The Oxford History of Board GamesFor thousands of years, people have been planning attacks, captures, chases, and conquests - on a variety of different boards designed for an astonishing diversity of games. Today the compelling mix of strategy, skill, and chance is as strong as ever; new board games are invented almost daily,while the perennial favourites continue to attract new devotees and reveal new possibilities.The Oxford History of Board Games investigates the principles of board games throughout the ages and across the world, exploring the fascinating similarities and differences that give each its unique appeal, and drawing out the significance of game-playing as a central part of human experience - asvital to a culture as its music, dance, and tales. Beautifully illustrated and with diagrams to show the finer points of the games, this is a fascinating and accessible guide to a richly rewarding subject.In his trade-mark accessible, entertaining style, David Parlett looks at the different families of games: games based on configuration or connection, races or chases, wars or hunts, capture or blockade. He focuses mainly on traditional games, the folk entertainments that have grown up organicallythrough the centuries, and which exhibit endless local variations, although he discusses also the commercial products that have tried, with varying degrees of success, to match their astonishing popularity.This is not primarily a how-to book, although the rules and strategies of certain games are discussed in detail, neither does it offer sure-fire tips for success, although with a fuller understanding of a game the reader will undoubtedly become a better-informed, if not better, player. Rather, itis an affectionate and authoritative survey of one of the most familiar parts of our cultural history, which has until now been inexplicably neglected. |
From inside the book
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Page 30
... marked with a ' T ' — whence its name , originally written ' T - totum ' . Stakes accumulated so long as blanks ... marked six - sided devices of this kind were made in the nineteenth century for Put - and - Take , with additional ...
... marked with a ' T ' — whence its name , originally written ' T - totum ' . Stakes accumulated so long as blanks ... marked six - sided devices of this kind were made in the nineteenth century for Put - and - Take , with additional ...
Page 31
... marked with six numbers , reached America towards the end of the eighteenth century and subsequently became the casino and carnival game known as Chuck - a- Luck , or Bird - Cage , from the appearance of the pivoted cage in which the ...
... marked with six numbers , reached America towards the end of the eighteenth century and subsequently became the casino and carnival game known as Chuck - a- Luck , or Bird - Cage , from the appearance of the pivoted cage in which the ...
Page 38
... marked on a slab of sandstone for what appears to be an identical game played by the Hopi Indians , and this is slightly elaborated by the appearance of three spaces marked with a circle , one at each end outside the last bar , and one ...
... marked on a slab of sandstone for what appears to be an identical game played by the Hopi Indians , and this is slightly elaborated by the appearance of three spaces marked with a circle , one at each end outside the last bar , and one ...
Common terms and phrases
adjacent Alquerque Backgammon beans Bell binary lots Black Board and Table Board Games called captured pieces cells centre century Chaturanga Chaupar Chess Variants chessboard Chinese classic Cluedo colour corner Culin David Parlett derived described diagonal dice doubleton Draughts enemy piece entered equivalent European forwards four Fox & Geese French game played Games & Puzzles grid hippogonal History of Board Hnefatafl hole Indian initial invented jump king Latrunculi Lhôte line of three linear Mancala marked Merels modern movement moves a piece Murray Nine Men's Morris number of pieces occupied opponent opponent's original orthogonally Pachisi Patolli pawn Pentominoes piece moves placement player starts position possible Pritchard promotion proprietary games queen race games Reversi Rithmomachy rook rules score Shatranj side singleton Snakes & Ladders Solitaire space stones Table Games Tafl track traditional vacant point vacant square war games White winner word