At long last, the annual Origins episode of The Vintage Gamer. As this is the third year, this officially makes it a cherished tradition. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) there was no podcasters panel so instead I went around and did some interviews at some of the small press booths. A big “Thank You” to all who participated — if what you hear interests you, please support them with your dollars.

For a fuller picture of the show, I recommend you check out The Spiel Origins episode for a lot more show floor interviews, and the Dice Tower Origins episode for more info and a nice interview with (Spiel des Jahres winner!) Reiner Knizia.

Featured interviews:

• Matt Duhan of Gozer Games discusses: Collateral Damage
• Rob Balder of many things discusses: The FUnny Music Project, Erfworld, Partially Clips, Get Nifty
• Peter Hansell of Tablestar Games discusses: Wealth of Nations, Martinis and Men, HeroCard Orc Wars
• Fred Hicks of Indy Press Revolution and Evil Hat Productions discusses: Heaven and Earth, Archaia Studios, Avenues and Alleyways, Solipsist, Spirit of the Season, Spirit of the Century, Don’t Rest Your Head, Don’t Lose Your Mind, Monsters and Other Childish Things, GODLIKE, Wild Talents, Dresden Files RPG
• Curt Covert of Smirk and Dagger Games discusses: Cutthroat Caverns, Run For Your Life, Candyman, Hex*Hex, Hex*Hex Next, Cutthroat Caverns: Deeper & Darker
• Greg Lam of Pair Of Dice Games discusses: Chopstick Dexterity Megachallenge 3000, Warp6, Knockabout, Marvin Marvel’s Marvelous Marble Machine

Pictures of my trip to Origins including most of these folks can be found on my flickr feed. You can also see the lovely new sewer line.

Oh my stars and garters, it’s another Vintage Gamer! This time I cover the 80s conspiracy game, Illuminati. Lie to your friends, stab them in the back, all to take over the world (sounds like Diplomacy — or a bizarre version of Lifeboats). All this, plus some Vintage Gamer news and feedback!

Show Notes:

I’m at Balticon and have to run to a panel… show notes tomorrow.

And so The Vintage Gamer returns to its regular yet irregular schedule. In this show I spend over an hour talking about one of my secret loves: chess variants. I talk about games of the past, games from other countries, and some other unusual variants. (and this barely scratches the surface). In addition, our new sponsor Bob stops by for a visit. All this, plus unrequested editorial commentary from a groundskeeper and a curious dog.

Show Notes:

• News and Notes
• Check out the website for news (but you already are…)
• Listen to Take Control of Podcasting on the Mac!
• The influence of Bobby Fischer
• Games Magazine, Jan/Feb 1981 Article
• Why chess variants?
• Chaturanga
• Shatranj
• Ethiopian Chess (Senterej)
• Burmese Chess (Sittuyin)
• Cambodian Chess (Ouk Chatrang)/Siamese Chess (Makruk)
• Citadel Chess (Shatranj al-husun)
• Tamerlane Chess (Shatranj al-kabir)
• (Turkish) Great Chess
• Four-Hand Chaturanga (Chaturaji)
• Round Chess (misnamed Byzantine Chess).
• Listen to Pulp Gamer: Out of Character!
• Chinese Chess (Xiangqi)
• Bob calls
• Korean Chess (Janggi)
• Bob makes his move
• Japanese Chess (Shogi)
• Chu Shogi
• Dai Shogi
• Tai Shogi
• Bob brings out the computer
• Listen to Zombie, Inc.!
• Circular Chess (modern version of Round Chess)
• Spherical Chess
• Toroid Chess
• Cylindrical Chess
• Hexagonal Chess (Glinski’s, others)
• 3D Chess (Star Trek, others)
• Bob nearly loses a customer
• Beyond Chess
• Fairy Chess
• Grasshopper Chess
• Nightrider
• Kreigspiel
• Alice or Looking Glass Chess
• Progressive Chess
• Knightmare Chess (designed by Bruno Faidutti)
• Chess Equalizer
• The game ends sadly
• Play Winning Chess series
• How to Reassess Your Chess, by Jeremy Silman
• Chessmaster
• Fritz
• Chess^4
• Bughouse/Crazyhouse
• Game of the 4 Seasons
• Fischer Random
• Grand Chess
• Omega Chess
• No feedback, have to catch up, sorry
• Closing

Additional Links:

• The Chess Variant Pages
• A History of Chess, by HJR Murray
• The Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, by David B. Pritchard
• New Rules for Classic Games, by R. Wayne Schmittberger
• The Oxford History of Board Games, by David Parlett
• The Abstract Gamer covers Chu Shogi
• The Family Game Store (introduced me to Beyond Chess and Chess^4)
• The Spiel (introduced me to The Chess Equalizer)

Final thoughts:

With all of these games, I know I screwed something up somewhere, so feel free to correct me.

The Vintage Gamer begins its triumphant return with a special interview episode with the Tic-Tac-Toe Champion of the World. If that’s not enough, we have a new sponsor! And the usual intro and outro music. So yes, it’s a chock-full episode.

Show Notes:

• Intro
• Interview
• Closing

Links:

• Tic-Tac-Toe Uncyclopedia entry

Final thoughts:

Real show in 2 weeks. Promise and for true.

Back from the abyss with an actual game review show. This time I talk about the darkly humorous game Nuclear War, designed by Doug Malewicki and published by Flying Buffalo, Inc. I also cover what’s been happening with me over the past few months, discuss some recent gaming news (vintage and otherwise), and talk about possibilities for future shows.

Show Notes:

• New job
• Origins report
• Congrats to ENnie Winners Have Games, Will Travel and Yog Radio
• Cosmic Encounter, Dune and Borderlands to be reprinted
• Boardgame Podcasters Awards: Gateway Game, New Publisher, Innovative Concept, Small Publisher, Game of the Year
• Dragon*Con: Gaming podcast panel on Sept 1, 2:30pm
• Listen to Geeklabel Radio!
• History of Nuclear War
• Rules
• Expansions: Nuclear Escalation, Nuclear Proliferation, Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Listen to Heaven – Season Three: Earth!
• Future plans
• Closing

Links:

• Nuclear War BGG entry
• Nuclear Escalation
• Nuclear Proliferation
• Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Flying Buffalo’s Nuclear War page
• Doug Malewicki’s web page
• Nuclear War at Game Table Online

Final thoughts:

Yeah, yeah, Dune is not an Eon game, but it might as well be.

It being the second year in a row, I now present the traditional recording of the gaming podcasters panel. The panel this year was organized by Scott Nicholson, and featured board game podcasters. Sorry about the delay on this — I used two recorders to get full coverage of the panel so there was some post-production involved.

The panelists were, left to right:

Scott Nicholson (Board Games with Scott and On Board Games)
David Coleson and Stephen Conway (The Spiel)
Yours truly
Tom Vasel and Sam Healey (The Dice Tower)
Mark Haberman and Jay Little (The Metagamers)

Plus special guests:

Don Dehm (Pulp Gamer)
Mur Lafferty (too many podcasts)
Chris Miller and K.J. (The House of the Harping Monkey)
J.J. & Victor (Fistful of Comics & Games)
Paul Tevis (Have Games, Will Travel)
The Vicar and the Kingfish (Geeklabel Radio)

oh, and
Joe Steadman

Many thanks to Scott Nicholson for organizing this — it was a great panel of people.

After an even longer hiatus, I’m back — at least for the moment. This week I have an interview from GDC 2007 with another gaming luminary, Eric Goldberg of Crossover Technologies. We talked for forty-five minutes about his history in the gaming industry — covering wargames, tabletop RPGs, boardgames and briefly about his later work in online and mobile games.

Show Notes:

• Apologies for long hiatus
• News about reprints and rereleases, especially Cosmic Encounter and Titan
• Get yourself a Geeklabel T-shirt!
• Interview with Eric Goldberg
• Listen to Midnight’s Lair!
• What’s up with me
• Closing

Links:

• Junta (board game)
• Highway to the Reich (wargame)
• War of the Ring (wargame)
• Descent on Crete (wargame)
• John Carter: Warlord of Mars (?)
• Swords & Sorcery (wargame)
• Commando (wargame)
• DragonQuest (RPG)
• Imperium Romanum (wargame)
• Campaigns of Napoleon (wargame)
• The Compleat Enchanter (reference to book)
• Paranoia (RPG)
• Mongoose’s Paranoia Page
• Star Wars RPG
• Tales of the Arabian Nights (board game)
• Air Cav (wargame)
• Crossover Technologies (from 3D Gamers site)
• MadMaze
• Tom Peter’s Business School in a Box
• Article on Unplugged Games

Final thoughts:

Another big thank you to Eric Goldberg for agreeing to sit down for this interview. He’s a very busy guy and I appreciate all the time he was willing to give me.

After a long hiatus, I’m back. This week I have an interview from GDC 2007 with gaming luminary Greg Costikyan of Manifesto Games. We talked for half an hour about his history in the gaming industry — covering wargames, tabletop RPGs, and his later work in online and independent digital games.

Show Notes:

• Apologies for long hiatus
• Now a member of the Gaming Podcast Network!
• Politika games have finally shipped
• Game Developer’s Conference update and upcoming interviews
• Listen to Groovy Gamers Groovecast!
• Interview with Greg Costikyan
• Attend the UK Games Expo!
• Feedback
• Closing

Links:

• Supercharge (wargame)
• Swords & Sorcery (wargame)
• The Creature That Ate Sheboygan (wargame)
• SPI Died For Your Sins (article)
• Bug-Eyed Monsters (wargame)
• Toon (RPG)
• Paranoia (RPG)
• Mongoose’s Paranoia Page
• Star Wars RPG
• The Willow Game (board game)
• Crossover Technologies (from 3D Gamers site)
• MadMaze
• Article on Unplugged Games
• Violence: the roleplaying game of egregious and repulsive bloodshed
• Gaming Needs an Indy Label (originally published in Game Developer)
• The Scratchware Manifesto
• GDC 2005 Rant
• GDC 2007 Maverick Award acceptance speech

Final thoughts:

A big thank you to Greg Costikyan for agreeing to sit down for this interview. He’s a very busy guy and I appreciate all the time he was willing to give me.

Back to board games with this episode, where I do double-coverage by talking about both another paragraph-based game and another Eric Goldberg game. The game is Tales of the Arabian Nights, originally published by West End Games in 1985 and republished and revised by Edition Erlkonig in 1999. In this one, you and the other players take on roles from the Tales of Scheherazade and have adventures around Baghdad and the surrounding barbarian lands, only to return home with great stories, to meet your destiny, or even to become Sultan.

Show Notes:

• Sorry about the delay, more sick
• Website updates
• Appearance on Escape Pod
• Listen to The Geeklabel Podcast!
• History of Tales of the Arabian Nights
• Description of Standard game
• Hey, look, it’s Reiner Knizia!
• Description of Storytelling game
• Description of Adventure game
• Description of Solitaire game
• Wrap-up on Tales of the Arabian Nights
• Listen to Random Signal!
• Fool’s Errand and leftover Sherlock Holmes feedback
• Closing

Links:

• BGG entry
• A nice review at Spotlight on Games
• Means of gender transformation in the first edition
• Info on the second edition from Kevin J. Maroney

Final thoughts:

I’ve switched to using Garageband to do my sound recording and editing simply because Audacity isn’t terribly stable on the Mac. I think it sounds pretty good, but let me know if you notice any quirks — I’m still getting used to it.

As it’s been a while since I’ve done a pure computer game, I decided to do another blast from the Macintosh past. This time the game is The Fool’s Errand, designed and created by Cliff Johnson, and originally published by Miles Computing. It’s a puzzle game that should hopefully appeal to you pencil puzzlers out there. I also talk about the follow-up games At the Carnival and 3 in Three, as well as the sequel, The Fool and His Money.

I also give the final winners of the Politika games, and talk about some recent appearances on other shows.

Show Notes:

• It’s official: The show is vintage
• Appearances on Gaming Uncensored and Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It.
• Life changes
• Listen to Gaming Uncensored!
• Description of The Fool’s Errand
• Description of At the Carnival
• Description of 3 in Three
• Brief coverage of the Philips CD-i games
• Where to get these lovely games
• Coming up: The Fool and His Money
• Attend the UK Games Expo!
• Who gets the Politika games?
• Closing

Links:

• Cliff Johnson’s main page (click on the pictures at the top to navigate)
• The Fool’s Errand (Wikipedia)
• At the Carnival (Wikipedia)
• 3 in Three (Wikipedia)
• Pre-order The Fool and His Money
• Cliff Johnson’s work on Laff in the Dark monsters

Final thoughts:

As I was focusing primarily on the computer games, I inadvertantly forgot a few elements of Cliff Johnson’s recent career. After the Philips games wrapped up, he was a consultant to Disney Online, and designed the $100,000 puzzle for David Blaine’s book The Mysterious Stranger.

Finally I return to games that most would consider “vintage,” this one being both 20 years old and out of print. The game this week is Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective, a paragraph-based deduction game from Sleuth Publications.

I also talk a little bit about the Politika pair of shows, and the continuing Politika board game giveaway. Yes, I managed to get one, maybe two, additional copies. So if you’re interested, drop me a line by Dec 31.

Show Notes:

• It’s offical: I’m vintage
• Merry Christmas and very sickness
• Happy Hannukah
• Politika giveaway update
• Listen to Pulp Gamer!
• Game description
• Components
• Gameplay for 1, 2, or more players
• James Ernest is a big fan (well, he did a bumper)!
• Bad stuff #3: Long turns and number of players
• Strategy and general thoughts
• Expansions and other Sleuth Publications games
• The multimedia version
• Listen to Villian Talk!
• Feedback on the Politika shows
• Closing

Links:

• Main BGG entry
• The Mansion Murders
• The Queen’s Park Affair
• Adventures by Gaslight
• West End Adventures
• Gumshoe
• The Chinatown Caper
• Jack the Ripper
• FMV game…
• and sequel
• DVD release

Final thoughts:

Dang it, my original research showed that the FMV version came out as a PC game first, but there it is on Wikipedia: it was released on Sega Genesis (via Sega CD) first. My apologies.

This month is the 10-year anniversary of the founding of Red Storm Entertainment. As a commemoration, I’m doing a two-parter on my experience as lead designer on Tom Clancy’s Politika. Not a well-rated or beloved game by any stretch, but I thought that relating our experience would help any aspiring designers out there to avoid the mistakes we made. This week I’m covering the things that I thought didn’t go so well — tune into the previous episode to hear the game description and the things that I thought succeeded.

Show Notes:

• Thanksgiving not fun when sick
• Listen to Tracy and Laura Hickman’s Dragonhearth!
• Game description
• Bad stuff #1: Combat model
• Bad stuff #2: Random placement and zero-sum game
• Bad stuff #3: Long turns and number of players
• Bad stuff #4: Components
• Bad stuff #5: Special abilities
• Bad stuff #6: Playtesting
• Listen to Game Addict Hotline!
• Contact me for free Politika stuff
• Closing

Links:

• Red Storm Politika site
• BGG entry
• Greg Schloesser’s review

Final thoughts:

One thing I didn’t make clear is that the giveaway is for the Politika boardgame. I also have copies of the computer game, but they might be hard to get running on today’s systems. Still, if you want ‘em…

This month is the 10-year anniversary of the founding of Red Storm Entertainment. As a commemoration, I’m doing a two-parter on my experience as lead designer on Tom Clancy’s Politika. Not a well-rated or beloved game by any stretch, but I thought that relating our experience would help any aspiring designers out there to avoid the mistakes we made. This week I’m covering the things that I thought went well — next week, the parts that, er, didn’t go so well.

Show Notes:

• Happy Anniversary to Red Storm Entertainment!
• Listen to After Serenity!
• Game description
• Good stuff #1: In-depth research
• Good stuff #2: Production model
• Good stuff #3: Movement
• Good stuff #4: Shared power
• Good stuff #5: The board
• Good stuff #6: The people
• Listen to All Games Considered!
• Feedback and corrections on Show #23
• 54-40 Orphyte (Black Morn Manor source)
• Closing

Links:

• Red Storm Politika site
• BGG entry
• Greg Schloesser’s review
• Russia Today
• Russia 2010

Final thoughts:

Audacity is free, and at times acts like it. Due to its lovely save “feature,” the original high-quality audio for this show is gone, so what you hear is what you get. Also some of this was recorded first thing in the morning, so that’s why the audio does a bit of a switch from clear to somewhat growly early on.

And right on the heels of the last episode, a Halloween-themed show, where I cover some vintage board and card games with horror themes.

Show Notes:

• Theme Music: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by J.S. Bach, performed by James Clarke
• Intro
• Arkham Horror (and Curse of the Dark Pharoah and Dunwich Horror)
• (The) Fury of Dracula (& show)
• Chill: Black Morn Manor
• Haunted Mansion Game
• Ghost Train
• Which Witch?
• Dark Cults (cards and rules)
• Intruder
• Vampyre
• They’ve Invaded Pleasantville
• The Awful Green Things from Outer Space (& show)
• Ghosts!
• Closing
• End Music: Creepy Doll, written and performed by hairy backwoodsman Jonathan Coulton

Final thoughts:

This should have been the Illuminati episode. Oh well, 23 skiddoo. Fnord.

This week on The Vintage Gamer, I cover one of the few threats to Dungeons and Dragons in the fantasy role-playing game market — and one of my favorite RPGs from my past: DragonQuest.

Show Notes:

• Intro
• New website!
• Sound issues solved
• Thanks to BoardGameSpeak
• Domain of Apokolipz format change
• New podcast: The Square One Podcast
• New podcast: The Voice of the Revolution
• Realpolitik update: RealWorld
• Promo: Listen to Random Signal (50 episodes, woo!)
• DragonQuest publishing history
• DragonQuest personal history
• Character creation
• Combat
• Magic
• Skills
• Additional material
• Thoughts
• Promo: Listen to After Serenity
• Closing

Links:

• DragonQuest (Wikipedia)
• Recent RPG.net review
• Greg Costikjan’s history of SPI
• John Carter, Warlord of Mars (Eric Goldberg game)
• Tales of the Arabian Nights (Eric Goldberg game)
• The DragonQuest Players Association
• Index of published DragonQuest materials
• Arcane Wisdom and some DQ mods
• Snafaru’s DragonQuest fan page (includes DQ Open Source)
• Library of the Seagate Guild of Adventurers
• Additional DQ links

Final thoughts:

Eric Goldberg was also a co-creator of the Paranoia RPG. I should have remembered that.

This week on The Vintage Gamer, I do reviews of three books about games — one about history, one about art, and one about business:

• The Oxford History of Board Games, by David Parlett
• Asian Games: The Art of Contest, edited by Colin Mackenzie and Irving Finkel
• The Game Makers, by Philip Orbanes

Show Notes:

• Intro
• Participate in National Games Week!
• The Oxford History of Board Games
• Asian Games: The Art of Contest
• The Game Makers
• Listen to The Geek Label Podcast!
• Next time: I ain’t sayin’, lest I be wrong

Other links:

• Asian Games exhibition site
• A History of Games Other Than Chess
• Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations

Final thoughts:

During the show, I say the name H. R. Murray a number of times — his actual name is H.J.R. Murray.

This week, the monster movie game The Awful Green Things from Outer Space. So grab some popcorn and a big orange drink and settle in for a good old fashioned tale of horror.

Show Notes:

• Intro
• The Return of Van Overbay
• Listen to Random Signal!
• Game theme and flavor
• Monster turn
• Crew turn
• Strategy
• Variants
• Listen to The Dragon’s Landing!
• Feedback
• Next time: DragonQuest (the RPG)

Game Links:

• The Awful Green Things from Outer Space (BGG)
• Tom Wham’s website
• Znutar Epilog
• Steve Jackson Games TAGTFOS page
• Revenge of the Awful Green Things variant rules
• Steffan O’Sullivan’s TAGTFOS page
• Self-named Awful Green Things ultimate page

Final Thoughts:

Sorry about the hiss this week and last week. I’m not sure what’s going with the mixer and the
noise reduction in Audacity is horrible. I may have to actually sit down and write a gate filter as it seems to lack this basic functionality.

I also didn’t talk about online play. There is a Cyberboard gamebox here and I believe I found a similar item for a different play-by-email engine elsewhere, but I wasn’t able to track it down again.

A few days late, but better late than never. This week I give an overview of my time at Dragon*Con (promoting a lot of other podcasts in the process: I expect compensation) and follow up with a quick review of the 1997 — or is it 1999? — board game Moonshot.

Show Notes:

• Intro
• Goin’ down Highway 85
• Podcasting for Games panel
• Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman
• Tracy and Laura Hickman’s Killer Breakfast
• Parsec Awards
• Dr. Floyd Dragon*Con episode
• Wingin’ It, with the essay
• Evil beer
• Mythbusters, Mur’s last panel, dinner, masquerade
• Poor attempts at game shopping
• *break* UK Games Expo
• Moonshot review and session report (Christiana Ellis won)
• No feedback this time
• Next time: The Awful Green Things from Outer Space. Really.

Game Links:

• Moonshot (BGG)
• Moonshot (About Board Games)

Podcaster Links:

• Mr. Adventure
• Gamer: The Podcasting
• The Bear’s Grove
• Pulp Gamer
• The Bobby Blackwolf Show
• Skepticality
• The Balticon Podcast
• Escape Pod
• Requiem of the Outcast
• The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy
• I Should Be Writing
• Random Signal
• Tracy and Laura Hickman’s Dragonhearth
• Geek Fu Action Grip
• Farpoint Media
• The Seanachai
• The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd
• Michael and Evo’s Wingin’ It!
• Nina Kimberly the Merciless
• The Kick-Ass Mystic Ninjas
• Dragon Page with Class
• 7th Son
• Infection

Final Thoughts:

J.C. Hutchins gave me a cool button. Scott Sigler offered me scotch, but it’s probably best that I missed out. I forgot to mention that Moonshot won Best Family Game from Games Magazine in 2000. And I don’t need a map.

This week, I cover Pente, the game of capturing and five in a row, as well as a number of other traditional five in a row games. I also talk a bit about Dragon*Con and review some listener feedback.

Show Notes:

• Intro
• News – Dragon*Con gaming panels
• News – Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman at Dragon*Con
• News – Abstract Gamer podcast
• News – Dunwich Horror expansion
• Pente description
• Pente history and strategy
• Feedback
• Closing

Links:

• Pente (BGG)
• Go-Moku (BGG)
• Renju (BGG)
• Pente (Wikipedia)
• Brien Croteau’s page about Pente
• Alexander Nosovsky’s Pente strategy guide
• Mark Mammel’s five-in-a-row games (includes excellent computer Pente)
• Pente.net (online play)
• Pente.org (online play)

Final Thoughts:

Challenge Cthulhim at Pente.net!

This week, I am joined in the studio by my lovely podcasting wife Mur, of Geek Fu Action Grip, I Should Be Writing and Pseudopod. We discuss the Empire Builder series of games from Mayfair Games, as well as drift into some other random topics.

Show Notes:

• 0:00 – Intro
• 0:22 – News
• 3:48 – Mur bumper
• 4:00 – Introducing the Mur
• 4:45 – Empire Builder history
• 5:45 – Base game description
• 18:30 – Other games in the series
• 36:25 – Discussion and digressions
• 48:00 – James Ernest bumper
• 48:07 – Closing

Links:

• Empire Builder (Wikipedia)
• Empire Builder (BGG)
• British Rails (BGG)
• Eurorails (BGG)
• Agent of Change (BGG)
• Nippon Rails (BGG)
• Uncle Happy’s Train Game (BGG)
• Australian Rails (BGG)
• Iron Dragon (BGG)
• Iron Dragon Extensions (BGG)
• India Rails (BGG)
• Lunar Rails (BGG)
• Russian Rails (BGG)
• China Rails (BGG)
• Rails Through the Rockies (possible precursor)
• Iron Dragon computer game
• EB Player computer game
• Pluto Scarab Rails computer game

Final Thoughts:

It’s hard to say railroad without sounding like Elmer Fudd.

This week on The Vintage Gamer, there is a distinctly non-vintage theme as I review or give impressions of many of the games I saw at Origins. A bit late in coming, but hopefully still appreciated. Start your timers as I cover 14 games in about half an hour…

Show Notes (and links to Board Game Geek):

• 00:00 – Intro
• 02:48 – Thurn and Taxis/Thurn und Taxis
• 07:34 – Buccaneer/Seeräuber
• 09:24 – Aqua Romana/Aqua Romano
• 10:11 – Reiner Knizia!
• 10:28 – Funny Friends/Fiese Freunde Fette Feten
• 15:22 – Blue Moon City
• 17:24 – Arkham Horror – Curse of the Dark Pharaoh Expansion
• 19:19 – Enemy Chocolatier
• 22:29 – Bear’s Grove Bumper
• 22:41 – Scurvy Musketeers of the Spanish Main
• 24:31 – Ticket to Ride – Märklin Edition/Zug um Zug Märklin
• 27:00 – Abridged
• 29:21 – Fish Eat Fish
• 30:51 – Blink!
• 32:03 – Wallamoppi
• 33:11 – Beetlez

Other Links:

• My Origins 2006 Geeklist
• The Dice Tower Origins Show, with my Top Ten List
• Paul Tevis’ review of Ticket to Ride
• My review of Rook

Final Thoughts:

Yes, I know that Eurorails and other crayon rail games aren’t terribly heavy. But they’re heavier and usually have a greater time commitment than Ticket To Ride. And given a choice among train games, they’re at the top for me.

My Origins report show is coming soon, but until then, enjoy this recording that I made of the Saturday podcasting panel, organized by Paul Tevis. The panelists were:

Paul Tevis (Have Games, Will Travel)
Mike Sugarbaker (OgreCave Audio Report)
The Mad Three (Gamer: The Podcasting)
Don Dehm (Pulp Gamer)
Yours truly
Tom Vasel (The Dice Tower)
Mike Stackpole (Podcast Entertainment Network)

Many thanks to Paul Tevis for organizing this — it was fun! But boy, can podcasters talk…

This week, it’s the World War I flying ace game from Nova Games, Ace of Aces. Fly gracefully through the air with your buddies as one of those amazing young pilots in their flying machines — and then shoot them down to buy the farm below.

Show notes:

• Intro
• Look for Paul Tevis, Tom Vasel and Joe Steadman and me at Origins – 2pm Saturday
• Listen for me on Geek Fu Action Grip!
• Game history and description
• (Brief) Strategy
• Session Report and Review
• Listener Feedback on M.U.L.E.
• Next time, Origins reports.

Ace of Aces Links:

• Wikipedia entry
• Ace of Aces Collector’s Guide
• BGG entry for Handy Rotary Series
• BGG entry for Powerhouse Series
• BGG entry for Flying Machines Series
• BGG entry for Balloon Buster Series

Final Thoughts:

The rights for Ace of Aces are currently held by Flying Buffalo, Inc. They’ve done some reprints, but nothing recently as far as I can tell. I’ll ask when I’m at Origins, but based on their web site, I wouldn’t hold your breath.

This week, Dani Bunten Berry’s M.U.L.E, a multiplayer classic of the 1980s computer game era. Develop, trade, consume, make a buck and crush your friends! All this and a nifty musical theme…

Show notes:

• Intro
• Hello to all the people I saw at Balticon (Geek Fu Action Grip, Random Signal, Escape Pod, The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy, The Voice of Free Planet X, Voices of Tomorrow, Requiem of the Outcast, The Balticon Podcast)
• The cast of Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman.
• Look for Paul Tevis, Tom Vasel and Joe Steadman and me at Origins
• Participate in a podcasting panel at Dragon*Con!
• Game history and description
• Strategy
• Session Report and Review
• Listener Feedback
• Next time… not sure.

M.U.L.E. Links:

• Wikipedia entry
• World of M.U.L.E.
• Atari MULE Online!
• Dani Bunten Berry Memorial
• Salon article on Dani Bunten (registration/ad required)
• Space HoRSE (M.U.L.E. clone)
• L.L.A.M.A. (web published board game adaptation)
• Q.U.L.E. (another web published board game adaptation)

Final Thoughts:

One correction: I stated that Dani Bunten gave a keynote speech at CGDC 1997 — it was actually a lecture in 1997. However, she received a lifetime achievement award in 1998 and was gone a few months later. I had an opportunity to go to that CGDC — I should have taken it.

Another correction: I also stated that she might be pleased with the fact that you can play via emulators. Given that neither she nor her heirs see a dime from that, probably not. I also read that one major reason she wanted to republish M.U.L.E. was to update the graphics (Sega wanted to do it, but also wanted to add guns — she said no). So again, probably not. Still, it’s pretty much the only way to play these days, unfortunately.

Also, I believe I said that the auction interface was “wonky.” Upon consideration, it’s actually quite elegant, in that you can have a real-time auction amongst four players with a very simple interface. Trying to think about how you’d implement that in a face-to-face situation makes that quite clear…

This week, the classic game of mergers and acquisitions: Sid Sackson’s Acquire.
So take a break from your ticker tape, or cancel your plans to defenestrate, and give a listen.

Show notes:

• Intro
• Gamebooks on All Games Considered
• 2300 A.D. on Godzilla Gaming Podcast
• Help save Palladium!
• Game description
• Variants
• Publication History
• Tentative Strategy
• Session Report and Review
• Listener Comments
• Next week, Dani Bunten’s M.U.L.E.

Acquire Links:

• BGG entry
• Wikipedia entry
• WotC Acquire page
• Bob Claster’s Acquire page
• Pointer to original rules (from Bob Claster’s page)
• Review of late Avalon Hill version
• Free DOS version by George Crawshay (from BoardGameGeek)
• Get Hostile
• Venture
• NetAcquire

Final Thoughts:
I lost part of the audio during editing – in particular the part that announced the new voice mail service. Ah well, I’ll make sure and do that next time. If you actually read this, the number is to the right.

Another point I couldn’t quite fit in is that you really shouldn’t consider yourself an owner of the chains that you form. The only advantage is that you get that one extra stock – after that anyone can buy in and take over as majority holder.

This week, both The Fury of Dracula and Fury of Dracula, the horror hunt game from Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight. Pull up a comfy chair, it’s a long one. Because of that, I’ve added times to the show notes so you can skip around a bit, if you want.

Show notes:

• (00:00) – News and Notes
• (02:13) – Random Signal promo
• (03:13) – Intro to both versions
• (05:25) – The Fury of Dracula, game summary
• (08:10) – The Fury of Dracula, turn detail
• (15:49) – The Fury of Dracula, turn example
• (20:20) – The Fury of Dracula, more game detail and thoughts
• (24:27) – All Games Considered promo
• (25:27) – Fury of Dracula, comparison with original
• (38:51) – Fury of Dracula, session notes and thoughts
• (43:38) – Nuketown Radio Active promo
• (45:05) – User comments (including reference to a rogue-like game: Ragnarok)
• Next time: … who knows?

(The) Fury of Dracula Links:

• The Fury of Dracula BGG entry
• Madame Harker rules and character sheet
• Fury of Dracula BGG entry
• Fantasy Flight Fury of Dracula page
• Fury of Dracula Combat Chart
• Complete Text of Dracula

Final Thoughts:
I forgot to mention that Fury of Dracula was published in 2006, and that Kevin Wilson was in charge of the revision, though Steven Hand still receives the primary design credit. There is also an errata/FAQ available on the Fantasy Flight site, which I highly recommend getting.

Also, most of the material for The Fury of Dracula is scanned in on the BGG site, so check it out if you want to see the original look. You can also get it off auction sites — recent prices range from $25-$35.

And finally it’s not Scott on Boardgames, it’s Board Games with Scott. Sorry, Scott.

This week, the paragraph-based solitaire game Barbarian Prince. If that’s not enough of a mouthful, it’s also a Dwarfstar game.

Sorry about the delay on this one.

Show notes:

• Any GDC feedback?
• Cooperative Diplomacy AI
• Promo!
• Podcasting track at Dragon*Con
• Die Macher reprint
• Barbarian Prince actions
• Sample game
• Thoughts on Barbarian Prince
• Feedback from Episode 8
• Next time: The Fury of Dracula

Barbarian Prince Links:

• BGG entry
• Dwarfstar download site entry
• An unrelated novel (no, I don’t get a cut)

Final Thoughts:
As I was driving to work today (listening to Garrett’s Games and Geekiness), I realized that the review section may have been a little confusing. While the random encounters can be pretty annoying, the rest of the game isn’t too bad. That’s why I said it was a good way to pass time: as long as you don’t take it too seriously, you’ll probably enjoy it, at least for a little while.

More from the Game Developer’s Conference in San Jose, California. This covers the remainder of the conference, focusing mainly on the MMBG I mentioned earlier and the game developer’s rant. As before, it’s presented raw and wrrrriggling.

Update: added pictures to my Flickr account.

Show notes:

• RPG notables in passing
• The world’s largest Monopoly board (the horror!)
• Pantheon MMBG
• Spore: Preproduction Through Prototyping
• Game Developer’s Rant
• Physical Gameplay in Half-Life 2
• Next time: back to the usual

This week I’m at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Jose, California. Schmoozing and learning are on the schedule this week (yes, in that order), but I’m taking a little time out to do a few podcasts. This one is mainly about the first three and half days of the conference. There is a little content here for vintage console game players (in the the Nintento talk).

A few caveats: I would have pictures, but apparently the drivers for my camera didn’t end up on this laptop, so I’ll upload those later. And I recorded this one outside using a small hand-held mic and an iRiver, so audio quality will be a bit different than normal as well. And no editing — just me in all my raw glory.

Show notes:

• Hello, it’s me at GDC
• The first two days — technical tutorials
• Wednesday: Sony presentation
• Wednesday: Ronald Moore (of BSG, not B5) presentation
• A bit on Will Wright and the creation of Spore
• Thursday: Nintento presentation
• Massively multiplayer board game, in brief
• Next time: more of Thursday and Friday

This week, the espionage roleplaying game Top Secret. Pick your cover carefully, and don’t forget your watch with the sawblade.

Show notes:

• A song of spring and iTunes
• Basic character creation
• Common gameplay: shooting, fighting, obtaining information
• Brief coverage of Top Secret/SI
• Thoughts on Top Secret today
• Next time: GDC reports

Top Secret Links:

• Wikipedia entry
• Top Secret articles on Modus Operandi
• G2 File: Top Secret articles
• Spies-R-Us – A resource for Top Secret/S.I.
• Recent thread on Merle Rasmussen