Timothy Hyde has a blog called Hyde and Seek, where he covers “an eclectic Australian collection of older board games and ‘thrilling activity games.’” As the description suggests, it’s mostly Australian games, but it’s cool to see a very different look at the world of vintage games. Lots of nice pictures, organized by pages and categories; very much worth checking out.

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.

 

 Standard Podcast [40:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3540)

Those looking forward to Z-Man Games’ new edition of Tales of the Arabian Nights will be interested in this: Universal Head, the proprietor of Headless Hollow, has posted his designs for the upcoming release. He has images of the logo, some cards and the board, all of which look quite nice.

While honestly I’d probably buy it even if they scrawled it with crayon on old paper sacks (well, maybe not), it’s nice to see the level of detail that’s going into this.

[Link]

A rare copy of Zimmer’s Baseball Game was found in a small closet in the Bingham-Wagner estate in Independence, Missouri. The game — only 1 of 10 known to exist — is an early dexterity game and features images of turn of the century ballplayers, including Cy Young and the eponymous Mr. Zimmer. It was published in 1893 by McLoughlin Bros. for the Chicago’s World Fair. While the Baseball Hall of Fame is interested, it appears for now the game will remain in Missouri.

Link (CNN Video)

Those of you who enjoyed the Chess Variants episode might want to look into this. From Purple Pawn:

Ramsons Kala Pratishtana has organized their second exhibition of traditional Indian board games at the Pratima Gallery, Mysuru. The exhibition runs from 16 - 25 May.

They also started a kick-ass blog on traditional Indian board games.

There are some nice entries and pictures in the blog. The most recent one talks about how to play “Goats and Tigers,” which appears to be an alternate version of Fox and Geese.

Link

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.

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 Standard Podcast [01:05:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1001)

In case you haven’t heard the news, Valley Games is now working with Eagle Games to handle their pre-orders. Because of this, it looks like you’ll have to re-order Titan and other games you might have already pre-ordered, but other than that I think this is good news. Full press release follows:
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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.
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 Vintage Gamer Special 03: Tic-Tac-Toe Champion [6:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2607)

According to a Geeklist on BGG.com, Z-Man games will be reprinting this classic game in 2008. If you recall, I discussed it back in Episode #28.

As far as other news: Yes, I’m still here, and the book I’m working on is almost through the worst of it. I’m hoping to be done with rewrites by the end of the month, and then it’s just copyediting and layout. Oh yeah, and coding for the CD — but that’s fun! In any case, there’s a good chance there will be an episode in December sometime.

Until then, thank you for all the cards and letters.