Robert Abbott (game designer)

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Robert Abbott (game designer) bigraphy, stories - Game inventor

Robert Abbott (game designer) : biography

March 2, 1933 –

Robert Abbott (born March 2, 1933) is an American game inventor, sometimes referred to by fans as "The Official Grand Old Man of Card Games". Though early in his life he worked as a computer programmer with the IBM 360 assembly language, he has been designing games since the 1950s.Abbott 1962, p. 53

Two of his more popular creations include the chess variant Baroque chess (also known as Ultima) and Crossings, which later became Epaminondas. Eleusis was also successful, appearing in several card game collections, such as Hoyle’s Rules of GamesMorehead 2001, p. 67 and New Rules for Classic Games,Schmittberger 1992, p. 74 among others. In 1963, Abbott himself released a publication, Abbott’s New Card Games, which included instructions for all of his card games, in addition to Baroque chess.Abbott 1963 Abbott also invented logic mazes, the first of which appeared in Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Games column in the October 1962 issue of Scientific American.Abbott 1997, pp. vii-ix One of the more prominent of these is Theseus and the Minotaur, which was originally published in the book Mad Mazes.Abbott 1990, pp. 34-35 Recently, his game Confusion was named "Best New Abstract Strategy Game" for 2012 by GAMES Magazine.

Games

Abbott has created several games, including card games, board games, and one equipment game. As a whole, his games are not of particular fame, although they have some unique elements that set them apart from mainstream games. For instance, the card game Metamorphosis is a complex trick-taking game. As you play the game, the rules change three times, so it is as if you are playing four different games that are threaded together.Abbott 1963, pp. 55-59

Baroque chess

Baroque chess, or Ultima, was the only board game in the book Abbott’s New Card Games. Abbott’s reasoning for including this non-card game in a card game book was that chess pieces are as plentiful as playing cards, and in this book, he wanted to introduce new games that did not require special equipment. Abbott’s friends, once he started teaching it to them, began to call the game "Abbott’s Ultima," which he did not like at all.Abbott 1963, p. 121 However, the publisher, Sol Stein, preferred the name "Ultima," so that is the title that was used in the book.

Eleusis

Eleusis is probably Abbott’s most prominent game, due to its metaphors and its suitability for use as a teaching tool. He invented it in 1956, and it appeared in his self-published book Four New Card Games.Abbott 1962 It was also published in the book Abbott’s New Card Games a year later. Martin Gardner wrote about it in his Mathematical Games column in the June 1959 issue of Scientific American. Basically, the gameplay consists of the dealer choosing a secret rule dictating how cards are to be played, and the players playing cards in an attempt to figure out the rule through inductive reasoning. In 1973, Abbott decided to improve Eleusis; the result was considered to be far better than the original, with various improvements to the layouts and gameplay making it work quite a bit better. Martin Gardner wrote about this version in the October 1977 issue of Scientific American. Abbott also self-published a pamphlet in 1977 with the rules for the improved version, titled The New Eleusis.Abbott 1977 It has appeared in several card game collections, such as Hoyle’s Rules of Games and New Rules for Classic Games, among others.

Confusion

Abbott initially created the game Confusion in the 1970s, and had it in finished form by 1980. The game was published in Germany by Franjos in 1992; Abbott was not satisfied with this version, however, due to several flaws in it. The rules were published in the Spanish translation of his book Abbott’s New Card Games in 2008, but the game did not get published in North America until 2011. This Stronghold Games version was named "Best New Abstract Strategy Game" for 2012 by GAMES Magazine. The game is based on the idea of not knowing what your pieces are or what they do at the beginning of the game. His game Eleusis uses a similar idea, in that you do not know how cards are to be played at the beginning; George Brancaccio, someone Abbott worked with at the Bank of New York, commented on this, saying "In your game Eleusis, you don’t know what cards can be played. Why don’t you make a board game where you don’t know how pieces move?" This is what gave Abbott the idea, and he began work on it soon after.