PUBLISHED GAMES OF SID SACKSON
(E through L)
with commentary by Nick Sauer and Herb Levy
Executive
Decision:
This was
published in 1971 by 3M and was one of the half dozen Sid games they published.
It is conceptually very similar to Avalon
Hill's
earlier game Management (re-released as Business
Strategy) in that players are buying raw materials to make products,
which they ultimately compete with one another to sell on the open market.
I haven't played Executive Decision anywhere
near as much as I would like because
it never seems to go over well with any of the groups I have played it with.
I guess it is too much like work for most
gamers which is too bad as I think it is one of Sid's more outstanding designs.
- NS
Giant 30
Game Cube:
This was
published by Athol Research Corp. (ARC) in 1976.
It was reprinted in a second edition as Giant 30
Game Cube I because Athol later (in 1980) put out their Giant
30 Game Cube II which contained a 
different
mix of games that does not include the two Sid designs released in the first
one. The two Sid games
in this are Chase and Nine
Holes.
Chase:
This is listed as a Backgammon variant but, it really is a unique game
that happens to use a Backgammon board. It
is a two-player abstract that is particularly vicious as Sackson games go in
that a player wins by eliminating all of the pieces of their opponent.
I am very much looking forward to trying this one out.
Nine
Holes: This is played on the
specialized Tic Tac Toe board (to the right in the picture).
Each player has three pieces that they alternate placing on the board.
Once all the pieces are on the board (and if neither player
has already won) each player then takes turns moving one of their pieces one
space orthogonally or diagonally. The
first player to get their three pieces in a row or all on squares of the same
color wins. I haven't really looked
to closely at this one yet because it looks way too solvable for my liking.
(As a side
note, the reason I haven't assembled this thing is that it will form an 18 inch
cube that doesn't look very easy to break down again. Given the size of the thing, it is a lot easier to store in
it's original packaging.) - NS
Harry
Lorayne Memory Game: 
This was published by Reiss in 1976. This would win my award for the all time weakest Sackson design. Then again, it is a game about teaching all sorts of tricks to improve the player's memory skills. I guess there was not a whole lot of room for creativity given those constraints. - NS
High Spirits with Calvin and the Colonel:
This was Sid's
first professionally published game, put out by Milton Bradley in 1962.
The original name of the
game was just High
Spirits but, MB added the Calvin and the Colonel license to boost sales.
Ironically enough, the
game proved more popular than
the
Saturday morning series as it stayed in production after the series was
cancelled.
The game is a style that Sid would later return to with Suit Yourself, Das Superblatt and Buried Treasure. A set of four columns of five cards each is set up and players on their turn choose one card from any of the cards on the bottom of a column. Two features in the game help prevent the game from turning into an easily solvable Nim variant. First, the scoring for the three suits changes at the end of each round. Second, in later rounds, cards are added which let you take cards from the other players. The game plays surprisingly well even by today's standards. - NS
Holiday:
Sid's game of
world travel that handles up to EIGHT players! Players are dealt a hand of city
cards which display
tourist attractions in cities around the world. Each city
also has a day of the week indicating the optimum time to visit. Players also
begin with an equal amount of cash and bid for control of the ONE airplane that
will take them to the various cities. The player bidding the most each turn
directs the plane along indicated air routes. Once at a city, ALL players can
play cards of that city and will earn a number of Victory Points depending on
what day they have arrived. (The further away from your optimum day to visit,
the fewer VPs earned.) An important consideration: you NEVER get more money so
you need to balance the necessity of steering the plane in a certain direction
with the amount of money you're willing to spend as money is also worth Victory
Points at the end of the game! (For more on Holiday, check out Nick's entry on Maloney's
Inheritance.) - HL
Infinity: 
This is the second edition of the game that was published in 1974 by a Gamut of Games. Sid apparently collaborated pretty heavily on the reworking of this game. It is an interesting game where players score points based upon building solar systems and, ultimately, advanced civilizations. It was extremely popular in its day based upon articles I have read from the time period. - NS
This was another Phil Orbanes design from the time when he headed Gamut of Games. - HL
Interplay:
This is one of three games that Sid did for Hoyle/Stancraft in 1970. It is in my opinion the most interesting of the three he did.
Players alternate making three space moves (orthogonal, diagonal or knight's move) from the last peg placed. You earn points for the number of pegs adjacent to the piece you place. Players keep a running total and the highest total wins at the end of the game. An interesting side note is the screw up on the box ad copy. Under the name it reads: Two Challenging Games of Strategy in One. This confused me until I got Odd and Even which the ad copy was probably intended for as it is actually two games in one. - NS
