PUBLISHED GAMES OF SID SACKSON
(U through Z)
with commentary by Nick Sauer and Herb Levy
Upthrust:
Originally published as Score-Up in GAMES magazine. Players move their pieces up the board and score by maneuvering their pieces into the scoring slots in the scoring zone. The catch here is that movement is based on the number of pieces in the horizontal row of the piece that you want to move. The game works for 2 to 4 players but can also be played as a solitaire puzzle as one player tries to maximize his score. The boxed edition is beautifully produced (wood components) and is part of the Inventors' Collection, an idea from designer Maureen Hiron to showcase quality abstract game designs and give them a first rate production. (The collection included Oska and Hiron's own design, Quadwrangle). - HL
Venture:
A card game published by 3M in 1969 and ultimately reissued by Avalon Hill and published in Germany by both Schmidt and F.X. Schmid. It is a money making game where players compete to build the largest conglomerates in six different industries. One of the earliest Sid games I ever played and, still one of my personal favorites.- NS
The Winning
Ticket:
This was published in 1977 by Ideal. In one of my phone conversations with Sid, he tried to steer me clear of getting a copy of this game as he felt that Ideal had hopelessly mangled it into an unplayable mess. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I had already acquired a copy for 50 cents at a flea market. In any case, Sid's warning was strong enough that I really haven't taken a serious look at the game yet. If I ever do, I'll update this entry. - NS
