By collecting some basic equipment and making your own boards, you can enjoy many playing many classic games on the cheap. Also, it's easy to find the rules for time-honored games in books or on the web.

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In this book, we look at 151 video games, along with the systems that debuted, up to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Each game has between a quarter page and two pages and talks about the history behind the development of the game. The book is mostly interesting to read except for some of the recent entries that I knew about and didn't care about. In Magazine Styler, you get to design your own magazine and decide whether it will be about fashion, music, celebrities, or gossip. Take that, Martha Stewart. Kids looking for more action can put away the paintbrushes and acrylics and try to steal some of the greatest pieces in the world with the game Art Thief.

Read on for some advice in making your own sets. Some of the specific games we've made are described as well.

• Find other flash games and game widgets by carrying out a search on Google. You will be able to find free games, games for girls, cooking games, children's games, motorbike games as well as other online video games. Offer paid games on your website. You can restrict access to some games on your website quite easily.
• Bird Brain - Online Game - North American Birds Challenge. Description: This incredible game allows students to explore North American birds. There are two modes. Free coloring allows students to choose from any of 27 North American birds such as the Mallard, Canada Goose, Cardinal, Eastern Bluebird, Bald Eagle, Red-headed Woodpecker, and many others, to color online.
• There are limited features when you use the free version and there are upsells of sprites and game design instruction. You actually play a game to learn about game designing. You can then create your own games. I linked to the parent page so you can read about it. More advanced and thus harder to use Stencyl is a great way to make games.

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Basic Equipment:

Playing pieces

There are many variations on stones, men, or what have you. In most games, all you need are markers of different colors. You can use almost anything.

The glass beads used for counters used by collectable card game players work pretty well, but can be quite expensive, and are often a little too small. We got two hug jars of flattish glass beads (no holes) in two different colors at the craft store for about $2.50 each. They are a little larger than glass counters on average, though less uniform in size and shape, but work well for most applications.

I also have a number of wooden 'men' purchased unfinished at the craft store. I stained some of them dark and used a floor finish on them. The folks at a paint or hardware store can be very helpful if you have questions about what products you should use.

In a pinch, coins can serve as markers, especially if (Warning: Sexist comment ahead!) the man of your house has a habit of accumulating change in his pockets like ours does. Coins are also great for games improvised on the backs of restaurant menus.

Boards

There's no end to how fancy or how cheap you can make your own game boards, and they can be made from a variety of materials. My grandfather made me a beautiful go board using his wood burner. We've been known to pass the time or try out a new game by playing on a board quickly sketched on a plain old piece of paper. Of course, mancala was often played by digging pits right in the dirt. Inspired by a published version printed on fabric, I drew a hnefatafl board on a tanned rabbit hide for an authentic Nordicy feel, but later had trouble getting the pesky thing to lie flat.

In making boards, I've discovered one important rule: simpler is better. While one can find impressive examples of decorated game boards, the less cluttered the board, the easier it is to play. You can also make a simple board quickly and get right down to the serious business of gameplay, and if it turns out that the game is kind of lame, you're not out much. If you find you truly love a game and you want to invest time, money, and effort to build a really nice board, knock yourself out, but if it's really a great game, it'll be just as good on a plain board.

There are a few other things to keep in mind:

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• Storage: My go board is beautiful but huge. It generally lives propped against the end of the couch, which is okay for one board (though I'm afraid it might warp one day). Make sure your board is small enough to stow away in some convenient hidey hole and to lug from place to place. If the board is going to fold, make sure it'll lie flat when unfolded, and that the fold won't eventually wear away until it rips it in half.
• Durability: Don't include any design elements that are likely to rub off, wear away, or fall off. Mark with a permanent marker. You might want to consider making a board out of paper and laminating it, but think ahead about storage! You won't want to fold it, and don't be tempted to roll it up or you'll never get it to lie flat.

For many reasons, I recommend with boards drawn with on corrugated cardboard. It's not to hard to find, either flat, or in box form, and it's fairly easy to work with if you have a stout pair of scissors. It is also quite sturdy, but if it does fall victim to a spilled soda or the family dog, you're not out much, and you can make a new one quickly.

Plan your board on scratch paper. Remember to consider the size of the pieces you will use in planning the size of the board. Cut the board out of cardboard. Use a pencil and a ruler to draw the board design, then draw over it with a permanent marker. (Sharpies rock my world -- they have a nice fine point, they take eons to dry out, they come in all the colors of the rainbow, and they smell funky.)

Random number generators

Dice are handy things to have lying around. I have philosphical problems (some would call it anal-retentiveness) about 'borrowing' dice from, say, your Monopoly set, so I think it's worth while to buy a few six-sided dice to have in your games bag.

Specialty pieces

Some games call for other oddments. Hnefatafl requires a one larger 'king' piece. Senet, played authetically, uses 'casting sticks.' In most cases you can make do with substitutions, but if it's a game you'll be playing a lot, you might want to look in craft, hardware, or gaming stores for items that fit the bill.

Games, games, games!

Well, okay. 'Game, game.' Here are two games in the public domain (hey, that rhymes!) and what you'd need to get playing.

Hnefatafl

Hnefatafl is an ancient board game played by the Vikings. It's chess-like, but much less complicated. There are many variations, but to play tablut, the simplest and best-documented version, you need a board with 9x9 squares, 16 playing pieces in one color, 8 in a different color, and a 'king' piece that matches the other eight.

Remember, even if you're playing tablut, you should call it hnefatafl, both to avoid confusion with the Roman game also called tablut, and also to set up the classic 'Hnefatafl?'-'Gesundheit!' joke.

• Rules and history of hnefatafl, tablut, and tawl-bwrd.
• Hnefatafl variations, including tawlbyund and brandbubh, which use dice, and alea evangelii, which can be played on a go board.
• Archaeology and analysis of hnefatafl.
• Rules and history from Gunnora, the Viking Answer Lady.

Senet

This Egyptian game is a precursor to backgamon. It's played on a 3x10 board with some specially-marked squares and requires 5 pieces each of two different colors, and 4 casting sticks or a six-sided die.

Annotations and alerts app. The casting sticks are rounded on one side and flat on the other. You can see them in action in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments in the scene where Moses plays hounds and jackals with Nefretiri. The sticks are rolled out of the hand, and the number of flat sides that are up is the number of squares you may move. If no flat sides are up, you move 6 squares (or 5, depending on the rules you're using.) It's suggested that if you don't have casting sticks, a six-sided die be used, with fives rerolled. This gives a 1:5 chance of rolling any number. With the sticks, you have a 1:4 chance of rolling a one, a 3:8 chance of rolling a two, a 1:4 chance of rolling a three, and a 1:16 chance of rolling a four or a six. (That's assuming the sticks have a 50-50 chance of landing flat or round side up, but I haven't yet confirmed by experiment whether that's true.) Using a die definitely changes the dynamics of the game. Plus, it's not nearly as fun.

We made our casting sticks from 5/8 inch half-round molding, from a hardware, lumber, and kitchen-and-bath-type store. They were nice enough to cut it into 4-inch lengths for us.

• Rules and board design for Senet.
• A different set of rules
• You can crib the heiroglyphs used in thisboard design.
• A fairly good picture of an ancient Senet board.

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Links

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• Rules for ancient (or at least pretty old) games.
• Free games in .pdf (Acrobat) format from Bone Games.
• A great page of rules forRoman board games.
• Making your own go board.

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