Russell Davies

connect and fizzog

I notice Ben's just posted some pictures of his Connect set. Which reminded me that although Mr Ken Garland has rightly been lauded for his First Things First Manifesto, his name, for me, will be forever associated with two genius games of childhood: Connect and Fizzog. Fizzog is very graphically of its time and is quite a good game.

Connect looks marvelous and is a brilliant game. Hunt yourself out a copy on ebay and turn your child into a designer, map-maker or electronic engineer. Ben's got great pictures, have a look.

UPDATE: It seems Mr Garland does not grow weary of this basic concept, Chris has also ffffound Rivers, Roads and Rails.

let the randomness commence

If you get the chance get yourself a set of Monopoly Express. It's brilliant. It's not just truncated Monopoly. All it really retains of the original is the property/building/cash metaphor. They've transformed it into a 20 minute dice game which has lots of the odds-considering risk-balancing pleasures of poker. And it's a really nicely designed set. Compact and well made. If only they'd thought to include a little pen or pencil you could lose later.