One Hundred Indoor Games You Can Play [antikvár]

Intfoduction The first requirement of this introduction is to define the scope of this book in relation to its title. By 'indoor games' is meant those sedentary games which require no more physical energy than the laying of a card or the throwing of dice. Bridge and poker players might claim that a long session requires stamina, but it does not need physical dexterity, athleticism or agility. Therefore such pursuits as table tennis, badminton and snooker, although played indoors, are not included. They are sometimes called indoor games, but might be more properly thought of as indoor sports. Secondly the word 'complete' is not meant to imply that every game ever invented which uses cards, tiles, dice, covmters and such like is included. No book has ever achieved such a feat, and none ever will. Nor would the reader wish to buy a book which used some of its space to describe how to toss a coin in a game of heads and tails, or how to play Noughts and Crosses or even Snakes and Ladders. Nor has it been thought feasible to include the proprietary games which proliferate annually, and many of which are in any case based on the old games. The object has been to include those standard games which have stood the test of time and have so caught popular fancy as to have earned a right to be included, and those games which while they might not have become so widespread, yet have their followers and will repay those who make the effort to leam them. Anybody who masters all or most of the games in this book can claim with as much justification as the next man to be a complete games player. The book has been based upon the great success of two earlier books, The Hamlyn Illustrated Book of Card Games and The Illustrated Book of Table Games. The best of each have been amalgamated, and some new games added. Thus there are a number of writers to be acknowledged. The late George F. Hervey wrote all the articles concerning card games. Paul Langfield wrote the articles on Chess and Checkers. Jeremy Flint wrote the article on Backgammon. Francis Roads wrote the article on Go. Rodney Headington wrote the article on Hex. David Pritchard wrote the articles on Reversi, Wari, Mah Jong and Dominoes. The present editor wrote the articles on Roulette and Dice games. The largest part of the book concerns card games, and a description of the arrangement of them is best left to an extract from George Hervey's introduction to the book in which they originally appeared: