Game and
puzzle sites
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The Association of Game and Puzzle Collectors (AGPC) is the preeminent international organization for collectors and researchers who share a common interest in the history and preservation of games and puzzles of all sorts. AGPC members range from novice collectors to some of the world's foremost experts on games and puzzles and their history. Members may not be collectors at all, but may represent museums, game manufacturers, publishers, and research institutions. AGPC members collect from just a few games to several thousands of games or puzzles, and their collections cover a wide variety of themes. Whether your interest is primarily in games or whether it centers on related pastimes such as puzzles, tops, blocks, toys, or marbles, the AGPC offers you many opportunities to network and broaden your knowledge and your collections. Their website with its extensive archives is a treasure trove of references and member interactions.
Robert Abbott's Logic Mazes let you play online to match wits against the master maze designer. Bob also has a book of maze challenges you can order. His latest designs are his "Alice Mazes", named for Alice in Wonderland who kept changing size. In these mazes, the distance you can move keeps changing. Try 'em! Bob also has a nice little page about Kate's visits with him in Jupiter, Florida. We were saddened to learn that Bob passed away on February 20, 2018, at age 85. His life's work lives on in the games and mazes world, in the care of his remarkable wife, Ann, and in Wikipedia.Abstract Strategy Games is Jose Diaz's passionate encyclopedic collection of information on all the abstract games known, listing names, inventors, year published and other known details. The mission of this site is to serve as a tool for the true game preservationist — the collector. If you have information on any games not listed, do let Jose know.
Age of Puzzles is "a colorful journey through endless patterns of quick wits" and is being built as part of an extensive puzzle-book-web project. It will also include a printed book, being written chapter-by-chapter, to make a comprehensive mosaic of puzzles invented by different people in different times and places. We applaud this creation and labor of love of Serhiy Grabarchuk, himself a talented puzzle designer whose works form part of the website, along with a wealth of interactive features, links, puzzle sources, and intelligent discourse. Beautiful graphics, smooth navigation, fascinating information make it a pleasure to spend time there. Visit often, hang out, play, watch it grow.
"Aha! Puzzles" is Lloyd King's jolly, jazzy, puzzle-filled website, with links to a huge number of interesting puzzle sites world-wide, and many other fascinating places dedicated to art, books, creativity, games, math, tests, and the beautiful Puzzle Wizards' webring. New puzzles and riddles are added almost daily. Lloyd generously includes answers. His totally reworked, very cool website is a joy to traverse, with even some background music and a welcoming speech in Lloyd's ever so suave British accent.Archimedes' Lab puzzle site was founded by Gianni A. Sarcone and co-partner, Marie J. Waeber, as a training, facilitation and consulting company specializing in improving and developing creativity. The site is rich in a benevolent and wise philosophy as well as in original hands-on thinking games to teach mathematical applications. Their educational manipulatives have great visual impact, involving colors and shapes. They also publish a journal, Archimedes, full of all kinds of puzzles and activities. Plan to spend some time in Archimedes' Lab; there's much to see. In English, French and Italian.
Astro-Logix has a website gallery with cool animations of a wealth of three-dimensional shapes that can be built with its ingenious new construction kit of tubes and joints. Looking great. Rob Strange is the creative force behind this British company. You can order the kits for endless hands-on fun in home and school.
Atlas Games, the venerable hobby game publisher, was created in 1990 by folks with admirable standards for high quality in their work, themes, being environmentally responsible and passionate about offering exceptional games to the world. As their mission statement says, they believe in creative curiosity and sensible operations, love new ideas, and always keep their word. They recycle and don't waste, neither packing materials nor electricity nor blank sides of paper. Check out their beautifully designed website and artistic originality. You'll find many games to fall in love with.
The John and Sue Beasley WebSite is the official collection of British game historian John Beasley's research and writings. The site is the archival home of the British Endgame Study News (1996-2010) and a rich lore of files, downloadable in .pdf format, on orthodox chess, chess variants, peg solitaire, and other games and puzzles. The site is bare-bones in style, with a scholar's efficient organization and precise presentation. What you find here is the painstaking output of one of the world's greatest authorities on these subjects. John also wrote the book on The Ins and Outs of Peg Solitaire, the quintessential reference work on the history and variants of this classic puzzle form. There are also charming personal asides in diary notes and memoirs. Get to know John!
The Big Game Hunter is Bruce Whitehill's fabulous games website of over 1000 photos of games and puzzles, and the people who play them, collect them, make them, and sell them. Includes the monthly "All in the Game" newsletter and over 75 links to great sites in the games and puzzles world. Bruce is one of the world's foremost historians on American games, and author of the book, Games: American Games and Their Makers, 1822-1992, the most authoritative work on the history of American game companies. Bruce is also the founder of the Association of Game & Puzzle Collectors. Whatever you want to know about games, Bruce is the one to ask.
The Board Game Barrister is a most unusual game store with three locations in Wisconsin—Bayshore Town Center in Glendale, Board Game Barrister Mayfair in Wauwatosa, WI, and Greenfield Towne Center in, well, Greenfield. A new restaurant opened in May 2018, the Oak and Shield Gaming Pub in Milwaukee, WI. The guiding light behind this stronghold of intelligent fun is Gordon Lugauer, whom we've known for over 20 years. In fact, it was Kate's suggestion to name his store "Board Game Barrister" because the principals of the business were dyed-in-the-wool, honest-to-goodness lawyers, and game players like to do a lot of rules lawyering. Kate was pleased as punch that the name took. The stores have great and knowledgeable staff, vast selections of games, fun toys, and spectacular puzzles. The Board Game Barrister also hosts many events, including Magic the Gathering, HeroClix, Pokemon, Go and many other games. See hundreds of lively photos on their Facebook page. And when you're in Wisconsin, go hang out with them; it's in the rules.
BoardSpace is a place to play Board Games, programmed by Dave Dyer. You can play with friends online or offline, desktop or mobile. Dave offers apps for three Kadon games as well as a wealth of other classic abstracts: Game of Y, Octiles, Proteus. Very attractive graphics. Humans still have a chance against robots.
BumbleBeagle is Bob Harris's great playground of puzzles he has created and developed, from interactive Squiggly Sudoku puzzles and word puzzles to polycubes, games, mazes and an annual Christmas puzzle. Browse and play, and check out his experimental recipes. Bob's articles have been published in many magazines, and he has a book out on Squiggly Sudoku.
Card Games is the hugely encompassing website of John McLeod, including descriptions of hundreds of card games throughout history, with links to manufacturers, tournaments, and sources.
Clickmazes are Andrea Gilbert's decades-long achievement and passion. As one of the world's foremost creators and innovators in the genre of mazes, she makes them both fun and beautiful. See them all and play a bunch on her elegantly designed and intelligently structured website. Our favorites are probably her plank puzzles, produced by ThinkFun, Inc., as the many-awarded River Crossing. Pure genius. Go ahead, lose yourself among Andrea's many treasures.Cool Math is the webpage of Paula Burch, Ph.D., reviewing her favorite "toys for mathematically minded adults and kids", including several of Kadon's tilings. It's beautifully illustrated and evaluated by an enthusiastic biologist whose credentials include working on the human genome sequencing project at Baylor College of Medicine. Be sure to check out all parts of her website for other fascinating stuff.
Creative Crafthouse is Dave Janelle's labor of love, with over 500 finely crafted wooden mechanical puzzles, burrs, puzzle boxes, and a huge variety of clever original and historical designs, even escape room puzzles. This small family business in Hudson, Florida, is passionate about quality. Check them out.
CubicDissection.com is Eric Fuller's lush site showing his private collection of puzzles, links, a workshop, and even some puzzles for sale.
curiouser.co.uk, "Home of the Paradoxical," is Rob McMullen's whimsical and, well, curious, website of puzzles, games, illusions, tricks, paradoxes, quotations, poems and much much more. Ignore the banners. You can also read part of his book, Stranger and Stranger, on his site. Curious...
The Curiosity Shoppe is a treasury of teachers' guides to resources (puzzles, games, books) for inquiry-based learning, compiled by our friend and great customer, Bob Nordling, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia. The guides are updated regularly with further resources, links and suggested activities. Check these out on Google: Math:Geometry, Math:Grades 6-8, and Recreational Math & Puzzle-Based Learning Bibliography. Bob is also preparing guides for "Math: K-5", "Science: K-12", and "Critical Thinking & Executive Functions". Bob's latest introduction is the Geometry Wonderland, featuring many of Kadon's puzzles and other treasures of geometric art.
Davans.com is Jose Diaz's labor of love and mission to show at least one puzzle each from as many designers as possible. He already has over 50, plus 119 of his own designs (at last count). His "Puzzle Designs" pages are a marvelous showcase of the world's greatest talents in creating mystifying and confounding enigmas beautifully crafted, primarily in wood. It's amazing to see the huge variety of burr puzzle concepts, each like a beautiful, intricate sculpture. Jose also has a page of links to other excellent puzzle sites. Browse and marvel.
The Worlds of David Darling is an award-winning encyclopedic collection of knowledge about every facet of the world, mathematics, and the cosmos, by a British astronomer-author. Dr. Darling's worlds include games and puzzles, with a rich reference to all the major historical and recreational mathematics themes, done with the thoroughness of a scholar and the charm of a Renaissance man. Allow yourself to get lost in the lore. Anything you want to know about, look here first. He's the Martin Gardner for the 21st century.DeepFun.com is Bernie De Koven's (1941-2018) deeply knowledgeable site and weblog about the fun of games and other aspects of life. An author, speaker, thinker and kindly viewer of the human scene, Bernie was an institution all by himself. Browse his articles, resources, reviews, blog and calendar of events. See his other fun sites: Major Fun, Junkyard Sports and A Playful Path. All seriously fun.
And here's a deep and serious interview with Bernie after he learned in 2017 that he had only one year to live. What a magnificent legacy he leaves! And it is in good hands with his successors.Amby Duncan-Carr's website provides links to some of the most interesting and useful resources for gifted children, homeschooling, math, Mensa, cats, Website tools and search engines, brainteasers and puzzles, and many other nifty topics. Very easy to navigate, well-arranged and annotated.
Elusive Cube is the work of Frank Zubek, an amazing 44-piece cluster of polyhedral dissections that join with magnets to form many shapes. Incredibly, the magnets are omni-connective. Frank's page is just one section in Hop David's huge site of tessellations, polyhedra, spirals, fractals, and a math art gallery.David Eppstein has a rich Recreational Math page, covering everything from polyominoes, dissections, combinatorial game theory, number theory, a "Geometry Junkyard" and links to many interesting publications and websites.
Erich Friedman's Puzzle Palace is a huge and lively math and puzzle site, with lists of all his many interests. He's an Associate Professor of Mathematics and claims to have Florida's largest collection of puzzles. He creates and researches recreational math challenges profusely. Many are playable on his site. We also make some of his dissection puzzles and his rolling-block maze. Erich is totally cool.
