American game inventor
Robert Abbott
|
---|
Robert Abbott, working on his game Confusion
|
Born
| (
1933-03-02
)
March 2, 1933
St. Louis, Missouri, US
|
---|
Died
| February 20, 2018
(2018-02-20)
(aged 84)
|
---|
Occupation
| Computer programmer
|
---|
Known for
| Inventing
logic mazes
and creation of several games
|
---|
Robert Abbott
(March 2, 1933 – February 20, 2018
[
citation needed
]
) was an American game inventor, sometimes referred to by fans as "The Official Grand Old Man of Card Games".
[1]
Though early in his life he worked as a computer programmer with the
IBM 360
assembly language
, he began designing games in the 1950s.
[2]
Two of his more popular creations include the
chess
variant
Baroque chess
(also known as Ultima) and
Crossings
, which later became
Epaminondas
.
Eleusis
was also successful, appearing in several card game collections, such as
Hoyle's Rules of Games
[3]
and
New Rules for Classic Games
,
[4]
among others. In 1963, Abbott himself released a publication,
Abbott's New Card Games
, which included instructions for all of his card games, in addition to Baroque chess.
[5]
[6]
Abbott also invented
logic mazes
, the first of which appeared in
Martin Gardner
's
Mathematical Games
column in the October 1962 issue of
Scientific American
.
[7]
[8]
[9]
One of the more prominent of these is
Theseus and the Minotaur
, which was originally published in the book
Mad Mazes
.
[10]
His game
Confusion
was named "Best New Abstract Strategy Game" for 2012 by
GAMES Magazine
.
[11]
Biography
[
edit
]
Abbott was born in
St. Louis, Missouri
, and attended
St. Louis Country Day School
. Abbott went to
Yale
for two years, then attended the
University of Colorado
for another two, but never graduated.
[12]
Soon after, Abbott moved to New York, where he and his games were discovered by
Martin Gardner
. In 1963, after Abbott's book,
Abbott's New Card Games
, received only moderate success, he "got tired of being poor"
[13]
and moved back to St. Louis. There, he became a computer programmer at the
Washington University in St. Louis
Computer Research Laboratory. In 1965, he moved back to New York, where he continued to work as a computer programmer, mostly with the
IBM 360
assembly language
.
[1]
Abbott created all of his card games during the 1950s, starting with Babel in 1951,
[2]
and ending with Auction in 1956.
[13]
Soon after, he moved to
New York City
, where the rules for his game
Eleusis
were first published by
Martin Gardner
in his
Mathematical Games
column.
[13]
[14]
Motivated by the article, Abbott self-published the rules for four of his card games in the book
Four New Card Games
in 1962, which he sold by mail. In 1963, the book
Abbott's New Card Games
was published by
Sol Stein
of
Stein and Day
, containing the rules for all eight of his card games and the rules for his chess variant,
Baroque chess
.
[5]
In 1968, the publisher
Funk & Wagnalls
published a paperback edition of
Abbott's New Card Games
,
[15]
in which Abbott slightly modified the rules of Baroque chess, but these changes never became popular.
[16]
Around the same time that
Abbott's New Card Games
was published, Abbott sent his maze,
Traffic Maze in Floyd's Knob
, to
Martin Gardner
. This was the first logic maze to be published, appearing in Gardner's
Mathematical Games
column.
[7]
[8]
[9]
After that time, Abbott created various mazes, most of which appeared in the books
SuperMazes
and
Mad Mazes
.
[17]
[18]
In 2008,
RBA Libros
published a Spanish version of his book
Abbott's New Card Games
, under the title
Diez juegos que no se parecen a nada
, which translates to
Ten games that do not resemble anything
.
[19]
This version was not just a Spanish translation of the original, however; the most up-to-date rules for the various games were used; in addition, the rules for
Eleusis Express
and Confusion were included.
[6]
In 2010, his
Where are the Cows?
maze was published by the
Oxford University Press
in
Ian Stewart
's book
Cows in the Maze
.
[20]
In 2011, his game Confusion was published by
Stronghold Games
.
[21]
The game was named "Best New Abstract Strategy Game" for 2012 by
GAMES Magazine
.
[11]
Logic mazes
[
edit
]
Abbott was the inventor of a style of
maze
called
logic mazes
.
[22]
[7]
[9]
A logic maze has a set of rules, ranging from the basic (such as "you cannot make left turns") to the extremely complicated. These mazes are also called "Multi-State mazes".
[7]
The reason for this name is that sometimes you can return to a position you were in before, but be traveling in a different direction. That change in direction can put you in a different state and open up different choices for you. One example, from the book
SuperMazes
, would be a rolling-die maze. Where you can move from a particular square depends on what number is facing up on the die. If you return to that same square, the die may be in a different state, with a different number on top. Thus, you would have different options than the first time.
[23]
Traffic Maze in Floyd's Knob
[
edit
]
The first
logic maze
ever published,
Traffic Maze in Floyd's Knob
, appeared in the October 1962 issue of
Scientific American
in the
Mathematical Games
column.
[7]
[8]
[9]
The maze looks like a street grid, with arrows pointing down various roads at each intersection. When one comes to an intersection, only arrows leading from the road you are on to another road can be followed. One must continue in this fashion, following the arrows at the intersection, until the end is reached. When you come to an intersection from one direction, you have different options for which road to take than you would coming into the intersection from another direction; therefore, this can be defined as a "multi-state" or "logic" maze.
[9]
Where Are the Cows?
[
edit
]
Where are the Cows?
was one of Abbott's most difficult mazes. It first appeared in his book
SuperMazes
. Abbott warns readers that it "may be too difficult for anyone to solve."
[24]
Since then, it has also appeared as the titular maze in the book
Cows in the Maze
.
[20]
The complexity in
Where are the Cows?
includes self-reference, changing rules, and flow charts. It is also worded so as to provoke confusion between an object (such as red text), a reference to an object (such as the word "red"), and even more subtle references (the word "word"). The maze ends up being so complicated that it can even be difficult to work out the next move, let alone the end. In this maze, you have to use two hands, each starting at a different place. The instructions in one box might have to do with the box that the other hand is in, boxes you have already left, or complex combinations of the two.
[25]
Theseus and the Minotaur
[
edit
]
Theseus and the Minotaur
is another of Abbott's better-known mazes. It first appeared in his book
Mad Mazes
. Like
Where are the Cows?
in
SuperMazes
, Abbott said that this "is the hardest maze in the book; in fact, it is possible that no one will solve it."
[10]
Since then, several different versions of it have appeared, made by others, following the same theme, both on paper and in electronic forms.
[26]
Games
[
edit
]
Abbott has created several games, including card games, board games, and one equipment game. As a whole, his games are not of particular fame, although they have some unique elements that set them apart from mainstream games.
[13]
For instance, the card game
Metamorphosis
is a complex trick-taking game. As you play the game, the rules change three times, so it is as if you are playing four different games that are threaded together.
[27]
Baroque chess
[
edit
]
Baroque chess
, or Ultima, was the only board game in the book
Abbott's New Card Games
. Abbott's reasoning for including this non-card game in a card game book was that
chess
pieces are as plentiful as playing cards, and in this book, he wanted to introduce new games that did not require special equipment. Abbott's friends, once he started teaching it to them, began to call the game "Abbott's Ultima," which he did not like at all.
[28]
However, the publisher,
Sol Stein
, preferred the name "Ultima," so that is the title that was used in the book.
[16]
Eleusis
[
edit
]
Eleusis
is probably Abbott's most prominent game, due to its metaphors and its suitability for use as a teaching tool.
[29]
He invented it in 1956,
[30]
and it appeared in his self-published book
Four New Card Games
.
[31]
It was also published in the book
Abbott's New Card Games
a year later.
[5]
Martin Gardner
wrote about it in his
Mathematical Games
column in the June 1959 issue of
Scientific American
.
[14]
Basically, the gameplay consists of the dealer choosing a secret rule dictating how cards are to be played, and the players playing cards in an attempt to figure out the rule through
inductive reasoning
. In 1973, Abbott decided to improve Eleusis;
[30]
the result was considered to be far better than the original, with various improvements to the layouts and gameplay making it work quite a bit better. Martin Gardner wrote about this version in the October 1977 issue of
Scientific American
.
[29]
Abbott also self-published a pamphlet in 1977 with the rules for the improved version, titled
The New Eleusis
.
[32]
It has appeared in several card game collections, such as
Hoyle's Rules of Games
[3]
and
New Rules for Classic Games
,
[4]
among others.
Confusion
[
edit
]
Abbott initially created the game Confusion in the 1970s, and had it in finished form by 1980.
[21]
The game was published in Germany by
Franjos
in 1992; Abbott was not satisfied with this version, however, due to several flaws in it.
[33]
The rules were published in the Spanish translation of his book
Abbott's New Card Games
in 2008,
[19]
but the game did not get published in North America until 2011. This
Stronghold Games
version was named "Best New Abstract Strategy Game" for 2012 by
GAMES Magazine
.
[11]
The game is based on the idea of not knowing what your pieces are or what they do at the beginning of the game. His game Eleusis uses a similar idea, in that you do not know how cards are to be played at the beginning; George Brancaccio, someone Abbott worked with at the
Bank of New York
, commented on this, saying "In your game Eleusis, you don't know what cards can be played. Why don't you make a board game where you don't know how pieces move?"
[33]
This is what gave Abbott the idea, and he began work on it soon after.
Published work
[
edit
]
- Four New Card Games
(1962)
- Abbott's New Card Games
(1963, again in paperback in 1968)
- The New Eleusis
(1977)
- Mad Mazes
(1990)
- SuperMazes
(1997)
- Auction 2002 and Eleusis
(2001)
- Diez juegos que no se parecen a nada [Ten games that do not resemble anything]
(2008, translated by Marc Figueras)
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Saxton, Cliff (Fall 2008). "Simply A-MAZE-ing".
MICDS Class Notes
.
16
(2): 11.
- ^
a
b
Abbott 1962
, p. 53
- ^
a
b
Morehead 2001
, p. 67
- ^
a
b
Schmittberger 1992
, p. 74
- ^
a
b
c
Abbott 1963
- ^
a
b
Abbott, Robert.
"Robert Abbott's Games"
. Retrieved
26 July
2010
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Pegg, Ed.
"Ed Pegg's Math Games"
. Retrieved
16 September
2010
.
- ^
a
b
c
Gardner, Martin
(October 1962). "Mathematical Games".
Scientific American
.
207
(4). New York, NY: 134?135.
Bibcode
:
1962SciAm.207d.130G
.
doi
:
10.1038/scientificamerican1062-130
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Abbott 1997
, pp. vii-ix
- ^
a
b
Abbott 1990
, pp. 34-35
- ^
a
b
c
"GAMES Games of the Year"
. Games Publications. Archived from
the original
on 2 May 2015
. Retrieved
28 October
2011
.
- ^
Buxbaum, David E. (May 1979). "A Genius for Games".
Mensa Bulletin
(226).
- ^
a
b
c
d
Abbott 2001
, p. 1
- ^
a
b
Gardner, Martin (June 1959). "Mathematical Games".
Scientific American
.
200
(6): 164.
Bibcode
:
1959SciAm.200e.164G
.
doi
:
10.1038/scientificamerican0559-164
.
- ^
Abbott 1968
, pp. 121-138
- ^
a
b
Abbott, Robert.
"Ultima"
. Retrieved
19 September
2010
.
- ^
Abbott 1997
- ^
Abbott 1990
- ^
a
b
Abbott 2008
- ^
a
b
Stewart 2010
, pp. 179-193
- ^
a
b
Abbott, Robert.
"Confusion"
. Retrieved
28 October
2011
.
- ^
Henle, Jim (2021).
"Changing the Rules: The Legacy of Robert Abbott"
.
The Mathematical Intelligencer
.
43
(4): 76?81.
doi
:
10.1007/s00283-021-10116-3
.
ISSN
0343-6993
.
S2CID
239633118
.
- ^
Abbott 1997
, pp. 18-19
- ^
Abbott 1997
, p. xiii
- ^
Abbott 1997
, pp. 42-43
- ^
Abbott, Robert.
"Theseus and That Pesky Minotaur"
. Retrieved
17 October
2010
.
- ^
Abbott 1963
, pp. 55-59
- ^
Abbott 1963
, p. 121
- ^
a
b
Gardner, Martin (October 1977). "Mathematical Games".
Scientific American
.
237
(4): 24.
Bibcode
:
1977SciAm.237c..24G
.
doi
:
10.1038/scientificamerican0977-24
.
- ^
a
b
Abbott, Robert.
"Eleusis and Eleusis Express"
. Retrieved
19 September
2010
.
- ^
Abbott 1962
- ^
Abbott 1977
- ^
a
b
Martin, Eric W.
"Interview: Robert Abbott Clears the Air about Confusion"
. Retrieved
28 October
2011
.
References
[
edit
]
- Abbott, Robert (1962).
Four New Card Games
. Self-published.
ASIN
B000WDSW7S
.
- —— (1963).
Abbott's New Card Games
. Stein and Day.
ASIN
B0018KQA46
.
- —— (1968).
Abbott's New Card Games
. Funk & Wagnall.
ASIN
B000GRSA1S
.
- —— (1977).
The New Eleusis
. Self-published.
ASIN
B000K7BCU0
.
- —— (1990).
Mad Mazes
. Bob Adams, Inc.
ISBN
978-1-55850-142-3
.
- —— (1997).
SuperMazes
. Prima Publishing.
ISBN
978-0-7615-0701-7
.
- —— (2001).
Auction 2002 and Eleusis
. Self-published.
- —— (2008).
Diez juegos que no se parecen a nada
[
Ten games that do not resemble anything
] (in Spanish). Translated by Marc Figueras. RBA Libros.
ISBN
978-84-9867-185-8
.
- Gardner, Martin
(2008).
Origami, Eleusis, and the Soma Cube
. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN
978-0-521-75610-5
.
- Morehead, Albert Hodges
;
Mott-Smith, Geoffrey
(2001).
Morehead, Philip David
(ed.).
Hoyle's Rules of Games
(3rd ed.).
Signet
.
ISBN
978-0-451-20484-4
.
- Schmittberger, R. Wayne
(1992).
New Rules for Classic Games
. Wiley.
ISBN
978-0-471-53621-5
.
- Stewart, Ian
(2010).
Cows in the Maze
. Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-956207-7
.
External links
[
edit
]