News from France 2

By Catherine SOUBEYRAND catherine.soubeyrand@sept.fr

January, 1995 (ahem. with the apologies of the editor.)

Formule De

The grand prix of Canada has been bought last Saturday and tested with 6 cars in the afternoon.

Appearance of this new track (No 9 from Ludodelire) on a pleasant green and blue turquoise background, the grey track seems to be put on a island in the middle of a river. It is an oval a little crashed on both extremities. The middle of the oval being occupied by a nautical centre.

Many gags, as usual : a great red maple leaf on a white cloud with on board a man a beaver and a seagull, a water-skier who has forgotten his parachute (you will see why); the fisherman who seems mouth-watering for the big shark behind him; the Superaviron Team directly arrived from an "Asterix" comic strip.....

And others yet to discover.

"Technical" Test of the track

A first part with 4 zones of 2 corners each : (5-11) (6-11) (6-11) (5-11) squares, always a short distance between two zones. Speed required are 3-4. A second part with 3 different corners : (1-7) (5-9) (3-6) enables to go faster, a 5 speed is possible with luck on the dice throw : a low number is not enough between two corners and it means to change down. The first hairpin corner is redoubtable. With 6 cars there was just enough places in the first corners zones, with more it should become difficult : many use of brakes and tests of crash.

I recommend it, but rookies may loose feathers!

[Ken: Tim Trant confirms that this track is essentially the same as the black and white version of the Grand Prix of Canada.]

Histoire des Jeux de societe

A new book on games : Histoire des Jeux de societe (History of Parlour Games) by M.Jean-Marie Lhôote published by Flammarion, 671 pages, in French, ISDN 2-08-010929-4.

An encyclopaedic book in two parts : The first one (367 p) explains the history of games among all the countries and the time. It covers all the aspects of games: games of chance, games of skill, card games, games of strategy, play on words... In 7 chapters readers discover the families of games as they appear in the history of mankind.

The second volume is a dictionary describing more than 900 games and 400 terms. It is complete from Senet to Dungeons and Dragons, Cluedo, Civilization... This scholarly book is impressive both because of the quality of text (great work of research) and the beauty of the illustrations. I have never seen such a complete book. It should become a reference (a milestone in the history of games? [Ken: well, there are the RC Bells books...]). The drawback is the very high price: 650 FF then 795FF after the 01/31/95! [Ken: ooops.]

Azure Wish Editions Redux

[Ken: (again. Sorry, Cat.) In the last issue of Sumo, Stuart was questioning the quality of the components of the Azure Wish Editions games Catherine mentioned in her first column. I've enclosed images scanned from the latest Descartes catalog of the games in question so readers can see what they would be getting into with these games.

Europa Universalis [143K] (399 FF), La foi et le glaive [94K] (340 FF), and Xhënor [66K] (340 FF) are all available from Descartes at the quoted prices as of their last catalog so be sure to check the prices before sending a check.]

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell