The Book of Games
The Book of Games

Author: Jack Botermans

Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 744

ISBN-13: 9781402742217

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This lavishly illustrated 736-page reference provides a lifetime of entertainment! It contains complete rules, playing tips, and instructive move-by-move examples of 65 fun and diverse games. They range from Senat, a pastime enjoyed by King Tut, to Hex, invented by a 20th-century mathematician; from strategy games like Siege of Paris to dice games like Chuck-a-Luck to chase games like Pachisi; from Asian Shogi to African Wari; and from traditional Chess and Go to modern creations like Mastermind and Othello. Colorful illustrations show old-time and modern players, game boards, and equipment alongside fascinating anecdotes and curious facts about games throughout history. For every player, this one’s a sure winner!

It's All a Game
It's All a Game

Author: Tristan Donovan

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2017-05-30

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1250082730

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“[A] timely book . . . a wonderfully entertaining trip around the board, through 4,000 years of game history.” —The Wall Street Journal Board games have been with us even longer than the written word. But what is it about this pastime that continues to captivate us well into the age of smartphones and instant gratification? In It’s All a Game, Tristan Donovan, British journalist and author of Replay: The History of Video Games, opens the box on the incredible and often surprising history and psychology of board games. He traces the evolution of the game across cultures, time periods, and continents, from the paranoid Chicago toy genius behind classics like Operation and Mouse Trap, to the role of Monopoly in helping prisoners of war escape the Nazis, and even the scientific use of board games today to teach artificial intelligence how to reason and how to win. With these compelling stories and characters, Donovan ultimately reveals why board games—from chess to Monopoly to Risk and more—have captured hearts and minds all over the world for generations. “Splendid . . . A quick and breezy read, it doesn’t just tell the fascinating stories of the (often struggling) individuals who created our favorite games. It also manages to convey the entire sweep of board game history, from the earliest forms of checkers to modern-day surprise hits like Settlers of Catan.” —Mashable “Artfully weaves together culture, business, and ways games impact society.” —Booklist “A fascinating and insightful discussion not only of games past, but the socioeconomic and historical factors that contributed to their popularity.” —Chicago Review of Books

Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, Volume 3
Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, Volume 3

Author: Elwyn R. Berlekamp

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2018-05-08

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 0429945612

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In the quarter of a century since three mathematicians and game theorists collaborated to create Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, the book has become the definitive work on the subject of mathematical games. Now carefully revised and broken down into four volumes to accommodate new developments, the Second Edition retains the original's wealth of wit and wisdom. The authors' insightful strategies, blended with their witty and irreverent style, make reading a profitable pleasure. In Volume 3, the authors examine Games played in Clubs, giving case studies for coin and paper-and-pencil games, such as Dots-and-Boxes and Nimstring. From the Table of Contents: - Turn and Turn About - Chips and Strips - Dots-and-Boxes - Spots and Sprouts - The Emperor and His Money - The King and the Consumer - Fox and Geese; Hare and Hounds - Lines and Squares

Game Theory, Alive
Game Theory, Alive

Author: Anna R. Karlin

Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.

Published: 2017-04-27

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1470419823

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We live in a highly connected world with multiple self-interested agents interacting and myriad opportunities for conflict and cooperation. The goal of game theory is to understand these opportunities. This book presents a rigorous introduction to the mathematics of game theory without losing sight of the joy of the subject. This is done by focusing on theoretical highlights (e.g., at least six Nobel Prize winning results are developed from scratch) and by presenting exciting connections of game theory to other fields such as computer science (algorithmic game theory), economics (auctions and matching markets), social choice (voting theory), biology (signaling and evolutionary stability), and learning theory. Both classical topics, such as zero-sum games, and modern topics, such as sponsored search auctions, are covered. Along the way, beautiful mathematical tools used in game theory are introduced, including convexity, fixed-point theorems, and probabilistic arguments. The book is appropriate for a first course in game theory at either the undergraduate or graduate level, whether in mathematics, economics, computer science, or statistics. The importance of game-theoretic thinking transcends the academic setting—for every action we take, we must consider not only its direct effects, but also how it influences the incentives of others.

Around the World in Eighty Games
Around the World in Eighty Games

Author: Marcus du Sautoy

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2023-11-07

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1541601297

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A “fun” and “unexpected” (The Economist) global tour of the world’s greatest games and the mathematics that underlies them Where should you move first in Connect 4? What is the best property in Monopoly? And how can pi help you win rock paper scissors? Spanning millennia, oceans and continents, countries and cultures, Around the World in Eighty Games gleefully explores how mathematics and games have always been deeply intertwined. Renowned mathematician Marcus du Sautoy investigates how games provided the first opportunities for deep mathematical insight into the world, how understanding math can help us play games better, and how both math and games are integral to human psychology and culture. For as long as there have been people, there have been games, and for nearly as long, we have been exploring and discovering mathematics. A grand adventure, Around the World in Eighty Games teaches us not just how games are won, but how they, and their math, shape who we are.

The Greatest Dot to Dot Book in the World:
The Greatest Dot to Dot Book in the World:

Author: David Kalvitis

Publisher:

Published: 2000-05-01

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780970043702

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The Greatest Dot-to-Dot Book in the World is an incredible collection of connect-the-dot surprises that will challenge and entertain the big kids. In addition to extremely detailed traditional dot-to-dots, there are unique innovations and variations that have never before been seen: Key and Star puzzles have more than one line to connect; Field of Dots puzzles have evenly spaced dots with a key indicating which to connect; also included are No-Dot and Odd/Even puzzles. The final images cover a broad subject range, adding to the surprise element. Older kids and adults who love puzzles will be delighted to find an entire pages of dots that won't reveal themselves until you get started. Prepare to be challenged.

Rules of Play
Rules of Play

Author: Katie Salen Tekinbas

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2003-09-25

Total Pages: 680

ISBN-13: 9780262240451

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An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date. As pop culture, games are as important as film or television—but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance. Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

Gladstone's Games to Go
Gladstone's Games to Go

Author: Jim Gladstone

Publisher: Quirk Books

Published: 2016-02-09

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 1594749191

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No Boards! No Boredom! Remember the games you used to play in the car as a kid? You’d enjoy playing them again, but you can’t quite remember all the rules, and besides, the games were awfully easy. Well, Gladstone’s Games to Go has come to the rescue. With updated classics and challenging original games, Gladstone’s Games to Go delivers antidotes to boredom and entertaining ways to spend down-time, whether you’re in transit, on vacation, or wiling away an afternoon at a cafe. You can play word games (like Grandmother’s House, Six Degrees, and Chain Reaction), compete in coin contests (like Molecular Flip and Sliders), master strategy with dot games (like Dots and Boxes and Sprouts), and more. With little to no additional equipment required (pens and paper or a few coins will do the trick), the games are totally portable—and totally playable. All the games are for two or more players (some could even be played solo), and they appeal to both left- and right-brained gamers. Start playing today!

Artcade
Artcade

Author: Tim Nicholls

Publisher: Bitmap Books Limited

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780993012976

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Gamers who cut their teeth in the arcades will love this trip down memory lane. Artcade is a unique collection of coin-op cabinet marquees, some dating back 40 years to the dawn of video gaming. Originally acquired by Tim Nicholls from a Hollywood props company, this archive of marquees - many of which had suffered damage over time - have now been scanned and digitally restored to their former glory. The full collection of classic arcade cabinet artwork is presented here for the first time in this stunning landscape hardback book, and accompanied by interviews with artists Larry Day and the late Python Anghelo. Relive your mis-spent youth with artwork from dozens of coin-ops including Asteroid, Battlezone, Street Fighter II, Out Run, Moon Patrol, Gyruss, Q*Bert, Bubble Bobble and many more. Each marquee takes up a full double-page spread in the book, and is faithfully recreated using beautiful lithographic printing on the highest quality paper. Tim has spent over a thousand hours assembling the high-resolution scans, restoring the images in Photoshop and color-correcting them back to their vibrant, as-new appearance. The results of all that hard work are now available as a lasting record of the amazing artwork that adorned the arcades during the golden era of coin-op video gaming.