Customer Reviews

Discovering Old Board Games (Shire Discovering)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

R.C. Bell was an amazing game researcher. His tomes on games of the American Indian, the Far East, and this book on early games is an excellent treatise.

This is really an academic collection. Yes, true, you can play the games.

I have constructed boards and pieces and played games from this book and other R.C.Bell books with friends and families.

This is a very useful book if you are looking to recreate period games, ala the Society of Creative Anachronism.

If you are looking for a quick and easy book on new games then I concur with the previous two reviews that this is not the book for you.

In service,

Rich
[...]

First off, pay attention to the dimensions of this book; it is tiny. Aside from that, the book presents no information that could count as being useful. It is a quick list of rules over a variety of games. I've found a lot web pages with better instructions and more information than this book, but that isn't really saying much.

This book is difficult to follow at points. It doesn't have a very consistent style and it goes from historical anecdotes to vague descriptions of board games. Oftentimes the descriptions leave you wondering if you really understand how to play the game at all. Google and Wikipedia help with this sometimes.

Overall I find this book very exciting and I want to make a board and play these old games with anybody who will take the time. If you make a few leaps and read over the instructions a handful of times eventually you'll be able to pick up how to play each one. I haven't read other books like this so I'm fine with what I have.

If anything, the book works as a good starting point for researching some of the games further on the internet.

I found things I had never found before, and obtained more information than I had. I even confirmed information that I already had. I love it

A boring list of Rules for a lot of Similar Games in each genre with minimal quality illustrations. You'd better check old games on the net.