# Any other fans of "Games" Magazine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 21, 2008, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718 "2008-06-21T20:28:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/61 "2014-10-18T19:34:02Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > It was a more-or-less annual thing. Here are some links to the prizes: > > [1975](http://books.google.com/books?id=LCwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=benson+hedges+100+sweepstakes+prizes&source=bl&ots=dt_P6KwN4n&sig=qgcHmZEA_jhBalI4UMMsUsA2ooc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YbdCVI2PCsO1yATAlQE&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=benson%20hedges%20100%20sweepstakes%20prizes&f=false) > > [1976](http://books.google.com/books?id=7egCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=benson+hedges+100+sweepstakes+prizes&source=bl&ots=R5GlXtO5Jg&sig=CRiMdsywY-siw7to4vrVFFb-DyM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YbdCVI2PCsO1yATAlQE&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=benson%20hedges%20100%20sweepstakes%20prizes&f=false) > > [1979](http://books.google.com/books?id=cCwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq=benson+hedges+100+sweepstakes+prizes&source=bl&ots=eitZodsoIO&sig=KfVyjEfRw0EoWObAaG2bCe-ot9A&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YbdCVI2PCsO1yATAlQE&ved=0CCgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=benson%20hedges%20100%20sweepstakes%20prizes&f=false) > > [1984](http://books.google.com/books?id=45tZvY5Qh4oC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=benson+hedges+100+sweepstakes+prizes&source=bl&ots=uNNUnxQSs4&sig=R5d2_eWciwur5QFLwbHUUC4bo3g&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YbdCVI2PCsO1yATAlQE&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=benson%20hedges%20100%20sweepstakes%20prizes&f=false) > > Note that, in each case, it was 100 separate sweepstakes; you had to select the one you were entering on the entry form. I also found a letter to the winner of a separate contest for predicting which of the 100 contests would have the most and the fewest entries. Cool, thanks for the blast from the past! Those ads are indelibly linked with Games magazine for me. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/62 "2014-10-19T07:44:42Z")
The one puzzle that I came to enjoy more than any other was 500 Rummy, where you would be provided with a grid full of letters, each one assigned a playing card value, and it was your job to put together as many words as you could that were also proper rummy hands. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/63 "2014-10-19T14:54:17Z")
I really miss The World’s Most Ornery Crossword Puzzle. I’m hopeless with cryptics, and most average crosswords are too easy. I usually found that TWMOCP would keep me working for a couple of weeks without frustrating me so much that I gave up. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/64 "2014-10-19T15:10:19Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I really miss Crossword Puzzle. I’m hopeless with cryptics, and most average crosswords are too easy. I usually found that TWMOCP would keep me working for a couple of weeks without frustrating me so much that I gave up. The Nov. 2014 has The World’s Most Ornery, and it is- I can’t get anywhere with it ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/65 "2014-10-19T15:58:18Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I’m hopeless with cryptics Cryptics are frustrating until you learn the “secret codes,” and then they are a blast. Don’t give up on them. Find a book with easier puzzles and give cryptics a try again. They are easily my favorite puzzle, and I love almost all types of puzzles. The ones in \* Games \*are of moderate, but the difficult one in _Harper’s_ every month is tops! ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/66 "2014-10-20T04:33:07Z")
May as well ask this again…is there going to be a compendium on CD? That’s what I’m interested in. Anytime I tried to collect any kind of long-running series on paper, I always end up with gaps and/or losing a bunch of them. The website’s store isn’t up yet. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2014, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/67 "2014-10-20T05:53:16Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I really miss The World’s Most Ornery Crossword Puzzle. I’m hopeless with cryptics, and most average crosswords are too easy. I usually found that TWMOCP would keep me working for a couple of weeks without frustrating me so much that I gave up. I had a subscription to \*Games \*from its earlier issues through to the end of its first incarnation. The WMO puzzles were my greatest joy. At some point they printed a book of them, which I’ve gone through several times over the years. Guess it’s time to add the new ones to my collection. ---
**Author:** ![blizsalico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@blizsalico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blizsalico)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/68 "2014-11-28T14:02:22Z")
Does anyone remember the first Christmas Look Alike puzzle created by Joan Steiner for GAMES-probably in 1983? Would love to have a copy of it again… ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/69 "2015-03-06T10:06:43Z")
Since there are so many _Games_ contributors and playtesters posting in this thread, I thought it would be a good place to ask for advice about a submission. I’ve prepared a new type of puzzle—at least, one which I don’t think _Games_ or anyone else has printed before. I’ve produced several hundred of these puzzles, so I could pitch all of them to Kappa as a book, or I could just submit a handful to _Games World of Puzzles_. Of course, even if they are interested in the book, they might want to run a few puzzles in the magazine first in order to gauge/build interest. My dilemma is that their book and magazine operations are in different departments, and I have no idea how closely they work. So which of the following would be best to do? [ul] [li]Submit a formal book proposal to the book department.[/li][li]Submit a few individual puzzles to the magazine department, and if they’re accepted, submit a book proposal to the book department.[/li][li]Submit a few individual puzzles to the magazine department, mentioning that I have a few hundred more and asking for a referral to the book department.[/li][li]Address a single letter to both departments which contains both a submission to the magazine and a proposal for the book department.[/li][li]Something else…?[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/70 "2015-03-06T17:20:44Z")
My dad subscribed to _Games_ in the 80s and 90s. Much of it was over my head when I was younger of course, but it helped build my love for puzzles and games. Is there perhaps a junior version? I wonder if my kids would be interested. **psychonaut** , I’ll let the experts answer you, I just wanted to join in the chorus of praises. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/71 "2015-03-21T11:50:06Z")
> [@Gedd](#): > > My dad subscribed to _Games_ in the 80s and 90s. Much of it was over my head when I was younger of course, but it helped build my love for puzzles and games. Is there perhaps a junior version? I wonder if my kids would be interested. I wouldn’t worry too much about giving kids games-related books and magazines meant for adults. When I was a kid most of the puzzles and riddles I encountered were from publications targetted at adults. Like you, I found most of this material to be over my head, but it didn’t really bother me. I just skipped over the stuff I didn’t understand and maybe came back to it in a few years once I could make sense of it. I’m currently writing for a new children’s magazine which is about languages and linguistics in general, and it has a heavy emphasis on language games. If you think your kids might be interested in it I can post the details here or send them by private message. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/72 "2015-03-21T11:58:09Z")
> [@Biotop](#): > > Cryptics are frustrating until you learn the “secret codes,” and then they are a blast. Don’t give up on them. Find a book with easier puzzles and give cryptics a try again. They are easily my favorite puzzle, and I love almost all types of puzzles. The ones in \* Games \*are of moderate, but the difficult one in _Harper’s_ every month is tops! Oh, good grief, Maltby’s \*Harper’s \*Puzzles are infuriating. Not impossible, just messy. The ones in _Games_ are probably cleaner, or they used to be. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/73 "2015-03-21T13:06:02Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I wouldn’t worry too much about giving kids games-related books and magazines meant for adults. When I was a kid most of the puzzles and riddles I encountered were from publications targetted at adults. Like you, I found most of this material to be over my head, but it didn’t really bother me. I just skipped over the stuff I didn’t understand and maybe came back to it in a few years once I could make sense of it. We had a big pile of Games magazines starting from when I was pretty young. The great thing was that I could try the 1-star puzzles as a wee lad, then years later I could look through the back issues doing the 2-star puzzles, then later I could finish off the 3-star puzzles. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/74 "2015-03-21T15:04:19Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2015, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/75 "2015-03-21T18:58:51Z")
And then there’s the joy of finding a two- or three-star puzzle that’s just particularly well-suited to your aptitudes, and being able to finish it when you “shouldn’t” have. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/76 "2015-03-22T01:33:11Z")
Slightly off topic, is Games having distribution problems? I no longer subscribe after having been cut off in the middle once too often, but used to pick up an issue in airport magazine stores when I traveled. The last two times none were there. Just Dell stuff. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/77 "2015-03-22T03:19:25Z")
For a while, they had a kids’ page, but I’m not aware of anything more than that. As others have said, the regular version is pretty family friendly and inoffensive. I, like many dopers, started reading it in about 5th grade. I did the 1-stars first, and anything with photos, maps, or cartoons. I moved on to more difficult puzzles as I got older. I stopped subscribing several years ago when the cost went up and my available time went down. I was only finishing 3 or 4 puzzles per magazine and it just wasn’t worth it. I will have to look around for the new merged version. Barnes and Noble has always been good in the past. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/78 "2015-03-22T13:56:43Z")
I had a subscription to _Games_ starting way back in the late 70s all the way through to the 90s. Broke my heart that I threw out a huge stack of them about 15 years ago. I loved the _Pic Tac Toe_ puzzles, and always wanted to submit one, but could never pull it together. ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/79 "2015-03-23T00:34:23Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Oh, good grief, Maltby’s \*Harper’s \*Puzzles are infuriating. Not impossible, just messy. > > The ones in _Games_ are probably cleaner, or they used to be. Do “messy” and “cleaner” refer to the cryptic clues themselves? As in not always being a combination of wordplay + definition? Or, there was a patch in _Harper’s_, of a few years, when it seemed like every puzzle had one or more typos in the clues, though the puzzles were still ultimately solvable. Over the years I have solved just about all of the _Harper’s_ cryptics, including the Galli and Maltby years. Some of the puzzles are more enjoyable than others, with for example ones using a Playfair square tending to be tedious for me. A subscription to the magazine with online access makes it possible to have a complete set of its cryptics from 1976 onward. I find that the more familiar that I am with a puzzle creator’s cluing style, the easier that the puzzles become. Lately, the _Harper’s_ and _Games_ variety cryptics are easy to solve. Speaking of _Games_, the latest issue that I have is April 2015, which arrived in about February. Yes, the _Pic Tac Toe_ puzzles are clever and fun. So is _Some Assembly Required_, by Patrick Berry. I’ve avoided the _Paint by Numbers_ because they look tedious with a final and crude boxy picture not worth the effort. However, if solving _PbN_’s leads to better results than using one weird trick to boost my credit score by 217 points, then I’ll start painting now. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718/80 "2015-03-23T05:51:48Z")
I think I have seen typos and other errors in Maltby’s, yeah. “Messy” refers to his kind of trippy clues and weird extra grid entry rules. And he uses nonstandard spellings and obscure words on top of weirdly complex grid rules. Yeah, that’s the point, it’s meant to be hard. And he’s not quite Kinsey Millhone’s landlord. But I very found him more annoying than, say, the team that used to a puzzle in the _Atlantic._ As I did more of his puzzles, I got used to him, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-other-fans-of-games-magazine/453718.md?page=5)