A month or so ago it was announced that Eddy Goldfarb (left) will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement award at the Toy and Game Inventor Awards in Chicago next November.  Most of you know that I’m from Chicago and I got my start at the now defunct invention firm Meyer/Glass Design.  While I was there I worked alongside Randy Klimpert who is now at Hasbro doing product design for Cranium and Trivial Pursuit.  Through blur of good and bad idea meetings, Simpson jokes and office pranks, I recalled Randy once mentioned that he worked with Eddy early in his career.  I wondered what that would be like, so I asked Randy for an interview and this is what I found out…

Q.   When did you work with Eddy?

“Early in my career.  I started at Marvin Glass and worked there for about two and a half years before I moved to California to work with Eddy from 1984-1989.  After six years with Eddy I moved back to Chicago to help start up the then newly formed Meyer/Glass Design.”

Q. What was it like working with Eddy?

“Eddy is an amazing guy.  Some succeed in the invention biz just by being savvy businessmen, but Eddy is a great inventor AND a great businessman.  He also loved every aspect of the [inventing] industry.  He loved the process, the problem solving, the model making, the presentation…all of it.  Some people only like one aspect, but not Eddy, he was part of it all.”

Q. What did you learn from working with Eddy?

“The invention side of the business can be so disappointing; Eddy always immediately bounced back from disappointment.  He really was a model for not letting it get you down.”

Q. What did you work on while you were there?

“One of my favorites was a game called Quicksand in which the movers get smaller as you play, but it wasn’t a big hit.  I also worked on Shark Attack, and I was responsible for the original Lego Creator game.   But Eddy’s earlier items are really the classics.  My favorites are the Vac·U·Form –I really wanted one of those as a kid — and Battling Tops.  Kerplunk is a amazing too, but as a child I liked Battling Tops better.  Eddy really was a true innovator.  Between the Marvin Glass designers and Eddy, together they invented most of the most classic games of the 1960s..”

Q. Any great stories about working with Eddy?

“Eddy and I had a great working relationship, and in my years there I think I only made him mad once.  I was working in the shop over a weekend on a side project and Eddy came in.  He wanted to know what I was working on and I apologized and admitted that it was a side job.  If I had just asked him first he would have said it was okay, but I was young and I hadn’t and it upset him.  I told him that I didn’t know how else I was going to get it done and that I really wanted to do it and he started to get interested in what it was.  I showed him what it was going to be — that it was a motorized bubble machine, part of a set of stage props for Steve Martin, and after that he was okay with it.  Later he saw the piece in which it was used and he got really excited about it.  It was his ‘Great Flydini’ act…you should look it up, it’s really funny.”

And I did…enjoy this (the bubbles are the encore):

Q. Any last words you liked to share about Eddy?

“We live in a world where the word ‘genius’ is thrown around a lot, but Eddy really is a genius, without question.”

I guess we can all see why Eddy is getting the Lifetime Achievement award!

Thanks to Randy Klimpert for cutting a little bit of time out of his busy schedule to talk to me.  He’s a great inventor and I learned a lot from him early in my career and it sounds like he learned some of it from the best in the biz!

• More info on the awards: http://www.tagieawards.com
• Article on Eddy by inventor Tim Walsh: http://www.globaltoynews.com/2010/05/ingenious-eddy.html

Photo of Eddy on main page taken from Golf Connoisseur Magazine, 2005.

So then are these changes/modifications wrong?  Of course not, once you purchase a game it’s yours to play how you like.  Just have fun!  And if you come up with a great rule or way to play – share it!  Nate Scheidler who is the Organizer for both the Chicago Board Games Meetup and Chicago Boardgame Designers Meetup thinks:

“’House Rules’ [are] where many designers get their start. They don’t always fit, but trying to improve a game experience (or increase its challenges) is a good thing.”

So whether yours makes the game harder, easier, faster or more fun, my question is:

What are YOUR house rules?

To start us off, I’ve compiled a list and I hope you add to it by leaving a comment below.

• In UNO we play multiple hands until someone reaches 250 points, and if you get EXACTLY 250 points (accumulative) you go back to zero.  (The Vandenbroucke family)
• While playing Apples to Apples, if someone plays the “Helen Keller” card they automatically win the round.  * FYI -I hear this is in homage to a previous game. (The Grzybek family)
• When playing Monopoly add an extra die to move around the board faster and pass GO more often. (The Brown family)
• In Pay Day instead of the money from paying bills going to the bank, the first one to reach “Pay Day” each month got that pile of cash. (The Brown family)
• In the Out of the Box 10 Day series, allow players to trade positions of 2 cards in their rack on their turn instead of drawing and discarding a card. (The Couzin family)
• Play Scrabble with separated vowels and consonants. On each draw, players can choose how many to take from each pile. Bingos (7-letter words) are easier to get, so only count them for 30 points, instead of 50.“ (The Goroff family via Think Fun’s Facebook Page – Thanks Charlotte for posting!)

This article was written for ThinkFun’s Smart Play Blog!  Find it and their other great articles: here

Recently I was on the ThinkFun website and saw the big ad for the iPad and iPhone Rush Hour apps saying “Now even more ways to play in traffic!”  This made me chuckle.  Why? Because I live in Chicago, where despite a state-wide ban, 80% of drivers are txting, emailing or talking on their cell phones while driving so really we don’t need more ways to “play in traffic.”  But you know who could use an app like that….our car mates.  Yes, the husbands, co-workers and friends who play backseat driver and insist they know a “better way” out of the gridlock by taking some crazy side street that has potholes large enough to swallow small children and Smart cars.

And youngsters aren’t much better.  Teens complain, kids get antsy; the longer the car ride is, the less pleasant it gets.  But I have a solution.  Fork over your iPhones.  Yes, that’s right, hand them over (since you shouldn’t be using them anyway).  This could be a win-win for all drivers and passengers.  Drivers get to listen to the music, talk radio or audio book they want without hearing how long the ride is or how the lane next to them is moving faster.  And while the drivers are focusing on the road, the passengers get to work their own magic and move the little red car from the impossible cluster of cars in the Rush Hour app.  And who knows, maybe the gridlock everyone is experiencing could bring us closer together.

To find out more about the new RushHour iPhone AND iPad apps, click here.

So earlier this week I was at a Dunkin Donuts picking up a cup of coffee and they’re running the promotion where they have the little peel-off trivia cards on their coffee cups and since I love trivia, it was a nice morning bonus!  I peeled mine off and took a pretty educated guess – because, I had no real idea when the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders were introduced – but I was right and won a donut.  (it’s 1972, just FYI)  Now my coffee cohort took a different approach and refused to guess.  He said he likes to scratch off the prize first and then if it’s good, look up the answer on the internet to ensure he gets it right.  WHAT IS THAT?!  First it’s multiple choice and second, all you’re winning is a donut, a muffin or if you’re really lucky a breakfast sandwich!  It’s not like there is a yacht hiding under the prize space – and if there is, I totally approve of their technique.  But since there isn’t a yacht, wouldn’t those freebies taste better if you guessed — or better yet knew — the correct answer?!  It kind of makes you feel like you earned that Bavarian Kreme.

Now, I’m sure Dunkin Donuts doesn’t care if people look up the correct answer on the internet, because odds are they’re going to purchase something beyond the free donut when they return to collect it (if they return).  And odds are pretty good that these players already are Dunkin Donuts customers (hence the reason they have a trivia question in the first place).  But doesn’t looking it up the answer just kill the whole “trivia” concept?  Trivia is supposed to be little random tidbits of information that are fun or interesting.  You’re not supposed to know the answer and if you do, there’s that bit of excitement that you actually have something so obscure and useless floating around in your brain!

Similarly, I was on a road trip a couple years ago and we got into talking about oldies music trivia – and there was one person in the car that kept looking up the answer on their iPhone.  Eventually we had to tell them to stop because everyone enjoyed discussing when a song was done – or who sang it first.  The iPhone addict just couldn’t understand why we would want to discuss something for 10 minutes it when the answer could be found online in less than two.

So my question is, has the instant gratification provided by smartphones and the internet killed the concept of trivia?  Is there no longer a need to take an “educated guess” since the answer is just a couple keystrokes away?  Think about what trivia was like 30 years ago when Trivial Pursuit came out – you’d have to go to the library to look up answers to bizarre questions like the one on the Dunkin Donuts cup.   So now that the answers are at our fingertips, does that make it less relevant?  Or conversely – because the answers are one trip to Wikipedia away, are people more interested in useless factoids and questions?  What do you think?  How do you think technology has affected the world of trivia?

After a long flight with a little hangover and a medical emergency on board that caused the paramedics to meet my plane at the gate, I’m back from 107th American International Toy Fair and it was a great time!  Toy Fair has really changed over the past 10 years with the Toy Building closing and the development of Dallas Fall Toy Preview but it’s still an important event on any game inventor’s calendar!

*Peggy Brown demo-ing Q-bitz

In its current state Toy Fair is a mix of large companies with small (if any) booths, medium companies with large booths all the way down to the basement area with self-publishers pitching their one great idea.  It’s a great place to meet new clients, catch up with old ones, demo and sign products and of course hang out with the inventor competition!  Yes, that’s right folks – we hope our product concepts squash each other’s in line reviews but when it comes to Toy Fair we congratulate everyone on their successes and enjoy spending some time together.  This Toy Fair I had dinner with Colleen McCarthy-Evans (inventor of In A Pickle and Gamewright’s new game It’s A Plan), Keith Meyers (inventor of Out of the Box’s new game Shake ‘N Take), Peggy Brown (inventor of Backseat Drawing and Gamewright’s new game Hide and Eek), Jack Degnan (inventor of Word on the Street) and Roger Gehrke (inventor of the international hit Sybarit).  And while we gushed over the idea of a group of us being picked up by the Cash Cab after dinner we munched on cricket tostadas – thanks to the adventurous tastes of Colleen McCarthy Evans.  As a side note: the texture is crunchy but was really the little legs sticking out that bothered me most.  I also had a blast at the Game Industry Get Together hosted by the wonderful Mary Couzin – it’s my favorite Toy Fair event and this year was probably the best one yet!  Got to love an industry that knows how to put business aside and party together!

Besides enjoying the company of other inventors and game geeks, here are some of the highlights of my trip:

The Hasbro Inventor Event was Sunday evening in the New York Times building where they had a showroom of some of their new products including the new round Monopoly dubbed Monopoly:Revolution, which was not getting much attention.   There was a great technology based word game that I’m going to get my hands on ASAP that was catching everybody’s eye.  It’s called Scrabble Flash and the technology is really cool.  There are five blocks with little screens that flash letters on them.  Using “SmartLink” technology to communicate with each other, the blocks count how many words you can make by placing the blocks next to each other.  Each time you create a word the letters flash to show that it’s been counted.  I got to play for a little bit and really enjoyed the magic of the technology.  I also hear that it has multiple modes, so seeing how it plays in a group setting is already on my to do list.

I saw Donnie Osmond walking through Javits (and he was much shorter than I expected).  I assume he was visiting his sister Marie’s doll booth.  Not super exciting, but I’ll admit it surprised me a bit so I’m calling it a “highlight.”

I got to see my new game that is still under raps at Winning Moves.  I can’t wait to tell you all about it – it’s really some of my best work.  I could play for HOURS!  I also got to see a game I have coming out with Daddy-O Productions called Don’t Lose Your Shirt.  They did the BEST job with the packaging; it’s a super cute little bowling bag.  I can’t believe I don’t have a picture!

On Monday as I ran from meeting to meeting I wandered past the Discovery Bay Games booth and got to meet Kenan Thompson! He’s my favorite SNL cast member!  (don’t judge the bad photo – after a day of running around a giant showroom you’d look like hell too.)  He was there with Fred Armisen promoting the new SNL board game.  On Tuesday when I had a meeting at the DSB booth Daryl Hannah was there promoting the game she developed with Hilary Shepard called Liebrary.  The two of them were presenters at the TAGIE awards in Chicago during the Chicago Toy and Game Show this past November.

I also ran into the inventor of Jenga – again – and I’ll be picking her brain soon on how she came up with such a timeless product.  I’m sure it will make for a good article!

And then most importantly for you readers – I found a bunch of great games to review during the next couple months.  And yes, some of them will be shameless plugs as I have all intentions of reviewing my own games.  Bonus for us all – a lot of them are going to nicely squeeze into the under $20 category!  Yay!  Check back soon for new articles.  My box of game samples arrives on Friday and I hope to get them played really soon!

Rush Hour is a great brain-teaser/puzzle.   The game consists of 15 cars and trucks that block your little red “fancy” car from getting off the grid.  To play you select one challenge card and set up a little traffic jam.  The goal is for you to get your car off the grid and it may take quite a bit of shuffling the other cars back and forth to make this happen.  The puzzles range from very easy to pretty challenging and the folks at ThinkFun were kind enough to include answers on the back of each card in case you are stumped.  There are also add-on packs that come with new cars, like a white stretched limo and a yellow taxi, that create all new puzzles so you have something to tackle after you’ve managed to conquer the forty it comes with!

Since it was released in 1996 more than 5 million copies of Rush Hour have been sold and it can be purchased in 32 countries! Rush Hour is used in schools to teach kids critical thinking skills including problem solving and strategy and this February ThinkFun is planning another Rush Hour iPhone Contest in which they will donate copies of Rush Hour to needy schools in the winner’s name!  (for more info: click here)

Rush Hour was invented by Nob Yoshigahara, a famous Japanese puzzle inventor who brought the concept to ThinkFun (then Binary Arts) back in 1995.  At the time is was called “Tokyo Parking” and instead of being a traffic jam, it was a hellish parking lot.  (Frankly, those seem pretty similar to me living in Chicago – our expressways at rush hour always look like one long parking lot!)  Anyway, ThinkFun improved upon Nob’s concept by placing it in a nice grid with cars that easily slid back and forth.  They also changed the name from Tokyo Parking to Rush Hour and insisted on keeping the message positive.  Instead of being angry at the terrible parking skills of the other cars, players see getting out of the tangled mess of rush hour traffic a challenge.  And with some of the more difficult cards – it really is!

In addition to the physical Rush Hour game, if you own an iPhone you can get the Rush Hour app that was released right before Christmas.  For less than a buck you can get over 2500 puzzles!  Quite a deal.  (And don’t be fooled by any of the similar apps – you really want the official Rush Hour one!)

So despite not really being a “game” this puzzle gets high marks with the game testers here at The Game Aisle.  It’s a great product to enjoy when no one wants to play any games against you!

Rush Hour Stats:
$15-$25 at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Target.com, and many more.  Other versions like a Railroad, Safari and Junior are available.  Add-on packs will run you about $8 for 1 new car and 40 new challenges.
1 Player
Time depends on level and skill
Ages 8 and up

I’ve decided that my holiday gift to you – the readers of The Game Aisle – should not be another “Top Games” list (sorry, maybe next year) but instead a list of games to help you make it through the holidays! Here we go…

Problem: FAMILY

You would trade all of your holiday gifts to just make the horrible small talk and/or awkward silences at family parties go away.  (This includes attempting to converse with relatives you never see AND/OR the relatives who are constant complainers – you know, the ones who include the depressing/whiny letters recapping all of the injustices and annoyances of the past year in their in their holiday cards.)

* Solution: Click Here! This game requires NO small talk – heck, it includes little player interaction!

Problem: DRUNK ADULTS

Your house has been taken over by a group of rowdy adults who have partaken in FAR too much holiday cheer.

* Solution: Click Here! This game will keep everyone entertained at the same time so you won’t have to worry about your holiday decorations ending up in lewd positions!

Problem: LONG CAR RIDES!

Over the river and through the snow….and more snow…and terrible traffic…

*Solution: Click Here! Whether you’re visiting relatives, going to find the perfect Christmas tree or stuck in the horrible mall parking lot with ten thousand other holiday shoppers, this game require no hands just someone to read and maybe keep score!

Problem: ATTENTION SEEKING KIDS (especially ones that aren’t yours)

The kids want you to play a game.  As terrible as this sounds, everyone has been in the situation where they get suckered into a horribly long, mind-numbing children’s game when they would much rather be hanging around the holiday punch with the adults.  Don’t disappoint the kids and become the “mean” uncle/aunt/cousin/family friend/etc.

*Solutions: If the kids are 3-4: Click Here! Short, sweet, cute…not mind-numbing.  If the kids are 5 and up: Click here! Actually pretty fun for adults to play with kids – and bonus, no need to stack the deck to make the game quick!

Problem: ENTERTAINING DISASTER

Your should-have-been-fantastic holiday bird has started on fire and unless you feel like you can pass it off as “blackened chicken” you need to buy some time while you track down a place that will deliver some edible food.

*Solution: For a small group Click Here! They’re not very holiday-esque BUT if you’re good with a glue gun you could make them exude holiday cheer in no time!  Keep it on the table for the whole season to entertain random guests!  For a large group Click Here! This will totally do the trick – especially if you have the holiday pack!

Problem: TOO MANY DESSERTS

You’ve invited your friends over for a pot luck dinner but everyone brought desserts and you need something to distract yourself from the giant chocolate mousse Yule log cake that keeps calling your name.

*Solution: Grab This! It can be played by up to 7 players and you can always play in teams!

Problem: FORGOT HOW TO RELAX

It’s a quiet night at home with your significant other and you just want to relax and enjoy some peace and quiet.  (Not really a “problem”…but in case your mind is so numb from the holidays I thought I’d toss this category in to help you out!)
*Solution: Play This! It’s quiet, relaxing and you can enjoy some wine and nice conversation during the game.

Happy Holidays to you all!  Check back in 2010 to hear all about the fun games Santa delivered!

- The Game Aisle

Holiday Yahtzee, A Christmas Story Yahtzee, Charlie Brown Christmas Yahtzee
Personally I think that Yahtzee is a game shelf staple (read review here), so if you need to give someone a holiday themed version to get them interested in trying Yahtzee, so be it!  Because these games use images that represent numbers the play is a bit different and kind of clunky for scoring, but I like Yahtzee enough to let it slide.  FYI I think the A Christmas Story version is much easier on the eyes than the Holiday version.

All can be found on Amazon.com for $11 and up, Ages 8 and Up, 2 or More Players

I Spy Holiday Wishes Card Game
It’s a continuation of Briarpatch’s extremely prolific I Spy line and plays a bit like “I spy” meets memory with holiday themed cards.  You need to remember all of the gifts on the wish list, spy them and collect to win!  For about $6 it’s a great stocking stuffer for the younger crowd.

Can be found at Amazon.com and FunagainGames.com for ~$6, Ages 4 and up, 2-4 Players

ReFraze Holiday Pack
If you read the review on ReFraze (click here) you’ll know that this game was developed as a trivia-esque word game for a holiday party.  Well now you can see what sparked the development of the ReFraze line!  It’s definitely a smaller deck but there are only so many holiday questions you can ask.

Can be found at Amazon.com for ~$14, Ages 12 and up, 2 or More Players

Halli Galli Christmas Edition
This is a simple to learn card game with an awesome big bell in the middle ala Pit (one of my all-time faves!).  Players keep a stack of cards with holiday themed images in front of them and they take turns flipping cards over.  When you see a total of EXACTLY five similar items on the table you ring the bell and collect the cards.  The player with the most cards wins and there are penalties for ringing in at the wrong time.  Good game for tweens and kids because they have wickedly fast reflexes.  This one may be a bit hard to find, but  you could always just buy the non-holiday version and wrap it in some pretty holiday paper.  They’ll still enjoy it – I swear.

Can be found at Amazon.com and FunagainGames.com for ~$5-$15, Ages 6 and up, 2-6 Players

The Ball, Big Wheel and the Nintendo Game Boy!

The announcement took place at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY and the items were chosen from twelve nominees which also included: Cabbage Patch Kids, Game of Life, Hot Wheels, Paper Airplane, Playing Cards, Rubik’s Cube, Sidewalk Chalk, Toy Tea Set, and Transformers. The Toy Hall of Fame accepts toy and game nominations all year and on November 5th they announced this year’s nominees biased on a four part criteria which includes: icon-status, longevity, discovery and innovation.

Currently forty-one toys have been accepted into the Hall of Fame including:

Alphabet Blocks, Atari 2600 Game System, Barbie, Baby Doll, Bicycle, Candy Land, Cardboard Box, Checkers, Crayola Crayons, Duncan Yo-Yo, Easy-Bake Oven, Erector Set, Etch A Sketch, Frisbee, G.I. Joe, Hula Hoop, Jack-in-the-Box, Jacks, Jigsaw Puzzle, Jump Rope, Kite, LEGO, Lincoln Logs, Lionel Trains, Marbles, Monopoly, Mr. Potato Head, Play-Doh, Radio Flyer Wagon, Raggedy Ann & Andy, Rocking Horse, Roller Skates, Scrabble, Silly Putty, Skateboard, Slinky, Stick, Teddy Bear, Tinkertoy, Tonka Trucks, and View-Master.

As my own personal commentary here, I agree with most of their past selections and I think that there are plenty more that deserve a spot, but I am disappointed at the low number – and quality of – games within the bunch.  Including today’s inductees, there are only 3 games and 2 electronic gaming systems.  And while I know the history, longevity and icon status of Candy Land, Monopoly and Checkers I would never put them in my own “hall of favorites.” In fact, I can’t say that I’ve played any of them recently – with the exception of Checkers when I played King Me by Winning Moves and thoroughly enjoyed the instant crowing feature.

Games and playthings have been around since the dawn of time.  There are games that have been found in tombs of ancient pharaohs and played by both royalty and peasants throughout the ages.  Maybe that’s part of the problem, it’s hard to see the “innovation” when games like Chess, Dominoes and Mahjong have been the gold standard for so long.

Maybe in the future we will see some more games added to the list.  If you’d like to help that happen – suggest your favorite game by filling out the nomination form here.

For more information on the Strong National Museum of Play or the National Toy Hall of Fame visit www.museumofplay.org.

In this photo you can see my husband playing Ms. Pac-Man at the airport in San Juan.  They have old arcade games peppered throughout the terminals and given that we had five hours to sit around, my husband and I really appreciated them.

Here in the US if you end up in an American Airlines Admiral’s Club you can find games by Buffalo Games, Fundex, Out of the Box, Hasbro. Rio Grande, Top Trumps, Live Oak and more.  They were put there by Nate Scheidler, Organizer of the Chicago Boardgames Meetup Group, to give weary travelers not only something to do but also exposure to new and different games.  It’s a great idea and I wish it could spread beyond the doors of the Admiral’s Clubs, but until that happens, you’ll have to pack your own.

I personally think that games are the best way to kill time.  As I mentioned in my Yahtzee article, I keep a dice and some score sheets in the trunk of my car in case of an emergency.   I also toss in my bag a couple games when I’m traveling because you never know when you’re going to be stuck in an airport or in your hotel because of rain and nothing makes those long waits more enjoyable than a couple rounds of your favorite game.   This trip I brought: Cinq-o, Yahtzee and Bananagrams and I wished we had room for the travel backgammon.

So what should you pack?  Chung Wu who is a Design Manager at RC2/Learning Curve (and my ex-coworker at Meyer/Glass) says “Containment is key.” He selects things that won’t explode into a billion pieces if dropped.  I think that it should be small, light weight and have a TON of repeat play value.  To make your selection a little easier I’ve asked a couple people what they bring and here were their answers:

• Nate brings Pickomino, SET, and My Word!
• Chung Wu brings his electronic versions of Boggle, Battleship, Yahtzee and Connect 4
• Game inventor and craft guru Peggy Brown brings Toss Up with her everywhere
• ChiTag director Mary Couzin brings a just a plain deck of cards
• My sister Emily brings UNO, Skip-Bo, Cinq-o and a plain deck of cards
• My other sister Amy brings Apples to Apples if she’s going with a group

What game(s) do you bring with you when you travel?