Games from
Sid Sackson's Diaries1963-1997
Sidney Sackson, the famous game designer, wrote a game-related diary between 1963 and 1997. Among several types of activities, he regularly describes games he saw, or his own game ideas that were (or not) developed later. Sackson had regular conversations with game designers and collectors, especially Alex Randolph, Claude Soucie, Robert Abbott, Wald and Arthur Amberstone, Martin Gardner, Pierre Berlonquin, David Greenwald, Phil Laurence, Phil Orbanes, and Wayne Schmittberger. This page shows some of the entries related to abstract board games.
Visitation Chess
May 6, 1964 entry
Ring-a-Round
June 30, 1966
July 8, 1966
July 14, 1967
July 13, 1967
Fields of Action
This game was
published
Checkers-like Game + Tic-Tac-Toe variant
Jum-Ping
Pitfall
June 23, 1967
Knight Chase
November 1, 1967
3D Mill
November 3, 1968
Turncoat
December 10, 1968
Counterpoint
September 26, 1969
Color Quad
October 11, 1969
Polytaire
November 2, 1969, this game was published
Last Chance
May 25, 1970
Sqwash
May 27, 1970
Slimetrail-like game
August 12, 1970
Try-Angles
March 20, 1971
Go-like Game
April 17, 1971
Counterbalance
July 3, 1971
Go-like game
August 28, 1971
Counterpoise
November 11, 1971
Emperor Checkers
November 11, 1971
Stepping Stones
September 8, 1972; the designer is Phil Laurence
Bonus
September 16, 1972
Super-Tac-Toe
September 9, 1972
Open City
October 10, 1972
Moveaics
February 6, 1973
These are the official rules of Pushover, mentioned in the previous entry
NIM-like game
February 15, 1974
A Race Game
March 10, 1974
Hex Match
March 17, 1974
United We Stand
April 16, 1974; Tom is Tom Atwater
Ziggurat
April 24, 1974; Denis is Denis Ladouceur
Pitfall
July 20, 1974
Organisms
July 26, 1974
August 24, 1974
August 25, 1974
August 27, 1974
October 9, 1976
Organisms board made by Sackson
I was unable to find the final version of the rules
B.O.C.Q.
August 1, 1974
Trapt
November 19, 1974
Checkers Variant
June 26, 1975
French Game
October 25, 1976; Sackson does mention earlier the original puzzle,
named Morpion Solitaire
Pang Ki
October 26, 1976
Yashima
October 26, 1976
Chirp
July 22, 1977
Checkers3
August 10, 1977
Quint
May 8, 1978
Damas Espanolas para 3
August 25, 1978
Ming Mang variant
December 14, 1978
Point Five
March 7, 1979; Wiretap pieces are 3x1 tiles labeled with either 1, 2, 3 or 4 wires
there are three groups of single and double wires, and two groups of triple and quadruple wires
Havafit
May 13, 1979
Stack game
July 14, 1979
Direct Graph
September 30, 1979
Drinking Game
September 30, 1979
Pounce
February 8, 1980
Korrego
April 24, 1980
Pinch
June 29, 1980
King Kangaroo
October 8, 1980
Cohiza
November 16, 1980
Color Guard
January 30, 1981
Surround
June 16, 1981
Zig Zag
June 16, 1981
Quatro Linear
June 25, 1982; This is so similar to Megiddo that might be its prototype
Hat's Off
September 18, 1982
Push-Off
March 26, 1983
Your Move
May 15, 1983
Over the Edge
May 17, 1983; This game was published
Four-mation
June 29, 1983
3 out of 4
July 10, 1983
Nim Check
August 22, 1983
Halma-like game
October 30, 1983
Watch 432
November 25, 1983
Son of Solomon
January 12, 1984; The original game was published on GAMES
Lazer Beams Game
January 13, 1984
Schwarz Rot Gold
April 22, 1984
Tac Tix
May 15, 1984
Pente variant
November 27, 1984
Robot Rampage
May 17, 1986
October 12, 1986
Out of Sight
January 6, 1987
Contrario
December 3, 1987; Here Sackson is mentioning Hans van Maanan
Jungle Survivor
December 6, 1988
Triumph
May 31, 1989
Seek and Capture
November 17, 1989
IshidÅ, the Way of Stones
January 19, 1991; This game ran in the Nintendo Game Boy
Vari NIM
April 21, 1995; This the last abstract game entry description in Sackson's diaries
