A Gamut of Games

by Sid Sackson

Book Overview

"A genuine milestone in the literature of both games and mathematical recreations." -- Martin Gardner, Scientific American
An authority on game history selects 38 of his all-time favorite amusements, including 22 of his own remarkable creations. Sid Sackson presents solitaire, strategy, and party games that can be played by children or adults with such common items as cards, checkerboards, dice, pencils, and paper.
Diagrams and an abundance...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0486273474
• ISBN13: 9780486273471
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.4" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 10 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 5 and higher

Customer Reviews

Too bad this hasn;t been reprinted

An amazing, fascinating book about games before the "Avalon Hill" revolution-way before the video game revolution. This book shows what a small group of nerdy, brilliant pioneers can come up with, working in their dark little basements. Too bad these games are essentially "lost" in the Guitar hero cacphony. You didn;t jump aorund when you were conquering the world, but it did make you think and imagine and interact with your friends and family.

A Must Read for all Game Players

Sid Sackson was probably the most prolific collector of board games in the United States (and probably the world). Sid loved games and he loved inventing games, too. With many published games to his credit (some of which made their first public appearance in this book), Sid Sackson (the designer of one of my favorite games of all time, "Acquire") is my personal game guru and I have made a point of acquiring any game or book with his name attached. This book is full of fun and very playable games discovered, re-discovered, and invented by Sid Sackson. Do your brain a favor and buy this book now!

Outstanding - lots of great new games for you to play

This is a brilliant book by Sid Sackson. It compiles the rules for a variety of games, with the common feature that all can be played with the materials that you already have at home. Some games use cards, others use a chess or checkers set. There are a lot of paper and pencil games which are great to play while travelling.The games are a mixture of "forgotten" games, new games invented by friends of Sid, as well as lots of games invented by the author. Many of these games have subsequently been published in a boxed format by major companies, but this book gives you a chance to try them out at no cost.There are simple games, solitaire games, serious strategy games, party games for 20 or more people, and everything in-between.My favourites in the collection include a 2 player card game of pure skill ("Mate"), a card game that resembles Canasta but which is rather more fun ("Paks"), a scrabble-like pencil and paper game ("CrossWords"), and a game called Focus that is 2 or 4 player strategy game that weakly resembles a cross between checkers and Shogi.If you love games, then you should have this book. If you don't, then buying this book just might change your mind!

Excellent book with many original games

First published in 1969, this book brings you 38 original games. Sid Sackson collected these games as member of the N.Y.G.A (New York Game Associates), allthough many are his own invention.It is true that any Hoyle will give you instant access to many games, but all these games somehow have something special.My own favorite is Haggle, a delightfull party game for birthday parties.

definitely, a classic

Board and card games are so ancient and spread around the world that one may think nothing really new will come up. If that's your opinion, this book will change your mind, offering dozens of NEW games to play with pencil & paper, pocker chips or standard playing cards.