Dec 2005 Catalog

MNG-AJM Games and Collectibles

Dec 2005 Catalog

While I don’t publish my latest catalog on the internet, this older catalog is available for you to look through to get an idea of the sort of thing I generally have. Please be aware that many of the games in this catalog will have already sold, and if they haven’t then the prices are not necessarily still valid – the prices are only valid in the month the catalog comes out! However, if you do see something of interest email me and I’ll let you know if I still have it. Also getting the monthly catalog by email is free and without obligation, so why not just ask to be added to my subscription list, or ask me to send you the latest catalog by email?

2300 A.D., published by GDW. 1988. Box. Good. £3.50. Desc. by Andy.

Roleplaying game set in the year 2300 A.D. when man has made it to the stars but now has to fight to stay there. Adventures suggested include fighting a hostile alien race, police fighting smugglers, pirates and terrorists plaguing human colonies, exploring uncharted systems etc. The set includes: Adventurer's Guide, Director's Guide, Near Star Map, Play Aids.

3-D Puzzle Challenge - New York, published by Handley Printers Ltd. ca.1989. Box. In shrink. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

750 piece jigsaw puzzle with a difference. The picture shows a cityscape of New York taken from the air looking down over the skyscrapers. However, the jigsaw is in 3-D, and the jigsaw comes with a pair of 3-D specs (one green lens, one red lens) for you to wear to appreciate the 3-D effect!

Abenteuer Menschheit, published by Kosmos. 2002. Box. Excellent. £16

Published as Settlers Of The Stone Age in America. Another game which uses the basic Settlers of Catan mechanics. This one is set in the stone age, and follows the migration of man from African into Europe and then Asia, America and Australia. There are quite a few new ideas in this game, such as paying for technological inventions and the advantages they bring. Also as the game goes on Africa stops producing so forcing the players to move their settlements to new areas. VPs are awarded for being the first to settle new continents, major technological developments etc. A good variant with enough differences to make it worthwhile.

Ark, published by Rio Grande Games. 2005. Box. Excellent. £12

Card game with the usual excellent Doris Matthaeus graphics. The theme is Noah's ark and players take it in turns to add in animals to the ark. This is done by playing cards which show the animals with symbols to indicate characteristics such as size, carnivore / herbivore, shyness, slowness or misc special abilities. The ark is divided into two halves and care must be taken not to overbalance it. Also no harm must come to any of the animals or provisions, so there are quite a few restrictions on what can be played where eg. only one carnivore per compartment, and it must be the smallest of the animals there. Shy animals won't even go into a compartment next to one with a carnivore in!

Armada, published by Jeux Descartes. 1986. Box. Excellent - unpunched. £16. Desc. by Andy

3rd edition. Very nicely produced game with great components: 300 plastic markers, 150 tokens, 8 metal ships, 3 special dice and cards. The board shows an archipelago which is home to several pirate bands. The large central island is unexplored but known to be home to ferocious natives. The players as pirate leaders attempt to become the pirate lord of the archipelago and use action points to move and load ships, explore, attack opponents etc. The cards allow players to enhance their actions or surprise opponents.

Around The World In 80 Days, published by Ravensburger. 1987. Box. Good. £12

Race game based on the Jules Verne story. Wooden pieces. Game play involves using cards to move from space to space along a track. In order to make a move a numbered card must be played which matches the currently available transport type. Special cards allow the current transport method to be changed, or hinder other players, and landing on certain spaces gives additional benefits, often allowing a further card play, making quite long moves possible from time to time. Recommended as a light but enjoyable game.

Atmosfear - The Harbingers, published by Spear's Games. 1995. Box. Good. £15

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-6. Country: British, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Original rules booklet is missing, but I am supplying a printout of the rules.

A much expanded update of the classic video driven horror game Atmosfear. As with the original a 60 minute video tape is played and this will interrupt play now and then and give instructions to the one of the players. The players all start by moving around the board trying to claim a character for themselves. Anyone who fails to claim one after 10 minutes becomes a Soul Ranger and has to move around the sewers. In order to win the players collect keys, and each key gives their character an added power. When a player has all 6 keys they test themselves against their greatest fear, and if they survive they win! It is quite possible for all the players to lose.

Attika, published by Hans Im Gluck. 2003. Box. Excellent. £16. Desc. by Andy.

An unusual tile laying game in which players all have the same city segments, but each player will get them in a different order, so that players have to adapt their play accordingly. The city segments have an ordering indicated by each player's large city play mat, and when played in the correct order from the mat to the board placement is free, otherwise resource cards must be spent to play a tile. In addition bonus actions are awarded if a whole city section is placed together on the board. The game can be won either by playing out your entire city or by connecting two temples with your city tiles. Plays especially well with two players.

Backgammon – A selection of sets available:

1) Published by Invicta. 1973. Box. Good. £0.75. Country: British
A travel version of the game, with all the pieces made of plastic that adheres to the plastic board. This is in the shape of a wallet so it can be tucked into a pocket. Part of the Passport Games Series - the game is about the same size as a passport. Includes two of the smallest dice I have seen, though no doubling cube.

2) Published by Jacques / H.P.G. Box. Excellent. £6. Country: British Rather nice Backgammon set. It is a foldout wooden case with cork-like inner boards. Includes dice, doubling cube, dice shakers and rules. The pieces are plastic with magnets inset - the board is very slightly magnetic too so the pieces grip a little when put down. The box says 'Jacques', but the rules 'H.P.G.' The rules booklet also details the game Chouette for 3 or more players.

3) Published by Merit. ca.1969. Box. Box good, contents still sealed. £1.75. Country: British
Box contains a fold out backgammon board, stackable plastic pieces, dice, and doubling cube. The rules also give hints on strategy which would be very helpful to a novice player.

4) Published by Spears. 1980. Box. Good. £1.75. Country: British.
Box contains a fold out backgammon board with wooden pieces and wooden dice (inc. doubling cube) and rules.

5) Publisher unknown. Box. Excellent. £5
Rather nice Backgammon set. It is a large foldout leather-like case with attractive inner boards. Includes dice, doubling cube, dice shakers and rules. The pieces are plastic but stackable. Rules include recommended first moves.

6) Publisher unknown. Box. Good. £6
Attractive backgammon set which comes in a large attractive maroon padded case. The case is 30cm x 46cm when closed (twice that when open). Inside the playing area is cream felt with leather effect maroon and black points. Includes 4 dice + doubling cube + dice cups and rules of both Backgammon and Chouette.

7) Published by House Martin. Box. Good. £3.50.
A backgammon set in a foldaway black leather finish box. It is about 24cm by 36cm when unfolded, and half that when folded, so pretty portable - ideal for taking on holiday. The pieces have magnets in and the board is slightly magnetic so the pieces won't slip by accident. Includes rules and doubling cube and a foldup dice rolling cup!

No. players: 2. Duration: 15 mins. Desc. By Andy.

If you haven’t tried backgammon then I can recommend it as an excellent two player game with a mixture of luck and skill, but over a number of games the better player will generally win out when playing with the doubling cube.

Bioncle Adventure Game - Quest For Makuta, published by RoseArt. 2001. Box. Excellent. £10

Adventure game with a Lego tie in, though there are no Lego pieces in the box. The players take the roles of robot heroes who must defeat the evil Makuta. The players explore an island made up of large interlocking hex tiles each with a number of spaces to move over and power enhancing items to find as well as enemies to defeat. The island tiles are placed as the game progresses ensuring the layout is different each time. When the robots are sufficiently powerful and have found the Temple of Makuta they may make a challenge to win the game and free the islanders from Makuta forever. Very nice components.

BMX Challenge, published by PIC Toys Ltd. ca.1970. Box. Good, but box edges and corners taped. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Simple children’s race game (age 5+) in which players roll the dice and move their playing piece, which is a plastic BMX with rider doing a wheelie. Landing on a space of your colour gets another roll, and on some spaces you must draw a card which come in two decks, one helpful and one unhelpful.

British Battles Playing Cards, published by Waddingtons. 1992. Display Stand. Good. £0.75

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

On one side this is a normal (large symbol) set of playing cards with 2 jokers and one blank. However the backs are not all the same as is usual with playing cards. Instead each gives details of a different battle from British History. The backs also show a one week segment of the 1992 calendar, thus making up the whole year over the deck. Clearly the cards are marked in terms of card play, but still an interesting item.

Buck Rogers Battle For The 25th Century Game, published by TSR. 1988. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £21. The box is slightly indented due to stacking.

2) Fair. £17. Box is whole, but 1 end panel of the box and base has had a large chunk out of it. The box still closes properly though.

Huge sci-fi multiplayer wargame with hundreds of plastic spaceships, influenced by the style of the MB Gamesmaster Series. Players are factions fighting for control of the Solar System. The large board shows the Solar System's 4 inner planets and 9 large asteroids and various satellites, as well as various territorial displays. Each player has a variety of forces to build using factories and in order to get to other planets efficiently you need to plan ahead to use their conjunctions effectively.

Cannes, published by Splotter Spellen. 2002. Box. Good. £11.50

Country: Dutch, Duration: 90 mins, Desc. by Andy.

The theme is producing films and this is done with people, computer chips and beer, converting these to computers, actors, special effects and scripts and then into various types of film. The way the resources and conversion are done however is unusual - a network of connections on a board of hex tiles is built up as the game goes on and this shows what each player has access to.

Captain Planet And The Planeteers, published by Parker Brothers. 1992. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-5. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Family board game with an ecological theme. The board shows 4 areas all of which have pollution markers which the players try to remove from the board. Movement is by dice roll, and cards will be collected and later played. Players can move between the various regions, and are sometimes summoned from one to another by Captain Planet. Eco-villains can cause all players to have to give back pollution markers. When all are collected the player who dealt with the most pollution wins.

Card And Dice Games Rule Book, published by Octopus Publishing Group. 2001. Book. Good. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

64 page paperback book covering the rules to 26 popular card games and 9 dice games. Colour illustrations aid the descriptions. The games are: Patiences (Klondike, Maze, La Bell Lucie, St Helena, Spider, Royal Parade), 2 player (California Jack, Gin Rummy, Tablanette, German Whist), 3 player (Black Maria, Knaves), 4 player (Canasta), 5+ players (Newmarket, Brag, Spoil Five, Poker, Red Dog, Rockaway), Banking Games (Baccarat, Easy Go, Chemin De Fer, Blind Hockey, Racing, Hoggenheimer, Slippery Sam), Dice games (Yacht, Drop Dead, Craps, 21, Pig, Buck Dice, 4-5-6, Chuck-A-Luck, Qualify).

CD Adventure: Search For The Lost City, published by Spear's Games. 1994. Box. Good. £12

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: One knife chit is missing but a colour copy mounted on card is included. The original steel ball was missing but an entirely serviceable replacement supplied.

Fantasy adventure game with a few neat twists. The first is that the adventure cards which are drawn during the game give an introduction and then one of about 70 tracks on a CD must be played to complete the encounter! Also at various points during the game The Oracle must be consulted. This is a device into which you drop a ball and it can either be used to indicate a Yes / No answer depending where the ball comes out, or to show one of six colours which then result in a card draw corresponding to that colour and then playing a CD track as well. The game comes with plastic adventurer figures and a large playing board.

Coloretto Amazonas, published by Abacus Spiele. 2005. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £5.50 2) In shrink. £6

Card game which is different to the original game Coloretto. In this game players try to collect sets of animal cards which come in four different colours. Cards are either played from your hand onto your own display to add to your sets of cards, or into an opponent's display to damage their display. When the deck runs out points are scored using the scale familiar to Coloretto players for the number of animals in each set, with bonuses for completed sets as well.

Cosmopolitan The Game, published by Waddingtons. 1994. Box. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: The felt tip pens have dried out - I will try to revive them, but if this fails you can use OHP marker pens.

Cosmopolitan is a British magazine for women, and the main focus is on men, looking good, and having fun. This game is intended for readers of Cosmopolitan, and the current player reads out a multiple choice question to her neighbour who then answers and is assigned a point for Love, Work, Play or Self. After everyone has answered quite a few rounds of questions each player can read a sort of horoscope based on her scores in each of these categories.

Count Down, published by Mind Movers. 1974. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Essentially a numerical version of master mind given a space theme. Very nicely made single unit, with 7 rows of dials each with 5 number dials (0-9) and two scoring dials (showing the number of black and white 'pegs). In addition there is a master number dial, with a flap to keep this hidden during play. The dials are rotated in order to make guesses and score these guesses. The 'theme' is that the guessing player must find the Blast Off combination, and the box shows four rockets and four missiles intercepting each other.

Cuckoo's Nest, published by Ravensburger. 1982. Box. Good. £5.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Children's game (ages 4-8). Players try to be the first cuckoo to deposit an egg in each of 6 nests around the board. Movement is by dice roll, but this only indicates either an event card for the turn (with symbols, no words) or which colour line the player can follow that turn to a different nest (not every route has all the coloured lines).

Dama, published by Polymertex Plastics. ca.1970. Box. Good. £1.75

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: Unknown, Desc. by Andy.

This is a draughts set, but on a board of dots and lines instead of black and white squares (the two boards are equivalent).

Das Malefiz Spiel, published by Ravensburger. 1971. Box. Good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: German, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Also known as Barricade. Players race to get their men to the far side of the board, however, while there are 4 pathways through the first section, there are only 3 to the next, then two, and then just one pathway, before a choice of directions again to the finish. Movement is by dice roll, but there are generally several choices, and the skill is in the use of the barricades which get placed on various choke spaces. The choke spaces can then only be moved past by an exact roll. Very popular family game in Germany.

Daylight Robbery, published by Ravensburger. 1983. Box. Good. £10

Also published as Thieves In The Wood. Each player is a traveler with £1000 in his pocket. The objective is to get through the woods to the bank and stash your cash there safely. However, the road through the woods is dangerous, and robbers await. There are both short cuts and long diversions, which may be taken to try to avoid the thieves. Should a player lose all his money to the thieves then he becomes a thief and may rob other players. Getting to the bank early will earn you interest until the others arrive. The player with the most money in the bank at the end wins.

Delta, published by I.Q.Company Ltd. 1987. Box. Box poor, contents good. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: Hong Kong, Desc. by Andy.

A novel abstract game in which the players have triangular shaped pieces which move around the board trying to eliminate the opponent's pieces and capture their home spaces. The movement and capture mechanism is novel - either flipping over on an edge or moving along the line of the longest side. Well worth a look for abstract games players.

Der Zerstreute Pharao, published by Ravensburger. 1997. Box. Excellent. £7.50

Very attractive memory game with 47 plastic pyramids under which are hidden the Pharoah's treasures. Players try to help retrieve as many of the treasures as possible. The main mechanism is that treasures and blank tiles are mixed up and hidden underneath an array of pyramids. The current player turns over a search card and must try to find this treasure. This is done by sliding pyramids into the one gap, rather like an elaborate sliding block puzzle, but if a different treasure gets revealed before the desired treasure then the player fails. As the game goes on it is possible to use your memory to navigate around large sections of the board safely. The game was later re-released as Ramses II.

Devil’s Triangle, published by Peter Pan. 1986. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box lid slightly warped, and a small tear has been taped.

Part of this publisher's Think series of games. Nice, solid plastic triangular pieces and board. Each player has 9 triangles with numbers underneath which are placed on the board or moved around in order to surround and thus capture opposing pieces. The first player to capture 3 opposing pieces will be the winner unless one of those triangles was nominated as the Devil's Triangle by his opponent before the game began, in which case the player who captured the Devil's Triangle loses.

Die Erbraffer, published by Ravensburger. 1994. Box. Excellent. £13. Desc. by Andy.

Unusual but great theme for a game - the board shows 6 generations of a family tree, with many intermarriages. Play progresses through the generations and players play cards to alter the fortunes of the various family members in the current generation in terms of money and valuable heirlooms. As time passes a generation dies and the wills are found and the goodies pass onto the next generation, though often new wills may be found redistributing the wealth. The objective is to end up with as much of the valuables ending up in the possession of various of your (secretly owned) family members dotted through the ages, or your secret heir in the year 2000. For £4 extra I can print and laminate a set of cards in English to ease gameplay.

Die Sternenfahrer Von Catan - 5-6 Player Expansion, published by Kosmos. 2000. Box.

Excellent - unused. £13. Designed by Klaus Teuber. No. players: 3-6.

Country: German, Duration: 2.5 hrs, Desc. by Andy.

5-6 player expansion for Die Sternenfahrer Von Catan, which you will need to make use of this. The set includes 2 more motherships and extra weapons, boosters, and colony / trade ships etc for the extra players. It also includes add on systems for the players to explore and an extra race of aliens with their own concession cards (which could be used in games with fewer players too).

Die Weinhandler, published by Amigo. 2004. Box. In shrink. £9. Desc. by Andy.

Card game in which players bid for cards showing bottles of wine, and then place them into a pyramid structure representing their wine cellar. The bidding rounds involve using your wine bottles to obtain better ones, and the highest bidder gets the 4 bottles in the display, the next highest bidder gets those the top bidder bid with, and so on. When placing bottles into the wine cellar bottles get more points the higher their value, and also gain bonuses for sets of the same type of wine. There is plenty of scope for tactical bidding, and care needs to be taken when laying down your wine cellar.

Dinosaurs The Game, published by BMI. 1992. Box. Box good, contents unpunched. £2.50

The players take on the roles of Dinosaurs and race across the board to be the first to get to the top of the volcano. It is essentially a roll the dice and move game, though it has a theme popular with kids and stand up dinosaur counters, as well as a variety of stand up tree counters to use as obstacles.

Dragon Dice - Red Dragon Champion Dice, published by TSR. 1995. Packet. Good. £0.50

A single die from the Dragon Dice collectable dice game. This die comes with its own rules sheet. The die is a large d6 with various flame-like runes adorning it. The die represents a Red Dragon Champion in the game - a very powerful ally or adversary. The rules sheet states it is a limited edition die.

Dragonriders, published by Rio Grande Games. 2005. Box. Excellent. £26. Desc. by Andy.

Designed by Klaus Juergen Wrede, Jean Du Poel. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Duration: 90 mins. Each player controls a wizard riding a dragon, participating in a race. The board is large and made up from a selection of large square double sided tiles ensuring the race will be different every time. Players secretly choose their speed each turn, and then from front to back make their move using special movement sticks which as well as determining the distance a piece can move also determine the amount they can turn. As well as keeping up with the leaders players must avoid collisions with the canyon walls and each other while also casting spells on their rivals to best effect. The playing pieces are really attractive moulded dragons on hex bases.

Droids, published by Euro Games. 1991. Box. Excellent. £18

Entertaining game of robotic warfare. Wonderful plastic robots move around a changing arena, chasing or avoiding their enemies. Players program and pilot their robot around the arena by placing programme tiles on to your orders board. Only good programming and the ability to anticipate the orders of other players will enable you to be the last robot standing. The rules also include different 'missions' to add variety to the game.

Drueke's Solitaire, published by W.M. Drueke & Sons. . Box. Good. £3

A very nice wooden solitaire board with pegs which are kept in a compartment in the back of the board. As well as the standard well known centre-hole solitaire problem this set also sets 6 other challenges which it says can be done.

Dungeons & Dragons Board Game, published by TSR Inc. 1991. Box. Good. £12

Base set of the Dungeons & Dragons Board Game (which is also titled The New Easy To Master D&D). This set provides an adventure for you to play as well as a series of 'Dragon Cards' which teach you how to play in easy steps. The set includes polyhedral dice, many stand up cardboard figures, GM's screen and the rule book. Essentially this is a classic fantasy dungeon bash board game / role playing game crossbreed.

Dungeons & Dragons Board Game - The Dragon's Den, published by TSR Inc. 1992. Box. Good. £12

First expansion to the Dungeons & Dragons Board Game (which was also called The New Easy To Master D&D). This set provides three more adventures which can be played individually or as a single long campaign, for which you will need the base game. There is also a standalone scenario which can be played with this set alone. The set focuses on adventures involving dragons and as well as the scenario books, colour poster map-board of the dungeons, and tiles there are over 60 stand up cardboard figures, as well as cards and playing pieces for the standalone game. Essentially this is a classic fantasy dungeon bash board game / role playing game crossbreed.

Dungeons & Dragons Board Game - The Haunted Tower, published by TSR Inc. 1992. Box. Good. £12

Third expansion to the Dungeons & Dragons Board Game (which was also called The New Easy To Master D&D). This set provides three more adventures which can be played individually or as a single long campaign, for which you will need the base game. There is also a standalone scenario which can be played with this set alone. The set focuses on adventures involving undead and as well as the scenario books, colour poster map-board of the dungeons, and tiles there are over 70 stand up cardboard figures, as well as cards and playing pieces for the standalone game. Essentially this is a classic fantasy dungeon bash board game / role playing game crossbreed.

Europe Aflame, published by TSR. 1989. Box. Good. £10

WWII wargame involving land, sea, and air combat fought in Europe and the Middle East. Each player commands one of the major alliances of the war, builds forces, and deploys their units. Rules included for various special units, maintaining supplies, and keeping industry going as well as combat. Units stand up in plastic stands. There are three short scenarios and a complete Campaign game.

Evolutions, published by Spear's Games. 1996. Box. Good, but 1 corner taped. £4

Trivia game playable individually or in teams. There are 300 double sided cards each side of which describes a particular object, concept or person. The objective is for the current player to work out what is being described and name it. If that player fails to do so then other players get a chance to answer. The first player to move their playing piece around the board wins the game.

Exxtra, published by Amigo Spiele. ca.1997. Box. Good. £6.50

Dice game with special dice in which players have to push their luck to try to get high rolls which can then be placed on a scoring ladder, and possibly kick other players' dice off the ladder. If your dice stay on the ladder until your next go then you score points. First to 21 points wins.

Fair Play, published by EG Spiele. ca.1995. Box. Good. £11

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: Italian, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Race game, with very nice metal car playing pieces. The board is built up from 48 tiles and so is different each game. Card play determines movement, but in an unusual way as the players offer cards to opponents, which can be accepted or refused, thus requiring an element of bluff. The road tiles also provide various hazards and such as roadworks and service stations and petrol stations which can be stopped at to get rid of various bad cards which the car might have acquired.

Family Challenge, published by JGE Board Games. 1995. Box. Good. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Soccer themed family board game. The board shows four concentric tracks around which the players move their pieces. They start on the outer ring, which counts as the 4th division, and get to collect players, money and advantageous cards before moving up to the next ring. The objective is to get to the centre of the board in order to win. The game also includes trivia cards. The 3rd and 4th division questions are general knowledge, but the 1st and 2nd division questions are mostly football related.

Feudal, published by 3M. 1969. Box. Good. £17

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Desc. by Eamon.

Excellent variation on chess, with its own special board, its own special pieces (that ‘plug’ into the board), and very clever rules. For instance, you set up secretly behind a screen, and your pieces include a castle that you must site, and then defend. The board even has terrain features so that, for instance, archers on a hill have increased range.

Feuerschlucker, published by Ravensburger. 2003. Box. Good. £6

Card game in which players play cards showing various circus acts in order to get people tokens for their audience. However, for many cards if you play a card already showing on the table you get to steal some of the audience from that player rather than from the pool. However, each player only has one card showing at once. Other cards let you play several of a type at once or get more audience the more of that type that are showing etc. The round ends when all the audience tokens in the pool have been taken.

Fire And Ice, published by Pin International. 2001. Box. Excellent. £14

Beautifully produced and very solid wooden strategy game in which the players vie for control of seven mini boards arranged in a triangle, and with connecting lines. You win by controlling three of these mini boards which are connected in a line, and you control a mini board by having 3 pegs in a line. Unlike similar games though, you don't just place pegs into the board, but you must move one of your existing pegs to a legal new position and place one of your opponent's pieces where yours used to be! Mathematically proven never to end in a draw. The game also has rules for a solitaire version of the game.

Firepower, published by Avalon Hill. 1984. Box. Good. £6

Highly detailed simulation of man-to-man combat over the 20 years 1965 - 1985. For those of you daunted by a detailed rulebook, it does include introductory, basic rules as well. Includes squad organisations from over 50 different nations, and details of hundreds of different vehicles and weapons. The mapboards can be arranged in numerous ways for added variety and there are some solitaire scenarios included. Bookcase box.

Fishy, published by White Wind. 1991. Box. Good but 1 box corner taped. £20

Special notes: Limited edition, game no. 1059 / 1200.

3 games in one box. The games all have in common that the players try to avoid the rotten fish whereas fresh fish are good. The 3 games are: Rotten Fish (players are fishmongers trying to sell their fish in the market), Fresh Fish (players are chefs trying to buy the best fish), and Fish In The Barrel (players are fishermen selling fish to fishmongers). Includes 120 wooden fish, cards and a colourful board. Part of the highly collectable limited edition '1200' range of games by White Wind.

Four-Up, published by Waddingtons. 1979. Box. Good. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: 2 original marbles have been replaced with similar marbles

Four in a row game. The game uses black and white marbles and they are placed onto a slightly strange shaped grid, with the players trying to get four of their pieces in a row while stopping their opponent from doing the same. The game also has rules for a speed version and a solitaire variant in which you try to jump the marbles over each other in order to achieve certain patterns. The game board also has compartments in which to store the marbles when you are not playing.

Fruit Bandits, published by JKLM Games. 2005. Box. In shrink. £6.50

Card game in which the players try to harvest (or steal) as much fruit as possible. This is done by simultaneously playing action cards to indicate whether you will harvest or steal from a particular player that turn. Harvesting unmolested is often great, but when the harvest is large this is hard to get away with. On the other hand trying to steal from someone else only works if they chose to harvest and if not too many other thieves also turned up. Thus to do well you will need to be able to work out what the other players are going to do. Having each player draw different 'potential harvest' cards each round ensures there is information on which to base your judgement - but can you use that information?

Funny Bones, published by Parker. 1968. Box. Good, but box corners taped. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+ couples. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Card game. Very funny in the right company. 23 attractive cards, each thicker than usual playing cards. Players divide into couples and they must follow the instructions and place the card drawn between the two ‘bones’ indicated, eg. 'Nose bone connected to back bone' means one player holds the card with their nose against their partner's back. By the time a couple is holding several of these cards in place it can get very tricky to comply with the next card! The game also has a tactical element as once each game a couple can reject a card and force another couple to perform it instead.

Genius, published by Games Team Ltd. 1988. Box. Excellent. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2 teams. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Although this is a general knowledge game based on the Guinness Book Of Records, it has some interesting features, such as a quite thick book containing about 100 full colour pictures all of which are quite stunning in their own way. As well as normal questions from a card sometimes questions are asked about these amazing pictures.

Ginny-O, published by Peter Pan. 1981. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon. Special notes: Photocopied rules

Tile variation of Gin Rummy, with 108 thick plastic tiles representing two packs of cards plus their jokers. Players place their tiles, forming runs and sequences, and joining them crossword fashion to existing sequences on the board.

Grand Prix, published by Ravensburger. 1975. Box. 2 Box corners taped. £12.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-6. Country: German, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Clever motor racing game. Each player controls 3 cars, and each turn one will move 4 spaces, another 5 and the third 6 spaces. Once past the initial bend any car which fails to use its full movement gets pushed to the side of the track on to a special hard shoulder, where getting back on is urgent as any further infringement will disqualify that car. On the straights there are spaces which can be used to slipstream a car in front and gain extra movement. There is no overtaking on corners and going around the outside takes longer. Three laps are normally run, and by then the field will generally be quite spread out. Simple mechanism, but gives a very good feel for the subject.

Hacker, published by FanFor Verlag. 1990. Box. Good. £13

Entertaining game set in a computer company and the players are different departments within the company trying to discover the other department’s secrets. Each department is continually pushing to get terminal time and it becomes a battle just to get time at the computer. Wooden pieces.

Hedgehog, published by Spears. 1983. Box. 1 box corner taped. £3.50

Special notes: Missing 1 spine. The game is still playable though.

Children's memory game (age 4+). The board shows different coloured areas of a garden in which a large 3D hedgehog lives. He has holes for 20 spines which are inserted at the start of the game. This hides coloured ends of the spines. The hedgehog moves around the board and players take a spine from the big hedgehog and if its colour matches the hedgehog's current space the spine is kept, otherwise it is replaced. Each player also has a small hedgehog into which spines which are won are placed. Very attractive game.

Hi-De-Hi, published by Waddingtons. 1984. Box. 1 Box corner split. £2.50

TV tie in for the British comedy program of the same name. The players take part in each of the camp's contests and try to gain points. Most points at the end is the Maplin's Champion. The game is basically roll the dice and move, though one or two of the contests provide some choices in how you move.

Hollywood, published by Waddingtons. 1990. Box. Good. £8

Special notes: Box slightly indented due to stacking

Be a film mogul and win the Academy Award. Beautifully presented, with three dimensional parts to put on the board, forming places such as a cinema, a studio and the Awards Ceremony location. Players must finance, cast and produce one of six films. A finished film requires a writer, director, star actress, star actor, sufficient money from backers, a location, studio, and good editing and production, and finally a good review. All these are gathered on various 'loops' on the board, which the players' pieces move around.

Il Principe, published by Mind The Move. 2005. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £21 2) In shrink. £23

Board game in which the players vie for control of political positions and important regions of land. This is done by purchasing cards in auctions, and then playing them either to build cities (which give control over the land as well as immediate victory points to the builder and some of the players currently in positions of power), or to vie for the positions of power, which each give different benefits, as well as victory points at the end of the game. However, power is temporary and the game ensures that the positions of power will keep changing throughout the game.

Invers, published by Peri Spiele. 1991. Box. Good. £9

Two player strategy game from this master designer of this genre. The game consists of a 6x6 grid of tiles which can be pushed around by inserting an extra tile from the edge. One side of each tile is either red or yellow, and the other side shows just a dot of the same colour. When a tile comes out it is re-entered inverted, and you may not push out your opponent's inverted tiles. The first player to invert all their tiles wins.

Jitters, published by Milton Bradley Games. 1987. Box. Good. £6.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Duration: 20 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Word game played with letter dice. On your turn a noisy timer (which adds to the tension) counts down while you roll the dice and make words on a score card. Once this is done you can either bank the points and end your turn or attempt another score card and reroll the dice. If you end up with the timer going off rather than banking your score then you score nothing at all. The tension level certainly increases as the timer ticks down! Recommended.

Jockey, published by Ravensburger. 1977. Box. Good. £14

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: German, Duration: 45 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: This edition has plastic horses. Box lid has a 2cm cut, and one edge of the base is taped.

Classic horse racing game. 4 horses are moved by card play. Players predict the finishing order, but this is not easy to do. Your hand of cards helps you calculate which horses you can influence during the race. Some cards are colour coded, affecting a particular horse but others move the horse in a particular position a certain amount, possibly with a limitation, eg. move the horse in 3rd place up to 18 spaces, but not more than once space ahead of the leader. Thus many cards have to be played at just the right time to be properly effective. Betting is done before the race and both win and place bets may be made. Most money after 3 races wins.

Jotto, published by Selchow & Richter. 1973. Box. Good. £6.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: American, Duration: 15 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Neat word game which has a lot in common with Mastermind. Each player has a secret 5 letter word and players alternately guess a word and are told how many letters are correct. Only real words can be used.

King's Court, published by Western Publishing. 1989. Box. Good. £8.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Strategy game with attractive and chunky counters. An involved variation of Draughts, played on an unusual board with two distinct areas of play. The idea is that the main 'combat' between pieces takes place in the central area of 16 squares, and once the game is underway the objective is to eliminate all of your opponent's pieces from the central area, and this wins the game even if they have lots of pieces left in the outer area. Supposedly based on a traditional tournament battle between medieval knights which was run on much the same basis (except with swords, shields and violence!)

La Citta, published by Rio Grande Games. 2000. Box. Good, but box corners taped. £14.50

A very attractive and fascinating big board city development game in which players vie for resources and also attract city occupants from neighbouring cities. While having people is good they have to be fed and kept healthy, happy and educated or they will head to a better city. I also have some house rules from Derek Carver which I can include a copy of.

Lords Of Creation - The Yeti Sanction, published by Avalon Hill. 1984. Box. Mint. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

A Lords Of Creation Roleplaying Supplement. This is the 2nd Lords of Creation adventure module. The adventure involves political intrigue, international terrorism and an expedition to climb Mount Everest.

Louis XIV, published by Rio Grande Games. 2005. Box. Excellent. £12

Special notes: One of the original 12 playing boards is missing, but has been replaced by an excellent colour copy mounted on card.

Board game set in the court of Louis XIV. Rather than using a regular board, 12 mini boards are laid out corner to corner in a rectangle. Each of these playing boards shows a character who had influence in Louis XIV's court, and shows what it takes to gain that character's aid, and what you will receive if you obtain that aid. Players take turns to play cards which allow markers to be placed onto these boards in a clever and very tactical way. Players must manage their money and supply of influence cubes while trying to gain special chits which are used to complete missions which both gain extra resources each turn and score victory points at the end of the game. The German version was published by Alea.

Manitou, published by Gold Sieber. 1997. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Mint. £5.50 2) Excellent. £4.50

Card game, 110 cards featuring Red Indians in four tribes. Each player hopes to trap the most Buffalo cards in each of three rounds of play. In each round you play with a number of your tribe members, some chosen, some drawn randomly. These cards interact as you vie for control of the Happy Hunting Grounds. Essentially a majorities game with some twists.

Maureen Hiron's Quizwrangle, published by Maureen Hiron. . Box. 2 Box edges split. £3.50

A trivia quiz game with over 4000 questions. The few cards I looked at had pretty hard questions on, but then I'm not much good at trivia games...

Minden Playing Card Cricket, published by Minden. 1988. Packet. 2 copies available:

1) Mint. £11 2) Excellent. £10

One of the best cricket games ever, here presented with the rarer Advanced Expansion Set (featuring individual grounds like Lords!). While in no way a statistical simulation of cricket, it produces a very convincing range of scores and excitement. Very clever system.

Mole Hill / Fanga Mullvaden. 1996. Box. 2 editions available:

1) Mole Hill published by Blatz. Excellent. £6. Country: German

2) Fanga Mullvaden, published by Anvandbart Litet Foretag. In shrink. £7. Country: Swedish

Unusual game in which the players take the role of a farmer protecting his field and a mole digging it up. The farmer must try to block the mole's moves and fence him in quickly, while the mole must dig as many holes as possible before being caught.

Mole In The Hole / Die Maulwurf Company, published by Ravensburger. 1995. Box. 2 editions available:

1) Die Maulwurf Company, Good. £10. Country: German.

2) Mole In The Hole, Mint. £12. Country: British

Very nice game with an unusual mode of play. Players try to get to certain locations on the board, because at the round's end, the board is literally lifted off the playing area. It has holes in it and this is where you want your playing pieces to be because the board will be lifted over them, leaving them on a new board. If you are not in the special places, the board is lifted together with your piece, out of the game. The bottom board has only one hole, and the mole who gets into it is the winner. Very good family game or for when your gaming group wants something a bit lighter.

Musketiere, published by Hexagames. 1991. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £7 2) Good. £6

Card game, 70 cards featuring the Musketeers and the Cardinal's Guard. A cardinal's guard card is displayed each round and players secretly play a musketeer card (values 0-10). If the total of the players' cards is at least as great as that on the cardinal's guard then the musketeers win and the strongest musketeer card played earns a precious gem. Should the musketeers lose then the weakest musketeer gets a jail token. Once all cards in hand have been played out in this manner points are scored up with bonuses for gems and penalties for jail tokens.

New York, published by Piatnik. 1995. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £22 2) In shrink. £24

Country: Austrian, Duration: 75 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Lesser known Sid Sackson game, heavily based on a game called 'Property' in his book A Gamut of Games. The game is card driven, and the cards use an ingenious mechanism to provide the players choices of where they may build on a 7x7 grid. The objective is to build as large a clump of properties as possible. However, there are other considerations, as it is possible (but potentially expensive) to knock down opponents' buildings and replace them with your own, so defensive moves to make it more expensive for opponents to get at your more critical properties can be useful too. Recommended.

Oh Pharao!, published by Kosmos. 2004. Box. Excellent. £10

Card game in which players put together sets of number cards to form pyramids. Each layer of a pyramid must contain cards of the same number, and the next level above must have cards one point higher. In addition thief cards can be played to raid other players' pyramids, tax collectors raid their hands and pharaohs protect against either of these. A clever rule for the wild cards ensures they will circulate amongst the players. A pyramid can be scored while small or extended further for more points, but this makes it more of a target, and so it might not survive unscathed until your next turn when it can be scored.

Olympigs, published by Paul Lamond Games. 1991. Box. Good. £2.50

There are two parts to this game - firstly a simple set collecting very basic rummy style card game. However there are also 4 plastic pigs and three action events to do with them using little action models: high jump, long jump and the pig put! When a set is collected you must successfully perform the related event for your set to stand. Other players can play a joker on you to force you to attempt the hard version of that event. Very silly, though my daughter (aged 5) quite likes it!

Onslaught, published by TSR / SPI. 1987. Box. Good. £7

Divisional scale campaign game of the last months of WWII, from D-Day to the crossing of the Rhine. Some interesting and unusual mechanics (unpredictable turn order and the use of limited supply points to activate stacks of counters) mean you always have to focus on the area you consider the highest priority. As well as movement and attacks extra supply points can be spent to force a 'breakthrough' with movement and attack. Supply locations are critical and fought over hard as they give the owner more supply points to use on their turn.

Orgy, Box. 2 editions available:

1) Published by Comissatio Ltd. 1986. Good. £4.50

2) Published by Paul Lamond. 1989. Box. Box worn, contents mint. £3.50

Light hearted game for teenagers and adults. Essentially a standard business game in which you move around the board buying and selling villas, slaves and chariots trying to get enough wealth etc to become Consul. However you can optionally play that the Orgy spaces add a forfeit. Choices during the game appear fairly limited, though on your turn you may trade money / chariots / slaves / villas etc. Original edition.

Outpoint, published by Spears. 1985. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Somewhat abstract game with dice and letter tiles played on an 11x11 grid. The playing pieces consist of letter tiles spelling *OUT*POINT*, and points are scored for getting them on top of other player's tiles of the same type, and the stars can be used to eliminate opposing pieces or double the score of other tiles.

Overboard, published by Lakeside. 1978. Box. Good. £6

The board consists of 6 slots E-W crossing 6 slots N-S. Into these slots (at the intersections) are placed the 36 playing pieces (18 each). Players take it in turn to push one of their pieces so that one or more of their opponent's pieces fall off the side. The last player with pieces remaining wins.

Par-Golf, published by Ariel. ca.1960. Box. Box show wear. £10

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-4. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon.

Special notes: Photocopied rules.

Rare golf game with a very attractive board featuring an 18 hole golf course. Players choose their clubs and cards determine the distance achieved. Nice period art-work on the box as well.

Penalty / Kick-Off, 2 editions available:

1) Penalty, published by Pepys. ca.1950. Box. 2 box corners taped. £10. No. players: 2-6.
Special notes: The cards show use, but are still entirely useable.

2) Kick-Off, published by Milton Bradley. 1981. Box. Good. £6. No. players: 2-4.

Card based football game, but played with a ball on a gridded football pitch. Cards are played by each team in turn to move the ball in a variety of ways, according to directional arrows on the cards. The rules cover throw ins, corners, spectacular saves, free kicks and penalties, all in an intuitive way. The game can be played with odd numbers of players as well as even numbers. A good football game which gives realistic results (so 0-0 is quite a common result).

Phantoms Of The Ice Promo Cards, published by White Wind. ca.1995. Packet. Good. £0.50

Two extra cards to use in your Phantoms of the Ice game (the German version of Slapshot). Includes full English rules for the use of each card, which are: The Hydra - a player with variable strengths depending on the opposition. The Chameleon - A player with a different level of ability in every game he plays.

Point Zero, published by Juventus Toys & Games. 1978. Box. Good but corners taped. £14

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Strategy game produced to promote the work of UNICEF. Each player tries to be the first to bring development to their village. This is represented by each player adding jigsaw style pieces to their section of the board. When all 11 have been added that player wins. These pieces represent various bits of equipment and facilities eg. a health care post, a landrover, safe water supply etc. In order to obtain these players move around a track on the edge of the board and recruit and train workers and obtain points for work done, which can be traded in for the jigsaw pieces. Very attractively produced.

Push, published by Spears. 1975. Box. 1 box corner taped. £3.50

Each player has 13 plastic balls which are placed in indents in the board. An extra ball is 'pushed' into the grid, the balls already there roll into the next indent and the one at the other end drops out and becomes the next ball to push in. The object is to get a square of 9 balls in your colour. Includes solitaire rules for a variety of puzzle-like variations of the main game.

Quasimodo, published by Burnett Distribution Ltd. 1995. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

The playing board is first built, adding a 3D Notre Dame, bridge and another building. The game is then played and it is a fairly basic roll and move game with a couple of obstacles to get past on the way. Attractive setup for younger children though (The box says age 5+).

Rail, published by Ludonirique. ca.1985. Box. Good, but box shows some wear. £13

First edition of this French train game. Over 250 track tiles are used to build a rail network, whilst placing obstacles and terrain difficulties in front of your opponents. A locomotive board gives players the choice of what they do in their turn - though it is not always possible to do exactly what they want. Such moves include adding track to your network, adding a hazard to an opponent's, protecting one's own network, rearranging tiles etc. The objective is to have the largest network when one player's network is completed.

Raleigh Burner BMX Game, published by Waddingtons. 1985. Box. Good. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Bicycle racing game over a course which uses plastic jumps and hills over which the bikes must travel. The bike pieces are also very neat and slot into the spaces on the obstacles. Cards are used to move the bikes, and players can perform blocking moves as well as crash into other bikes knocking them off the course and slowing them down. Wheelie spaces allow fast movement if there is sufficient space to move into, and the rules also cover jumps and falls. Fairly simple game, but very nicely presented.

Red Storm Rising, published by TSR. 1989. Box. Good. £8

World War Three is about to begin, the Soviets must have oil, so they decide to crush NATO on the way to getting it. The Tom Clancy novel comes to life in this excellent, introductory war game. Well over 100 stand-up counters make it look terrific during play. The map shows irregularly shaped areas from the Soviet Union to France. The units have critical information hidden on the back so that the opponent can't see it. Advanced rules cover air units, air combat, and even chemical weapons.

Ring Board, published by Spears. 1972. Box. Good, but box edges show wear. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Originally came with 6 rings, but there are now only 5. It is still entirely playable.

This game consists of a solid wooden board which can be hung on a wall. The board shows 4 concentric circles and there are metal hooks sticking out from it, each with a large number below it. Players take it in turns to throw a set of rubber rings from a suitable distance and score for any rings which land on hooks. Highest score after a predetermined number of rounds wins.

Romer, published by Hexagames. 1990. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £5 2) Good. £4

A trick taking type game in which players try to build up a high value team of horses to pull their chariots. Each player has a personal trump colour, and up to six cards can be added to this to make up the team of horses. All cards added will add to the score but much more so if they are also of the trump colour. Each turn a player will either play to a trick or place a card down as one of his horses, but will be penalised for not being able to follow suit if his trump colour is led.

Rubik's Line Up, published by Ideal. ca.1985. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Abstract game in which the players roll cubes over on the board trying to form a line of three cubes of the same colour (the cubes have different colours on each face). The cubes are all about an inch on each side which makes the game quite attractive.

Rummikub, several versions available:

1) Rummikub published by Pressman. 1990. Box. Good. £6

2) Rummikub Pocket, published by Spears. 1992. Box. Good. £3.50.
This is a travel edition, with miniature magnetic tiles and magnetic tile 'racks' and magnetic play area – ideal
for playing on a plane or a coach.

3) Rummy-Club, published by Challenge Master. ca.1990. Box. Good. £4.50
Special notes: 1 rack support missing (not essential to play). This is a Rummikub clone!
Designed by Ephraim Hertzano. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

A classic game, based on the middle eastern game of Okey. Tiles effectively represent the cards from 2 decks of playing cards + 2 jokers. Players try to be the first to get rid of all their tiles. Tiles are placed on the table by forming runs or sets, but as well as just playing new sets to the table players can also add to those on the table already and even change them all around when adding tiles, as long as everything remains in a run or set at the end of the turn. Turns are strictly limited to 2 minutes maximum. One of the better rummy variations in my opinion.

Rummikub 500, published by Pressman. 1992. Box. Good. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Desc. by Eamon.

Card game, based on Rummy (and, maybe, the Australian game 500 although I have never played that game). The sets and sequences that you 'lay' are placed on a special board which is marked in such a way that you have a 'territory' which is yours, but you can add to sets and sequences of your opponents if they overlap from their territory into yours.

Santiago, published by Amigo. 2003. Box. In shrink. £22. Desc. by Andy.

Players bid for plots of land in a region of desert into which various crops can then be planted. However, these crops require irrigation for them to flourish, and so much of the game is about controlling the construction of the irrigation canals After each round any crops without water wither a bit. At the end of the game crops are scored for their owners, and the larger a region of the same type of crop and the better irrigated it is the more it will score. Neat game in which you have to keep alert for what other people want to happen, as sometimes you can get other people to do your work for you while at other times you will have to pay dearly to make things go your way. Recommended.

Scotland Yard, two editions available:

1) Published by Milton Bradley. 1985. Box. Box edges show wear. £6.50. Country: American.
Special notes: 2 Taxi tiles missing, replacements have been made

2) Published by Ravensburger. 1983. Box. Good. £8. Country: British

Clever tactical game of deduction set on a map of London. One player is Mr. X, who is hiding and the others are detectives hunting him down. All players move around by either bus, taxis, underground or boat. The detectives get to see the type of transport Mr. X uses at all points, but his precise location is only revealed occasionally. The detectives need to work together to increase the chance that one of them will catch Mr. X before the game ends and he escapes. Either Mr. X wins or all the detectives win as a team.

Scrabble, published by Spears. ca.1955. Box. Box edges very worn and taped up. £6

The classic word game - this edition has wooden tile racks and comes in a green box and is quite small being just large enough to hold the once folded board.

Scrabble, published by T.R.Urban & Co. ca.1960. Box. Good, but corners taped. £8

The classic word game - this edition has wooden tile racks and comes in a dark red box with a linen feel finish and is quite small being just large enough to hold the once folded board. Australian edition licensed from Production & Marketing Company, USA.

Scrabble Original, published by Spears. 1988. Box. Good. £5

Special notes: The original tile holders have gone missing but I will provide replacements.

The classic word game - a nice edition as the box isn't too big,

Scramble, published by Chad Valley. ca.1950. Box and Board. Good. £18

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon.

Special notes: Believed to be complete, but impossible to check (no checklist).

Very rare item, played on a map of a busy shopping centre. Players move their cars across the board trying to buy a certain amount of goods. This is quite an advanced game for its time because it doesn't use dice, but uses a deck of 40 cards that allow the players to move, place pedestrians on crossings (blocking others), change traffic lights, and so on. Lots of bits and wooden components. There is no components list in the rules.

Scream Machine, published by Jolly Roger Games. 2003. Box. In shrink. £9.50

Card game in which players use action points each turn to construct competing theme parks. Each theme park will have various attractions such as thrill rides, water rides, roller coasters and food stalls, each of which comes in 3 types. Players try to attract the most customers to their theme park - each customer is looking for a different type of ride, or may be a cheapskate and just go to the cheapest theme park. Cleverly, some customers will travel anywhere (ie. will go to the best park amongst all players), while others will only go to one of the two parks nearest them, even if there is a better one further away. The artwork really brings the theme to life.

Serengeti, published by Asmodee Editions. ca.2004. Box. In shrink. £8.50

Auction based card game with an African theme. Previously published as Don. Players bid for cards with numbers and colours, with points awarded at the end of the game for large sets of the same colour. The unusual twist is that if you have a '6' card out and someone bids 6, 16 or even 26, then you get the money rather than the bank! Clearly once quite a few cards have been sold (and they are sold in batches) the bidding can get quite interesting.

Shing Shang, published by Wiggins Teape. 1970. Box. Box slightly indented. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Abstract game with 12 pieces each (very attractive and upto 8cm tall), being 2 Dragons, 4 Lions and 6 Dogs. Players try to occupy one of their opponent's gate spaces with a Dragon, or capture both of the opposing Dragons. Each type of piece has its own way to move, and / or jump over other pieces. A multiple jump and capture move (a 'Shing Shang') also allows an extra move.

Skyline Of The World, published by The Game Master. 2005. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £19 2) In shrink. £21

City building game in which players play stacking building places onto the board in order to claim ownership of the various buildings. However, money must be paid for each storey built, and that money is paid to the previous owner of that building. Players need to manage their money as well as their supply of buildings as the building blocks need to be bought from a general supply before they can be placed. Income is generated by ownership of a contiguous sequence of buildings, and so players need to keep each other in check. The game is won by dominating three key spots, building penthouses, and completing your secret building mission (on a card).

Sleuth, 2 editions available:

1) Published by Avalon Hill. 1981. Box. Box shows wear. £16.

2) Published by Face2Face Games. 2004. Box. In shrink. £9.50

A classic game of deduction. A gem has been stolen, and the players have to work out which it is. There is a card for each possible gem, and one is removed from the game unseen, while the others are dealt out. Special question cards allow players on their turn to ask an opponent a question to try to work out who has which cards, and thus by a process of elimination ultimately work out which card is not in play. For a harder challenge several gems can be removed at the start of the game. Highly recommended if you like deduction games - this is definitely a classic.

Space Quests, published by WH Smith. 1985. Booklet. Good. £9

Special notes: Countersheet unpunched, except for 2 missing counters. Entirely playable despite this.

A set of 5 space themed board games. Unusually the boards are printed on thick card and folded into a booklet. The booklet can be folded open so that it shows one of the boards at a time. A separate sheet of cardboard counters to play the games is provided as well as a rule book for the games. The games are: Race For The Planets (2) Players move their counters to claim 4 planets first, challenges can take place; Graveyard In Space (2/4) Explore a space wreck encountering hazards to find valuable equipment; Asteroid Miners (2-4) Race to stake your claim while avoiding orbiting asteroids; Cyborg Pursuit (2) - Will the Cyborgs overrun Earth before Earth forces are alerted to their presence?; Star City (2-4) Explore an abandoned alien city.

Spreadbet, published by Haggle Ltd. 1995. Box. Good. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Trivia game in which players take it in turn to give an answer as a spread or range. eg. The year the last Dodo was seen with a spread of 10 might get a player to answer 1880-1890. Other players then say whether they think the range given is too high or too low, and they can wager as many points as they wish on this. Players pay or gain points according to the bet multiplied by how far out the real answer and the spread range were. Players can use a special card which limits their gains or losses for a particular question.

Stardate Magazine, published by FASA. Excellent. £0.20 per issue. Country: American, Desc. by Eamon.

FASA house magazine. Most issues carry reviews, fiction and smaller items on FASA games. Major articles on games listed below:

No. 2: Star Trek RPG

No. 3/4: Star Trek RPG

No. 5/6: Combots, Star Trek RPG, Battledroids, Star Trek III Starship Combat

Stop Thief!, published by Spears. 1985. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Cops and robbers game in which each player has a policeman who moves around on the board which shows an irregular network of paths joining a grid of spaces. Each player's robber moves along behind that player's policeman, like a sort of shadow. The idea is to land on an opponent's robber. That player's policeman then has to move away to a distant corner of the board, and gets a new shadow-robber. Players win by catching 5 robbers first or lose by having all 5 of their robbers caught. The game is dressed up as a children's game, but has rather more to it than the box would suggest.

Sumo!, published by Hasbro. 2001. Box. In shrink. £13

2 player game played on a hexagonal grid showing Japanese characters. Each player controls a suitably grotesque sumo wrestler figure and uses cards to make attacking and defensive moves. The objective, as in the real sport, is to push your opponent out of the ring. The cards are played simultaneously and have differing priorities as well as different effects. Clever use of your cards is needed to win.

Super Star T.V. Sports, published by A.R.C.. 1980. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Box poor. £3 2) Box shows wear. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

A set of 12 different sports games all popular on American TV: Soccer, Basketball, Track, Skiing, Baseball, Hockey, Football, Boxing, Golf, Auto Racing, Bowling, Tennis. The set includes 3 game boards with areas for each of the games. The games are all fairly simple, with 1-3 pages of rules per game, but not entirely trivial, having some card play decisions or for the motor racing game acceleration decisions etc. The bowling game is table skittles.

Survival, published by Galt. ca.1970. Box. Good. £2.50

Set collecting educational game with tile-like cards of animals. The animals fit into different food chains and the objective is to complete your food chain and place threat cards on to opponent's chains so they aren't completed.

Sushi Express, published by Abacus Spiele. 2005. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £8.50 2) In shrink. £9.50

Dice game in which players try to move around a ring of location tiles delivering sushi, and collecting customer cards. At the end of the game the customer cards collected score points depending on the number of different ones. Also the player who has received the least tip cards will be penalised. Game play itself involves placing a dobber on a number from 2-12, and effectively betting that either you, or someone who has placed on a number higher than you, will roll at least that number. If you bet wrongly you don't move that turn. Guess right and you move as many spaces as the number you had chosen.

Take 4, published by Spears. 1979. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Andy.

The board is a hexagon of 19 indentations into which balls are placed. There are 6 balls in 3 colours - one colour for each player and a neutral colour. Players take it in turn to move one of their balls to an adjacent space or take an opposing or neutral ball. The first player to take 4 of the neutral balls is the winner.

Take That - The Game, published by MMG Ltd. 1994. Box. In shrink. £3.50

Item for fans of the pop group Take That. Ask your daughter if this means nothing! Anyway I can't say much about it as it is still shrinkwrapped. It does have a board, card stands, counters and 150 cards though.

Tarot Deck, published by Waddingtons. ca.1965. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Comes in a black felt covered box.

56 card tarot deck (14 cards in each of the suits: batons, epees, denier and coupes). There are 4 picture cards in each suit (valet, chevalier, reine, roi) as well as the numbers 1-10. The cards are a reproduction of an antique French tarot deck. On a couple of the cards are the inscriptions: Fabrique de Cartes a Schaffhouse, and Fabrique de Cartes I.Muller & Cie. This set comes with no rules, but you can find rules for games with a tarot deck in many card game books.

Terra, published by Days Of Wonder. 2003. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Excellent. £9 2) In shrink. £10

Environmentally friendly card game purchases of which contributed to a charity selected by UNESCO. The players have to deal with an ecological, sociological, economic and military crisis in which all sides need to collaborate to save the Earth, while also advancing their own interests. Players gain points for solving crises by playing cards, while trying to hang on to sets of cards which can be played to score points individually as well.

The Battle Of Borodino, published by SPI. 1972. Plastic Box. Good. £6

Covers Napoleon's move towards Moscow in Sept 1812, which encountered considerable resistance at Borodino. A tactical simulation of this great battle. Includes 4 scenarios, one for each day plus a grand campaign game. The game includes a counter tray, and comes in a plastic box. This was first published in Strategy & Tactics No. 32.

The Celtic Knotwork Puzzle, published by Historical Collections Plc. 1992. Box. Good. £3

This puzzle consists of 9 large square tiles each showing a portion of a large Celtic knotwork pattern. However, the knotwork is very symmetrical, and so it is not matching the shapes that is hard, but matching the colours of 'thread' from one tile to the next which makes it difficult. There is also no indication as to which sides of the pieces are the edges. The back of the box shows the solution.

The Game Of Geog, published by Unknown. . Map Board + Box. Board back discoloured. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2+. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Unusual item. This is more of a geography test than a game. The board shows a map of England with many circles where there are towns. Players take it in turns to ask each other what town is in a particular circle. A master map shows the answers. I don't know how old this is, but I would guess 1930s. I could well be wrong though.

The Hercules & Xena Roleplaying Game, published by West End Games. ca.1998. Box. Good. £5

Role playing games based on the two TV series (Xena - Warrior Princes, and Hercules - The Legendary Journeys). This set includes: The Hero's Guide - for character creation and play; Secrets of the Ancient World covering skill use, combat, monsters, treasures, gods etc; GM Screen; 3 16 page adventures including a solo adventure. 6 custom engraved dice.

The London Game, 2 editions available:

1) Published by Seven Towns. 1972. Box. Box Poor. £4

2) Published by Toybrokers. ca.1972. Box. Good. £6. 20th Anniversary edition.

Good race game, played on a genuine map of the London Underground. Players compete to reach six sites of interest, as depicted in the hand of cards dealt to them. Interaction provided by closing stations down. Good route planning, with a minimum of changing trains, is very important. Full of historical information about London as well.

The Mad Game, published by Parker. ca.1979. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

This is a game inspired by Mad Magazine, but is not the card game from the magazine. It is a game in which the players try to lose all their money, and do so by going round the outside of the board and alternate tracks.

There are lots of daft actions on the spaces and on the cards as well. Not to be taken seriously (in case you hadn't guessed!)

The Weather Game, published by Waddingtons. 1986. Box. Base and lid corners taped. £2.50

Devised by one of the best known TV weather presenters of the mid-80's. A variation of Pelmanism, the card matching memory game, but with two different sets. Includes a 'Swirler', a nice random number generator (1-24) - a sort of sealed unit roulette wheel.

Tit-Bits Teaser No.2, published by George Newnes. ca.1930. Box. Good. £4

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon.

A wooden puzzle, made as a promotion for Tit-Bits magazine. If you could not do the puzzle, you could buy the magazine at some time in the future to get the answer. The puzzle consists of 14 wooden pieces (one has been replaced with a look-a-like) and you must shuffle them round in the tray to get the Plane from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. The pieces are irregular in shape, which is one of the reasons why the puzzle is devilishly difficult.

Top Secret, published by Blatz. 1996. Box. Good. £5

Card game, nearly 100 cards in full colour. Players start with identical sets of cards and simultaneously play cards from their hand. The objective is to collect as many secret documents as possible. The cards are: secret documents, assassins, moles and secret agents. They interact in various ways, and to win you will need to outguess your opponents and play the right card at the right time to end up with lots of secret documents.

Tor, published by Amigo. 1995. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Mint. £4.50 2) Excellent. £3.50

Card game. A soccer match is played with two identical decks of 13 cards, a ball and a board. The cards are played simultaneously and the player playing the winning card gets the ball closer to the opposing goal.

Essentially a game of bluff and outguessing each other. If a player wins three 'tricks' in a row he is sure to score a goal.

Toy Story, published by Schmidt International. ca.1995. Box. Good. £4

Childrens game (ages 4-12) based on the very popular film Toy Story. Game play involves moving your playing pieces along a track according to a dice roll, but with some choices, and the possibility of challenging other players along the way. These challenges are done using chunky cards showing Woody, Bo Peep and Buzz, and resolution uses a scissors-paper-rock mechanism. The objective is to be the first to arrive at the removal van, which is also moved along as the game goes on.

Triomph, published by Anderson. 1987. Box. Good. £9

Special notes: Box lid slightly discoloured in one area, but contents fine.

Abstract game played on a hex board with hexagonal wooden pieces. Players move to obtain supremacy in the centre of the board, using cards in their hand to best effect and using groups of pieces to strengthen the attack. There are also special spaces which add to the strength of certain pieces. When a player gains control of the centre the opponent gets one last chance to break their supremacy.

Trippples, published by Aladdin. 2 copies available:

1) 1973. Box. Box shows wear. £4 2) 1974. Box. Good. £4.50

Strategy game in which the players must get their pieces to traverse the board to the far corner. However, the board is different each game and is made up of tiles each showing three arrows pointing in one of the 8 compass points. The neat idea is that you can only move in one of the directions under your opponent's piece, and vice versa. The playing pieces are transparent so you can see the arrows underneath easily. Plastic tiles.

Triumph, published by Creative Crusade Ltd. 1986. Box. Good. £6

Strategy game, with a chequered board of black and white triangles and 4 sets of 10 conical plastic pieces. It is essentially a multi-player draughts variant. Because triangles are used rather than squares each piece has 4 legal directions in which to move, adding considerably to the possibilities. The winner is the player with men left standing but in cases of a stalemate the player who has taken the most enemy pieces wins. Includes rules for promotion of a piece to king. The board is double-sided as a different initial layout is required for the 4-player game.

Trivial Pursuit, published by Horn Abbot. 1981. Box. Good. £5.50

Early edition, made before the game went global. Amazingly, the box did not change once the big companies got hold of it.

Trivial Pursuit, published by Parker Brothers. 1983. Box. Good. £5.50

The immensely popular trivia game. The set includes 1000 question and answer cards, each with a question in 6 categories. This is the Genus edition of the game.

Trivial Pursuit Subsidiary Card Set, published by Horn Abbot International Ltd. 1986. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-36. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

This is an extra 1000 question and answer cards (6 questions per card, so 6000 total) for those who have overused the standard Trivial Pursuit questions. It says it is the Genus II Edition for age 15 to Adult.

Tulsa In A Box, published by Late For The Sky. ca.1995. Box. Excellent. £8

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

This is a Tulsa, Oklahoma themed version of Monopoly. The same company produced tens (if not hundreds) of different themed versions of monopoly, so I guess they must have been licensed. The game is standard monopoly, but with different chance and community chest cards, different property titles etc.

Tycoon, published by Publisher Unknown. 1987. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Promotional game. Business game in a similar vein to Monopoly. Squares on the board represent many different companies in and around Reading!

Tycoon, published by RAM Innovations Inc. 1986. Box. Mint. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Business game which from the outside only appears to be in a similar vein to Monopoly. The box says: Try to become a Tycoon using your connections with organised crime, political figures and labour leaders. Pay off a judge or subpoena an opponent to court. Own a law firm or a construction company etc. Nice guys finish last!

Um Kopf Und Kragen, published by Berliner Spielkarten. 1996. Box. Good. £3.50

Card game, 33 cards, 6 dice and counters. Dice rolling game in which you get the option to reroll poor rolls but only if you are willing to pay for them.

Uno Dominos, published by Gibsons Games. 1986. Box. Good. £5

Essentially UNO, but with dominos rather than cards. ie. players take it in turns to play a domino onto the set of dominos already played, and win when they have no more. However, failure to play means you draw instead, and there are special dominos which reverse the direction of play, cause the next person to draw extra dominos etc.

Up The Ladder, published by Action GT. ca.1975. Box. Box Poor. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Eamon.

Race game with a difference. The 'board' is a three foot long plastic step ladder, with hinged rungs. The object is to get your men to the top of the ladder but the snag is that, if you put too many pieces on one rung it will rotate catapulting the pieces down the ladder, and probably taking those below them with them. Nice idea.

Vagabondo, published by Invicta. 1979. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good. £9 2) Box corners taped. £8

A nicely produced abstract game. The pieces are shaped somewhat like 'Tetris' blocks, but with from 1-6 squares involved. The pieces are blue (in 3 shades) and pink (3 shades), and pieces are placed on the board scoring for themselves and any pieces they touch. However there are placement restrictions (beyond that imposed by shape) to make it more interesting.

Victory Circle, published by Amway. 1982. Box. Good. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: Box edges show some wear and the base is slightly indented due to stacking

Family game of race and chase. Players move their pieces and capture opponents’ pieces and have to 'drag' them back home along circular pathways, avoiding being captured themselves. Points are scored for pieces which are captured and a further bonus if they have been brought back to your base when one player has lost all their pieces.

Warhammer Armies: Lizardmen, published by Games Workshop. 1996. Book. Excellent. £4

Warhammer supplement which covers the race of Lizardmen. The book describes the steaming jungles of Lustria where the Lizardmen live in a Mayan style civilisation. Special rules cover several types of lizardmen as well as a variety of reptilian beasts bred by the lizardmen for use as mounts and beasts of burden. Army lists are also included detailing the various troop types, and special characters available for use in a lizardman army. There are plenty of colour pictures showing painted lizardman figures as well.

Watch It!, published by Milton Bradley. 1978. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Picture memory game. Each player has a picture board and a set of 10 double sided cards each shaped differently and showing part of a different picture on either side. One player constructs a picture with 6 cards and then shows it to the other players for 15 seconds, and then hides it again. The other players race to reconstruct the picture from their own cards and when one player is happy they call stop. Players then score their pictures, getting more the more accurate they were. The picture setter scores more the worse the other players did. Neat idea.

Watch Your Step, published by Spears. 1984. Box. Good. £2.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: One stair piece missing - a home made replacement supplied. 2 other pieces creased but entirely usable. None of this affects play.

The board shows 6 stairways. The players spin a spinner and place a stair shaped playing piece on to the board, but it must fit with the other pieces already there and also support the feet of 2 people shown on the board. If this is not possible then as a penalty that player must take all the stair pieces on that stairway. The goal is to be the first player to get rid of their stair pieces.

Watchamacallit, published by Berwick. 1972. Box. Good. £4.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

This is a game of categories - a category is chosen and players have to name things in that category. There is a spinner which selects the start letter for an appropriate word, eg. category Birds, Spinner says E so Eagle would be appropriate. There is also a ball for each player and a special bowl with a hole. When you say a suitable word you drop your ball in the bowl, so if two people call out simultaneously this breaks the tie.

Weigh It Up, published by Spear's Games. 1975. Box. Good. £3.50

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-6. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Andy.

The board shows a grid of triangles each with a number in - some positive, some negative. Each vertex has a hole for a peg. Players take it in turns to add a peg to the board, and if a peg is the last one around a triangle that players scores the number in the triangle, be that good or bad. Highest scorer when all the pegs are in wins.

What Am I Bid, published by Tri-Ang. ca.1964. Box. 1 box corner taped. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 3-11. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

Auction game which includes a large wooden gavel. Players buy antiques which are put up for auction. Each type of antique has 3 specimens which will ultimately come up, one good, one poor, and one fake. Thus if you know that the ming vase that has sold already is a fake then you know it is worth bidding higher on the next one. In addition, when a player has a set, they can choose to end the game and score a bonus, or let the game continue in the hope of an even higher bonus, but with some risk.

Who's In The Igloo?, published by Artstraws Ltd. ca.1983. Box. Good. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-5. Country: British, Duration: 10 mins, Desc. by Andy.

Children's game (ages 5-10). The board shows a grid of 14 x 14 squares each showing either a polar bear or an eskimo (mostly eskimos), and 5 are coloured. A large igloo tile covers a 5x5 area of the board except for one central space. A card is drawn indicating the current coloured target space and players take it in turn to move the igloo tile one space at a time towards this target. They can keep moving it until they reach the target or the hole reveals a polar bear, in which case the next player continues. Reaching a target wins that card. A harder variant gives each player a different target card.

Wicketz, 2 editions available:

1) Published by Paul Lamond Games. 1994. Box. Good. £14

2) Published by R.D.A. Marketing. 1988. Box. Excellent. £17.

Special notes: Still mostly shrinkwrapped

Beautiful cricket game. It includes plastic cricketers, umpires, stumps etc. A spinner determines the type of bowl, and the batsman decides what stroke to play. A card is then drawn which determines what happens. The fielding player also has to position his team around the board as not everywhere can be well covered. Rules include advanced options too. A must for the cricket fan.

Word Games, published by Merit. . Box. 2 Box corners split. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1-4. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

A set of 8 word games played with tiles on a table. The games are called: Crossword, Anagrams, Word Rummy, Word Dominoes, Word Ghost, Snatch Words, Word Solitaire & Passwords. A nice collection for word game fans.

Word Quest, published by Abracadabra Games Ltd. 1986. Box. Good, but box lid slightly warped. £7

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Duration: 1 hr, Desc. by Andy.

Word game in which players move around the tracks on a circular board landing on letter spaces, and get the chance to cross off letters from the quest word they were each given at the start of the game. Once all letters have been crossed off players race to the centre of the board in order to get the chance to answer a winning question. In order to cross off a letter a word is selected starting with the letter concerned from a dictionary included with the game, and the definition of that word must be given. The game also includes a 30 second timer.

Wortersee, published by Kosmos. 1998. Box. Excellent. £6.50

This is a word game in which a sea of letters is randomly set up in what is effectively a hexagonal grid. The letters are revealed and players have until an egg timer's sand runs out to spot words made up with adjacent letters and claim lots of the starting letter pairs with little markers. At the end players score 1 point for each letter in each word they spotted. There are extra letters for use with the English language rather than German too.

Yahtzee - 40th Anniversary Set, published by Milton Bradley. 1996. Box. Mint. £5

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1+. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Well known dice game in which players have to score as much as possible in various categories. This set is a special 40th Anniversary edition of the game with a well made dice rolling tray.

Yellowstone Park, published by Amigo. 2003. Box. Excellent. £11

Card game played on a board. The cards come in 4 colours with numbers 1-7 and all show slightly humourous animals from Yellowstone Park. The board has 7 columns, and each column may only have one colour of card in it at a time. Each row may only have one number of card played in it. Players play cards trying to keep within a 3x3 area. If a player is unable to do this then that player collects any cards not in the new 3x3 area as penalty points. However, there are also a couple of ways to get rid of penalty points - getting rid of all your cards or filling the 8th or 9th space in the current 3x3 grid.

Yorkshire Tea & Heartbeat Jigsaw, published by Taylors. 2000. Box. In shrink. £3

Designer Unknown. No. players: 1. Country: British, Desc. by Andy.

1 or 2 x 500 piece promotional jigsaw puzzles from Yorkshire TV's Heartbeat and Taylor's Yorkshire Tea. The back of the box shows two pictures, one of a steam train arriving at Aidensfield railway station, and the other of a country farmhouse kitchen with a cream tea spread waiting to be eaten. The description doesn't make it clear whether the box contains both, or just one of these two jigsaws. The cover shows the steam train picture, so if there is just one, it will be that one.

You Be The Judge, published by Spear's Games. 1993. Box. 2 copies available:

1) Good but mark where label was removed. £5. Photocopied rules, original dice replaced. 2) Good. £7.

Designed by David Mair. No. players: 2 teams. Country: British, Duration: 30 mins, Desc. by Andy. Party game for two teams of players. One team reads out a summary of a real court case from around the world and the other team has to decide whether the judge was For or Against the prosecution. A correct answer gains a variable number of points for that team, and the first team to score 16 points wins the game.

Your America, published by Cadaco. 1970. Box. Good. £6

Designer Unknown. No. players: 2-4. Country: American, Desc. by Andy.

Special notes: The box base is slightly indented and the corners have been taped.

Trivia game in which players move around the board answering questions about the USA. The categories are: People, Places & Things; Presidents of the USA; States of the Union; Inventors & Authors; Government; The U.S. at War; Famous Americans. Each player is given a U.S. flag board with numbered holes along the stripes and each time a question is answered the marker is advanced along the flag according to the difficulty of the question. A booklet lists 48 questions in each category.

Zauber Cocktail, published by Kosmos. 2001. Box. Excellent. £8

Card trading and collecting game in the same family as Pit. Players collect sets of potion ingredient cards - the more ingredients of a type played together the more each card in that set is worth. The game is played over a number of rounds and each round the players are given some extra cards to add to their cards left over from the previous round and then everyone attempts to trade cards with each other by calling out what they want to trade. This is pretty frantic in the same way as Pit. Once a player is happy with their cards they place their token on the board. Once there are 3 tokens placed the trading stops. Players then simultaneously play one or two sets of ingredients and they are revealed - best sets gain VPs, worst lose VPs.

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