Greetings!I haven't been able to upload the pictures of my Monopoly "Perth Limited Edition" yet, but it's coming... Just bear with me.In the meantime, I've come across several games worth mentioning for those board games afficionados.Have you ever heard of "The Addams Family Card Game"?I saw the TV show (of course), and watched the movie... but I had not seen the game at all.It was manufactured

Perth Monopoly Board

2005-10-27T06:29:00.000+08:00

Hi there,It's been another long time since my last entry.I've been dedicating more time to my low fat recipes site, the blog, and another little hobbie site I'm building.I'm still passionate about board games. But I've been busy with the rest of my life which, thankfully, does not only consist of board games (I am also getting into Poker!).... hahahah!Nevertheless... my beautiful partner in life

Monopoly Online?

2005-07-27T08:22:00.000+08:00

Monopoly has gone "online".Hasbro has released an online version of my favourite board game. They have determined the amount of rent to be paid on each property by conducting their research with taxi drivers.They tracked the most frequent places taxis would go to, and the prices for each property would be increased accordingly. Click here to see the full article.Yours in Fun,Jeff=*= =*= =*= Use

Australian Top 10 Board Games

2005-07-24T09:09:00.000+08:00

Hi!I was reading this morning in today's paper that the following games are the top 10 games in Australia: Deluxe Poker Set Elefun Monopoly (of course!) Kerplunk! Operation Trivial Pursuit Guess Who? 20 Questions Mouse Trap (I really like this one) Uno It's amazing how Poker has become the #1 game in Australia... for kids.Poker is not, stricktly speaking, a board game, but I

Staw Wars Board Games: The end of the Saga

2005-06-02T18:20:00.000+08:00

I have temporarely concluded my search for Star Wars Board Games, as I have found no more of them. I found some Star Wars Card Games, and lots of computer and video games, but no board games.Just in case you're interested, these are some of the Star Wars computer and video games I found:I will move on to my next favourite topic: Batman! Yup! I will discuss the available Batman Board Games.To the

More Star Wars Board Games

2005-05-29T18:52:00.000+08:00

Hey! I continued looking for more Star Wars Board Games and found the following:Star Wars: The Queen's Gambit: This is not a game you want to play with your kids, unless their IQ is 139 or higher, that is! The game recreates 4 simultaneous battles that took place in Episode I. This is a 2 players game, but the sheer number of pieces and boards gives a hint of the complex nature of the game itself

Star Wars Board Games

2005-05-28T21:01:00.000+08:00

My apologies for not having posted for a while. I've been busy with my low fat recipes site, a couple of court cases I have to prepare for, and other family matters... speaking of which, I report that I went to see Star Wars Episode III, The Revenge of the Sith the other day, and that triggered off the question: What Star Wars board games are available?Interesting question.Armed with a magnifying

Hey, I'm still alive! :-)

2005-05-05T22:19:00.000+08:00

I've been busy preparing a court case for next week, and surviving a few maladies in the last 3 weeks.I just wanted to tell you that I'll be posting more articles about board games soon....Yours in Fun,Jeff=*= =*= =*= Imagine... Doing what you love best... your hobbie... your interests... your expertise... your passion... your obsession... for fun and profit! Click here to see how some ordinary

RISK, the Board Game, The Rules

2005-04-15T06:19:00.000+08:00

Rather than "reinventing the wheel" by writing the objectives and rules of RISK, I think it is much more efficient to include a link to a site that has all that information for you. Click here, and a new window will open with the rules and overview of this exciting board game.In my next entry, I will discuss a few RISK versions and variations.Enjoy...Yours in Fun,Jeff=*= =*= =*= Imagine... Doing

Risk, The Board Game, The Name

2005-04-07T21:09:00.000+08:00

Greetings once again!Last week I started talking about RISK, the board game. I finished my last post promising to discuss the origins of the name of this fantastic game.Well, as you may recall (or read my last post if you don't), the game had a French name that was quite accurate in terms of description: "Conquer the World".But remember that at the time when the game came to Parker Brothers'

Risk: The Board Game Story (In a Nutshell)

2005-04-01T18:14:00.000+08:00

Hi, once again...Check once again the picture of RISK I posted in my last blog entry. The object of the game is self evident.No. It's not a geography game! It's a war game!In fact, the original name of the game was "La Conquete Du Monde" (The Conquest of the World, or a more anglisised translation "Conquer the World"... which makes more sense... gamewise!). ;-)The year was 1957. The place: France

RISK: The Board Game

2005-03-30T20:08:00.000+08:00

One of the most fascinating classic boardgames I've come across is RISK: The War Strategy Board Game.Many years ago I was reluctant to even try, mainly because the game takes a long time to complete. Then again, Monopoly takes a long time too, and I don't mind it.A friend of mine insisted that RISK was a great game to have with a few beers, and used to describe the moves, the anticipation, the

Can you make a game with this?

2005-03-23T15:17:00.000+08:00

Apart from having an interest in boardgames, I have also developed a couple of small commercial software applications. Developing them has not been a problem, but marketing them has proven to be a learning challenge. ;-)Not to worry, everything in life is a learning experience.I'm considering creating a couple of small games just for fun (not necessarely for profit), and been looking for a tool

CSI Board Game: A Detective Board Game For Fun

2005-03-15T16:24:00.000+08:00

This week I want to talk about one of the most popular games of the year: The CSI Board Game This could be regarded as a game for those who are addicted to the CSI TV series and, tell you what... it does help knowing where the characters come from, so that you can play this game at your best. The game is basically a detective game, where players collect evidence from a crime. The Board Game

Looking for a DVD Board Game

2005-03-07T18:26:00.000+08:00

Greetings!Looking for a DVD board game? I found a couple myself.Actually, the concept of combining a board game with some sort of video aide is not new. The first board game that I am aware of, that used this multimedia approach was the famous "Nightmare", which was later on followed by "Atmostfear".Good stuff for adults. Not so good for kiddies! They go and hide themselves under the bed sheets

Rummikub: Another Great Word Game

2005-03-01T07:31:00.000+08:00

I went window shopping the other day and, of course, I visited my local games shop. In there, I was looking for more word-based games to discuss in this blog later on.I came across a game I had heard about before. It's called Rummikub, and it is pronounced "Rumi-Cube".Now, the original Rummikub is not a word game, but a tile numbers game. However, one of its most popular versions has mutated into

The Boggling Story Continues

2005-02-22T22:22:00.000+08:00

As George Lucas might say... "The Saga Continues!"I wrote an email to my friend Phil Orbanes (who used to be Vice President for the Research and Development Department of Parker Brothers). Phil had just returned from a Toy Fair, and was tired. Yet, he was kind enough to fill me in with what he know about the mystery of Boggle's history. This is what he had to say:Alan Turoff did invent the "

More About The History of Boggle

2005-02-22T12:07:00.000+08:00

Ok. I picked up my autographed copy of Game Makers (by Phil Orbanes), and he touches upon Boggle in page 167, when discussing the changes that took place at Parker Bros in the 70s. He says that..."Another powerful seller was the letter cube game Boggle. A failure when first intruduced as part of a low-priced line of games in 1972, it returned in 1976 backed by a clever subway and billboard ad

I'm Boggled with the Story of Boggle!

2005-02-21T21:45:00.000+08:00

I'm Boggled with the History of Boggle!Yesterday, I continued my discussion about word games, and briefly discussed the rules and objects of the game... in a sort of very schetchy way.I looked for the story of Boggle in my books about games, but the only book I knew of that touched upon the history of this boggling game is "The Game Makers" by Phil Orbanes. width="120" height="240"

Boggle Anyone?

2005-02-20T18:31:00.000+08:00

Boggle anyone?This is another word-based fantastic board game that I've enjoyed playing with my kids.In a nutshell, you shake this container with a whole lot of dice with letters printed on. Then, players must make up words by combining the letters of adjacent dice until the sand clock runs out of time.Easy to explain, but coming up with so many words is a great challenge.One thing that can be

Back to Scrabble: The Digital Versions

2005-02-17T21:50:00.000+08:00

I had to return to Scrabble as a topic. As I am still talking about word board games, I felt it appropriate to talk about the digital versions of Scrabble available out there.You see... many boardgame buffs face the problem of not finding volunteers to play within her circles of friends and relatives. Unless you joing a Scrabble club or something like that, you may find it hard to persuade your

Visual-Eyes This:Another great words game!

2005-02-14T21:43:00.000+08:00

There is a game that caught my attention this weekend. It is called "Visual Eyes".The game is simple, but it is exactly that attribute that makes it appealling.It consists of 19 big dice displaying an image on each of their respective faces. You roll the dice, and try to come up with the largest number of phrases related to the images you see in a certain amount of time.The possible combinations

How Scrabble Took Off

2005-02-12T22:08:00.000+08:00

The first year that Scrabble really took off was in 1952?It just happened that a major buyer visited the Scrabble manufactoring plant whilst Butts' friend, Brunot and his wife, had decided to take a short 2-weeks holiday.He was pleasantly surpriced when he found orders for 2,500 sets.He thought this was going to be a once off affair, but he was wrong. The following week he had another order for

Scrabble Factoids

2005-02-02T22:30:00.000+08:00

Scrabble, like Monopoly, commercially came about during the depression years, but it was only till 1952 that it became a classic board game. Alfred Mosher Butts was its creator. He was unemployed architect at the time, and thought of creating a game as he had nothing else to do. The basis of Scrabble was "letter distribution". This concept focuses on the popularity of a letter used in words of

Word Games and Board Games

2005-01-26T21:23:00.000+08:00

Welcome once again to my Favourite Board Games! Are board games a trivial pursuit (pardon the pun! hahaha), a waste of time, or simply just boring and useless? Or can board games be something useful and "uniting" in a family or amongst friends? Obviously, my response to this question is biased. I love board games, and I think that they can be useful educational aides for both adults and

Cranium: A Board Game with A Great Difference!

2005-01-19T21:45:00.000+08:00

Board games come in many shapes or forms as you may have gathered by now. They can be mind teasers, individual goal-oriented (like monopoly), general knowledge (like Trivial Pursuit), or other skills (like Pictionary). I love them all. But one game that has puzzled me (and many others) because of the difference in approach is Cranium. In this innovative board game, you can test how good you are

Sex in a Box? Or just a great board game?

2005-01-18T21:02:00.000+08:00

As I was saying the other day... Twister is a great game! It was invented by Chuck Foley and Neil Rabens, and eventually purchased by Milton Bradley as their stellar performance, best seller game for 1966. Who got the money for Twister, though? Well, it was a dude by the name of Reyn Guyer, who happened to be the guy who employed the inventors... Once they did the right thing by inventing such

Twister: Another Example of Simple Innovation

2005-01-17T20:22:00.000+08:00

Hi there, It's been a month since I made an entry into this blog. I apologise for the sporadic nature of my entries. My excuse is the end of the year festivities. I've been very busy doing other stuff, including housework (I'm renovating the second bathroom), travelling in a weekend cruise, and writing content for a website of mine about low fat recipes (www.Delicious-low-fat-recipes.com).

Another Christmas Themed Board Game!

2004-12-19T13:54:00.000+08:00

I just found this other Christmas themed game. It is called... wait for it: The Christmas in a Box Game How do they come up with these titles for their games, huh? ;-) I reckon this is one of those games you play only during or close to Christmas. To be honest, I would rather play my normal Monopoly instead. In fact, this game is so close to the Monopoly concept, that I don't see why you

Some Christmas Themed Board Games

2004-12-19T11:40:00.000+08:00

Greetings! Today I want to start departing from my most favourite board game (in case you've come late to this blog, my most favourite board game in the whole world is Monopoly... but I also have a few other board games I also like very much). My kids went to the USA for holidays last night. During the afternoon preceeding their departure, we had the most amazing Monopoly game ever, in my

Monopoly Spin Off Books... Continuation

2004-12-02T23:55:00.000+08:00

A couple of years ago, I started compiling pictures about Monopoly collectable memorabilia.... The project came to a halt when my computer crashed, and I lost the contact details of all the people who gave me permission to include their pictures in my book to be.... May be I'll pick up where I stopped - eventually - and get their permissions again... one day. Anyway, in the process of gathering

Monopoly Spin Off Books

2004-12-02T23:31:00.000+08:00

The books that I've discussed so far are books that either tell you how to win the game with good strategies, or tell you about the origins of the game. There are, however, 2 other types of Monopoly books: Those that claim that the principles of the game have had some sort of influence in the Author's business skills, and those that use the Monopoly concept to build upon property trading skills

Books About Monopoly: Part Two: Beyond Boarwalk and Parkplace

2004-12-02T23:12:00.000+08:00

Beyond Boardwalk and Parkplace is one of my favourite books on the subject of Monopoly playing. This is because it seeks to depart from the normal official rules to make the game more interesting. It contains rules that make sense. For instance, under the proposed rules in this book, one cannot trade or get any benefits whilst in Jail. You cannot buy properties from the word "go" (pardon the

Books About Monopoly: Part Two... Continuation

2004-12-02T22:58:00.000+08:00

Another jewel in my collection of Monopoly books is 1000 Ways to Win Monopoly Games. This is a very expensive out of print book, nowadays costing up to $115 USD if you are lucky to get a copy! The strategies outlined in this book are somehow unorthodox, but effective if you are up to fun-by-always-winning-no-matter-what. But, having read the official rules of the game, as clarified by Phil

Books About Monopoly Part Two

2004-12-02T21:41:00.000+08:00

I thought that the history of Monopoly would have been thoroughly covered in the Game Makers book and the Billion Dollars Monopoly Swindle. But it seems that there is more to tell about Monopoly's story. There is yet another book that I have to get. It has not arrived to Australia yet, but it's available in the USA. It is called Monopoly: The Story Behind the World's Best-Selling Game, and it was

Winning Monopoly

2004-11-19T21:27:00.000+08:00

As promised... here is my own picture of Winning Monopoly, by Kaz Darzinskis.Posted by Jeff

Books About Monopoly: Part One and a half...

2004-11-19T20:48:00.000+08:00

The Monopoly Book, by Maxine Brady, is one of books that repeated the old Parker Brothers' promotional line about the origin of the game. In the first chapter Maxine briefly touches upon this issue by dedicating a subsection called "In the beginning there was the Great Depression". To be fair with Maxine, the book only touched upon the origin of Monopoly as a trivia topic because the book is

Books About Monopoly: Part One

2004-11-17T22:08:00.000+08:00

When I first played Monopoly, I did it in my first language: Spanish. I don't remember the names of the properties, but I do remember the thrill I experienced by this complex game. I don't think I followed the rules for a long time up to my adulthood. I played with no method, and no knowledge whatsoever about the official rules. That all changed when I started playing Monopoly more seriously (

Welcome to My Favourite Board Games

2004-11-16T20:16:00.000+08:00

I started writing about board games in Netopics, but decided that I like this topic so much, that it would be better to have a blog dedicated to it. I started with what is arguebly the best of all board games in modern history: Monopoly. There is a lot to say about board games and, if you're interested in that topic, I'm sure you'll find a lot of interesting information in this blog. You