Ok, I'll admit that this week's title is a little weird. Still, it fits well with our subject. May I introduce you to the game "Brainstorm" by E. S. Lowe!
As you can see by the red grease pencil marking on the box, I picked this up for a buck 99 at a thrift store. It was many years ago, so I have no idea what store it was, but I know that pickings were rather slim that day because: 1. This isn't the kind of game I normally buy and 2. It was actually missing it's timer. I don't normally buy games with missing parts, unless it's something really special.
But what IS Brainstorm anyway? Well, remember last week when I told you about how Prize Property improved Monopoly? Well, Brainstorm, (released in 1972) was designed to improve tic-tac-toe. Did it? Let's look closer...
This is what's inside the box. Notice the missing timer. I replaced it with a 30 second timer that I happened to have. Let's take all the stuff out...
There we go! Notice the added timer! In addition to that, we have a blow molded plastic playing board, a dice cup, and 15 "X and O" dice. That cup might look a little familiar (that's called foreshadowing).
Now let's look at the instructions...
Pretty easy, really. It plays pretty much like tic-tac-toe with the addition of the timer and special spaces on the board. Most of the instructions are scoring examples. So, it seems like a solid game, but not a world changing one. But that's ok, because E.S. Lowe had already changed the gaming world by this time. Twice, actually.
Let's travel back in time to the late 1920's when Mr. Lowe was at a carnival in Georgia. He was watching people play a game called "Beano," where they covered up numbers on a card with beans. Later, he went and had some of his own cards printed up and introduced it to his friends. While they were playing, one young lady got so excited when she won that instead of yelling "Beano!" she yelled "Bingo!" And the name stuck. Shortly after that, a church approached him about using his game as a fundraiser. Gaming World Change Number One.
Flash forward to the early 1950's. A wealthy couple approached Mr. Lowe about printing up some score pads for their dice game that they played with friends on their yacht. They called it "The Yacht Game," but when Mr. Lowe bought the rights he changed it to "Yahtzee." Gaming World Change Number Two.
So, by 1972, E. S. Lowe was gaming royalty, no matter how "Brainstorm" did. Interestingly, Milton Bradley bought the company a couple of years later and then Hasbro bought THEM.
So, yes, Brainstorm beats regular tic-tac-toe. But the most interesting part is the company itself!
Until next time, keep searching for treasure!
The Brainstorm board looks a lot like a Scrabble board. I wonder if that was the inspiration?
ReplyDeleteHmm, I dunno, this game doesn't seem like it would hold my attention very long. Have you played it? (I'm guessing, yes.) Did it stand the test of time for you? It's kind of hard to visualize the game-play; maybe it's more fun than it looks.
But after all, he did give us Bingo and Yahtzee. So that seals his place in gaming history. I've heard about the development of Yahtzee somewhere before... maybe on a History channel program?
Thanks, Stu.
Well, it's better than tic-tac-toe, but that's not saying much, lol! I think the weirdest part is that you never know how many moves you'll get due to the random dice. On a 1-10 scale, I'd give it a 5.5-6, I guess.
DeleteInteresting angle on tic-tac-toe. I think it would also be fun for younger kids, if they want to simplify the rules and just see how many tic-tac-toes they could make. The one with the most....wins!
ReplyDeleteYou know, it kind of just turns into that amyway, lol!
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