[spielfrieks] 1997 Retrospectives: Nominees

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So as the Beatles might have said, “It was 20 years ago today, that the Spielfrieks taught us how to play. And the Meeples Choice is still in style, even when we take it back awhile.” Okay, maybe Sir Paul has nothing to fear from my lyrical efforts, but the point is that the retrospectives are now going back 20 years, all the way to 1997. Keep in mind that all of the awards from the 90’s were held in 2001, so even the originals were retrospectives in a sense. Still, it should be fun to check those years out again.



Here are the 25 games originally nominated in ‘’97, in alphabetical order:



Bohnanza

Caesar & Cleopatra

Canyon

Die Macher

Halunken & Spelunken

Lowenherz

Manitou

Mississippi Queen

Mole Hill

Njet!

Pico 2

Power Play

Quoridor

Showmanager

Sternenhimmel

Svea Rike

Take It Easy

The Settlers of Catan Cardgame

Tigris & Euphrates

Titan: the Arena

Twilight

Twilight Imperium

Ursuppe

Volle Hutte

Was Sticht!



One 1997 title missing from that list is For Sale. Don’t bother seconding it, because I’m going to do it. Makes you wonder what we were smoking back then, leaving off perhaps the greatest filler of all time. We also have the original version of Fresh Fish and I’m going to second that as well.



So that gives us 27 games. Feel free to nominate others, but keep in mind that the old MCA lists and the Geek’s reckoning aren’t always in agreement. For example, the Geek shows both GIPF and Zum Kuckuck (aka Turn the Tide) as ’97 games, but those games were nominated in 1998 and 1996, respectively. I’d just as soon keep them in those years, but if that messes up your record-keeping too much, we can also include them in ’97. There’s also the issue of what to do with the Dirk Hann games from that year. Back then, Henn self-published most of his games, only to have them be republished (usually by Queen) in much better known versions. So in 1997, Henn released Texas and Iron Horse through his db-Spiele company. These were re-released as Rosenkonig in ‘99 and Metro in 2000 (the latter being an MCA nominee). Another example is the 1997 MCA-winning Showmanager, which is a redesign of Premiere, which Henn self-published the year before. My point is that we tended to honor the more widely available re-releases of Henn’s games back then, so you may want to keep that in mind before nominating Rosenkonig or Metro for 1997. But as usual, the final choice is yours.



Make any nominations and seconds that you want for the next couple of days. The vote will begin on Thursday. I’ll let it run until next Monday and then we’ll announce the results. I’m very interested to see how things might have changed over the last 20 years!



Larry

[Scot Ryder [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I'm thirding For Sale and Fresh Fish! :-)

So as the Beatles *might* have said, “It was 20 years ago today, that the
Spielfrieks taught us how to play. And the Meeples Choice is still in
style, even when we take it back awhile.” Okay, maybe Sir Paul has
nothing to fear from my lyrical efforts, but the point is that the
retrospectives are now going back 20 years, all the way to 1997. Keep in
mind that all of the awards from the 90’s were held in 2001, so even the
originals were retrospectives in a sense. Still, it should be fun to
check those years out again.
Bohnanza
Caesar & Cleopatra
Canyon
Die Macher
Halunken & Spelunken
Lowenherz
Manitou
Mississippi Queen
Mole Hill
Njet!
Pico 2
Power Play
Quoridor
Showmanager
Sternenhimmel
Svea Rike
Take It Easy
The Settlers of Catan Cardgame
Tigris & Euphrates
Titan: the Arena
Twilight
Twilight Imperium
Ursuppe
Volle Hutte
Was Sticht!
One 1997 title missing from that list is For Sale. Don’t bother
seconding it, because *I’m* going to do it. Makes you wonder what we
were smoking back then, leaving off perhaps the greatest filler of all time.
We also have the original version of Fresh Fish and I’m going to second
that as well.
So that gives us 27 games. Feel free to nominate others, but keep in
mind that the old MCA lists and the Geek’s reckoning aren’t always in
agreement. For example, the Geek shows both GIPF and Zum Kuckuck (aka
Turn the Tide) as ’97 games, but those games were nominated in 1998 and
1996, respectively. I’d just as soon keep them in those years, but if
that messes up your record-keeping too much, we can also include them in
’97. There’s also the issue of what to do with the Dirk Hann games from
that year. Back then, Henn self-published most of his games, only to
have them be republished (usually by Queen) in much better known versions.
So in 1997, Henn released Texas and Iron Horse through his db-Spiele
company. These were re-released as Rosenkonig in ‘99 and Metro in 2000
(the latter being an MCA nominee). Another example is the 1997
MCA-winning Showmanager, which is a redesign of Premiere, which Henn
self-published the year before. My point is that we tended to honor the
more widely available re-releases of Henn’s games back then, so you may
want to keep that in mind before nominating Rosenkonig or Metro for 1997.
But as usual, the final choice is yours.
Make any nominations and seconds that you want for the next couple of days.
The vote will begin on Thursday. I’ll let it run until next Monday and
then we’ll announce the results. I’m very interested to see how things
might have changed over the last 20 years!
Larry

[Dave Peters [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

(I'd've been happy to second _Fresh Fish_! While I might not have voted
for it in 1997, it's top of my games-of-1997 list today.)
d

Post by Scot Ryder ***@bradleyryder.org [spielfrieks]
I'm thirding For Sale and Fresh Fish! :-)

So as the Beatles *might* have said, “It was 20 years ago today, that
the Spielfrieks taught us how to play. And the Meeples Choice is still
in style, even when we take it back awhile.” Okay, maybe Sir Paul has
nothing to fear from my lyrical efforts, but the point is that the
retrospectives are now going back 20 years, all the way to 1997. Keep
in mind that all of the awards from the 90’s were held in 2001, so even the
originals were retrospectives in a sense. Still, it should be fun to
check those years out again.
Bohnanza
Caesar & Cleopatra
Canyon
Die Macher
Halunken & Spelunken
Lowenherz
Manitou
Mississippi Queen
Mole Hill
Njet!
Pico 2
Power Play
Quoridor
Showmanager
Sternenhimmel
Svea Rike
Take It Easy
The Settlers of Catan Cardgame
Tigris & Euphrates
Titan: the Arena
Twilight
Twilight Imperium
Ursuppe
Volle Hutte
Was Sticht!
One 1997 title missing from that list is For Sale. Don’t bother
seconding it, because *I’m* going to do it. Makes you wonder what we
were smoking back then, leaving off perhaps the greatest filler of all time.
We also have the original version of Fresh Fish and I’m going to second
that as well.
So that gives us 27 games. Feel free to nominate others, but keep in
mind that the old MCA lists and the Geek’s reckoning aren’t always in
agreement. For example, the Geek shows both GIPF and Zum Kuckuck (aka
Turn the Tide) as ’97 games, but those games were nominated in 1998 and
1996, respectively. I’d just as soon keep them in those years, but if
that messes up your record-keeping too much, we can also include them in
’97. There’s also the issue of what to do with the Dirk Hann games from
that year. Back then, Henn self-published most of his games, only to
have them be republished (usually by Queen) in much better known versions.
So in 1997, Henn released Texas and Iron Horse through his db-Spiele
company. These were re-released as Rosenkonig in ‘99 and Metro in 2000
(the latter being an MCA nominee). Another example is the 1997
MCA-winning Showmanager, which is a redesign of Premiere, which Henn
self-published the year before. My point is that we tended to honor the
more widely available re-releases of Henn’s games back then, so you may
want to keep that in mind before nominating Rosenkonig or Metro for 1997.
But as usual, the final choice is yours.
Make any nominations and seconds that you want for the next couple of
days. The vote will begin on Thursday. I’ll let it run until next
Monday and then we’ll announce the results. I’m very interested to see
how things might have changed over the last 20 years!
Larry

[Doug Orleans [e-mail] [spielfrieks]]

I'm tempted to nominate Iron Horse, since I did play it a bunch in that
version, but it wouldn't quite make my top three. Other 1997 games I still
play a lot are Fluxx and Wise and Otherwise, but they also wouldn't make my
top three.

So as the Beatles *might* have said, “It was 20 years ago today, that the
Spielfrieks taught us how to play. And the Meeples Choice is still in
style, even when we take it back awhile.” Okay, maybe Sir Paul has
nothing to fear from my lyrical efforts, but the point is that the
retrospectives are now going back 20 years, all the way to 1997. Keep in
mind that all of the awards from the 90’s were held in 2001, so even the
originals were retrospectives in a sense. Still, it should be fun to
check those years out again.
Bohnanza
Caesar & Cleopatra
Canyon
Die Macher
Halunken & Spelunken
Lowenherz
Manitou
Mississippi Queen
Mole Hill
Njet!
Pico 2
Power Play
Quoridor
Showmanager
Sternenhimmel
Svea Rike
Take It Easy
The Settlers of Catan Cardgame
Tigris & Euphrates
Titan: the Arena
Twilight
Twilight Imperium
Ursuppe
Volle Hutte
Was Sticht!
One 1997 title missing from that list is For Sale. Don’t bother
seconding it, because *I’m* going to do it. Makes you wonder what we
were smoking back then, leaving off perhaps the greatest filler of all time.
We also have the original version of Fresh Fish and I’m going to second
that as well.
So that gives us 27 games. Feel free to nominate others, but keep in
mind that the old MCA lists and the Geek’s reckoning aren’t always in
agreement. For example, the Geek shows both GIPF and Zum Kuckuck (aka
Turn the Tide) as ’97 games, but those games were nominated in 1998 and
1996, respectively. I’d just as soon keep them in those years, but if
that messes up your record-keeping too much, we can also include them in
’97. There’s also the issue of what to do with the Dirk Hann games from
that year. Back then, Henn self-published most of his games, only to
have them be republished (usually by Queen) in much better known versions.
So in 1997, Henn released Texas and Iron Horse through his db-Spiele
company. These were re-released as Rosenkonig in ‘99 and Metro in 2000
(the latter being an MCA nominee). Another example is the 1997
MCA-winning Showmanager, which is a redesign of Premiere, which Henn
self-published the year before. My point is that we tended to honor the
more widely available re-releases of Henn’s games back then, so you may
want to keep that in mind before nominating Rosenkonig or Metro for 1997.
But as usual, the final choice is yours.
Make any nominations and seconds that you want for the next couple of days.
The vote will begin on Thursday. I’ll let it run until next Monday and
then we’ll announce the results. I’m very interested to see how things
might have changed over the last 20 years!
Larry