Memory

Things... is a party game where everyone writes a response to a particular prompt, such as "Things... you shouldn't put in your mouth," and the players then try to guess which player wrote which response.

A reader is chosen. This reader reads aloud a Topic Card. The players all write a response, fold up the slip of paper and turn it in to the reader, who reads them aloud once and then a second time. The player to the left of the reader has to guess who wrote which response. This is all done from memory, without benefit of taking notes or having the responses read again. If the guesser is correct, he or she continues guessing until incorrect, at which time the player to his/her left tries guessing. Players whose responses were correctly identified are eliminated and cannot make guesses. The round ends when one player has not been matched to a response.

1 point is awarded for each correct guess. 6 points are awarded to the person who successfully avoided detection. The job of reader passes to the left. When everyone has been reader once, the game ends. High score wins.

The two players select their lineups from imaginary players or actual players by converting their stats to the game's parameters. (This is easily done from mlb.com on the net.)

The Defensive team is the manager and catcher, selecting pitch types (Fast Ball, Off Speed, Pitch out, etc. )to get batters out.

Offensive managers and batters must then select a type of offense/ball in play strategy (Steal, Bunt, Hit and Run, Long Ball, etc.)The defensive team commits first with a "Pitch" card. The offensive team then orally calls its strategy. The results of the two choices are found by cross indexing them on a result matrix table. This is classic matrix game theory where one player is trying to minimize his opponent's results while maximizing his own.

Players can decide on the size of ballpark before the game.
There are rules for series play in order to give proper rest to pitchers. The game even has injury possibilities.

Great baseball action.

Football Strategy boils the sport down to play calling skill. The game's structure is simple: The defensive player selects one of 10 formation cards (ranging from an 8-man line "goal line stand" to a pass prevent defense with five safeties); the offensive player calls a play (a choice of 20, plus punting). Cross-indexing the choices on a matrix shows what happened. Except for "long gains", the outcome of each play against each defense is always the same. Dice are rolled only to determine the distance of long gains and the results of kickoffs and field goal attempts.

Each play consumes a prescribed number of seconds, from 15 to 45. The players mark off the time and play four quarters, following the standard football rules.

For variety, three types of offense ("pro style", "aerial game" and "ball control") are available, each with a different, though not radically different, results matrix.

Simple though it is, the game is engrossing (see the "More Information" screen), and play generally follows realistic patterns, though the handling of punts and on-side kicks (both more effective than in real life) is questionable. Also, because the design changed little after its debut in 1959, the plays and defenses don't reflect the state of the art in contemporary professional football. This is the era of Otto Graham, not Eli Manning.

For those who are so inclined, Football Strategy lends itself to mathematical analysis. Many years ago, an entrant into the tournament at Origins went to the trouble of using game theory to generate charts showing the optimal mix of plays in different situations. He reached the finals but, in a victory for human intuition over number crunching, lost the championship game by a touchdown and a field goal.

Basic trivia game where players try to figure out if a statement is a Fact, or just a load of Crap.

The players take turns being the Reader in a clockwise direction.

After the Reader has read the first question, the other players have to decide as fast as they can whether the answer is Fact or Crap. The players indicate their answer by putting face down either their Fact Answer card or Crap Answer card. The Reader then determines which player was the first to put their Answer card down. Once all of the Answer cards are down, the player who was first to answer turns over their Answer card. If the answer is correct, they receive 2 tokens from the middle pile. The Reader will then ask everyone to turn their Answer cards over. All other players with the correct answer will receive 1 token. All players with the wrong answer (including the player who puts their Answer card down first) will have to put 1 token back in the middle pile.
The Reader’s turn is complete when all 3 questions have been read. The Question card is then returned, face down, to the bottom of the Question card pile.

During the game you will randomly draw Rush Hour cards. The Reader who picks up a Rush Hour card may nominate any player to answer the Rush Hour questions. Once the nomination has been made, the egg timer is turned over and the Reader begins to read the questions. The aim is to have all 5 questions asked and answered within the time limit so that both Reader and the answering player have a chance to win as many extra tokens as possible.

There are two ways to win Fact or Crap.
- The game ends when all tokens from the middle pile are gone. Players then count up their tokens. The player with the most tokens is the winner, proving they know the most Fact or Crap!
- In the event that all players but 1 have lost their tokens, the remaining player is deemed the winner.
If at any time during the game a player loses all of their tokens, s/he is then out of the game.

Re-implemented as:

SpongeBob SquarePants Fact or Fishy DVD Game

The Abyss power is once again vacant, so the time has come to get your hands on the throne and its privileges. Use all of your cunning to win or buy votes in the Council. Recruit the most influential Lords and abuse their powers to take control of the most strategic territories. Finally, impose yourself as the only one able to rule the Abyssal people!

Abyss is a game of development, combination and collection in which players try to take control of strategic locations in an underwater city. To achieve this, players must develop on three levels: first by collecting allies, then using them to recruit Lords of the Abyss, who will then grant access to different parts of the city. Players acquire cards through a draft of sorts, and the Lords of the Abyss acquired on those cards grant special powers to the cardholder — but once you use the cards to acquire a location, that power is shut off, so players need to time their land grabs well in order to put themselves in the best position for when the game ends.