January, 1997

The Living Room Floor

Gaming News & Commentary

• Letter from the Editor - notes and introduction to this month's issue (January)
• Nuremberg 1997 - early news from the big German toy and game show

• Mayfair to Change Hands - big changes at the train game company

Conventions and Gatherings

• Northern Virginia Gamers - events for 1997 (Virginia, USA)
• Ramsdencon - June 13th-15th, 1997 (Essex, England)

Stump the Net

• January's Queries - have you ever heard of these games?
• Bunko - Kim Allen gets a flood of responses to her query

Letter Box

• Age of Renaissance - Mike Siggins reports on a card mix problem
• Announcing Herbs 2 - Mike Petty has updated his game of janitorial cloning
• Battletech - James Ernest comments on the original design of this card game
• Future of Formule De - Mike Gartlin gives us the skinny on the French edition
• Games Treasury - Merilyn Simonds Mohr is taking suggestions for her new book
• Review of Dino Hunt - Steve Jackson with comments and kind words

Game Reviews

• Octiles - nice components for playing several abstract games
• Quandary - Flinke Pinke all dressed up but will it go home with you?
• The X Files CCG - clearly a government conspiracy to end CCGs as we know them...

Game Bits

• Set variants - new games to play with a Set set

English Game Translations

• Isis - new rules for an old classic: Sennet!
• Mole Hill (Word file) - Knizia's latest (due out later this month)
• Schlangen von Dehli - slippery, slithery path game
• Sechs Tage Rennen - the key is teamwork in this Six Day Race
• See You Later - an aligator game! err, no: crocodile (shouldn't it be "In A While"?)
• Serenissima - the game of trade and combat - in two translations
  • Mike Schloth translation
  • Kevin Jones translation

Traditional Games

• Domino Games
  • Bergen
  • Flower & Scorpion
  • Trains
    • Basic Trains - a simple variant that demonstrates the mechanisms of this family of games
    • Mexican Trains - a variant first introduced by Cardinal Industries of Plano, Texas
  • Other Sites
    • Domino Freak - all things Domino related (even some that shouldn't be.)
    • Dominoes 42 - an entire site devoted to this game
    • Plastech Industries - Domino manufacturers with specialty Trains sets (site down?)

Game Software

• Game Club - Internet aware traditional games (Go, Nine Men's Morris) - requires registration (Windows)
• The Game Maker - many different Domino games (Windows)

Web Games Terminal

Note that you must have access to Telnet and/or Java in order to access most of these game sites. Contact your Internet service provider for details on Telnet access. Upgrade your browser to one that is Java enabled.

• Duchess - 2 to 6 player Chess variant (Java applet)
• Headbone Derby - graphic heavy, light games - great for kids!
• Multi-player Game Network - including an on-line version of Junta (subscription fee) (Windows only)

The Front Door

• Aztral Games - Makers of Chaturanga, Enochian Chess & Universal Shogi
• Impact 1 - the strategic, new, 3D space game
• Mayfair Games - the European Invasion has begun!
• Mendocino Game Company, Inc. - makers of Pirateer
• McGartlin Motorsport Design - purveyors of fine auto racing games
• Phil O'Neill Games - makers of Ransom, Toilet Humour, and other fine games
• Shrink - from Bundex Games
• Yggerasill / Studio Grafix - an innovative new game company

Other Places

• Board Not Bored Games - a new source of European games for folks down under
• Duelist On-Line - a fine selection of articles from the WotC house organ
• Game Design & Publishing - a great page o' links on some of your most frequently asked questions
• Golem Web Slab - check it out now before angry villagers torch the place
• Kulkmann's Gamebox - traditional homepage with some game reviews and photos of Essen Spiel
• Magic Hat - roleplaying and collectable card game shop in New York
• Set - the game of brain strain (and pattern matching)
• Spirit Games - one of the longest running game shops in the UK
• The Sports Games Shop - your one stop sport replay shop
• Vindicator - the on-line journal of microgames
• Wine Dark Sea Games - original and whimsical board games
• Winsome Games - train games and more

The Game Cabinet - [email protected] - Ken Tidwell