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Public Domain Games with the Best Looking Bits
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The PD games will always remain with us as they are not bound by copyrights and thus will never go out of print. We need not depend on the financial success of the manufacturers. They also tend to be well play tested as they predate the copright era.
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The items in this GeekList are ordered by average rating
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Posted Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:01 am
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1.
Board Game: Go
[Average Rating:7.83 Overall Rank:34]
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Some really great looking stones and boards that you can purchase for go. Be prepared to shell out the $$$ though. An 8" kaya masame floor board can run upwords of 19,000USD!!
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Tom "Snicker Daddy" Pancoast
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Bits so great that I can't afford this game!
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As a rule, continental playing cards are much more aesthetically pleasing than their Anglo-American counterparts. The German suited "Wilhelm Tell Bild" is among my favorites.
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4.
Board Game: Shogi
[Average Rating:7.30 Overall Rank:454]
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Form follows function in this Japanese member of the Chess family.
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5.
Board Game: Chess
[Average Rating:7.04 Overall Rank:218]
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By far the best looking western game BC (Before Copyrights)
Its inclusion here should be obvious. In fact, the entire Chess family of games has a tendency to have eye pleasing bits.
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6.
Board Game: Tarot
[Average Rating:6.75 Overall Rank:1252]
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Whether French or Italian suited, Tarot decks are among the best looking cards in the world. NB, the Tarot was originally designed for playing a card game and was not initially a vehicle of the occult.
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One of the most well-designed gameboards in the Western world.
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Although you don't need to buy anything more exciting than an egg carton to play Mancala, there are many beautifully carved boards out there, as well as many different variations.
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Also known as "The Jungle Game"
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Also called "Ludo" in the UK and perhaps in other anglophone societies. It appears typical of race games to have great looking boards. Perhaps this is a compensation for rudimentary game play.
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11.
Board Game: Zodiac
[Average Rating:3.50 Unranked]
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I must confess to not being too familiar with this one, but it looks good to me.
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This entry is as luck-based as Candyland, of which this game is an ancestor, but the boards are also as attractive.
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This appears to be an example of the various "War Chess" games of the 18th and 18th centuries which were designed to add more verisimilitude in the representation of warfare.
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Posted Sun Mar 13, 2005 2:53 am
Thanks! How could I have overlooked Go?
True, Chess is derived from a Persian game. The Persion game, depending on whom you believe, was derived from an Indian or a Chinese one. I am using "Chess" here to refer specifically to the more modern game with the long ranging Bishops and Queens. The Persian game with the more limited movements of the Bishop (Fil) and Queen (Fers) I would call "Shatranj"
I may have seen some modern PD games with exceptional components, but I could not recall them when compiling the geeklist.