Robert Abbott (game designer)

in 1951 as a senior|alt=Refer to caption. 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. 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" 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. in which Abbott slightly modified the rules of Baroque chess, but these changes never became popular. 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''. 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. In 2011, his game Confusion was published by Stronghold Games. The game was named "Best New Abstract Strategy Game" for 2012 by GAMES Magazine. == Logic mazes ==

Abbott was the inventor of a style of maze called logic mazes. Traffic Maze in Floyd's Knob 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. Since then, it has also appeared as the titular maze in the book Cows in the Maze''. Theseus and the Minotaur 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". == Games ==

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. Baroque chess 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. However, the publisher, Sol Stein, preferred the name "Ultima," so that is the title that was used in the book. Eleusis Eleusis is probably Abbott's most prominent game, due to its metaphors and its suitability for use as a teaching tool. and it appeared in his self-published book Four New Card Games. It was also published in the book ''Abbott's New Card Games a year later. 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; Abbott also self-published a pamphlet in 1977 with the rules for the improved version, titled The New Eleusis. It has appeared in several card game collections, such as Hoyle's Rules of Games The rules were published in the Spanish translation of his book Abbott's New Card Games'' in 2008, 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. 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?" This is what gave Abbott the idea, and he began work on it soon after. == Published work ==

• 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 ==