Seen at Canada's Wonderland this past weekend......

Okay, Daryl may have spent this past weekend at GenCon playing brand new swanky titles.  But at least I saw a gigantic arcade Operation.....

World's oldest board game?

Today in cool, Gizmodo points us to a cool discovery in Turkey - 5000 year old board game pieces:

The extensive set is made up of 49 small, carved stones that wouldn't be entirely dissimilar to chess pieces if not for the fact that, in addition to black and white, the tokens also come painted in red, blue, and green and were accompanied by poorly preserved wooden sticks.

These may date as far back as the oldest know game Senet or even further.  Very, very cool.

(Thanks for the tip, Matt)

Holy guacamole!

The great thing about writing a blog about the fairly niche topic of board games is that once people know about it, they start sending links to you.  Sure makes it easy to come up with posts.

Like this little animated video from last year shown to me by my friend Richard, which also happens to be the shortest film ever to be nominated for an Oscar.

WANT!!!!

Best boardgame table ever?

Board games that SHOULD be movies....

Here's a great little article saying that despite the disaster that was Battleship last year, there are some games that would make great movies.  My favourite of their choices is Arkham Horror:

Imagine the aesthetics and attention to period detail seen in something like HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Now add portals to other dimensions, gangsters firing tommy guns at giant spiders and monsters that can drive characters insane in seconds. Every game of Arkham Horror oozes menace and atmosphere and since players are forced to band together against a game that's doing its damnedest to wipe them out, every round becomes a tale of heroes fighting against overwhelming odds. Lovecraft has proven difficult to adapt in the past, but perhaps the key to bringing his world to the screen is this game, which takes the author's concepts and filters them into an action-horror story. This could be the next great horror franchise.

But boy would it have an unhappy ending.... 

(Thanks for the tip, Kelly!)

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you...

Happy 40th birthday, video games!!!!

Definitely want to check out the 'video games as art' exhibit at the Smithsonian...  (Source)

A little experiment....

My partner threw an idea at me one day about maybe doing time-lapse photography of board games as they progress.  Seemed kinda cool so I finally figured out our new camera and I-Movie and tried it.  I figured Dominant Species might be kind of appropriate, you know migrating species, approaching tundra, and all that.

Unfortunately, you can only whittle a 3 hour game down so much so here's 5 minutes of cube and tile pushing, put to some nice classical music (I've always thought inter-species violence, and violence in general, makes more of a splash to classical...)

This may only interest two other people - the ones who played the game with me.  Ha.



Next time I think I'll try Tigris and Euphrates.

One more reason why I got's to get to New York...

Having moved to Ontario 5 years ago, it's always been at the back of my mind that I'm only a day's drive from New York City, the centre of the universe!  Okay, that was a line from Rent - maybe it's not the centre of the universe...

But NYC has got tons of amazing things to see and do, including, of course, a visit to the Museum of Modern Art.  And MOMA is looking especially cool now that they have a life-sized board game to participate in.  Now I really have to get there.

(Link via the other Eric at BGGNews...)

WANT!!!!!

(Via Laptop....)  The tabletop version of Angry Birds appeared at the New York Toy Fair this year.  Angry Birds, if you've been completely under a rock this past year, is quite the addictive little puzzler for Iphones about throwing angry birds at sneering pigs (seriously).  It's a lot of fun and it managed to single-handedly keep me calm and somewhat distracted for my flight home from Cuba this past February. 

With all the board games becoming computer and phone games, it's kinda nice to see the reverse happening.  I'll have to add this to the Plants Vs. Zombies board game which is already on my wishlist....

The science of dice...

Interesting little video on how to make the perfect polyhedral dice (thanks, Magdalicious!)





Love the theme music. Is that Bowie?

Best birthday gift ever pt. 2...

 I blogged a few days ago about Cynthia Nims' delightful Gourmet Game Night cookbook that my sister sent me for my birthday.  I LOVE food and cooking and experimenting with different styles of cuisine and I also love games (obviously).  So this was a match made in heaven...

The book itself is a treasure-trove of surprisingly good recipes.  I've been drooling over the Homemade Pretzel Sticks with Three Mustards and the Banana Bread with Hazelnut Cream Cheese Filling (I know, seriously.)  The book even has a list of some great game stores in the US and gives props to not only the classic games but also to Ticket To Ride and Apples To Apples.  Nice!

I'm also happy to report that the author also has a website here with tons more recipes and ideas and rules to a few simple games.  I'm in heaven.  Here's a recent mouth-watering recipe from her website:

Mocha Cheesecake Bars
from Gourmet Game Night (c) Cynthia Nims

The ever-popular cheesecake makes an easy transition to game night, taking on a shallower square form that’s easy to cut into finger-friendly pieces. If you’re unable to find simple chocolate wafer cookies (the Nabisco brand wafers are a great choice), you can use graham crackers crumbs instead for the crust.
1 1/4 cups very fine chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (4 to 5 ounces cookies)

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons Kahlua or other coffee liqueur

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

3/4 pound cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In a medium bowl, combine the cookie crumbs and melted butter and stir to evenly mix. Put the crumb mixture in a 9-inch square cake pan and press the crumbs evenly across the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust until set, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 F.
Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler over medium heat, stirring occasionally. (Alternatively, melt the chocolate in a microwave.) Take the top bowl from the heat and stir in the coffee liqueur and espresso powder. Set aside to cool.
Whip the cream cheese and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until well blended. Add the eggs and continue beating to make a smooth batter, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the chocolate mixture until thoroughly incorporated.
Pour the batter onto the cooled crust and spread it out evenly. Bake the cheesecake until set, 35 to 40 minutes. Set aside on a wire rack to cool completely, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Cut the cheesecake into 5 strips each direction, for 25 squares. Arrange them on a platter or tray and serve.
Makes 25 cheesecake bars
↑ can double all ingredients, making the cheesecake in 2 pans
↓ best not to halve; extra will keep well for a few days, covered and refrigerated
¤ can make the cheesecake up to 2 days ahead, cover, and refrigerate

Award-winning gaming pics...

Been struggling a bit since I got back from my trip to make the time for updating this here bloggy thing.  Been prepping for my new job which starts tomorrow, including the acquisition of an Ontario learner's license.  Hopefully the readers aren't dropping like flies...  (Nah, you're a devoted bunch, right?)  Will post a poker variant later today and maybe a review this week.  Picked up Taluva thanks to GamerChris' recommendation and will be wanting to talk more about that little delight as well.

For now, here's some delightful award-winning photos.  Check out BGN for more details on to this year's IGPA contest and even more photos.  (Click on the pictures to embiggen them.)

Oh, the symmetry!

For those fans of Ingenious...

Too much coffee late in the evening?

(Thanks to Namrok's girlfriend on BGG...)

Okay, now I REALLY, REALLY want an Ipad (and an Iphone...)

I've mentioned the Ipad before and all the cool game apps that are coming.  But this morning I read Dale Yu's summary of his time at the latest Gathering of Friends (which made me insanely jealous, as usual...)  He mentions that one of the hot toys at the Gathering was the Ipad and he described the Scrabble app which uses separate Iphones as the tile racks.  Um.  Awesome.  Ridiculously awesome.  I had to look it up.

Watch the video below and perhaps a pool of drool will start forming in front of your keyboard, as it did in front of mine...

Escher vs. Wrede...

(Thanks to Franco Marchiori on BGG for this...)

Okay, NOW I want an Ipad....

BoardgameNews points us to the first board and card game app announced for the Ipad. And I have to admit, it's pretty damn cool. Crappy games but I've a feeling that will change VERY quickly.

Of course, I'm the one who vows never to get an E-reader as I love the feel of a real dead-tree book. Who knows...

You can check it out here.