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History of the Take That! Card game
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You know the type of thing. Each player has some card holdings on the table which he is trying to grow or at least preserve while at the same time playing events to destroy the holdings of others. These beer n' pretzel vehicles seem so common and throwaway that they're lost in the woodwork. On the other hand, I suspect that as a class they've earned themselves an amazing number of hours played over the years. In fact, I think one testament to their popularity is that only one game in the list lacks a photo in the database, not true for most other lists I have created. I'd like to try to trace the history of them: where they started, how their mechanics have developed and changed and what is going on now. Probably there are too many to fit in just one list and probably I will forget some too. Maybe folks can help by adding these as comments? For a more narrative version, please see http://spotlightongames.com/list/takethat.html
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Posted On: 2003-02-27 15:34:07
Edited On: 2003-02-27 15:34:07
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Apparently this is the one that started it all, nearly a century ago now, in 1906. Should we hold a party to celebrate four years from now? It was good enough to get US patent no. 836532 on behalf of the Wallie Dorr Company, but I have no information on what may have inspired its inventor. The property was purchased by Parker Brothers and published more or less continuously, with modernizations in artwork and terminology over the years, until 1975. The "thats" of this game are rather mild, probably because players are trying to build up their holdings, the number of miles traveled, at the same time and combination with strong events would have been unworkable. Even so, the deck distribution seems to be overheavy with disasters and sometimes players spend most of their time doing nothing but waiting for the right card. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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Presumably the patent scared off any would be imitators for a long time and perhaps when it expired everyone forgot that that had happened? Well, apart from two 1927 mostly forgotten imitators which tied in to Charles Lindbergh's historic flight:
Lindy, the New Flying Game: http://boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=4506
The New Lindy Flying Game: http://boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=4507
Apart from, or maybe on account of, those short lived games it seems to have taken until 1954 when this one came out. The addition of the Coup Fourré concept whereby safeties could be held back added another level of interest. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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This is the next one I could find, from 1965. What a bizarre choice of topic! It certainly proved popular nevertheless, or perhaps because of it? The innovations must have helped too though. Fixed holdings that only decline (for the most part) means that attacks can be that much more devastating (satisfying). The slow buildup of the attack added strategy and planning. And stealing from Mah Jongg to have the player order jump (with the anti-missile) was a good idea as well. Dice or a spinner was added to help in the damage resolution. Has been supplemented by three expansion kits. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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The 1980 game that depicts a hallucinogenic lifestyle adheres more closely to the pattern established by Touring. (Was there really nothing else in the genre in the decade and a half previous?) One twist is the Paranoia type of card that one must not be caught with at the end of the game, but which is passed around the table and so are difficult to avoid. The rules are a bit vague -- do you think maybe whoever created it was smoking something?  |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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Moving ahead to 1982, here was a very clever innovation, that of the creation of the very dynamic and often maddening queue of death which often takes on a life of its own. The player order jump idea was preserved as well. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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Arriving in the next year from Avalon Hill was a game on World War II battleships that seemed more like Nuclear War than any of the other predecessors. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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In 1988 AH transported the system, with improvements including much better artwork, to nineteenth-century sailing vessels. Apparently it sold well because in the very next year there appeared ... |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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... to cover the Cold War era. Featured two later expansion kits. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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1990 featured a return to the idea of building up one's holdings instead of just tearing down a fixed position. As a result, the events are again relatively weak. It also added a lot of the mechanics from another seminal card game, Rummy. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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This 1991 game was more a return to the Nuclear War model. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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As was this vehicle set in Middle Ages. |
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Posted On: 2001-01-01 17:09:41
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Should this 1995 Reiner Knizia creation be in the list? Here holdings are indicated not by one's cards, but by one's position in the auto race. |
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Posted On: 2003-02-28 08:14:55
10 I especially like the end game when all seems to be lost, but a special card allows a player to snatch victory out of the jaws of sure defeat. At times a player with no chance can determine the winner, which also keeps that player interested and involved in the game.