A Gamut of Games
Encyclopedia
A Gamut of Games, written by Sid Sackson
and first published in 1969, contains rules for a large number of paper and pencil
, card
, and board game
s. Many of the games in the book had never before been published. It is considered by many to be an essential text for anyone interested in abstract strategy games, and a number of the rules were later expanded into full-fledged published board games.
Some of the games which were later sold separately include Focus
, Property and Origins of World War I; Robert Abbott expanded his game Crossings
, published here, into the more-refined title Epaminondas
. Many of the games covered in the book were creations of Sid Sackson himself, who was a prolific game designer.
The sections of the book and the games covered therein are as follows:
A second edition of the book was published in 1982; Dover Publications
released an unabridged reprint, with an additional preface by Sackson, in 1992.
Sid Sackson
Sid Sackson was a significant American board game designer and collector.His most popular creation is probably the business game Acquire...
and first published in 1969, contains rules for a large number of paper and pencil
Paper and pencil game
Paper-and-pencil games are games that can be played solely with paper and pencil .In some board games, including some abstract strategy games like Gomoku, a piece once played will not be moved on the board or removed from the board...
, card
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
, and board game
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
s. Many of the games in the book had never before been published. It is considered by many to be an essential text for anyone interested in abstract strategy games, and a number of the rules were later expanded into full-fledged published board games.
Some of the games which were later sold separately include Focus
Focus (board game)
Focus is an abstract strategy board game, designed by Sid Sackson and first published in 1964 by Kosmos. The game has been re-published many times since, sometimes under the titles Domination or Dominio. Focus won the 1981 Spiel des Jahres and Essen Feather awards...
, Property and Origins of World War I; Robert Abbott expanded his game Crossings
Crossings (game)
Crossings is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott. The rules were published in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games...
, published here, into the more-refined title Epaminondas
Epaminondas (game)
Epaminondas is an abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott and originally introduced in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games as Crossings. While the original version used an 8x8 checkerboard, the current game uses a 12x14 board and different rules for capture...
. Many of the games covered in the book were creations of Sid Sackson himself, who was a prolific game designer.
The sections of the book and the games covered therein are as follows:
In Search of Big and Little Games
- Mate, a card game by G. Capellen
- Blue and Gray, a board game by Henry Busch and Arthur Jaeger
- Le TrucTrucTruc, pronounced try, is a 15th century bluff and counterbluff trick-taking card game which has been reasonably likened to Poker for two. It is played in Occitania, Sarthe , Poitou and the Basque Country , and is still very popular in the Valencia region...
, a revived French card game - Plank, a serious revamp of the concepts in Tic-Tac-Toe
- Zetema, a Victorian card game similar to BeziqueBeziqueBezique is a 19th-century French melding and trick-taking card game for two players derived from Marriage via Briscan by the addition of more scoring features, notably the peculiar liaison of Q and J, under the names Bésigue, Binokel, Pinochle, etc., according to the country.-History:Bezique was...
- Hekaton, a card game originally published along with "Yankee Notion Cards" from the 19th century
Game Inventors Are People Too
- Lines of ActionLines of ActionLines of Action is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Claude Soucie. The objective of the game is to connect all of your pieces...
, a board game by Claude Soucie - CupsCups (game)Cups was one of several games invented in 1965 by father and son Arthur Amberstone and Wald Amberstone who were both cofounders of the New York Gamers Association . They also invented Power, and High Deck, a card game based on medieval society. At the time both were working as basket makers as well...
, a mancala variant by Arthur and Wald Amberstone - CrossingsCrossings (game)Crossings is a two-player abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott. The rules were published in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games...
, a board game by Robert Abbott; later turned into EpaminondasEpaminondas (game)Epaminondas is an abstract strategy board game invented by Robert Abbott and originally introduced in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games as Crossings. While the original version used an 8x8 checkerboard, the current game uses a 12x14 board and different rules for capture... - Lap, a complex progeny of BattleshipsBattleship (game)The game Battleship is a guessing game played by two people. It is known throughout the world as a pencil and paper game which predates World War I. It was published by Milton Bradley Company in 1931 as the pad-and-pencil game "Broadsides, the Game of Naval Strategy".-Description:The game is...
by Lech PijanowskiLech PijanowskiLech Pijanowski was a Polish film critic, broadcaster, director, screenwriter and populiser of games.He is buried in the Powazki Cemetery.-Games:... - Three MusketeersThree Musketeers (game)Three Musketeers is an abstract strategy board game by Haar Hoolim. It was published in Sid Sackson's A Gamut of Games. The game is notable in that, like the traditional Fox and geese, it uses the principle of unequal forces; the two players neither use the same types of pieces nor the same...
, a board game by Haar Hoolim; notably, this game and the character in it was once used as the mascot for the Zillions of GamesZillions of GamesZillions of Games is a commercial General Game Playing system developed by Jeff Mallett and Mark Lefler in 1998. The game rules are specified with S expressions, Zillions rule language. It was designed to handle mostly abstract strategy board games or puzzles. After parsing the rules of the game,...
software product - Paks, a playing card game by Phil Laurence
- Skedoodle, a pencil-and-paper game by Father Daniel
- Knight Chase, a board game by Alex Randolph (inventor of games like TwixTTwixTTwixT is a two-player abstract strategy game invented by Alex Randolph. It is a member of the connection game family, along with games such as Hex, Havannah, Y, PÜNCT and *Star...
) - Origins of World War I, a historical pencil-and-paper game by Jim DunniganJim DunniganJames F. Dunnigan is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis.-Career:...
which teaches players history
Those Protean Pieces of Pasteboard
All of the games in this section use a standard pack of cards.- All My Diamonds, an auctioning game by Sid Sackson
- Osmosis, by Sid Sackson
- Patterns, by Sid Sackson
- Suit Yourself, by Sid Sackson
- Bowling Solitaire, a one-player game by Sid Sackson that simulates ten-pin bowlingTen-pin bowlingTen-pin bowling is a competitive sport in which a player rolls a bowling ball down a wooden or synthetic lane with the objective of scoring points by knocking down as many pins as possible.-Summary:The lane is bordered along its length by semicylindrical channels Ten-pin bowling (commonly just...
. - Card Baseball, by Sid Sackson
- Slam, a two-handed takeoff of BridgeContract bridgeContract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...
by Sid Sackson - Poke, a two-player multi-genre card game that combines strong elements of Poker with trick-taking games
- Color Gin, a two-handed modification of Hollywood Gin by Sid Sackson
New Battles on an Old Battlefield
All of the games in this section use a checkerboard.- FocusFocus (board game)Focus is an abstract strategy board game, designed by Sid Sackson and first published in 1964 by Kosmos. The game has been re-published many times since, sometimes under the titles Domination or Dominio. Focus won the 1981 Spiel des Jahres and Essen Feather awards...
, by Sid Sackson; this game was later sold commercially - Network, by Sid Sackson
- Take It Away, by Sid Sackson
Grab a Pencil
All of the games in this section are meant to be played with pencil and paper.- Hold That Line, by Sid Sackson; an attempt to move "boredom" games away from Tic-Tac-ToeTic-tac-toeTic-tac-toe, also called wick wack woe and noughts and crosses , is a pencil-and-paper game for two players, X and O, who take turns marking the spaces in a 3×3 grid. The X player usually goes first...
- Cutting Corners, by Sid Sackson; another attempt at a "boredom" game
- Paper Boxing, by Sid Sackson
- Last Word, a paper-based ScrabbleScrabbleScrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
-esque game by Sid Sackson - Patterns II, an inductive-reasoning game by Sid Sackson; see EleusisEleusis (game)Eleusis is a multi-genre card game where one player chooses a secret rule to determine which cards can be played on top of others, and the other players attempt to determine the rule using inductive logic....
for another game in this small genre - Property, later republished as New York, by Sid Sackson
A Miscellany of Games
- Solitaire Dice, by Sid Sackson
- Domino Bead Game, by Sid Sackson
- HaggleHaggle (game)Haggle is a party game designed by Sid Sackson and intended for a large number of players. It is rather complex and involved compared to many party games and, as a result, is often played only at gatherings of people who are known to enjoy gaming at other times.At the start of the game, each...
, a deliciously confusing party game by Sid Sackson - The No Game, a classic and simple party game
- Change Change, a simple solitaire utilizing coins by Sid Sackson
A second edition of the book was published in 1982; Dover Publications
Dover Publications
Dover Publications is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward Cirker and his wife, Blanche. It publishes primarily reissues, books no longer published by their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books in the public domain. The original published editions may be...
released an unabridged reprint, with an additional preface by Sackson, in 1992.